Dave Davies will forever be known as the brilliant lead guitarist for The Kinks and second fiddle, at least in the public mind, to Kinks front man (and Dave's older brother) Ray. It is Ray who wrote the dazzling lyrics that defined the band and influenced the times, but in a very personal new documentary, Dave Davies reveals a less tangible spirit was at play within the groundbreaking band and in the process exposes an honesty and soulfulness rarely seen in the posturing world of rock 'n' roll.
Mr. Davies has also written some outstanding songs - Death of a Clown, Susannah's Still Alive, Strangers - and provided searing vocals on others, such as I'm Not Like Everybody Else. His powerful guitar riffs, such as on You Really Got Me, represent the very star matter of rock 'n' roll.
His film Mystical Journey would be a brave enough undertaking for a practitioner of the more rarefied arts, an acclaimed novelist, say, or celebrated painter, but for a rock legend, and axe god at that, it is virtually unprecedented.
In the film, Mr. Davies speaks frankly about the loss of a beloved elder sister when he was a child, and the role that loss had in stimulating an interest in intangible things, about his lifelong spiritual journey, from hatha yoga to astrology, the Spiritualist Association and Wilhelm Reich. He also speaks of experimentation with drugs during the Sixties, of a nervous breakdown and finally a stroke.
He describes being in a hotel room in New York in the early Seventies, barely able to speak, and sensing other beings in the room. He was, Mr. Davies said, "so desperate to get help, sometimes you have to go beyond yourself." Mystical Journey is a story of resilience and ultimately of transcendence, of a life not content with hard-won fame, but driven to keep searching. There's probably a rock 'n' roll song there somewhere.