The Book of Dave

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I signed up here to review some good books, and in the process found the Dave books come up. They're awful. Not the quality of the book, but the content, the actual substance. We get to know Dave in ways we didn't want to, and it doesn't improve our opinion of him. The Kinks get a crap bath as well, stories that may or may not be true. I remember on an EP many years ago, a live concert, Ray referring to his 'delectable brother'. Writing in The Guardian in 2007, the author said he was inspired to write the book after having read The Bible Unearthed, a text that claims that archaeological discoveries imply that large elements of the Old Testament have no basis in historical reality whatsoever. [4] He writes that he intended to suggest imaginatively the notion he received from Finkelstein and Silberman's book, namely that revealed religion is a necessary function of state formation, and that the content of this or that holy book is irrelevant, compared to what people make of it. [4] At the same time, reports of increased raisings of the Thames Barrier had led him to contemplate that a catastrophic flood of London would render even detailed archival knowledge unable to reconstruct the metropolis. [4] The book resembles, in part, Riddley Walker, a 1981 novel by Russell Hoban [2] written in a similar phonetic manner and also set in England centuries after a major disaster. Self provided an introduction to the new 2002 edition of Hoban's book. [3] Dave buries the book, which is discovered centuries later and used as the sacred text for a dogmatic, cruel, and misogynistic religion that takes hold in the remnants of southern England and London following catastrophic flooding. The future portions of the novel are set from 523 AD (dating from the purported discovery of the book).

The band’s ascent is exciting and bewildering – until it isn’t. When Nirvana ends, he turns down a cushy number playing drums for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to record Foo Fighters’ terrific debut album in a makeshift home studio, playing every instrument himself. For anyone interested in how a hyperactive misfit from Virginia became a third of Nirvana and went on to become a stadium-filling star with his own Foo Fighters, The Storyteller lives up to its billing... Those years spent crammed into vans, living off fumes and the kindness of female mud wrestlers are some of the most vivid here. The camaraderie and sudden violence of the international punk ecosystem is beautifully evoked... Grohl is a lively and thoughtful writer.' - Kitty Empire, Observer This wasn't the crapola slush of popular music expounded by white folks, this was real men and real women, as opposed to boys and girls, talking about real passions and hard emotions."...Does satire ever alter our habits? In one respect The Book of Dave may have done so. A couple of readers confessed that their behaviour towards taxi drivers was not the same since reading Self's novel. "I feel obliged to give more money in tips to 'my Dave' who has just driven me somewhere." Self's Dave is a man of acid insight as well as angry prejudice, and some of the most memorable passages from the "recent past" sections of the book record his unspoken judgments on the self-revealing "fares" who sit his cab. "Now when I get in a taxi I always feel I'm being judged," observed one reader. "Writing this book has ruined the cab experience for me," confirmed the author. Self talked of writing into the character of Dave characteristics he took from the unnamed cabbie who conducted him around London's "points and runs" when he was researching for the book. At least one reader was surprised to hear this driver was also a psychotherapist. It was ironical, considering the author's previous yen for satirising the culture of psychotherapy - though he confessed he had "mellowed with regard to shrinks". "There are fatter fish to fry." I used to go to all the 'do's' where Dave used to rent a room above a pub and you'd get The Four Tops performing!" recalls Graham Moss. "There would be a reception for society members and whenever groups and singers came over to play there'd be a meet.... As a regular contributor to Blues & Soul magazine his bi-weekly column became the stuff of legend, avidly read by Soul fans and DJs alike, the latter using his recommendation's of 45s worthy to source to add to their playlists. On occasion Dave himself would make an unscheduled appearance in the DJ booth to spin a new white label release as in the case of 'Blowing Up My Mind' by The Exciters which he uk debuted at Manchester's Twisted Wheel.

Dave suffers a breakdown, and comes under the care of the psychiatrist Anthony Bohm. Despite discovering that Carl is actually Cal's son, Dave slowly recovers his sanity and, during a stay in hospital, forms a relationship with Phyllis Vance, the mother of Steve, another patient. Dave regrets the content of his book, and attempts to dig it up from the Hampstead garden, but fails. Dave moves into Phyllis's cottage on the fringes of outer London and, under her guidance, writes a second book that repudiates the content of the first, and recommends a life based on tolerance and freedom. He mails the new book to Carl, but shortly afterwards is confronted at the cottage by loan sharks to whom he is heavily indebted. Dave brandishes a shotgun but is fatally injured in a struggle with the men, who arrange the scene to make the death look like suicide – an arrangement that is readily believed by Phyllis and the police. Carl and Cal then place Dave's second book in a metal film canister and bury it in their garden. I also appreciated Dave Davies' candid comments about the man whom he loves dearly...yet who has used and abused him all his life...his genius older brother Ray Davies It is their tortuous relationship that is at the heart of KINK. From what Dave Davies says...its a bonafide miracle that he and his brother were able to stay together (as a band) for as long as they did..it also gives fascinating insight into why The Kinks eventually broke up...never to reunite again (at least as of this writing). It's depressing. Much of the Kinks music is sad, downer stuff, but the sheer beauty of it redeemed it every time. To "chip" the tablets, they must be used on the spellbook or vice versa. The same must be done to store them in the book. I went to a Northern Soul reunion with Dave in the early 90s and I gave him a suit to wear. It was a beautiful three piece suit made from a heavyweight dark rich grey material called Thornproof, cut in a Victorian style. For some reason I'd had two made, both identical so I gave one to Dave as a gift. He loved it, it fitted him like a glove, he looked amazing. Anyway, I was in this Soul club and there were a lot of leading lights of the Northern Soul scene there and suddenly there was a hush in the room and Dave Godin walked in looking amazing in this suit, and it was almost like a meeting of vampires and Dracula had just turned up!" (MICHAEL SOMERSET, SONGWRITER)I thought the biography would take about six months to research and complete until I discovered how many facets there was to Dave Godin. Over six years later, here we are! And there's worse things to be than Ray Davies. Many of Dave's tales of his elder brother are derogatory, but honestly do we even know if they are true? Someone with this level of 'issues' such as voices in the head from outer space. Do we trust their stories as gospel? Davies writes at length about his deep interest in the esoteric, an enthusiasm for the unexplained that dovetails into a penchant for the occult. His nervous breakdown in the early 70s makes for painful but cautionary reading. In 1982, there was an encounter with what he calls “the Intelligences” – mysterious beings with whom he enters into “telepathic exchange”.

For anyone interested in how a hyperactive misfit from Virginia became a third of Nirvana and went on to become a stadium-filling star with his own Foo Fighters, The Storyteller lives up to its billing... Those years spent crammed into vans, living off fumes and the kindness of female mud wrestlers are some of the most vivid here. The camaraderie and sudden violence of the international punk ecosystem is beautifully evoked... Grohl is a lively and thoughtful writer.'Thumbnail sketches of the brothers at the heart of the Kinks habitually paint Ray, the elder, as the more complex and deep-feeling character, and Dave as flamboyant, more forthcoming and into UFOs. A lifelong square peg, the younger Davies is every bit as hard to pigeonhole as his sibling, swinging between the weary defence of his input to the band – always the subject of contention between Team Ray and Team Dave – and low self-esteem. Kinks fans will be familiar with the retelling of the band’s serpentine ups and downs, both musical and financial, how a ban on touring the US in the late 60s resulted in the Kinks turning more parochial and producing social commentary and albums such as The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, an Englishness that fed into punk and Britpop. Less familiar are the latterday updates, like Davies’s reunion with his teenage flame and their daughter, 30 years down the line. The two young lovers were forcibly separated by their parents; the loss of Sue and baby Tracey haunts Davies throughout his life.