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Dear all
Richard O’Brien, who has posted on this site from time to time, has just announced that he is going to write a critique of each and every one of Jake’s songs in his blog. He has written about two songs so far, and what he writes is highly insightful. You can read his blog here:
https://gatherabud.wordpress.com/I heartily concur with Paul’s assessment above. Richard’s introduction says, of Jake’s lyrics,
“He could make words dance, and I think it’s about time someone noted their choreography.”
With a turn of phrase like that, I believe his project is in safe hands.
Hello, and thanks to everyone who’s commented so far. I just wanted to let you know, despite a couple of months’ apparent hiatus, this is very much still going and as of today I’m now up to my fifth post, on ‘The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington’. They’re all on the site here – https://www.gatherabud.wordpress.com – and I’d be delighted to hear any comments you have about the readings I offer, especially anything I might have missed. And do feel free to subscribe if you want to know when the next update is out!
I’ve been a member of this site for years, but haven’t posted for a long time. Jake’s lyrics came back to mind this afternoon when “The Kiss” came up on shuffle on the usb stick on my car stereo, and I was reminded just what an astounding word-worker he was. “She was as seventeenish as the month of May” is a line that Shakespeare himself, if he heard it, would wish he had written. “And thus the whisper-whisper went from pinafore to pinafore, every tut-tut more grievous than the well-I-never-before.” That’s practically fireworks.
Anyway, best of luck with your blog, I’ve subscribed via Feedly and will follow with interest.
Great to hear from you, Paddy, and thanks for your interest. I ought to do ‘The Kiss’ soon – I’m always amazed at how earthy, how explicit, it is. As well as being so, so densely written. Good steer…
I think of it as a companion to “The Little Black Foal”, which at first listen sounds like a picturesque song about life in a rural village – until you listen to it properly, and realise what he’s actually telling you.
Hi, Richard.
I’ve been meaning to reply here thanking you for an enjoyable and enlightening start to your project. There are few, if any, Jake songs that I don’t enjoy and like in one aspect or other ; so I always look forward to your blog postings, safe in the knowledge that I will be familiar with whichever song you’ve chosen and that your comments will enhance my appreciation of it.
From the comments already posted here, I’m sure that readers of your series have been sharing my experience : I’ve been finding your analyses perceptive, erudite, and with a satisfying, cross-disciplinary depth and breadth that I wasn’t expecting. From the start, you have treated Jake’s complex work with the care, incisiveness and appreciation it deserves ; I was particularly pleased to see you deftly swerving the traps of lazy “Jake as misogynist” or “Jake as dated seventies bloke” surface criticism that many modern political correctors fall into, and which contrast with the way other artists are evaluated (Richard Attenborough never mistaken for a murderer simply because he played Christie in “10 Rillington Place”, Jimmy Webb never dismissed as a songwriter because he has never been a lineman in Wichita etc).
I suspect that if and when your series of articles reaches the wider audience that it deserves, your insights and intelligent evaluations will lead to Jake’s work being more widely appreciated and considered ; so as such, your series of excellent articles share the same aim and ethos as the rest of our society, and you have found a welcome home here.
Cheers –
Malcy
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