Ray Davies: Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Working Man’s Café
Ray Davies
(New West)

As far back as his ’60s work as the frontman of The Kinks, Ray Davies has shown a nostalgic streak. “The Village Green Preservation Society,” released in 1968, was an album-length lament over the fading of British traditions. Fast-forward 40 years, and Davies still is kicking against change. The main differences are that he’s grown into his role as a cynic, and he’s turned his criticism to the rest of the world.

On his second solo album, “Working Man’s Café,” the 63-year-old Davies is longing for the good old days from the credible standpoint of someone who was around to see them. Released just a year after “Other People’s Lives,” Davies’ latest is a looser rock record than its predecessor, built on a foundation of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. He may be a senior citizen, but Davies isn’t ready to turn it down just yet. “Hymn for a New Age” doesn’t sound at all like a guy getting ready flash his AARP card for a discount at the early bird buffet.

Davies has plenty to say, and much of it is the kind of talk you’d hear at barber shops, bowling alleys and after-work beer joints. The opening track, “Vietnam Cowboys,” takes a wide-ranging look at globalization. It’s not an endorsement, a view likely shared by the “auto workers laid off in Cleveland” or the former employees of the “empty factories in Birmingham,” workers whose jobs were moved overseas in the name of cheaper labor and tax breaks.

Davies is sympathetic toward those Midwest assembly-line guys, but he’s decidedly unhappy about the influence their country has had on his native England. On the title track, Davies wistfully remembers the old neighborhood. It’s changed now. The old vendors and businesses have been pushed out by retail shops. The gathering place, the “working man’s café,” is gone, too. It’s probably been replaced by a food court. “Everywhere I go it looks and feels like America,” Davies sings, and it’s clear that in this case it’s not a good thing.

Though he’s unhappy about the state of his neighborhood and the world, Davies doesn’t rely on angry rants. He fills his songs with snapshots, making points by capturing images and letting the listeners decide. Davies uses his keen eye for detail, sharp wit and subtle humor rather than just venting. It makes for an enjoyable listen, engaging rather than off-putting.

“Working Man’s Café” is informed by current events other than global greed and changing neighborhoods. Overextended credit, Hurricane Katrina, hours spent on the Internet, government indifference (American and British), the general public’s indifference and Davies’ shooting by a mugger in 2004 all are referenced.

Davies doesn’t offer answers to these problems. He’s almost resigned to the world’s fate, but not ready to just accept it. The idea that the world is going to hell in a handbasket isn’t a new one. There’s certainly plenty of evidence to support it. One silver lining: Ray Davies is turning out an album of excellent songs a year. The contrarian in him isn’t going to run out of source material any time soon.