The Us Generation: The Making of the 1982 US Festival DVD

For those readers too young to remember, the first US Festival took place over Labor Day weekend in September 1982. Held in San Bernardino, California the event was sponsored by Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, with the music end of things handled by veteran promoter Bill Graham. Ever the visionary, Wozniak felt that if the 1970s was the “Me Generation” then the decade of the 1980s could be the “US Generation,” and the festival was conceived to combine music and technology and to encourage people to be more community-oriented.

Wozniak paid for the bulldozing and construction of a state-of-the-art venue for the event, which was held during some terribly hot weather and resulted in a loss of around $12 million. Graham lined up some heavy hitters for the festival, and the diverse group of artists performing included punks and new wavers like the Ramones, the Cars, the Talking Heads, and the Police as well as classic rockers like the Kinks, Santana, Fleetwood Mac, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

A second US Festival was held over the Memorial Day weekend in May 1983, with promoter Barry Fey taking the reins and Wozniak again paying the bills. The second festival featured some repeat performers from the first, including the English Beat, Oingo Boingo, and Stevie Nicks, performing solo. The Memorial Day event eventually conceived as a three-day festival, with performers on each day slotted under “New Wave Day,” “Heavy Metal Day,” and “Rock Day” but a fourth “Country Day” was added. Performers at US2 included the Pretenders, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, U2, Van Halen, David Bowie, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings, among others.

The second festival also lost a reported $12 million but, taken together, the two events proved to be enormously influential on a generation of rock fans. The festivals have been sliced and diced and released on home video in various formats, with individual performances by Triumph, Quiet Riot, the English Beat, and Willie Nelson released. The festivals evidently had a profound effect on award-winning filmmaker and rock ‘n’ roll documentarian Glenn Aveni, who had previously made An Ox’s Tale: The John Entwistle Story. Working with co-director Jay Cedarholm and producers Bruce Gibb and Rich Schmig, Aveni has created The Us Generation: The Making of the 1982 US Festival, an in-depth look behind the scenes at the influential rock festival.

Scheduled for August 10th, 2018 release on DVD and Blu-ray disc by MVD Entertainment, The Us Generation is the authorized (by ‘Woz’) story of the 1982 festival. The film features re-mastered live performances by artists like Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Santana, the Cars, the Police, Fleetwood Mac, the B-52s and others, and if that’s not enough to convince you to add check it out, the film also includes interview footage with Steve Wozniak, Mick Fleetwood, Eddie Money, Marky Ramone, Stewart Copeland (The Police), and Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead), among others. The two-disc Blu-ray is going for less than $20 on Amazon so what are you waiting on – this is an essential addition to any fan’s collection of rock ‘n’ roll documentaries.

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CD Review: Dave Davies' Rippin' Up New York City (2015)

Late last year, former Kinks guitarist Dave Davies released the critically-acclaimed solo album Rippin’ Up Time. The album was Davies’ follow-up to 2013’s equally esteemed effort I Will Be Me (itself Davies’ first album in six years, and his second since a life-threatening stroke), and the new LP dealt with themes of time and mortality with fond reminiscences of the past and one eye to the future.

A short tour followed the release of Rippin’ Up Time, with an appearance at the City Winery in the ‘Big Apple’ caught on tape and released on disc as Rippin’ Up New York City. While not the most raucous live album you’ll ever hear – what do you expect from a rocker nearing 70? – Davies nevertheless displays more energy and vitality in these performances than musicians half his age.

Dave Davies’ Rippin’ Up New York City

Rippin’ Up New York City offers up fifteen actual songs (and a brief album-opening intro), comprising an inspired mix of Davies’ originals and classic gems from the deep Kinks catalog. Davies is fronting a band that includes former Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken, an underrated timekeeper by any measure, as well as second guitarist Jonathan Lea, bassist Tom Currier, and backing vocalist Rebecca G., Wilson. Altogether, it’s a lean rock ‘n’ roll machine Davies takes to the stage and they deliver in spades.

The live set opens with the muscular title track from Davies’ recent solo album, “Rippin’ Up Time” benefitting from the powerful Diken/Currier rhythm section, which lays down a meaty groove, upon which Davies embroiders his raw, blistering squalls of guitar. The six-string cacophony that takes over the anarchic arrangement makes for a heady brew of sound and fury, Davies only spitting out occasional lyrics, preferring to let his guitar do the talking. A vintage Kinks track, “I’m Not Like Anybody Else,” rides a similar silver rail to oblivion, displaying every bit as much piss and vinegar as the album-opener, albeit with more order brought to the instrumental chaos, Davies interpreting his brother’s angst-ridden lyrics with defiant anguish, wailing guitars, and crashing instrumentation.

Death of A Clown

Davies is also quite capable of showing his gentler side, as proven by the wan pseudo-ballad “Suzannah’s Still Alive,” delivered with more sonic bluster than the original, but with similar wistful vocals floating above a jangling soundtrack. The nostalgia-tinged “Front Room” and “King of Karaoke,” both from Rippin’ Up Time, provided that album’s heart and soul, and they work their similar magic in a live setting. The former is a fond remembrance of growing up in post-war England, folkish lyrics blanketed by whimsical instrumentation and fluid guitar solos. The former is a more traditional, Kinks-styled rocker with a strong melody providing a foundation for Davies’ reminiscent lyrics, which reference everybody from his former band and the Beatles to Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix. Bolstered by exotic, flamenco-styled guitar and flowing rhythms, the song is as elegant as it is mournful.

Davies’ “Death of A Clown” was one of the Kinks’ most underrated of hits, the song a musically-complex wonder that echoes British dancehall music while showing flashes of psychedelic pop and Dave’s dark-hued lyrics. It’s performed here with a break for audience participation, which doesn’t detract from the song’s joyous celebration. Davies and crew close out Rippin’ Up New York City with a pair of bona fide classics. “All Day and All Of The Night” and “You Really Got Me” are British Invasion royalty, both songs major Kinks hits that relied on Davies’ flamethrower fretwork – jagged, distorted riffs and dangerous power chords that did as much to launch a thousand and one garage-rock bands as the Beatles ever did. Performed here, nearly 50 years later, neither song has lost any of their charm, and Davies does them both proud.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dave Davies’ Rippin’ Up New York City offers up an energetic mix of the guitarist’s solo work (including the three best songs from Rippin’ Up Time) and Kinks favorites as well as a handful of his obscure solo tracks (“Creepin’ Jean,” “I Need You”) and long-lost Kinks’ songs (“Strangers,” “Where Have All The Good Times Gone”). Davies’ talented backing band is up for the challenge, offering a solid backdrop for Davies’ electrifying, exciting fretwork. Davies’ isn’t the best vocalist in the world of rock music, but he makes up for it with verve and charisma, and Rippin’ Up New York City is as entertaining a live album as you’ve heard in a long, long time. Grade: B+ (Red River Entertainment, released September 4, 2015)

Related Content: Dave Davies' Rippin' Up Time CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Dave Davies' Rippin Up New York City: Live at the City Winery

CD Review: Dave Davies' Rippin' Up Time

Guitarist Dave Davies has had the good – or bad, depending on your perspective – fortune to be a talented songwriter in a legendary band with a great wordsmith in his brother Ray. But the younger Davies brother’s imaginative and influential fretwork over the decades was as integral a part of the Kinks sound as was Ray’s words and vocals, and the occasional Dave song recorded by the band during its commercial run (“Love Me Till The Sun Shines,” “Funny Face,” and “Trust Your Heart” among them) proved that he had the goods.

Davies has also enjoyed a sporadic but modestly successful career as a solo artist apart from the band, notably 1980’s AFL1-3603 and 1983’s Chosen People, but the guitarist put aside his own efforts for 20 years to contribute to the Kinks, reappearing as a solo artist with 2002’s Bug. He’s since made up for lost time, releasing a string of five critically-acclaimed studio and live albums during the new millennium that culminates in 2014’s Rippin’ Up Time. Much like the previous year’s I Will Be Me, Davies explores a mix of romanticized nostalgia and contemporary storytelling with an undeniable rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack.  

Dave Davies’ Rippin’ Up Time

Rippin’ Up Time is a guitar-driven album, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the album-opening title track. With his six-string vibrating with a grungy energy every bit the equal of, say, Rust-era Neil Young, Davies’ gruff vocals tread water above the feedback-drenched, distorted, squealing, entirely delightful instrumentation that smothers any hint of nuance in pure sonic overkill. Davies’ lyrics are poetically dense, something about reality and madness and sadness that could only be penned by somebody that’s been there, lived the life, and triumphed in the long run. It’s a monster of a performance, the song setting the stage for the rockin’ leviathan to follow.

Much like its predecessor, “Semblance of Sanity” delves into the question of sanity/insanity, understandable, perhaps, for an artist a decade down the road from a life-threatening stroke. Still coming to grips with his altered brain chemistry, Davies’ surrounds the dark Goth vibe of his lyrics with a heavy, discordant soundtrack from which sharp-edged, angular guitar licks emerge like frenzied laser beams. “King of Karaoke” is a more traditional, Kinks-styled rock tune with a discernible melody providing a foundation for Davies’ reminiscence-tinged lyrics, which reference everybody from the Kinks and the Beatles to Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, and even the Knack (!). With a slight flamenco guitar styling and exotic rhythms, the song is somewhat wistful, but Davies really imbues the performance with heart and soul, and the instrumentation is pure elegance.

In The Old Days

“Front Room” may be the beating heart of Rippin’ Up Time, a nostalgic remembrance of growing up in post-war England. With folkish lyrics blanketed by whimsical instrumentation, Davies fondly recalls time spent with his family, the early days of the Kinks, even favored music like Lonnie Donegan and Howlin’ Wolf, the memories joyously delivered with nicely crunchy guitar solos. If “Front Room” evinces a pastoral vibe, “Nosey Neighbors” is the B-side of those particular memories. With a slicing, riff-driven arrangement, “Nosey Neighbors” buries its scornful lyrics amidst a clamor of guitar and percussion, creating a cyclone of chaos that pairs perfectly with the song’s sentiments.

The dino-stomp “Mindwash” neatly sidesteps spite with clever lyrics that tackle advertising, the media, even big business and their attempt to, well, “mindwash” us with smoke and mirrors and corporate propaganda. Davies delivers the lyrics above explosive percussion and deadly guitar licks, his guttural vocals perfectly suited to the task. By contrast, “In The Old Days” is another walk down memory lane, but this is a humorous stroll with fast-paced vocals, crashing rhythms, searing fretwork, and lyrics that tell the tale, warts and all, with Davies refusing to sugar-coat the missteps that life often brings. “Through My Window” ends Rippin’ Up Time with another Kinks-styled melodic rocker, this one displaying a bit more melancholy in Davies’ vocals than anything else on the album. But the song also stamps ‘paid’ on the past, all debts erased, Davies expressing a sentiment that clearly looks forward rather than backwards.       

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dave Davies’ Rippin’ Up Time is a solid collection that will appeal not only to the long-suffering Kinks fan desperately dreaming of a reunion that may never happen, but also to any classic rock fan looking for some primo-grade ear candy that sounds contemporary and edgy but retains the cherished rock ‘n’ roll traditions of slashing guitars, rhythmic bass lines, and heavy-handed drum play.

Nothing in the grooves here is going to replace Sleepwalker, Misfits, or Low Budget in the mind of the late-period Kinks fanatic, but Rippin’ Up Time is a snortin’, stompin’, hard-rockin’ record that entertains, Dave Davies’ earnest muse evincing more heart than nearly anything other album released this year. Davies is a bona fide talent enjoying a second (or third) chapter in a lengthy and storied career. Grade: B (Red River Entertainment, released October 27, 2014)

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CD Preview: Dave Davies’ Rippin’ Up Time

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Kinks co-founder Dave Davies has been making up for lost time since suffering a stroke in 2004. He’s released two solo albums between now and then, including 2013’s I Will Be Me. On October 28th, 2014 Red River Entertainment will release the guitarist’s third studio album in the past decade, Rippin’ Up Time.

A collection of ten new guitar-driven songs, in a press release for the new album Davies describes Rippin’ Up Time as “a man's reflections of the past, his fears, anxieties and optimism about the present and hopeful expectations about the future. I had a lot of ideas in my head thinking about the past and how we started and the Kinks and my own life and the present and what's happening with my life now and concerns and worries, anxieties about the future. I suddenly had an image of all the times overlapping as if they're all in one place in my mind. I thought I'd just write it from the point of view of a dream. It's a mixture of emotions that I was going through as I was writing the songs, some would be happy or reflective or sad.”

Davies’ distorted, high-flying guitar was a signature part of the Kinks’ “British Invasion” era sound, his infectious riffs providing songs like “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And All Of The Night” with their visceral punch and undeniable energy. His original material, like the U.K. hit “Death of a Clown,” showed Davies to be as talented a songwriter as he is a musician. Although his conflicts with his brother and fellow Kinks bandmate Ray Davies are the stuff of legend, Dave stuck it out until the band’s break-up in 1996 after better than 30 years. Davies was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a member of the Kinks.

Although Davies released a few singles as a solo artist during the 1960s, he didn’t really launch his solo career until the 1980 release of his self-titled debut (also known as AFL1-3603). In between touring with the Kinks, Davies released solo works like 1981’s Glamour, 1983’s Chosen People, and 2002’s Bug. Davies songs have been featured in films and on TV, including the HBO series The Sopranos, which used his song “Living On A Thin Line” in a third season episode.

Rippin’ Up Time is Davies sixth solo studio effort, the bulk of which was recorded this summer in Los Angeles with producer David Nolte. They put together the album in just six weeks, the two playing virtually all of the instruments themselves; Davies’ son Russell, handled vocals on two songs. As for the material, it’s said to be lyrically introspective while still showcasing Davies’ distinctive and hard-rocking guitar style.

Rippin’ Up Time track listing:

1. Ripping Up Time
2. Semblance of Sanity
3. King of Karaoke
4. Front Room
5. Johnny Adams
6. Nosey Neighbours
7. Mindwash
8. Between the Towers
9. In The Old Days
10. Through My Window

Buy the CD on Amazon.com: Dave Davies' Rippin Up Time