The phone rang, it was a call from Larry. "Hello, cock. Cock, it's time for
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the third single". If this is a flop, if the third single doesn't make it, our
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career would be over. I'd written another song that we played on stage
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quite a lot. It was called You really got me. And the audiences loved it,
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no, the audiences loved it. They liked it because they could dance to it.
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But the record company hated it. They said "You can't record that piece
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of rubish. And we don't like the sound of that terrible distorted green
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amplifier. No, no. You can't record it, that's final". But Robert and
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Grenville thought it was marvelous. "Don't you think so, Grenville?".
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"Oh, every time they play 'You really got me' I get shivers up my spine".
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"I think it's a hit, cock, I gotta tell ya, I'll state my reputation on it".
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Now, with management like that, how could we fail?
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But the record company said "Look, we don't believe in it. We're very
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sorry, we don't believe in it. If you wanna make the record, fine, but you
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have to pay for the recording yourselves". And that was really cruel,
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because they knew we were broke. But Robert knew a man.
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"Here, Ray, here's 200 quid. Go in the bloody studio and make that
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record. And make sure it's a bloody hit, what?".
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You see, Mick Avory hadn't signed the recording contract, and they said
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he couldn't play on the record. We'd have to get a session drummer in,
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he's a guy that'd come in and play for hire. And they said this thinking
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that we'd be loyal to Mick and cancel the session. But we weren't
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gonna do that. But at the last minute we snug Mick into the studio.
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He can only play tambourine, but at least he was on the record.
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I'd written 'You really got me' as tribute to all those great blues people
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I love: Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy. And Dave was playing the song
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in the studio that day, but he was playing it in the style I'd written it.
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But then Dave plugged the guitar into the green amp, and he plugged
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the green amp into a Vox AC30, and it sounded hugh.
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And when Dave played the opening chords to 'You really got me'
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they were so loud that the session drummer forgot the complicated
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little patern he was gonna play at the beginning and just hit one beat
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on the snare drum as loud as he could, pow, as if to say to Dave
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"You noisy little bleeder. I can play just as loud as you can. And I've got
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a big stick". But that's exactly what we wanted, you see, we wanted to
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sound loud. Now we sounded like a group.
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Halfway through the song it was time for Dave's guitar solo.
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This moment had to be right. So I shouted across the studio to Dave,
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give him encouragement. But I seemed to spoil his concentration.
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He looked at me with a dazed expression. "Fuck off".
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If you doubt me, if you doubt what I'm saying, I challenge you to listen
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to the original Kinks recording of 'You really got me'.
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Halfway through the song, after the second chorus, before the guitar
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solo, there's a drum break. Boo ka, boo boo ka, boo ka, boo boo.
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And in the background you can hear "fuckoff". You can, you can.
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When I did the vocal I tried to cover it up by going "Oh no", but in the
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background you still hear it "fuckoff". And it's even clearer on CD,
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it's really embarrassing.
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Well then Dave looked like you'd done something wrong, his mouth
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relaxed and his jaw dropped. But it was halfway through the most
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important track we'd ever do. And if it wasn't a hit, it would be the last
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track we'd ever do. And the lead guitarist stops playing before the solo.
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But then Dave's eyes squinted and his face broke into that arrogant
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sideways grin I've learnt to love and hate over the years. You see,
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he hadn't heard me shout at all. He just thought of looking at me
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at the same time as I looked at him, a kind of telepathic way of saying
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"This is it, remember, the front room". Then he gritted his teeth and
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sneered at me one more time and cocked an attitude before turning
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away into the corner of the studio to play himself into rock 'n' roll history.
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The Third Single (Dialogue)
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Ray Davies |