Some people are only just learning how The Kinks got their name.
The English rock band was formed in Muswell Hill in north London in 1963. Made up of brothers Ray and Dave Davies on lead vocals, Peter Quaife on bass guitar and drummer Mick Avory, the group is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.
The band split in 1997 due to creative differences between the Davies brothers after giving their last performance in 1996 at Norwegian Wood in Oslo, Norway.
The Kinks’ music was influenced by a wide range of genres, including American R&B and rock and roll initially, and later picking up British music hall, folk, and country. Their third single, ‘You Really Got Me’, released in 1964, reached number one on the UK Official Singles chart and made it to the top 10 in the US.
Other popular songs by the band include Come Dancing, Lola, A Well Respected Man and Waterloo Sunset. However, there is one piece of trivia that has slipped some fans’ minds – how the group came to be known as The Kinks.
Their band name origin has been discussed by people on Reddit and the question-and-answer platform Quora. It appears their unusual name stemmed from a need to ‘stand out.’
In a post about The Kinks on Reddit, a user shared that the Davies brothers “joined and left a bunch of bands when they were growing up in London.” It’s believed that they were once called the Ray Davies Quartet and then The Ravens.
Quaife was a friend of the Davies brothers who played bass but they “had trouble finding a steady drummer.” This was until they added Avory to the group who “solidified their sound and anchored the rhythm section.”
However, the Reddit user claimed that still “no one really noticed them.” They explained: “They needed something clever, something unique to set them apart. Something to make them stand out.
“So the Ravens became The Kinks. Even though the band were less than sanguine with the name, it stuck…and it worked. No one wanted to see the Ravens, but it turns out that if you pique people’s interest in sex AND music at the same time, fans pay attention.”
In response to the Reddit post, another user commented: “Man, this is a cool post. I like the Kinks but definitely didn’t know all this stuff.”
WARNING: The post below contains explicit language
A user on Quora pointed out that England was “rife with rock groups all vying to become the next big thing” so the band “needed a name that would stand out and cut through the clutter.”
English music journalist and author of The Kinks: The Official Biography, Jon Savage supported the idea that the band was in need of a “gimmick, some edge to get them attention”, American Songwriter reported.
In his book, Savage explained: “Here it was: ‘Kinkiness’ – something newsy, naughty but just on the borderline of acceptability. In adopting the ‘Kinks’ as their name at that time, they were participating in a time-honored pop ritual – fame through outrage.”
The person who came up with the band name has been “long disputed” but Savage suggested one of the band’s three managers, Robert Wace, was responsible. Wace reportedly said: “I had a friend…he thought the group was rather fun.
“If my memory is correct, he came up with the name just as an idea, as a good way of getting publicity…When we went to [the band members] with the name, they were…absolutely horrified. They said ‘We’re not going to be called kinky!’
However, Savage’s book mentions another manager, Larry Page, who claimed: “I gave them the name the Kinks, which everybody thought was totally outrageous. I had photographs of them taken with whips and all the rest of it, which is what I wanted because I knew the only way they were going to achieve anything was by being brought to the public eye.”