July 10, 2010: Farewell, Pete Quaife of The Kinks

Absolutely awful news here, and I can't believe I'm finding out about it two weeks late. Pete Quaife, The Kinks' inimitable original bassist, died at the age of 66 on June 23rd. Pete suffered kidney failure in Herlev, Denmark. How the death of an original member of one of Rock & Roll's most important acts wasn't major news in the U.S. is utterly beyond me, but I'm truly saddened by this loss... and not just because it quashes any hopes of that long-rumored reunion of the four original Kinks.



Quaife was a vivid personality whose bass lines tended to rumble in the background, but at times came vividly to the fore. Listen to his exceptional solo in the middle of "Wicked Annabella":



Dave Davies has also written a eulogy to his old friend, which Mojo.com posted yesterday. Read it here.

And finally, I thought I'd re-post my own tribute to Pete from last year's The Kinks A-Z:



Bassist Peter Quaife was the lowest-profile member of the original Kinks, mostly because he didn’t put in the lengthy tour-of-duty that drummer Mick Avory did and his last name isn’t Davies. However, to hear Dave and Ray tell tales of him in their respective autobiographies, he sounds like the Kink you’d most want to hang around with (future serial-killer John Wayne Gacy, who attempted to befriend the bass player in 1965, would certainly agree). Witty, campy Quaife was a notorious teller of tall tales (once provoking Mick Jagger to bark “Quaife, you’re just a fuckin’ liar, aren’t you?”) who adored frazzling macho Avory by calling him “a beautiful butch beast”. On the flip side, Pete was also the most reluctant Kink. In June of 1966, the bassist suffered serious head and foot injuries in a vehicle collision, and was temporarily replaced on stage and in the studio by former Creation bassist John Dalton. While convalescing, Pete announced that he was quitting the Kinks for good, but his band mates lured him back before the end of the year. He spent another two and half years in the fold before leaving for good in 1969 to form country rock group Mapleoak. Once again, John Dalton came to the rescue and remained a Kink until 1976. After recording one single (“Son of a Gun”) with Mapleoak, Quaife left that band as well to pursue graphic design work in Copenhagen. While Pete’s bass playing was hardly as flashy as that of John Entwistle or as melodic as that of Paul McCartney, he held down the bottom with assurance when the Kinks were making their finest records, and when inspired—like when he unleashes a flurry of fluttering runs on “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” or when he delivers a snaky appropriation of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” on “Wicked Annabella”— he could dazzle.

You may also dig:

The Kinks A-Z

Kinks Inch Kloser to Reunion

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