Beware Of The Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray
Paul Thompson and John Waterson - Scratching Shed
Jake Thackray is largely forgotten although there is a popular tribute act with the fantastic name of Fake Thackray, the name worthy of Jake himself and featuring the authors of this book. I've seen them myself and they are very good, but they can't provide the wonderful eccentricity of Thackray himself on stage. I'd never seen anyone with such a flexible larynx and maybe all that cartilage around his voice box helped produce that sound. The authors point out his influences but a considerable part of him was unique. I'd like to have heard Jake himself on the subject - 'Adam's Apple' sounds a potential title for a Jake Thackray song.
Although the authors clearly love Jake Thackray's work, they have had enormous difficulty in writing this book. Thackray was a good interviewee, but he would mislead researchers and change his family history. His so-called autobiographical songs combine fact and fiction.
The authors quote an interview of mine where Jake tells me that his 'Last Will and Testament' was influenced by one of Adrian Henri's set pieces. They suggest that he may have said this because he was being interviewed for BBC Radio Merseyside. Anything is possible with Jake Thackray but it would be an odd remark if it wasn't true. Adrian was as interested in Gallic chanson and culture as Jake Thackray and both their last wills and testaments would have been inspired by Georges Brassens' Le Testament' (1956).
'Beware of the Bull' is a 440 page, beautifully produced book about Jake Thackray with many photographs and lyrics. There is a long description of his early years and the complicated relationship between his father, who was a policeman, and his Catholic mother. Jake became a schoolteacher and he learnt how to administer the cane by hitting someone across the palm who wore a wicketkeeper's glove.
Jake's auditions for the BBC are revealing in that his talent was recognised but none of the panel knew how to present him. I came across him as the only watchable feature in Braden's Week with Bernard Braden and then he was placed alongside the singing dogs and other eccentricities in Esther Rantzen's mix of consumer advice and freaky entertainment. Considering the hang-ups he had about performing, it is astonishing that he was able to come up with a new song a week for so long.
He called some of those songs "absolutely bloody duff", but some of his best songs were created under pressure such as the brilliantly witty 'Sister Josephine', which is about someone with a fake identity.
It took me by surprise to discover that he wrote regular columns for the Yorkshire Post and Catholic Herald. Usually, columnists like Hunter Davies or Jeremy Clarkson, both in The Sunday Times, reveal a lot about themselves in their regular rants. Although Jake Thackray delves into his family history, it is skewed either for comic effect or because he does not want to tell the truth. In other words, he is writing one-off pieces to be appreciated on their own merit. There is a brilliant one about bad things happening on Valentine's Day.
Oddly perhaps, his self-doubt and insecurity don't find their way into his songs. Loudon Wainwright for example mines his own self-loathing and uses it for comic effect. Jake's uncertainties led to him reducing his performing commitments and lost him his regular income; he was declared bankrupt in 2000. His marriage broke up but his son Sam reveals that the was a good father although he never liked the phrase 'about right' because he was a perfectionist.
My favourite comic songs are those of Tom Lehrer's and the greatest comic songs ever are Master of the House and I Never Do Anything Twice, both from stage musicals. Jake Thackray could reach those heights - 'Lah-Di-Dah' (with love for mild swear words), 'Brother Gorilla' (a reworking of Georges Brassens' 'Le Gorille'). 'The Widow Of Bridlington' and of course, 'The Last Will and Testament of Jake Thackray'. 'Leopold Alcocks' is a very funny song but Thackray's own vocal eccentricities are too excessive as if he were parodying himself.
Beware Of The Bull is a very enjoyable book, very well researched with much new information but there is a grave danger than you tire of Jake Thackray and his quirky behaviour long before his life does reach that final full stop.
Spencer Leigh
Beware of the Bull - The Enigmatic Genius of Jake Thackray
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