The Kinks' Ray Davies predicted the recession

Friday, December 12th 2008, 9:44 AM

Is Ray Davies clairvoyant?

Eights months ago, the legendary leader of The Kinks
released a solo album, "Working Man's Cafe," that railed against
American companies outsourcing their workers, an enfeebled dollar, and
a world economy in free-fall.

"I'm not saying I saw it coming," says Davies. "But I had felt we
might be on the cusp of something for quite some time. I actually wrote
one of the songs, 'Vietnam Cowboy' ten years ago. But now, when I sing the line in the song about an economic melt-down, I cringe."

Regardless, Davies plans to sing these op-ed-ready pieces at a show tonight at Hammerstein Ballroom and another one tomorrow at Asbury Park's
Paramount Theater. They're special concerts for Davies: He'll survey
his entire career, piecing together songs ranging from early Kinks'
touchstones like "Tired of Waiting," to cult items from "The Village Green Society," to material from his two latest solo CDs.

The format of the tour also straddles styles. Though Davies starts
the night playing in a solo acoustic format, he builds to a full
rocking band. Some shows feature his regular six-piece group, others
feature collaborations with his young opening act, Locksley. Davies
says the N.Y. shows will involve both acts.

His new songs provide a striking contrast to anything he's written
before. While he has long been known as the great chronicler of British
working class woes, this time American workers earned his gaze. The
inspiration came from his U.S.
tours over the last decade. "It struck me, particularly after 9/11,
that there was this struggle in America," he says. "There has been a
struggle without - the war, which everyone talks about - but also a
struggle within: the underclass and working class of this country. And
that concerned me."

Davies got the see the darkest side of this country directly, when
he became a victim of its violence a few years ago. He was shot during
a botched robbery in New Orleans, where he was living at the time. "I got to see the ugly side, yes," he allows. "But that can happen to anyone, anywhere."

He "still carries the scars," he says, "but I'm working around it. And I'm fit."

He's also busy. Besides the tour, Davies has a Kinks box set coming
out in December ("Picture Book"), an upcoming collaboration CD with
other big rock names, plus a play, that just ran in London, based on his old song "Come Dancing." Davies plans to move it to the West End next year and then, hopefully, to Broadway. "It's about London street life," he says, "but it could just as easily be the Bronx or Brooklyn."

Davies' move into theater seems inevitable. He helped change rock by
penning some of its earliest, and most vivid character songs. "I
started off wanting to be a painter," Davies explains. "I'd always draw
isolated characters within a big structure. It would be the lonely
figure on the freeway. That carried over to my writing."

That style helped define The Kinks, who, it's rumored, will be
reuniting. Davies remains cryptic. "When people say it won't happen,
then it will," he offers. "The Kinks have never been predictable," he
laughs, "or reliable."

via Dave Emlen's Unofficial Kinks Web Site