Photograph titled "Marcus Beresford" from the Bain News Service collection, c. 1920
Peter Quaife, the Kinks' original bassist, passed away last week of kidney failure. A school friend of Dave Davies, Quaife was a founding member of the Kinks who helped bring Ray Davies into the band. He played on all the Kinks' major releases up through 1968's The Village Green Preservation Society - at that point, he left the Kinks, feeling that the band had reached their peak and struggling with the band's power dynamic. He has said on many occasions that Ray Davies treated him as little more than a session musician, and he had little to no involvement in shaping the band's sound. However, he still played an integral part in many of my favorite albums from that era, providing harmony vocals on the band's immortal "Waterloo Sunset" and the bouncing basslines on pop gems like "Party Line" and "Days".
Quaife was reportedly shocked when the Kinks scored a number one hit with "Lola" in 1970 - when he'd left the band, he'd been sure that their hit-making days were behind them. According to the story, he went out and bought the "Lola" single to give it a listen and, when he flipped it over to check out the b-side, he was surprised to hear himself playing bass. The b-side to "Lola" was a 1968 outtake from the Village Green sessions called "Berkeley Mews" - the songs starts with a tinny saloon-piano intro, but then Quaife and the rest of the band come in with a classic VGPS-style arrangement. Quaife's bassline is one of the best thing about the verse of that song, and I can only imagine the confused feelings he must have had about being on the flip side of a #1 hit two years after having quit the Kinks.
"Berkeley Mews" by the Kinks
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