“I Enjoy Silence!”: Michael Rother's 13 Favourite Albums | Page 4 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

3. The KinksThe Kink Kontroversy

I joined the Spirits Of Sound in 1965 and we were huge fans of The Kinks, as well as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It was so exciting, so different, an idea of freedom, revolution and change. We were so thrilled. I started playing guitar and I wanted to sound like Ray Davies. I know you’d like me choose albums, but really it would have been easier to pick singles! I would have said ‘All Day and All Of The Night’, ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘See My Friends’. Maybe The Kink Kontroversy has tracks that aren’t as great as the big ones, but as I had to pick an album I thought it would be better than their first one. When I played in Dublin a few years ago I was walking the streets and there was this pub with a big speaker outside. People were standing outside and listening to The Kinks’, ‘You Really Got Me’. I got goosebumps, I hadn’t heard that song in ages. It has this unbelievable energy.

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