Who here remembers Jake Thackray?

equalsql

He was a staple of my childhood, being a regular guest on many tv shows during the 60s.
He was an extremely articulate troubadour, an expert in witty wordplay with a unique lugubrious delivery.
As a kid I found him a bit creepy, but looking back now I've come to realise just what a genius the man was.

DavidRees

magnificent ...

p90fool

Yep, an amazing talent, but still totally creeps me out, possibly even more now than he did then. 

Kittyfrisk

Yorkshire's Jacques Brel...
Amazing lyric writer & very darkly comic.
Brilliant.

Jaycee

I remember seeing him on "That's Life" ....an  acquired taste........which I still haven't acquired

axisus

I think he's rightly recognised as amazing now. I remember him being a highlight on a show that we all watched as a family (That's life?). He had such an unusual voice and the words were clever and entertaining.

TheMarlin

I love a bit of Jake Thackeray.  

My wife doesn’t get him, and pretty much hates him with a passion. If I play anything by him, she gets all Italian, loud and arms flapping. 

rpr

Love Jake  Thackray - The BBC did a good doc on him ages ago.

Litterick

'“The first time I saw Jake was on TV,” says the singer Ralph McTell, who would befriend Thackray on the 70s folk circuit. “He was extraordinary looking. His appearance stopped you in your tracks before you even heard his voice. His playing, his punctuation, his timing, the way he phrased, had nothing to do with American or British folk music. He had his own way of doing everything. Anywhere else he might have been treasured for that. Here he was compared to Pam Ayres.”'

From the Guardian, in a piece about a recent biography, a forthcoming DVD and a festival.

hollywoodrox

Not my kind of thing at all  ,But  I find his act strangely compelling  the stories and the delivery are sheer genius .  Absolute genius . On looking him up he seems to be an inspiration for all those comedic folkies like Carrot, Fred wedlock and Mike Harding  I would imagine Richard digance would hold him In high esteem too . But Jake Thackray  I deduce from watching this one clip 
absolutely towers above them so much , that any comparison is negated . He is an absolute one off  messiah of folk 

thecolourbox

I only know of him because of John Richardson's obsession with him on Meet The Richardsons on Dave.

I believe he was on something called That's Life, there was also a chap on there named Grant Baynham who did similar stuff. He performed at a creative festival I was involved with this year at a church near Birmingham and sadly passed away only a few weeks later

rpr

This is wonderful - 

Benm39

Awww, absolutely love Jake! The Hole and Brother Gorilla are hilarious and Poor Molly Metcalfe is so sad. 

A brilliant lyricist, songwriter and troubadour. And all utterly deadpan delivery. 

merlin

Met him a few times. My parents' friend was head of French at Cardiff University and he became friendly with Jake because they both loved Georges Brassens. He was very shy and quiet off stage. 

Redlester

Before my time. 

I came to JT via that excellent BBC4 documentary and articles in The Guardian around that time. 

The thing is, he’s a total original. It seems like he got pigeon holed into that box marked ‘quirky’ that exists for certain British cultural figures. There are some people of meagre but sufficiently interesting talent that can make a living in light entertainment this way- see most of the people on the entertainment strands from Radio 4, for example. 

However, JT is much more than that. The Ralph McTell quote above speaks to that notion that he was too much himself and too original. Looked at in retrospect, I think he deserves much more credit. The humorous songs are very funny. The darker material borders on real profundity- Molly Metcalfe, The Widow of Bridlington. 

The Poor Sod is a total masterpiece- barely started before it ends, and hitting in a great universal truth, while also being very much about the landscape that inspired it (N.Yorks, I assume). 

DB1

My only memory of him, vague as it is, was of him appearing on the Bernard Braden Show. Although that was the bit that I wanted to turn off because it bored me (I was about 8) it's still very evocative and reminds me of my gran and grandads's house in Selly Oak, Birmingham, and spending time with them in their house in the evenings watching black and white TV and being spoiled rotten by them.

Nitefly

I remember the breasts of alabaster...

equalsql

This one always put a smile on my face. He had a wicked sense of humour 

Funkfingers

Kittyfrisk said:

Yorkshire's Jacques Brel.

Some of his output was fairly direct translations of Brel lyrics set to the original chord changes. 

More often than not, when making a guest appearance on a television comedy, variety or interview show, JT would be expected to trot out If You Go Away. (Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas".) 

The other person clearly influenced by Brel was Scott Walker.

Kittyfrisk

Funkfingers said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Yorkshire's Jacques Brel.

Some of his output was fairly direct translations of Brel lyrics set to the original chord changes. 

More often than not, when making a guest appearance on a television comedy, variety or interview show, JT would be expected to trot out If You Go Away. (Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas".) 

The other person clearly influenced by Brel was Scott Walker.

 You mean as in,  "Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel "  

Funkfingers

Even when SW sings his own compositions, the song structure sometimes owes something to Brel.