This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare,

This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It’s the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem.

Ain’t got no ambition, I’m just disillusioned
I’m a twentieth century man but I don’t wanna be here.
My mama said she can’t understand me
She can’t see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I’m a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century.

You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci and Gainsborough,

Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I’m a twentieth century man but I don’t want to die here.

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

Don’t wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I’m a twentieth century man but I don’t wanna die here.

My mama says she can’t understand me
She can’t see my motivation
Ain’t got no security,
I’m a twentieth century man but I don’t wanna be here.

This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I’m a twentieth century man but I don’t wanna be here.

Vi skal helt tilbage til The Kinks’ mester- og hovedværk Musswell Hillbillies fra 1971 for at finde sangen “20th Century Man”. Der var lige taget hul på halvfjerdserne og tresserne med alle drømmene var endnu i hukommelsens bakspejl. Davies synger sangen med indebrændt indignation, så man er tilbøjelig til at tro på ham. Han står der som manden uden illusioner. Manden, der bare vil stå af verden. Manden, der vil beholde sin forstand i en gal, gal verden.
Sangen er en af mine Ray Davies-favoritter. Og i den seneste tid er strofen:

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

– dukket op med mellemrum. For, hånden på hjertet, kunne ordene ikke lige så vel gælde for vor tid. Jeg blev født i en velfærdsstat, styret af bureaukrati osv.? Jo, for Davies’ sang rammer noget centralt – en følelse – der går som et spøgelse gennem moderniteten. Følelsen af fortabthed, fremmedhed (over for sig selv og omverden), desperation, lede, længsel tilbage …