Post by classic rock revival on May 1, 2011 12:54:10 GMT -6
CLASSIC ROCK REVIVAL INTERVIEW
DAVE DAVIES
Jim: Three years ago you suffered a severe stroke. Can you tell us a bit about that and your road to recovery?
Dave: It was the worst, but best thing that ever happenend to me. When you face death from such a crippling illness the only way to go is up. To give up was not an option. I have gained greater insight into my life that I want to share with the world. But very few listen or have THE TIME or give a damn. Time is an illusion. It takes one second to be born and one second to die. Contained with those seconds is the revelation and purpose of existence. When time stops, we are caught up in the moment and perceive glimpses of 'forever' and we realise that there is no time. We are the past present and future; and strangely we realise that we always knew that! But we always have choices. Only we can make those choices. What choices are we gonna make. We are one of the few species in the universe that is programmed to search for and gain true spiritual indepedance, that is why our journey is so hard. A journey toward selfhood. And what is that self . The self is Siva. The enlightened soul is the one that attains true 'Individuality'and Independance in self-awareness and illumined consciousness of Total Oneness.
Not very rock n roll you might say. I believe it is TOTAL rock n roll. Bless you Chuck Berry. Nothing has brought people together more so than rock n roll.
Jim: Let's talk about your new solo CD, "FRACTURED MINDZ." How did it come about?
Dave: "Fractured Mindz" was a cathartic experience for me as well as giving me a vehilcle to express my views about the world , spirituality and my take on the current psychological state of things.
I came across the idea when I was doing some painting. On my site Spiritual Planet there is a section where I create an astrological profile of someone and paint a personalized painting based on that astro info to produce a piece of meditation art for them. While I was doing one particular painting I realised that we are all kind of like unfinished works of art. Like a natal chart- A natal chart is a pattern of potential. We all have potential in certain specific areas and in others we lack certain things and it is our job to try and develope as individuals and grow according to our needs and level of developement. And there is not one person in the world who isn't fractured in some way. Be it physically, mentally. spiritual or in some way. That's what gave me the idea. While I believe that we are all ultimately responsible for our lot in life we have been manipulated and interefered with by many forces.
Jim: Let's talk about some of the songs on your new album. We'll start with "Free Me".
Dave: One of The greatest examples I think of how to create a healthy form of an organised , organic support system can be learned from the principle of King Arthur and his mystical influences. He led by realising that he was a true servant of the people. Not overtly or covertly treating people as his subjects so that they had to do what he 'wanted' . Us serving him. True sovereignty is gained only by a spiritually enlightened soul. We are all fucked up because, we have not developed our own sense of spirituality and 'inner' responsibility and we have been fucked over-time and time again by well meaning puppets of mischevious and devious forces until we learn to understand the spiritual realities that are within and around us and that we are spiritual beings we will continue to be slaves of some egomaniac or the others' dark agenda. The political and business world is rife with narcisistic sado-masochistic people who want to belong to this anti-human narcisisstic group. With their smug patronising and feeble psychological devices . Like attratcs like. If there are loads of assholes like me in poweful positions then I must be ok and I am not all alone in this room, at this gathering at this party in this world and that must be good! yeah! The narcisist loves himself and admires people like 'him' but loathes what he/she really has become, therefore other fractured minds are attractive to him/her.....Its like the minds of our leaders are pollutted but they think they are ok because there are other loonies that agree with them and bolster them up! We are the ones that are really fucked up because we vote them in. dah... Until we truly change ourselves we will get the leaders we deserve. The Christ will only come when we deserve one. I am so fed up with this new messiah crap. No one is going to jump out of their spaceship and save any of us until we do the preliminary work on our selves. Nothing is Free believe me! Around truth hangs the biggest price tag of all! Change what is in our HEARTS! and we will come that bit closer to changing the world. Swami Yogananda. The messiah is standing on your front porch right now! But you are too friggin scared to let him in. We have elected sub humans with all the frailties and weaknesses that we ourselves posses. Its called projection. Things really gotta change. Change yourself, be my messiah . Free Me!!!
Jim: "God In My Brain".
Dave: It is the Universe demanding that we now fall in line with the energies of God if you like Yahweh, the Absolute; the Cosmos. Not one Religion holds all the Truth but maybe if we pool our resources we may actual arrive at the Truth. Sharing equals survival. The mantra of The Spiritual Planet. Noboby can escape the tides and winds of this change, not the president, not a rock, not my brother, nothing! But we must adapt and take on board all of our spiritual responsibilties and shake off the past and the dross of history and embrace the spiritual realities which thankfully are now staring us full in the face. Now at last for probably eons the ancient spiritual truths are revealing themselves to us. But they were always there; we just never looked. Blindfolded by oppression, selfishness, ignorance, tyranny, money and greed. The only Devil that exists to quote Ghandi is the little demon running around in our hearts. They use to say that money was the root of all evil but in truth it is only 'energy' like everything else. It is selfishness that is the root of all evil. Selflessness is the way to the future, a key to enlightenment, the heart beat of our soul. All the men of wealth, all the men of power, the bankers, the manipulaors, the parasites of humanity in their money houses are empty men with no real contact with their souls. You can feel it, you can sense it, you can see it! Why do they not use their wealth and influence to go with the flow of their higher spiritual nature and become nurturers of this wonderful spiritual change that is upon us. Some of course do but most 'They' never do, because they all fall slave of the same monster 'self importance'. The dark God 'SELFISHNESS'. Selfishness is the worm that In the end it will eat away the soul . And Once greed takes hold we are Lost. There is nothing evil about money. It is how we use it that determines the outcome.
One of the most wonderful Yogi mystics of the 20th Century, Swami Vivekananda"....Every single word he spoke is TRUE!
When the human soul draws back from the illusory things of the world and tries to go deeper, when we, the spirit which here has somehow been bound and materialised, start to understand our bondage and turn our face away from those selfish desires that bind us, then begins 'renunciation', then bgins REAL Spiritual growth'..
Truth will never come to us as long as we are selfish"
God help us all. God save the Kinks!
Jim: In the mid-90's, with no formal announcement, the Kinks just disappeared from the music scene. What happened?
Dave: Ray just decided that he wanted to do solo gigs. It was starting to lead up to that with continueous and elongated spells at the begginning of the shows where he would do some acoustic stuff and chat to the audience before the band came on. It sarted to feel like he was rehearsing for something or the other but he never discussed it with me. I think his agent persuaded him to do it. I think the shit hit the fan during one of our last shows in Dublin, I think ,that when I 'eventually' got on stage after about 20 minutes of Rays weird stuff. I went up to the mike and said " I wish the promoters would get us better support bands for the tour, as this one really wasn't up to scratch." But Ray and I had a strange relationship with Sony. We brought out a great album "PHOBIA" and they just didn't know what to do with it. That pissed us both off as well as our then manager Nigel Thomas died suddenly. Just typical Kinks day to day life. Nigel God bless you, why did you have to die, you inconsiderate sod!
Jim: The Kinks are just as legendary as the Rolling Stones in rock history, but never achieved the level of success the Stones did. In your opinion, why was that?
Dave: The Stones are comfortable for people. The Kinks make certain people uncomfortable. You know what you're gonna get with the Stones. the Kinks are unpredictable. There is nothing to question or concern yourself about with the Stones, the Kinks make you worry and be concerned about the world around you and long for better times. The Stones have become everything that shouldn't have been. The rebels have been eaten up and became the establishment. The rock rebelion has been watered down to become just mildly ammusing. Also they are much better businessmen.
Jim: Any chance of a Kinks reunion in the near future?
Dave: Ray keeps talking about it. And then I read that he is planning a 30 day solo tour. I don't know why Ray has become increasingly difficult to work with over the years. He was better when he was more humble; He would never confide in me. It's a good job I am fairly psychic. His ego ruins nearly everything we do! Or use to do!. It's sad. As I think the Kinks- or me and Ray and Pete in the early days were/are the best and most genuine-cutting edge-no hype- forces in the music industry or Rock world. With Ray, just as everything is going well, suddenly there must be something wrong with it. Guess it's just basic insecurity. The knighthood has made things worse. I think sometimes Ray actual believes the hype and the 'kiss-ups' and the sycophants ; whereas some years ago he would have written something to try and dispel the illusion, the bullshit and try to expose it ; in his wonderful special way; to embrace the cold reality of things with sympathy and compassion. Cliches of the World- what a paradox. What fools time makes of us all.
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