- This topic has 12 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 19 years, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
It’s been a while since I posted anything, so lets start some "discussion" on the issue of political correctness in respect of Jakes songs.
Who avoids singing what,do any of you change lyrics or make careful choices about what you play, to whom and where.
A lot of Jake’s work goes over people’s heads or they knee jerk with interpretations, I have found this recently when performing To Do With You
Over to you,
Alistair
p.s. I love a good bum on a woman . . . :woohoo:
Yes. When performing Familty Tree I never sing that Uncle Sebastian raped the Duchess – usually he shags her but on one ocasion for the tender sensibilities of the people of Knutsford I bottled out and he ‘had’ her.
Ian
Don’t laugh …. in the Jolly Captain, I usually change the line
"She can scratch, she can scrape till she’s black in the face"
to blue or green in the face – neither of which has the snap of the original but I live in New York the home of PC.BTW how about once humped a duchess
Post edited by: richardshields, at: 2005/07/24 18:19
When singing ‘Bantam cock’ usually forget the line ‘gave me a grin and a terrible wink, the way that rapists do’ is coming and sing it anyway but I think it seems a ‘shocking’ word to use these days. No-one seems to mind too much.
One of Them is perhaps the one one most commonly misinterpreted as it contains a ‘naughty’ word. ‘Nigger’ sticks out like a sore thumb today, although may have seemed more acceptable a few decades ago. I always leave this in when singing the song as it is integral to the point. Can someone help – was there a story about a gig Jake did at a University and some people walked out on hearing this word of this song? Guess they missed the point entirely!
Mind you, we’ve had people walk out at a Jakefest for less!Hi All,
Also being a fan of Clive James and Pete Atkin, this very same subject was raised at one of their gigs….in the song "I see the Joker", the line "excet some deuce-head Black" appears and Pete Atkin quite rightly included this in the present performance (originally recorded in the 70’s)…Clive then went onto explain that someone (who?..any ideas?) once said "If a poet is deprived of just one word, then he may as well have no words at all"…This definitely rings true in the context of Jake…he wrote the words because he felt they were the correct ones, in the context of the song – seems a shame to change them at all really…its only present perceptions of words and indeed the never ending march of the pro-PC barmies that cause relative perfection to be challenged!…stick to Jakes guns, sing it as it was meant to be sung!
Simon
Edmund’s site contains this information:
16th December 1984 University Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne "Jake was well received … until he started into "One of Them". Quite a few people stood up and walked out muttering or shouting their protests." (Greg Gregory)
One of Them always needs some explanation before performance if it is not to be completely misconstrued. I well remember some people initially laughing at the song (to my horror), despite Jake’s intro telling them what the song was about. My own experience doing the song in a folk club recently was to have one or two people at the sound check saying ‘you can’t possibly sing that’, but with an explanation the song seemed to be well received in the actual performance.
I hate bottling out and changing any of the words, but it is ‘rapist’ in Bantam Cock and ‘raped’ in Family Tree which I would be most likely to alter, if push came to shove. I believe that Jake himself changed ‘rapist’ to ‘demon’ in performances towards the end of his career.
Edmund’s site contains this information:
16th December 1984 University Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne "Jake was well received … until he started into "One of Them". Quite a few people stood up and walked out muttering or shouting their protests." (Greg Gregory)
One of Them always needs some explanation before performance if it is not to be completely misconstrued. I well remember some people initially laughing at the song (to my horror), despite Jake’s intro telling them what the song was about. My own experience doing the song in a folk club recently was to have one or two people at the sound check saying ‘you can’t possibly sing that’, but with an explanation the song seemed to be well received in the actual performance.
I hate bottling out and changing any of the words, but it is ‘rapist’ in Bantam Cock and ‘raped’ in Family Tree which I would be most likely to alter, if push came to shove. I believe that Jake himself changed ‘rapist’ to ‘demon’ in performances towards the end of his career.
A few years ago, I sang "On again, On again" at a session in Nantwich. A group of women at the front listened enthralled until the end and afterwards came up and asked me for the words so that they could learn it and sing it themselves.
Whenever I have bumped into them since, this is one song they always request, they even joined in the chorus once.
Funny old world.
BTW. It was a great session, I ended up so pie-eyed that at one point I was sitting on the floor singing "Ulysses" to somebody’s dog !!
Hi Valleys Girl, and a very warm welcome to you.
Now, in answer to your question – well, I was hoping someone with more technical knowledge would have replied by now. There was a discussion about this a while ago, on ‘The Project’ section of the Forum where such things are discussed, but for the life of me I can’t find it after scrawling through 5 pages. The best I can do is to say that when I first tried to get the videos to work, I didn’t have Quicktime on my computer. When installed and used to open the videos it worked a treat. I hope that helps and if it doesn’t solve the problem perhaps a more technical person can help you. The help faq mentions cookies and javas but I suspect that won’t help you in this case.
Anyway, enjoy the site and have a good look round. We’re all looking forward to the documentary on Friday – see front page or The Forum – TV Documentary.🙂
Good man,Phil:"Quicktime" has solved MY problem with not being able to see the videos (never understood all that stuff about Java & cookies;why,just because one HAS a computer does everyone seem to think one understands them?). Anyway,I hope that snippet of information helps other subscibers as well. Thanks again,Phil.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.