Credit: Jeff CuyubambaKinks guitarist Dave Davies has shared some cool exclusive news with ABC Audio: He’s planning to issue a previously unreleased song in February called “21st Century” that he co-wrote with legendary pop lyricist Gerry Goffin in 1992.
Davies explains that the collaboration came about after he befriended Goffin, best known his 1960s songwriting partnership with first wife Carole King, while living in the Los Angeles area.
He notes, “[W]e’d often meet and exchange stories.”
As Dave recalls, “We were talking one morning over coffee. He really wanted to write a song for Bob Dylan. And…I said to him, ‘Bob writes all his own material, I think.'”
Davies says he then suggested that Goffin and he write a song together, and Gerry agreed.
“[H]e got out a napkin, and the first words he wrote down for the song was, ‘The wind ain’t blowing anymore,” says Dave. “One of [Gerry’s] favorite Dylan songs was ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ so it was kind of like a silly play on words.”
Davies tells ABC Audio that after they finished “21st Century,” which features dark lyrics alluding to global warming and other potential impending disasters, he recorded a demo of the tune. However, Dave wound up shelving the song, noting that people didn’t generally embrace its negative subject matter.
Davies says he soon moved away from L.A. and never saw Goffin again. Gerry died in 2014 at age 75.
This year, Dave says, he decided to track down the tune, which he found in an L.A. storage unit over the summer.
“[I] thought it might be a good time to put it out, and see what people thought of it,” he explains.
“21st Century” will be issued digitally in February, and a vinyl Record Store Day release also is planned.
By Matt Friedlander
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