Former Kinks star Ray Davies has revealed his is a big fan of the new cover by The Kooks of his song ‘Victoria’.
Released on the new War Child album ‘Heroes’, the cover sits alongside a series of recordings that link modern artists with their heroes. Designed to raise funds for the charity War Child, the album was released on Monday (February 16th).
Legendary songwriter Ray Davies is a fan of The Kooks reworking of his song.
“It has a different energy,” he told the BBC, “Because the singer’s got a higher register than me, he was going for more soaring harmonies that we didn’t do on the original Kinks version.”
“I think it’s a really good version. I’ve heard lots of covers of my songs over the years but I really like the records that inject some of their own energy and don’t simply copy what The Kinks did.”
Other covers on the album include Beck retooling a Bob Dylan classic while Hot Chip take on Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’. Joy Division bassist Peter Hook is a big fan of the group.
“I’m a great fan of Hot Chip and I play a lot of their stuff when I DJ. I think they are really wacky and also I think that their music echoes a lot of ours, so it was an easy choice.”
‘War Child: Heroes’ is out now.
