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The Best Single Strike of a Snare Drum
“All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks
I was blown away by the first hit of the snare drum every time I heard the opening of “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks. Guitarist Dave Davies’ power-chord intro ripped through like a sledgehammer, knocking down a wall. I’m thinking of all of the classic Chuck Berry guitar intros and how precise they were. Davies was precise, but it’s not the nimble flourish-of-notes approach Berry used. I liken it more to a caveman swinging his club. Davies’ aggressive guitar part put all of the torque on that very first downbeat of session drummer Bobby Graham’s first appearance on the song. The scene was set for brother Ray Davies to come in with vocals that were growled more than sung.
Dave Davies later said this song was when he “found his voice.” The previous single, “You Really Got Me,” put him in the same neighborhood. If you listen to the early singles by The Kinks, they were more constrained. The band had been signed to Pye Records, and their producer, Shel Talmy, was thinking along the lines of making records that sounded similar to The Searchers’. The debut, a cover of “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard, reached number 42 on the U.K. chart but failed to chart in America. The follow-up missed the chart on both sides of the Atlantic. “You Really Got Me,” an angry departure…
