Music: Ray Davies is tired of waiting

He wasn't as cute and playful as Paul McCartney, as sexy and dangerous as Mick Jagger or as handsome and wholesome as Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits.

But the Kinks' Ray Davies was the most gentlemanly rocker in the first wave of the British Invasion, an introspective soul who celebrated whimsy, nostalgia and Englishness. Five decades later, he remains a well-respected man for his sharp social satire and often cinematic songwriting. While critics and fans are fond of his songs -- "You Really Got Me" and "Lola" are the best known -- he's fond of his travels. In fact, he's writing a book about his good and bad times in the United States. He has vivid memories of Minneapolis.

"I've got a thing I bought in Minneapolis, this Minnesota fleece zip-up thing," said Davies, who will sing Tuesday in St. Paul with his fleece in tow. "It's the warmest thing I had last winter."

After performing chiefly solo since the mid-1990s, Davies, 67, hit the road last week, backed by the 88 -- a Los Angeles rock quartet -- to promote a new all-star album. On "See My Friends," Davies revisits Kinks songs with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Mumford & Sons, Spoon, Lucinda Williams and Bon Jovi

"The secret of this was that it was collaborations, not covers," said Davies. "Everybody put their 10 cents' worth and in some cases even more.

"With Mumford & Sons, they wanted to do two songs ['Days' and 'This Time Tomorrow'] and we spent four or five hours in the studio. That came together because they had a great band ethic. Billy Corgan surprised me; he wanted to do 'Destroyer' and we stuck it together with 'All Day and All of the Night.'"

Davies said he and the Boss even started writing a song together. "We had a break and I started strumming a song I was in the process of writing. Bruce heard it and came over and picked up a guitar and started joining in with me. He said, 'I want to be part of this.' It may evolve into something."

"The thing with the Kinks is, we were never ashamed to be bad or afraid of being bad," he said. "As long as we developed and evolved the creativity, that was what was important."

His next project could be a Kinks musical. He recently met with a writer who might pen the book. No, it won't be a jukebox musical. "This is going to be dark," he said. "It's a mixture of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Mary Poppins.'"

Any chance of future Kinks projects?

"I was in the studio with [founding drummer] Mick Avory two weeks ago, and we did about four of five tracks together. That was good. We'll see what happens. "

As for his guitarist brother Dave -- with whom he's famously bickered for years -- Davies doesn't know what his "current plans are, other than making my life as miserable as possible. He kind of revels in that, really. It would be great to do another couple great tracks with him, not a whole album. Because he's a great player, a powerful player, and I can write stuff that brings him out. I like writing for Dave."