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Talking to myself here, but I’ve found a couple of snippets about Fifi Golightly and Millionaire:
A 12-year old post on this forum recalls watching Jake on Braden’s Week: “I remember one song in which Jake reflected that if he were a millionaire and presented his lady love with an elephant, she’d be bound to complain that “you never know where the trunk has been” and another that began “Fifi Golightly / I’m ever so slightly / In love with you …”
A 1969 Radio Times listing for Braden’s Week has a nice bit about Jake – “If Noel Coward had been born in Leeds it would not have been necessary to invent Jake Thackray. As it is, there are differences. In the world of Noel Coward, men enter through french windows saying “Anyone for tennis?” In Jake’s world they come through pub doors saying “Where’s the draught beer?”
So far, in the songs he writes each week, Jake has fallen in love with our Sally-Ann girl, dreamed of kissing a vicar’s missus, lusted after a newspaper pin-up called Fifi Golightly, and knocked ash from his pipe all over his landlord’s suede shoes. This week… only Jake knows.”The tracks are on YouTube. Jake’s only on two of them I think, and only briefly. In fine voice though!
Thanks Paul. I’m guessing that’s the version of Dans l’eau that I’ve heard? There’s another radio recording here that presumably is from about the same time – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isnWe5XDksk
I wonder what the archive status is of Start the Week? It’d be amazing if some of this stuff could be retrieved somehow. Seems like Jake used to pop up quite a lot on various magazine type radio programmes in the ’80s, and I bet not that many people had the presence of mind to be poised with a tape recorder.
If you have a look at the Jake documentary that’s on YouTube, about 25 minutes in, Sheila gives the address as 8 Old Oak Close. I know what you mean about the house looking more modern, but it’s not uncommon for those pebbledash houses to have been reclad – I think with those type of houses, there were issues with the steel frames they were originally built around.
Hi Jamie – enjoyed reading your recollections. To answer your questions, Jake was born in a village called Clifford near Tadcaster, and grew up in Leeds. I’m not sure where his grave is, but suspect somewhere around Monmouth, where he spent the last 30 years of his life.
Welcome indeed Nick. As Malcy points out, your dad’s playing on the Jake’s Progress LP is really nice. Presumably that’s him in the band behind Jake on the early Braden’s Week appearances too (see Kirkstall Road Girl on YouTube).
Do you happen to know what other LPs he played on? Jake’s Progress is the only one that has clear credits – is he on Last Will and Bantam Cock too?
Looking forward to hearing this – it is indeed a terrific song. The line about “the weeping orphan and the staring widow” gets me every time.
Oooh, and apparently the 1973 George Hamilton TV show featuring Jake has recently been found:
http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/6231/6-confirmed-finds
Anyone know anything about the Talkabout radio shows from 1966 that apparently are still in the archive? These would be interesting as they must be the earliest known recordings of Jake.
That does sound like a terribly frustrating tale. The archive status of Nationwide is apparently complex – the Beeb have the outside broadcast film reports but, not, generally speaking, the full programmes, except potentially some off-air copies on a decaying obsolete format – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_%28TV_programme%29#Archive_status
Did Jake appear regularly on Nationwide or was that a one-off spot?
Here’s one that might have some unseen Jake content::
Radio Times has the date as 6th April 1975 (“A special concert performance starring the versatile actor and singer with words and music ranging from Shakespeare to Coward and Gilbert and Sullivan to Jake Thackray”), the page above says 5th April. Likely to be the same show, surely?
Maybe not, but the mono mixes probably work a bit better at least, and the aforementioned tambourine is definitely quieter! (For what it’s worth, I don’t mind the arrangements on that album – while Jake’s obviously better on his own or with sparser backing, those orchestral versions have their own charm in my opinion).
Jake’s Progress was also released in mono, but suspect that won’t be as different as there was less to mix in the first place.
Urgh, Basic Freedoms Polka – the one Jake song that I really can’t stand!
If any of those ’80s / ’90s radio performances still exist in the archives, that might be a nice project someday – there are just about enough songs there to make up an imaginary fifth studio album.
I know that a lot of ’60s / ’70s TV stuff was junked, but maybe there are things still hidden in the archive not specifically flagged as Jake? Has anyone tried searching for the programme titles as given in the listings? And hopefully some more of the radio stuff will survive as off-air cassettes in people’s collections?
Well, seeing as it looks like no one else is going to answer this, I’ve answered it myself!
Picked up a very nice original Columbia mono pressing of Last Will via Discogs.com for about a fiver, and I’m halfway through side 2 as I type this. As suspected, it is indeed a significantly different mix. The more heavily orchestrated songs (La di Dah, Black Swan) sound much more balanced and natural, Jake’s voice sitting more comfortably in the mix. There are quite a few parts that are more audible – guitar on La di Dah, double bass on Country Bus, 12 string on The Black Swan and so on. On the whole, a nice alternative to listening to the box set CD version (the only edition I’d previously been exposed to) and well worth seeking out.
Currently in suspense to see if that bloody tambourine on the title track is any less glaring!
Caught this and enjoyed it – not much that was new for us diehards, but always nice to hear people talking about their enthusiasm for JT and there were some nice insights from Issy and John.
Agree with the comments on this thread about Jake’s alleged misogyny – I can understand why someone might get that impression on a first hearing of On Again On Again, but of course that’s not really what the song’s about, and so many of Jake’s other songs are written about women from a protective/sympathetic/admiring standpoint.
I’d not heard that ‘censored’ version of Family Tree before – presumably from a radio or TV session. Anyone know?
Following on from the programme, Gideon Coe played Caroline Diggeby Pratte on his excellent 6Music show on Wednesday night. Gideon plays quite a lot of archive session stuff on his show so I’ve emailed him to ask if there’s any chance of some vintage Jake from the archive!
There’s actually another book on Jake in the works, or there was a couple of years ago, from Peter Mills. I went to a talk he did in 2012 and he’d certainly done a lot of research and spoken to a lot of people. Don’t know what the current status is though, and not to say there wouldn’t be room for another!
Ah – on this very forum!
http://www.jakethackray.com/forum/5-off-topic-threads/1560-jakes-birthplace.html
