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The Kinks riff behind You Really Got Me: a slashed speaker and studio pressure

By Phil Springer, Editor · Published · Name That Riff

The Kinks riff behind You Really Got Me: a slashed speaker and studio pressure

The Kinks riff in You Really Got Me reached the top of the British charts in 1964 with a guitar sound Dave Davies had made by cutting an amplifier's speaker. Ray Davies wrote the song; Dave supplied its abrasive lead guitar. Its recording brought together a homemade modification, a hurried return to the studio and a producer working under strict financial pressure.

Dave recalled buying the Elpico near his home in Denmark Terrace, Muswell Hill. Interviewed by Chris Vinnicombe for MusicRadar in 2014, he said its ordinary tone frustrated him enough to take a razor blade to the speaker. He was surprised it still worked. The cut speaker gave him a rasping sound; he then connected the Elpico to a Vox AC30 and recalled electrical shocks and loud mains hum. The roughness he wanted had something of John Lee Hooker's atmosphere.

Getting the Kinks riff onto tape brought another difficulty. Dave remembered the first recording being swamped in echo, with the band refusing to release it. Manager Robert Wace paid £200 for another session in a smaller studio. They stripped away effects to approach the sound they heard in the room. Dave associated the finished performance's anxiety with limited money and time. Dave also remembered Ray's nasal delivery, drawing on Lonnie Donegan, as a way to make the vocal punch through the mix.

Asked about power chords by Guitar World's Joe Bosso, Dave described a last attempt to keep the record company interested. Simplifying what he played happened quickly, under the fear that the group would be dropped. He also distinguished his playing from Ray's: his brother had greater refinement, while he worked more roughly and directly. The Kinks riff came from musicians whose approaches complemented each other, even though Dave remembered their tendency to argue whenever an opportunity arose.

Producer Shel Talmy supplied another perspective in his 1990 interview with Blair Jackson for Mix. He remembered Dave slashing amplifier cones and kicking the equipment to make its sound rougher. The group's energy and unusual sound attracted him. Talmy also did much of his own engineering on Kinks sessions, despite being the producer, because he wanted control over the results. He recalled older engineers at Pye resenting the young musicians and their music, while younger engineers were beginning to arrive.

Talmy's working methods involved preparation as well as noise. He remembered discussing arrangements extensively with Ray and selecting material from the many songs Ray brought in. His usual aim was to have arrangements about 90 percent settled in rehearsal, leaving space for something unexpected during recording. Pye initially funded the Kinks, but Talmy said its president threatened to charge him personally for any overspending. He also double-tracked vocals and moved singers around the microphone, using the changed sound to compensate for deficiencies in studio acoustics.

The Kinks riff also had a specific admirer outside the band. In a 1990 Guitarist interview, later republished by MusicRadar, Pete Townshend explicitly acknowledged that You Really Got Me influenced I Can't Explain and his attempt to attract the Kinks' producer. He remembered having that song and Talking Generation, which became My Generation, available to present. They chose I Can't Explain, and he remade its demo with clipped, staccato chords. Townshend associated the result with the particular sound and arrangements Shel Talmy was producing.

Townshend also recalled supporting the Kinks and hearing Dave insist that he had invented feedback. He said he admired the Kinks too much to argue, but believed musicians across London were making similar discoveries. He attributed that convergence to the larger Marshall amplifiers, whose tendency to feed back was hard to avoid. He remembered the encounter as a dispute over feedback; Dave's razor-blade experiment had involved cutting a speaker.

The Who's official discography supplies the release sequence. I Can't Explain was recorded at Pye Studios in London in November 1964, with Townshend credited for the composition and Talmy for production. The American Decca single appeared in December 1964; the British Brunswick release followed in January 1965. Their listed chart peaks are number 93 and number 8 respectively. The American first pressings even omitted the opening word of the title, calling it Can't Explain, before the label corrected it. The reverse side, Bald Headed Woman, was a traditional song arranged and produced by Talmy, also recorded at Pye that November.

Dave continued using the green Elpico onstage. He told Bosso that the Kinks subsequently moved towards bigger Marshall and Hiwatt amplifiers because he needed to hear himself, although he did not particularly like them. He resisted the grand title of heavy metal's godfather, saying the significance people attached to his playing became apparent much later. His immediate concerns had been getting a distinctive sound and getting a record released.

The Question

A guitarist, in what we'll call a moment of honesty, took a blade to the speaker of his little green Elpico amp. The distorted two-chord result topped the UK charts in 1964 — and legend says it pushed Pete Townshend to write a Who single released in Britain the next year. What song?

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The Answer

You Really Got Me.

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