The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night

In a September 2012 interview with Mojo magazine The Kinks’ Ray Davies recounted the tale: “The funniest thing was when my publisher came to me on tour and said The Doors had used the riff for ‘All Day And All Of The Night’ for ‘Hello, I Love You.’ I said rather than sue them, can we just get them to own up? My publisher said, ‘They have, that’s why we should sue them!’ (laughs) Jim Morrison admitted it, which to me was the most important thing. The most important thing, actually, is to take (the idea) somewhere else.” (The UK courts ordered The Doors to pay royalties to The Kinks songwriters for borrowing their riff.)

All Day and All of the Night

Ray Davies wrote this song. He called it, "A neurotic song - youthful, obsessive and sexually possessive." Originally released in late 1964, ‘All Day and All of the Night’ was the follow-up to their first big hit, ‘You Really Got Me.’ The song took that signature choppy riff used on its predecessor, although this song's riff is slightly more complicated, incorporating a B Flat after the chords F and G. Otherwise, the recordings are similar in beat and structure, with similar background vocals, progressions, and guitar solos. ‘All Day’ was a No. 2 hit in England, one of 17 Top 40 singles the band would have in the ’60s. It fared very well stateside as well, clocking in at No. 7.

Ray Davies

The Kinks were formed in 1963 by two brothers, Ray and Dave Davies and at first were named the Ravens. Ray was the lead singer and sometimes played guitar, Dave was the lead guitarist. Ray's friend Peter Quaife join then and played bass and the drummer was Mickey Willett. The first song they recorded, Ray's "I Took My Baby Home" was sent to Pye Records in late '63 and they were signed to a contract in '64. Just before doing so, Willett was replaced by Mick Avory on drums. They recorded their first single, a cover of Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" and just before it's release renamed the group "the Kinks".

The Kinks, 1964

Although they weren't as boldly innovative as the Beatles or as popular as the Rolling Stones or the Who, the Kinks were one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion. Like most bands of their era, the Kinks began as an R&B/blues outfit. Within four years, the band had become the most staunchly English of all their contemporaries, drawing heavily from British music hall and traditional pop, as well as incorporating elements of country, folk, and blues.

The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night, 1964

But for moptop-crazed America during the middle ’60s, the version of Cool Britannia presented by the Kinks was a bridge too far — a confusing mélange of roughnecked working-class rage and foppish, pansexual dandy-ism that was as unkempt as the group’s thrillingly rambunctious live shows. Following a disastrous 1965 tour, the Kinks were functionally banned (for unspecified reasons) from the US for the better part of a decade, robbing them of the untold spoils of their contemporaries and perhaps further inculcating the deep, proud provincialism that would come to define the best of Ray Davies’ writing.

The Kinks on Their Way To The USA, 1965

"All Day and All of the Night" was rock's first heavy metal song even though heavy metal was still a good five years from happening. Truth being, nobody really ever heard a guitar solo like the one Dave delivered on this song. Dave Davies claimed that the song was where he "found his voice," saying, "I liked the guitar sound on 'All Day And All Of The Night,' the second single we had. When they tried to develop amplifiers that had pre-gain and all, I thought it wasn't quite right, and I struggled with the sound for a while. I never liked Marshalls, because they sounded like everybody else. Then in the mid '70s I started using Peavey, and people said, "Nobody uses Peavey - country and western bands use them" [laughs]. I used to blow them up every night. I used two Peavey Maces together, and it was brilliant."

The Kinks, London 1964

”All Day And All Of The Night” stands on it’s own as a powerful two and a half minutes of raw, visceral, driving rock and roll. The sliding guitar chords are in fact slightly more complex than its predecessor, allowing for a bite more swing in the otherwise tough groove set down by drummer Mick Avery, who seems never to miss an opportunity to put multiple dents in his snare skin throughout the recording. The guitar sound seems even more distorted and nasty and Dave Davies’ anarchic solo no less manic while both tracks brilliantly raise tension by twisting key changes to the breaking point and releasing in a jubilant shout-a-long title lyric. With ”All Day And All Of The Night”, The Kinks seemed to have pulled off the rare feet of releasing back to back classics and at the same time launching a new rough and tumble sound that would help distortion become the signature guitar sound of rock and roll in the very near future.

The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night, Live on TV

The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night, lyrics

I'm not content to be with you in the daytime
Girl I want to be with you all of the time
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl I want to be with you all of the time

All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night

I believe that you and me last forever
Oh yeah, all day and nighttime yours, leave me never
The only time I feel alright is by your side
Girl I want to be with you all of the time

All day and all of the night
All day and all of the night
Oh, come on

I believe…

The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night, Pye 1964