The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has opened up about the band’s old rivalry with The Beatles, sharing candid thoughts on each member.
Davies reflected on the complex relationship between the two iconic British bands. He singled out George Harrison as the one Beatle he genuinely connected with, while offering blunt assessments of the others.
“George Harrison was the only one I really liked. He was the nicest guy. Paul McCartney wrote a few decent songs, yeah,” Davies said.
He was particularly candid about John Lennon, describing a tense dynamic between the two camps.
“John Lennon didn’t like The Kinks, he really didn’t. In fact, John Lennon didn’t really like anybody!” Davies said. “Lennon wouldn’t let us touch anything. ‘Don’t you dare touch those!’ He was a paranoid guy, but funny.”
The remarks shed light on the behind-the-scenes tensions that existed between two of the biggest acts of the 1960s British Invasion.
The friction between Davies and Lennon had roots in a specific, defining moment that set the tone for their entire relationship.
The two bands shared a bill in Bournemouth in August 1964. Lennon wasted no time making his feelings known, remarking that The Kinks were only there to warm up for The Beatles. Davies took the comment as a direct insult. The crowd’s strong reaction to “You Really Got Me” that night served as an early validation for the band. Davies later described the moment as feeling like standing up to a bully.
The backstage tension extended beyond words. Davies recalled attempting to get a closer look at the Beatles’ Rickenbacker guitars, only to be sharply shut down by Lennon, who told him not to dare touch them. It was a small but telling moment that captured the competitive, guarded atmosphere defining the relationship between the two bands during their peak years.
Davies was equally direct about his own feelings toward The Beatles as a whole. He admitted he never particularly liked them, recalling arguments with late Kinks bassist Pete Quaife, who held the opposite view. “I never liked them but Pete thought the sun shone out of their arses. I used to say: ‘C’mon, Pete, we can do this stuff better than them!'” Davies said.
Despite the rivalry, the story had an unexpected footnote. After The Kinks released their more introspective album Face to Face, Lennon was said to have listened to it obsessively. It was a quiet acknowledgment, perhaps, that the competition ran deeper than either side let on publicly.
