Ray Davies, Dave Davies Work Out The Kinks — Reunite After 2 Decades

When I first saw The Kinks in Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love, btw) back the early 1980s, the onstage tension between brothers Ray and Dave Davies was palpable. But it only added to the excitement. It was as if they were having a small war on stage, and the audience got the spoils — just the opposite of the way real wars work. At one point Ray introduced Dave, who was absolutely shredding his instrument that night, teasingly as “the Raging Bull of the Les Paul.” Robert DeNiro‘s violent, meteoric performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull was fresh in the public mind then. Everybody knew that story didn’t end well — and had countless casualties. So did the story of Dave and Ray Davies, who finally stopped playing together two decades ago, sibling bitterness and vitriol triumphing over art — and sabotaging one of the world’s greatest rock and roll bands.

Until this week, when Ray Davies joined the raging bull of the Les Paul on stage in London for “You Really Got Me.” And that is exactly what the audience thought. You, Ray and Dave, really got us. Here’s the video.

We had a great night – it was a fun show – had a blast with Ray – Dave https://t.co/L3PzOdh9O6

— Dave Davies (@davedavieskinks) December 19, 2015