Product Description

Working Man s Cafe a new studio album by legendary musician and Rock n Roll Hall of Fame member Ray Davies (founder, singer, songwriter of The Kinks), features 12 new songs written by Davies, and co-produced with Grammy® Award winning producer/engineer Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle). Recorded in Nashville, Working Man s Café is Davies second solo album, following his solo debut Other People s Lives, released in 2006.

Working Man s Café, focuses on the plight of the worker, the every day man around the world. It is Davies American record (many of the songs were written and all produced in the US) describing the changes he s seen in this country since he first started visiting in the 60s. In a recent four star Mojo Magazine review Davies is described as having a tourist s blend of enchantment and bafflement when writing about the United States

Track Listing

1. Vietnam Cowboys (4:12)
2. You re Asking Me (3:22)
3. Working Man s Café (3:41)
4. Morphine Song (4:18)
5. In A Moment (4:29)
6. Peace In Our Time (4:39)
7. No One Listen (3:13)
8. Imaginary Man (4:09)
9. One More Time (4:28)
10. The Voodoo Walk (4:24)
11. Hymn For A New Age (3:42)
12. The Real World (5:06)
13. Angola (Wrong Side Of The Law) (4:29)
14. Vietnam Cowboys (demo) (2:52)
15. The Voodoo Walk (demo) (4:25)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7883 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
2008 must be an interesting year to have an outsider's view on the US and its role in the world, and when Ray Davies sings "everywhere I go it looks and feels like America," it's hard to miss a bit of the bitterness in the observation. His second studio solo album in three years, Working Man's Cafe feels like exactly the album a 60-something rocker would craft--assured and direct yet searching and restless, a glimpse into the head of a man who's comfortable in his skin but still wonders how he fits into a world that seems to be turning faster and stranger as the years pass by. Davies has cultivated this contraposition of bitter and sweet, of intertwining comfort and conflict throughout his years leading the Kinks, and now continues into what looks to be a fruitful solo career. There's a bit of George Harrison in the melody and sentiment of "One More Time," acknowledging the widening gap between powerful corporations and the overtaxed little guy, while still envisioning the possibility of a brighter future. And the title track's half-acidic, half-nostalgic take on modern homogenization follows the classic Davies approach of reporting what he sees around him with one eye toward a fading past: "I bought a pair of new designer pants where the fruit and veg man used to stand." It's nice to note that, 40 years on, the songwriter that skewered '60s Brits with "A Well-Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" still wields a sharpened pen and pulls no punches. --Ben Heege

Review
It isn t quite the old Ray Davies that turns up on what is technically his second solo album following the first by only a year but it s a more familiar one. Where Other People s Lives was polished and cautious, Working Man s Café is sharper and more direct, reaching back to Davies most biting social commentary and the pointed wit of prime Kinks days. --Harp Magazine: Jan/Feb 08

Customer Reviews

Great CD from Ray Davies
This is a really great disc from Ray Davies. When it was first released I read a couple of local reviews which said it was just ok, so I was a bit apprenhensive before I put my money down. But I'm glad I did!
There are some great songs here (some among the best Ray has ever written).Its hard to nominate the favourites; its easier to nominate the lesser tracks which in my opinion are "No One Listen" and "Hymn for a New Age". The rest are really great but I guess the stand outs are "One More Time", "In a Moment",Morphine Song", Working Men's Cafe" and Vietnam Cowboys".
I saw Ray in concert recently and he did a couple of songs from this CD and the rest were his old Kinks material. One of the older songs he did was the great "20th Century Man" which induced me to go out and buy "Muswell Hillbillies" as I had never heard the complete album before.
Now I'm going to upset a few Kinks fans here but I think "Working Men's Cafe" is better than "Muswell Hillbillies"!!
So ignore the nay-sayers and buy this CD. It's now made we interested in picking up "Other Peoples Lives".

Enduring talent..
Getting shot by muggers in New Orleans unexpectedly drove Davies back to the studio.
It seems incredible that a songwriter as respected and acclaimed as Davies should only be releasing his second solo record in 2007.
That said, "Working Man's Café" is not likely to disappoint generations of Davies fans.
Lyrically speaking, all his trademark wry and sardonic observations on life are present. As one of rock music's most lauded social commentators Ray peppers the majority of these new songs with nicely-honed and bang up-to-date assessments of the world as he sees it today: a conflicted, contradictory and globalized shopping centre mired in double standards and creeping 'Americanisation'.
You only have to listen to "Waterloo Sunset" to realise that Ray Davies has always had a tendency to wrap his disillusionment in the flag of nostalgia. He hankers for the past on this new album too, but with a brusqueness which would have embarrassed his younger self - before finally dragging himself back towards something approaching contentment.
The album captures Davies's revulsion with Tony Blair's Britain, his relocation to New Orleans, and the reflections on mortality which followed his shooting in the Crescent City (after chasing a mugger). Some of the material is mined directly from his experience.
This could be judged as the grumpy old man of The Kinks indulging in some nostalgia-driven baby-boomer whingeing.
Instead, Davies, who remains an engaging and energetic performer at 64, pinpoints the concerns of the moment from the perspective of a man who has seen England and the world beyond it change almost beyond recognition... and as far as Ray is concerned, not for the better.
The sprawling "Morphine Song", with its boisterous horn section, describes the trauma of the emergency room. Other themes, such as the encroachment of corporate power, are more familiar. "Vietnam Cowboys" rails at globalisation, on "You're Asking Me" Ray sounds genuinely peeved and rocks out accordingly, but the signature whimsical and wistful touches in his voice and music means he never slips into the angry old rocker cliché.
Probably the most radio-friendly offering is the sweetly catchy "In A Moment" which veers towards a southern soul feel with bluesy guitar, organ and electric piano chugging blissfully in the background as Ray gets things of his chest and shows he's still got plenty of great hooks up his sleeve.
There are glimpses of personal demons on "Imaginary Man" as Ray searches for life's meaning.
The beautifully sung closer, "The Real World", isn't strictly autobiographical, but it does explore the wanderlust which took Davies to Louisiana, before concluding that travel doesn't necessarily cure a lost soul.
Best of all is the pensive title track, with an Estuary-accented Davies complaining about the creeping Americanisation of England, loans, equity relief, mortgages and internet cafes, before locating his identity in a working man's café. "In case you forgot who I am", he sings, "I'm a kid with a greasy spoon firmly held in my hand". The melancholy track will likely inspire nostalgia for old Kinks tunes.
Full of brisk, occasionally noisy rock, it's a great gust of an album that affirms Davies's enduring talent.

Very good, but not great
I decided to give this CD over 50 listens before writing my review. The good news is it never got boring over the course of 50 plus listens. The not so good news is I'm convinced (unlike many of the reviewers on this site) this is not quite as good as the previous Other People's Lives. That in itself is not a bad thing, but I do think there has been a tendancy to overrate this effort in comparision.

I miss the diversity of OPL. The songs on Working Man's Cafe at times seem underdeveloped and lyrically weak. This diminishes an otherwise beautiful song like One More Time. The lyrical subtlety of Davies seems to have been replaced by heavy handedness. On songs like Vietnam Cowboys it works brilliantly. This song demonstrates all the Davies strengths of memorable melody combined with social commentary that is both serious and humerous.

Some of the ballads are really strong on this CD highlighted by the closer, The Real World. Other songs such as In A Moment, Imaginary Man, Your Asking Me and Hymm For A New Age provide repeated listening pleasure. The "deluxe" version offers 2 worthwhile bonus tracks, Wrong Side of the Law and I, The Victim.

I would definitely recommend this CD, but still would choose Other People's Lives first if you had to make a choice. Its hard not to give the nod to a CD that contains one of Davies best songs ever, Over My Head. Overall production and musicianship is outstanding throughout Working Man's Cafe. Nonetheless, it would still be interesting to hear some of Davies' new songs in more of a Kinks context.