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A brief note of thanks to those who have so far replied – too many for
individual replies. Please keep your notes coming to
BBCJake@blueyonder.co.ukIan
Well, there are a bunch of us here who would immediately answer "Lethbridge-Stewart" – but that would be frivoulous.
The last time I saw Jake he introduced the Brigadier as being about an archetype of village life ("and he always drives a bloody Volvo") rather than an individual. That was in 1982 or so though so my memory may be playing tricks.
Ian
Hi Richard
I agree with your assessment; I thought the article was a well balanced retrospective. I thought that it caught well the dilemma of Jake as a talent who didn’t slot neatly into a marketing category in an industry dominated by labelling and categorisation.
It is why, on the Radio 4 programme, Posy Simmonds, when asked for an English (sic) equivalent of Brassens can think only of Tom Lehrer who is. at least in my view, several steps removed from what Brassens was doing. Thackray was always ‘the bloke off the telly’ and even in the clubs and theatres where Jake made his living I would bet that it was only a small number who joined the dots to Brassens, although Jake was always assiduous in crediting Brassens for, for example, the gorilla and explaining who Brassens was.
To some extent the same happens in the UK with Brassens – there is no shortage of people who think that "French" music starts and ends with Brel (ironically enough since he was Belgian) but the notion of the broad cultural tradition which Brassens dominated is subsumed within the bucket of "World Music".
Ian
Hi djxsmith
For other new folks, Jake vinyl can also be found here:
http://moremusic.gemm.com/
http://www.musicstack.com/
http://www.netsoundsmusic.com/
http://www.recordcollector.co.uk/
http://www.vinylrecords.co.uk/startpage.html
http://www.jukebox45s.com/
http://www.vinyluk.com/
http://www.stv33.com/front.htm
http://www.vinylnet.co.uk/
(a slightly expanded version of a list originally compiled by Keith Donovan). eBay is also a decent source of courseIan
Hi DGemini, welcome along. Good call on the Wedlock lyric. Out of interest, do you play Jake’s songs?
Ian
Hi Alistair
Good topic. I find that there are two distinct aspects of this: one is memorising the words for which I resort to tried and tested multiple repetitions until they are firmly lodged and even then they slip; the second is the accompaniment.
Sticking with the words, a lot comes down to confidence. At Torrington I started of the guitar intro to Side by Side and completely blanked the words. Luckily I was compering the first half so I could cut my losses and exit the stage smartly by introducing the next act. At Knutsford last week, where I did Side by Side again, I had a cheat sheet with key lyrics stuck on the top of the guitar but in the event I didn’t need it.
The accompaniment poses an interesting question though: do you try and copy Jake or go with your own style. People on this board have different approaches. Sometimes this is forced upon you – a couple of the songs I do, Side by Side and Thomas Haverley, are in B on Jake’s recordings of them but the limitations on my vocal range meant that I shifted them to C and this obviously necessitates a change. On the other hand I play Family Tree pretty much straight off the record. At Wallasey David Harris and I had a crack at the Policeman’s Jig for guitar and bodhran and finished off the song by segueing into a couple of jigs, one Irish and one Scottish.
Other performers can speak for themselves but there are a wide variety of approaches taken by people here. I’m not sure if you’ve been along to one of the Jakefests or other events that we run but if you do you’ll meet no end of people happy to talk about this at length! If you fance doing a song at the Jakefest in Edinburgh in September, drop me a private eMail and I’ll add you to the list!
Cheers
Ian
Welcome along.
There is a thriving community here of people who play Jake’s songs – sometimes in front of audiences, sometimes in their own living rooms – but keeping the songs alive in the best way possible. You’ll notice that elsewhere on the site are the chords to almost all of the recorded songs so you have hours of entertainment in front of you!
Ian
This programmes remain in the BBC archives. Getting them out onto DVD involves negotiating the commercials with the BBC and a heap of rights issues.
Ian
Post edited by: aliasmacalias, at: 2005/02/15 22:59
Keith, for some reason I am contemplating the Noel Edmonds radio 1 show on Sunday mornings circa 1970. The Golden Guillotine springs to mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mr. Boyd, a model railway enthusiast, spends months working on a new layout in his loft. After months spent diligently crafting a scale model of a goods yard siding at Crewe and distressing the stonework on his Airfix signal box he comes to the piece de resistance – a scratch built replica of a 1930s shunter. But horrors! his pride and joy is damaged – scratch and claw marks and there in the bottom of the box – cat fur!
Enraged, he races downstairs and, pausing only to grab a cleaver from the kitchen, goes in search of tiddles, his mother in law’s moggy and charges out into the street yelling and roaring. The neighbours call the police and he is hauled off to the nick to be charged with breach of the peace. Just as he finishes telling his tale in the interview room another officer comes in carrying a cat. Looking the prisoner straight in the eye he sings:
"Pardon me Boyd, is this the cat that chewed the choo-choo"
Post edited by: aliasmacalias, at: 2005/02/09 13:22
Howdy
I for one do NOT disapprove of lurkers – I was just curious to know who is here: there are as you surmise a number of old lags many of whom know each other from the occasional Jakefests. However the old lags now account for about 20% of the membership here and I’m genuinely interested in the other 80%!
Cheers
ian
Yes, well, when I kicked off this thread I had hoped that it would afford new members an opportunity to say hello and maybe a few words about themselves. The best laid schemes, however, gang oft agley.
Ian
