Friday Night Videos

God save the Kinks! With Pete Quaife's untimely passing, how can I not dip back into the vault of Kinks klassics for this week's installment of Friday Night Videos? "Sunny Afternoon" seems an appropriate selection, featuring a great bass line and poignant images of Pete in the promo video. I'm not entirely sure the reasoning behind making the band play in the snow for this particular song--the irony seems a bit forced--but it's still wonderful to see Pete rockin' the bass in his prime, along with pre-stroke Dave and his Flying V and pre-gunshot Ray being, well, Ray. Enjoy.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Opus.

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A well-respected man

I'm still somewhat in shock over Pete Quaife's death. Funny that, considering he'd actually left the Kinks for good before I was even born! But I will always consider him the Kinks' bassist, despite the talented men who filled in for him in the ensuing decades. One blog posting indicated he'd slipped into a coma several days ago in Denmark, where he'd made his home in recent years. It makes me all the sadder that I missed my one chance to see the Kinks in Houston back in 1986--Pete wasn't with the band anymore, but does it really matter? With Pete's death, Dave's stroke and Ray getting shot in New Orleans, is there any hope that the world's most dysfunctional band will survive long enough for a reunion?

Geoff Edgers, who has perhaps done more than any single human being to reunite the band, has a wonderfully moving remembrance to Pete up on his blog.

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Farewell, Pete Quaife

Damn, damn, damn and damn! What an utterly awful way to start out the weekend: Pete Quaife, original bassist for The Kinks, has died. No cause of death is available yet, but he'd been suffering renal failure for the past decade and undergoing dialysis.

Despite the Kinks' success, Quaife was never satisfied with his role in the creative process. "I would have been squished with a size 16 boot I had even suggested they listen to an idea from me," he said in a 2005 interview. "I felt like a session man most of the time. Ray wanted complete control of everything. He was a control freak." In June 1966 Quaife broke his leg in a car accident and briefly left the band. "It was a good break for me," he said in 2005. "The band was fighting all the time and I couldn't take it." He rejoined after a few months, but quit for good three yeas later. In a 1998 interview, Quaife pointed to the band's 1968 disc Village Green Preservation Society as his favorite. "For me, it represents the only real album made by the Kinks," he said. "It's the only one where we all contributed something."

Pete always struck me as a truly decent fellow, one completely overshadowed by the Davies brothers. He was perhaps the most approachable of The Kinks, and had interactions with fans over the years, answering questions on a Kinks-themed email list I belong two. About six years ago, he appealed to fans for help after a live-in girlfriend abruptly absconded with much of his valuable (monetary and sentimental) memorabilia dating back to his days as part of the British Invasion. He also played impromptu gigs with the so-called Kast-Off Kinks, a group comprised of the various former members of the famed band.

His passing is very sad. Now, the hoped-for reunion of the original Kinks can never happen. Let's hope the Davies brothers can patch up their differences before there are too few Kast-Offs left to reunite.

Now Playing: The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society