But in a moment hope will find the way

As expected, Ray's appearance on Letterman is available via Youtube. Paul Shaffer runs on with a microphone and is obviously having a blast joining in the chorus of "In a Moment," a song with wonderful lyrics.

Off line

Had a great post planned for this evening, centered around Ray Davies appearance on Letterman tonight. Tune in now, kids -- he'll be on at the end of the program.

However, when I turned on my 'puter, the big No Connection message came up, taking me back to those dial-up days long ago, when one would try and try to stay on AOL without getting booted off every ten minutes. I don't know what was up with Earthlink tonight, but I wasn't getting on for almost four hours.

Wow, what do you do for four hours in the evening when your computer won't connect? Watch American Idol, of course, while talking to friends on the phone and trying to get student progress reports finished.

No time to go to the Google Reader and check out all my favorite blogs tonight. Will try to play catch-up tomorrow. Time for Ray!!! If you are reading this after Letterman, don't worry -- his appearance is sure to appear on YouTube before you know it.

PS: Working Man's Cafe was released today in the US, so don't forget to buy it.

Friday Night Kick Back -- Ray Davies

Here's a song from Working Man's Cafe called One More Time. It has the curious effect of rending my heart and then patching it back up almost at the same time:

US release of Working Man's Cafe will have bonus tracks

Ray Davies' Working Man's Cafe will appear in three versions in US release. The single cd release will have one new track entitled Angola (Wrong Side of the Law), plus two demo versions of "Vietnam Cowboys" and "The Voodoo Walk."

A "deluxe" cd/dvd version will have the three listed above plus something called "I, Victim" from a rough mix from an upcoming project called "Ripper." The dvd will feature a 20 minute film:

...titled “Americana: A Work In Progress,” which was filmed and directed by Davies. It features footage from the fall 2001 Storyteller Tour. Ray narrates over the post-9/11 landscape of airports, freeways, hotels, soundchecks and performances, with songs from Working Man’s Café as the soundtrack. It all culminates in New Orleans, the city that inspired many of the songs on the new album.

The above from Harp Magazine, which includes a link to a video promo of the film.

Working Man's Cafe will also be released in "high quality 180g vinyl." Although I still maintain a record player and a collection of old albums, I'm not really keen on buying new ones. Polyvinyl chloride is a problematic substance and is known to leach dioxide into the air, land and water. Although thermal depolymerization is on the horizon as a means to deal with PVC, it is probably best not to buy more of it.

February 19th is the projected release date, and pre-orders are being taken at your favorite online music sellers. I will be buying the deluxe edition and recycling the UK edition that I bought last fall to someone else. If you haven't obtained it yet, I suggest downloading it as the most environmentally friendly way to enjoy the music.

Nelson and Starr are OK

A message came in to the Village Green about Nelson and Starr, the hospital workers who tended Ray during his morphine days in New Orleans. Good to know they made it through Katrina.

Working Man's Cafe

Life has been not just a whirlwind but many of them. Blogging hasn't been an option for days, and I do apologize, especially since I will be taking some lengthy time off from posting here over the official school break.

However, I am happy to find that the BBC Electric Proms footage of Ray Davies singing the title track from Working Man's Cafe is now up at Youtube and posted here for everybody's listening pleasure. While I'm away, you can come here and listen to this over and over again until the album is officially released in the US in Feb 08. I think it is already available on US iTunes.

I cannot get enough of this track. I play it over and over and let the emotions wash all over me. I was born into the working class, with genetic code from generations of copper miners, cotton spinners, green grocers and stone masons. My dad was a brick layer when we were kids, which was very much a bonus for us, as he was often off work during winter snow season. He thought up great projects to while away the indoor months, like building a sailing ship to scale, a life size replica of a mummy case, and a model of the Parthenon. Eventually, he stopped bricklaying and became an antiquarian book dealer. My dad is my working class hero, for sure.

My mom was a pink collar worker until she worked her way through college and got to be a teacher after years of taking dictation, typing and assorted office work. She enjoyed teaching a lot more and kept on doing it for a long time. She lead the way into teaching and I have gamely followed her into the classroom. I will always owe her for lending me a suit jacket and skirt for the teaching interview that landed me my dream job. (First and last time I ever wore a skirt on the job!)

Now she and dad are retired and happily living in the little working class house that they built. They seek out working class cafes where a meal is cheap and the atmosphere unpretentious. I will never be able to listen to this song without thinking of them and all they have done for me. So mum and dad -- this one's for you:

A Morphine Song for Charity Hospital

Continuing with a song by song review of Ray Davies' Working Man's Cafe. Tonight we present Track 4: Morphine Song

How do you deal with getting shot in the leg? You write a song to go along with the rhythm of the morphine drip in your arm.

Listen to my heartbeat
Yeah all fall down someone help me off of the ground.

We are on a ward at the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, with a trad jazz band playing in the morgue. The pain killer doesn't stop the patient from observing the scenes around him. There's Star his nurse and Nelson his attendant:

Nelson and Starr
He's got ten grandkids, she's the third missus
He grooves around intensive care, strutting his stuff
He's got a perfect mullet hanging down his back
And Starr walks in, gives a little wiggle
Makes old Nelson grin
He tucks me in, touches my feet
"Hey buddy, you know you got a slow heartbeat"

And across the way is Brenda the alkie:

...the bed beside her is full of cables and leads
Nobody visits, nobody grieves.

She's a junkie and in pain but she's not the one getting the morphine so she cries:

"If I don't get better, I'm gonna die
I'll go cold turkey till I'm clean
I'll go to jail but you get the morphine"

The music plays with the rhythms of the slowed down heart and is supported with a charming traditional New Orleans style horn section backing a simple yet affecting acoustic guitar lead. Two voices teeter along in a child-like harmony on the "yeah all fall down" chorus.

It's a song that works on a lot of different levels at the same time. There's the surreality of the song writer finding himself on the ground and shot, then transported to a ward in Charity Hospital. Ray has said that one of his first thoughts while recovering at the hospital was to write a song to get through it.

Ray had been spending a lot of time in NO, was shot there in 2004, and his recovery was quite long. Just as he was getting up and about again, Katrina blasted away the hospital along with so much devastation and loss of life and homes.

The mournful jazz procession winds through a morgue in a hospital that no longer exists. Sure hope Nelson and Starr made it out OK. Glad you got through it, Ray.

WMC US release Feb 19

From today's Billboard online, news that New West/Ammal has snapped up the rights to Ray Davies Working Man's Cafe for a Feb 2008 release.

Looks like I'll be spending even more money as Billboard reports:

For the New West/Ammal release, the new album will be available in standard form as well as a deluxe CD/DVD with live performances and a video interview. A vinyl edition is also in the works.

Look for Davies to tour North America in the spring.

Time to start a savings fund so that I can catch a few of the US stops! Ah! Reason to go on living!

Thanksgiving at the Working Man's Cafe

I was going to post a re-run of Ray Davies singing Thanksgiving Day, with the thought of it becoming an annual tradition, but alas -- the footage is no longer available.

But while searching -- hooray! From the BBC Electric Proms concert, here is Ray singing his new instant classic. For everybody who grew up with a greasy spoon, rather than a silver one. Access the lyrics here, and sing along!

Peace in our time

Working Man's Cafe is the only music I'm listening to these days. Just over and over until I can sing along with each song. I don't have time to write the all encompassing review yet and can't promise to get it written until the fall play is up and running.

So tonight I'm contemplating this song that might be an anthem addressing global conflicts, but instead is a wry take on a relationship:

Hey girl, let's begin again and try to help ourselves
We're like weary warriors who just came back from hell
You can keep your territory, I will stay in mine
Carefully negotiate and leave this battle behind

Then the mighty chorus with a magnificent build:

All we deserve is some peace in our time
Unconditional love is better
Peace in our time

The phrase "Peace in our time" makes me consider how many years of my life on this planet have coexisted with some kind of ongoing war being waged. The background and soundtrack to my life: wars in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Nicaragua, Grenada, Iraq. Wars in the ghetto and wars against poverty and drugs.

And at home behind closed doors, wars with a significant other:

The two of us can't take it
Gotta have a truce so we can start
To put it together
Otherwise we're gonna fall apart

The singer is one who has been down this road before:

It really doesn't matter
'cos the world keeps going round
just like a roller coaster
If you let it, it will crush you down

The song maintains its interest by the continual interweaving of the personal story with the imagery of global conflicts, and then ending with a gut-wrenching image:

I'm tearing up the bunch of
Angry letters that you sent
Peace in our time

No One Listen

Hey man, call the D.A., call the National Guard,
Call the President
Call anyone in the land of the free
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me...

This one better get some airplay in New Orleans. For those who haven't been paying attention, Ray Davies has spent some difficult times in New Orleans, but he's not singing the slow and pain-filled blues. "No One Listen" is a hard-driving and relentless rock-out of a song.

The voice on the phone says we'll
get right back but they say
All the computers are down
And the chief prosecutor had to go out of town
No one listen, nobody listens
No one listens to me...

I feel like that a lot these days. So many examples everywhere I turn: The Executive Branch only listens to the Decider, while Republicans refuse to listen and Democrats claim they are listening but can't act. Meanwhile presidential candidates claim they don't listen to lobbyists or corporate donors.

Hey man call the government
Write to City Hall, United Nations
Tell the preacher at the missionary
'Cos he ain't gonna listen to me.
But nobody listen to me.

The more I look around my city, the more depressed I get at all the for-sale signs sprouting like fungi in the front yards of every neighborhood, rich to poor.

Blame the hurricanes, blame the drug trade,
The economy,
Blame the ghettos in the land of the free
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me

Mayor says we are going to have a "green print" for Akron, but dumps that into the laps of the non-profit organization responsible for planting flowers around the city. Um, don't you think we need a few scientists, engineers, architects, water and energy experts and probably lawyers involved in the planning?

Everybody knows it's a cryin' shame
how the little guy gets kicked around
Everybody I talk to agrees that if you wanna get
heard its connections that count

Tell the National Guard
Tell the talk show on the TV
Tell the winos in the old man bar
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me.

Down Route 93

Singing along to Working Man's Cafe, I made it to Berlin in just about an hour. This time I chose to avoid the interstates and take old state route 93 which runs from Kenmore down through the Portage Lakes passing through several old Ohio canal towns. Once past Canal Fulton, the road was relatively empty. The fall trees were in the best color they are going to achieve this long drought-ridden autumn. This grey dreary day produced light rain intermittently, but no complaints here, as the fields and trees need even more than was produced today.

One of the themes in Ray Davies' new solo CD is the pervasiveness of American influences around the world. The title song long mourns the loss of places where working people used to hang out and chat, family owned places with counter tops and familiar faces. The singer goes to the shopping centre of town trying to find a place where he'll fit in among all the retail outlets:

Bought a pair of new designer pants
Where the fruit and veg man used to stand
I always used to see him there
Selling old apples and pears

The fast food franchises began to disappear as Route 93 headed into Ohio farm country. I looked everywhere for a cafe, but there were none to be found, only large tourist trap places selling mounds of Amish goods. There are no cafes, only Cheese Barns featuring "authentic Amish meals."

Going deep into Amish territory is like driving straight into Ohio's rural past. Every now and then a jarring sight comes into view: an Amish woman wrestling with an enormous gasoline powered lawn mower on a steep bank by the road.

A modern egg factory barn contains the non-organic egg producing caged hens that supply Sauder's Eggs. Don't they look happy? Read the description of how Sauder's produce their organic eggs as opposed to their non-organic eggs and then ask yourself why are people still buying eggs from chickens that eat pesticide laden feed, are shot with hormones, antibiotics, fungicides and herbicides?

Berlin, OH is a tourist center in the middle of Holmes county and you know you are there when suddenly the traffic starts to back up. Just around the corner is Zinck's fabric store, a mecca for the serious costumer looking for a variety of fabrics at bargain prices.

Driving back, I begin to count the fast food chains, noting that Subway has made the most inroads into Amish country. I wanted to take some photos, but the rain grew steadier and more determined, so instead I hunkered down inside the cab of my truck, singing along to Working Man's Cafe, the words starting to stay in my memory and the haunting tune now deeply ingrained in my psyche.

Everything around me feels unreal
Everywhere I go it looks and feels like America
We've really come a long way down this road
Improving our surroundings as we go
Changing our roots and culture...

Working Man's Cafe available via iTunes

I couldn't wait for my order to arrive from the UK. Once I found out that I could download Ray Davies new release, it was click click and all last night spent in listening to the new tunes. I hope to post a full review over the weekend. By then I should have the hard copy with printed lyrics to reference. The only posted lyric from this new CD is Vietnam Cowboys, which can be found at Dave Emlen's Unofficial Kinks Web Site. Right now I'm still absorbing and responding to the work. I can tell you that the brilliance of voice, lyrics and music continues to grow brighter than ever, which is great news and inspiration for all of us who can remember -- back in 1965 -- the first time we heard Well Respected Man on the radio.

My favorite way to get into new music is while driving. There's something about that car stereo that gives the music a heightened immediacy not so easily obtained from an iPod or home stereo. Fortunately, I have a long drive planned for Saturday, down to Berlin, OH, an annual quest for fabric and I can't wait to pop that CD in and blast away all down the highway.

I can tell you that the standout songs for me so far are Working Man's Cafe, The Voodoo Walk, and In a Moment. Most controversial may be Hymn for a New Age, in which the singer doesn't believe in "God" but wants something to look up to. "I believe I want to pray but don't know what to." One always has to tread with caution when interpreting any RD song. The temptation is to say this is his actual view of the world, when so many times he is writing about characters outside himself.

New Orleans resonates throughout the album. The music, the city and its people, and Ray's recovery from a shooting incident that took place in the city are referenced. The album, produced in Nashville with American musicians, is very much about the US, and yet-- there is no official release date for Working Man's Cafe in this country.

Working Man's Cafe to be given away with the Times

The newspaper and music industries are teaming up in a most unusual way. Ray Davies new CD is going to be released -- for free! On October 21st, the Times will be giving away a million and a half copies of Working Man's Cafe with every paper sold.

Oh to be in England!

Read the details here. You can also download Vietnam Cowboys, a preview track at the Times Online. Note the Cleveland reference in the refrain:

You better top up your suntan
Otherwise your skin's going to turn to leather
We'll make a movie in Vietnam
The tax break necessitates we're going to shoot on location
The rug says made in Korea
Manufactured in a factory using cheap labor
And all over Asia
The third world's becoming a major league player

Mass production in Saigon
While all the workers laid off in Cleveland
Hot jacuzzi in Taiwan
With empty factories in Birmingham
Now it's babyboomers in Hong Kong
Playing cowboys in Vietnam

Access the Times Online here. Note that you have to register to get the download.

And how thrilling it was to hear You Really Got Me played at the end of last night's ALCS Indians win over the Red Sox!

Here's a little vintage Ray to keep us going until Oct 1.

Working Man Cafe album art

Here's the album cover for Ray Davies upcoming new release -- Working Man's Cafe.

No word yet on a US tour, but I'm betting there will be one. Let's hope it comes to Northern Ohio. Has anyone else noticed that more and more acts are playing Columbus and not Cleveland?

Well, for Ray I'll drive anywhere, or better yet -- fly somewhere cooler than Columbus.

What's that you say? What about my carbon footprint? Let's see, 36 years of not eating meat must add up to a lot of greenhouse gasses not being formed from my vegetarian state, so I think I'm still all right in terms of taking less out of the air as opposed to pumping it in with my not very wasteful behavior. At least that's how I justify it!