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Many ‘music scholars’ say that The Kink’s “You Really Got Me” is the biggest influence in today’s metals rock. They have a valid assumptions though if you know the song. There is also a widely popular version by Van Halen! If you can check out the image, you will find a very detailed lesson on the Van Halen Version.

The tablature further below this post is the tab for The Kinks’ Version.

Worry not though, both version are great!

How to play “You Really Got Me”

A little background about the song – Ray Davies wrote this with the help of his brother (and Kinks guitarist) Dave. At first, during the initial composition, the riff or song was played on a piano and it was almost 6 minutes long. Dave later played it on a guitar and stuck to it.

This is also one of the first song that has a distortion sound. Dave Davies got the dirty guitar sound by slashing the speaker cone on his amp with a razor blade. This causes the sound to be distorted and have that buzzing, fuzzing sound.

Another fact/info from wikipedia: “You Really Got Me” heavily influenced later rock musicians, particularly in the sub-genres heavy metal and punk rock. American musicologist Robert Walser wrote that it is, “the first hit song built around power chords” while critic Denise Sullivan of Allmusic writes, “‘You Really Got Me’ remains a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal.

The first line was originally “You, you really got me going.” Ray Davies changed it to “Girl, you really got me going” at the suggestion of one of their advisers. The idea was to appeal to the teenage girls in their audience.

How To Play “You Really Got Me” Riff

In this tutorial, “You Really Got Me” will teach us (or at least refresh us) of the chord slides and power chords. The song one of the few songs, hit songs that uses power chords. The song is actually built upon the power chords.

Click the tab below and check out the complete tab for Free in Songsterr.com

 

What is Power Chord?

A power chord is the top 3 notes played on the guitar neck. It is composed of the lowest root not, the 5th and the next octaves.

The main key thing to play this guitar riff (the version of The Kinks at least) is to slide from one power chord to the next. Always maintain the rhythm of the song!