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Reviews Workingman's Cafe Friday, March 14, 2008 Working Man’s Café takes Ray Davies’ career to the level where he might start to transcend his old group’s songs.
RAY DAVIES
WORKING MAN’S CAFÉ
SHOCK
In discussing his recent album Circular Sounds, visiting San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Kelley Stoltz confessed that he had been listening to The Kinks. ‘There’s only so many times you can listen to The Beatles,’ he laughed. It is not hard to spot the connection when you listen to songs on Stoltz’s album like ‘When You Forget’ but while he has been getting comparisons with everyone from Brian Wilson to David Bowie, the Ray Davies influence is a lot more interesting and subtle.
While Davies’ enjoyed numerous hit singles with The Kinks and some acclaimed albums, what tends to be overlooked is the depth of his writing. Not only did he reflect English life in the ‘60s probably better than any other writer at the time (including Lennon & McCartney), he also injected a subtle darkness into his lyrics that has enabled the songs to live on and become even more revered.
Think of the number of Davies’ songs where the jaunty music belies the import of the words: ‘Mr Pleasant,’ ‘See My Friend,’ ‘Dedicated Follower Of Fashion,’ ‘Death Of A Clown,’ ‘Apeman,’ ‘A Well Respected Man, ‘ ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else,’ ‘Lola,’ the incredible ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and more. Beneath the surface there was always something else happening in Davies’ songs. In Ray’s world that friendly neighbour who seems odd and out of place just might be the neighbourhood serial killer.
When he toured Australia some years back Davies’s stage show comprised stories from his book X-Ray and a selection of accompanying songs. You can hear some of it on The Storyteller. It was a compelling performance and demonstrated the depth of Davies’ songbook. Strung together, those songs represent an amazing body of work that is too often under-rated. In fact, if Davies ever wanted to get The Kinks back together again he could easily tour successfully doing The Village Green Preservation Society.
It is a testament to Davies’ writing that people like Kelley Stoltz are discovering his best music and paying homage to it but, while The Kinks in all their permutations have consumed most of Davies’ career he has also manage to develop his own solo career (though he had to survive getting shot in New Orleans in 2004 to continue it).
Other People’s Lives in 2006 was, believe it or not, Davies first solo studio album of new material. It was highly praised, leading one writer to enthuse that ‘The most apt comparison would be Dylan's more recent comeback albums; if not quite the masterpiece of Love and Theft, it beats the hell out of anything McCartney, Jagger or Simon have put out in the last fifteen years.’ High praise indeed and setting the bar pretty high.
Now Working Man’s Café takes Davies’ career to the level where he might start to transcend his old group’s songs and maybe have people wanting to hear his new compositions. The fact that the new album was recorded at Room & Board Studios in Nashville with Steve Earle’s co-owner Ray Kennedy behind the controls says a lot about Davies’ intent.
If you loved the riffs that Davies created with his old band then, if you give it time, you will find a number of appealing songs here - but don’t expect the sound to be that of early era Kinks. There is nothing sparse. Kennedy adds extra guitars, percussion, keyboards and a horn section. The reference point might be the Kinks’ later work but at times the instrumentation is overpowering. The songs here might actually find a whole new life in concert.
The Kinks era, through which Davies viewed the world through an almost naive lens, is long gone. That point of view has been replaced by one that is darker and even more serious. The opening song ‘Vietnam Cowboys’ sets the scene straight away, dealing with globalisation. ‘Mass production in Saigon/While workers are laid off in Cleveland,’ sings Davies. In the following song ‘You’re Asking Me,’ which might be a message to his fans, he notes, ‘No point asking me because I haven’t got a clue.’
The title song ‘Working Man's Café,’ with its infectious refrain, reflects on a way of life long gone. ‘Morphine Song,’ with its answering chorus, might be a reflection on Davies’ time in hospital. ‘In A Moment’ is an ode to the way of life in the city. The anthemic ‘Peace In Our Time’ takes the famous phrase and applies it to a personal context. There are even echoes of ‘Waterloo Sunset’ in the guitar’s refrain.
The upbeat ‘No One Listen’ could be a comment on the bureaucratic bungling that took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (‘Why is it difficult to get things done?’) but he introduces his own situation in being shot. ‘I was minding my own business when the bad situation occurred,’ he sings. Apparently, the police eventually dropped charges against the man who shot Davies.
‘Morphine Song’ seems a direct result of Davies’ time in hospital, observing what is happening around him. ‘He’s got a perfect mullet hanging down his back,’ he writes of one of his fellow patients. ‘In A Moment’ reflects on the fickleness of life and how things might change instantly. ‘In a second you can look away/Turn around to find it’s all changed,’ he sings. ‘Imaginary Man,’ which sports one of the more memorable melodies on the album, sees Davies dealing with his past and coming to grips with his own identity. ‘One More Time’ recalls Davies’ world-weary and knowing voice of his Kinks days. ‘The Voodoo Walk,’ with its slight echo of Creedence’s ‘Green River’ might have been directly inspired in title by New Orleans but is far more personal in its intent.
Working Man’s Café closes with the philosophical ‘Hymn For A New Age’ and ‘The Real World’ which finds Davies’ voice up front in the mix in a melancholy tale of leaving which just might be autobiographical.
There is certainly nothing groundbreaking here but if you are a fan of Davies’ writing and his immediately identifiable voice you will enjoy Working Man’s Café.
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