Book Review: Thank You For The Days: Fans of The Kinks share 60 years of stories

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the editor, Chris Kocher, in exchange for my honest review.

If you know me well, you’ll know that I adore The Kinks and they are among my all-time favourite bands, full stop, no qualifiers. I’ve written extensively about The Kinks on this blog, so if you’re a frequent reader, you’ll probably remember me talking about their socialist and LGBT themed songs, my story of going to Dave Davies’ book signing in London in 2022, reviewing both of Dave Davies’ autobiographies, and sharing a list of underrated Kinks songs (that was the blog post that really got me into The Kinks). The Kinks are also one of a few bands with multiple chapters about them in my book Crime of the Century. Much like their lead singer and primary songwriter Ray Davies, I appreciate some good storytelling. I love asking others about their experiences with rock music, whether they’re a musician or a music fan. I’ve had the privilege to interview a multicultural mix of men, women, and nonbinary people from all generations from Baby Boomer to Gen X to Millennial to Gen Z. No two stories are exactly alike because everyone’s got such unique experiences and their life experiences and who they are shapes how they tell their story. In the first few couple sentences of the introduction of the book, Kocher says that even though it’s clichéd, he believes that everyone has a story to tell, but the most difficult part is coaxing it out of them.

If you’re a big Kinks fan, there’s no doubt that you’ve read X-Ray, Kink, Americana, and Living On A Thin Line as well as popular biographies like God Save The Kinks by Rob Jovanovic or Ray Davies: A Complicated Life by Johnny Rogan. I used pretty much all of these books plus some BBC documentaries about them to do research for Crime of the Century and my blog posts about The Kinks. We’ve heard a lot about the band from the perspectives of the band members themselves as well as people who were close to them personally or professionally. But what about the fans? No band would be where they are without the fans and it’s always great to hear their points of view. In documentaries about Beatlemania, you get lots of soundbites from fans. It’s fun to hear about how they got into their favourite band, what they like about them, and what the music means to them. And sometimes the fans know more about the band than the band members themselves, that’s how passionate they are about the music. For a seasoned rock band, all the shows and all the cities they play in feel like a blur and it’s hard to remember one specific show, but you know who will? The fans, because the musicians played so well and created a special memory for their fans. Preserving these stories for generations to come is important so we can truly understand rock history from more than one point of view. That’s why I’m a big supporter of people writing about their favourite bands and I don’t dismiss it as a silly hobby. Contrary to oligarchs’ beliefs, not everything has to be profitable, sometimes things can be fun and history is important so we can really understand who we are.

So when I saw Chris Kocher post about his book on Reddit and him looking for classic rock content creators to review the book, I jumped on the opportunity and sent an email. I’m also a member of The Kinks Official Facebook Group and I love reading stories from OG fans and second gen fans so I can better understand the eras before my time, so seeing this in book format with the stories being compiled, edited, and polished was a really cool idea! Time flies and I can’t believe that the earliest Kinks songs are now 60 years old. Their biggest hits of 1965, “Tired of Waiting For You”, “Set Me Free”, “See My Friends”, “A Well Respected Man”, and “Till The End of the Day” all turn 60 this year so it’s good timing to release the book now, as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of a lot of Kinks milestones.

The book is well-organised, decade by decade with headings separating the stories year by year. At the beginning of each decade, there is a brief introduction giving an overview of what The Kinks were up to in each decade, even the later ones where each of the band members have gone their separate ways working on different solo projects. Throughout the different chapters, there are featured stories entitled “Around The Dial” with famous musicians and people who have worked with Kinks band members. The stories are all varied and show the diversity of The Kinks fandom. As expected, most of the stories are from Europe and the US, since that’s where The Kinks were most popular. One thing I was really happy to see were a number of stories from people of my generation, with even some of the contributors being younger than me and telling their stories of how their parents got them into The Kinks and they had the chance to see them live, meet some of the band members, or go on a Kinks pilgrimage to London. Those of us who were born decades after the band’s heyday are no less of real fans because we hadn’t had the chance to see them live when they were at their artistic peak. Young people definitely keep the band’s legacy alive and show that their music really does resonate with the generations that follow.

While a lot of the stories have a similar format (fell in love with band, here’s my favourite song/album/era, here’s a happy memory from that time), I didn’t find the book a monotonous read at all, actually it was a quick read for me, because everyone tells their story in a different way and even though there’s some editing, you can see the character of the storyteller in each story. My favourite thing about this book are the heartwarming, uplifting stories: like how The Kinks have brought people together, whether it’s making friends or finding the love of your life – showing the unifying power of music; humans just being excellent to each other (a little Bill & Ted reference!) and helping each other out – what I really love about The Kinks fandom is how tight knit it is; and of course all the interpersonal stories of the band members being nice to fans – countering those never meet your heroes stories. I think Pete Quaife will always be one of my favourites because I’ve never heard a mean word about him and I love how you get a sense for who he was as a person: great sense of humour, well rounded with lots of interests, and down to earth. Even though I know a lot about The Kinks, I’m happy to say I’ve learnt a few things about the band and their impact thanks to this book.

In conclusion, I think it’s a pretty good read for a Kinks fan. I’d say it’d be a pretty good gift for anyone who likes The Kinks. You can binge read it, or read it at your own pace, the choice is yours! I love how complete it is and it really does cover a lot of ground in the band’s history.

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