On an album that displays themes of nostalgia, sentimentality – basically the ‘good old days’, I think it’s fair to say that ‘Monica’ stick out on the tracklisting of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society. New listeners will ask why. Then they’ll see the lyrics and realise. This is a track about the local prostitute. The term isn’t explicitly stated during the track itself, but when you hear phrases like “Monica stands at midnight” and “Money can’t buy sweet love from Monica”, you start to put two and two together.

The song’s delivered in this kind of offbeat calypso style, with what sounds like layers of acoustic guitars in the background and I guess bongos in the mix, and Ray Davies plays up the vocals a bit by putting an exaggerated inflection in his voice. Davies’ performance is probably the best thing about the whole track. The way he sings “I-I shall die, I-I shall die” in time with the crashing drums, and then backs that up with a wailing “Oh Monicaaaa, my love”. It’s good stuff. There’s something quite dramatic about his singing, but not so much that they sound too forced or over the top. There’s a subtlety in the drama, which works best a lot of the time.

Yeah, it’s a nice and short one. That’s also another thing about Village Green. All of its songs, bar one, are under three minutes and yet there’s just hook after hook and melodies abound in each packet. Coming nears its end, ‘Monica’ may seem like a bit of an inconsequential offering. But hell, this has always been one of my favourites on there. Even if the narrator’s in love with a lady of the night.