I met him in his local in Monmouth just before he died and was able to tell him how much my family and friends back in North Yorkshire loved him He nodded and said 'thanks' but I could tell he was really listening to me I didn't realise that he was finding life difficult at that time so I feel so happy that I said that to him directly and maybe cheered him up a bit that night
I performed this song at a local folk club some months ago and a young visitor was so offended she wrote to the chairperson saying she could not consider returning to the club "as long as this kind of misogynistic material remains unchallenged and uncensored ". Some people just don't get it, do they? It's a satirical caricature of misogyny and it's meant to offend exactly those people who deserve to be offended. Jake was never a misogynist, as anyone who has made any kind of examination of his life and work will tell you. He was a wonderfully intelligent wordsmith, humourist and wit. God preserve us from the entitled 'woke' brigade, I continue to perform and champion Jake's songs and if anybody is offended.......well, that's your right but so what? You have no right to deny people freedom of expression - your generation didn't fight, suffer - even die for it. You just 'have' it. Use it wisely because if you deny it to others you deny it to yourself. Rant over. 😎🎶
Their are people waiting to be offended. I bet she knew nothing about Jake, This is one of the funniest song I've ever heard. I've bet she's never heard Leopold Alcocks that takes the rip out of men, Or Brother Gorilla I bet she'd think that's racist. The bantam cock is as truer song as I've ever heard. Trust me your better of without moaning Minnie. I hope the club told her where to go.
I'm old and as "woke" (whatever the fuck that means) and left wing as they come and yet completely agree. I also could not give a rat's arse what gender people think they are, as long as I can get a word in edgeways when ordering a pint.
I don't think it's a satirical caricature of misogyny at all. Rather, it's a somewhat exaggerated for humourous effect description of the differences between the genders and a warm but tender ribbing towards his wife and life partner. People used to do that kind of thing back in the day. Sane people -- a vanishingly rare breed -- might still do it. But of course, Jake was the furthest thing from a misogynist imaginable. Some people believe that posturing as offended makes them morally superior to the rest of us. Generally, it makes them mid-witted morons, but there's no telling them that.
@@twatmunro Totally agree. There is nothing that has to be defended here. If artists aren't allowed to freely express their observations, feelings, frustrations etc especially in comedic form, then we will have no art left. Or at least no art of any worth.
I saw jake Thackray sing in about 1980 and he was just a genius!! Yes, it would have been brilliant to see he and Victoria Wood together wouldn't it!! Brilliant, both, very sadly lost people 😢😢😊😊😊😊
Crass, obvious laboured childish word play. I remember this irtitating drivel on TV growing up but we had Bob Dylan to Listen to, Robert Hunter, The Beatles, Captain Beefheart etc etc.
After playing at our village hall some years ago we put him up for the night and over breakfast he was talking to my young son who was about to go out to play for his football team. Jake looked him in the eye and said "Young Chris when you go out on that pitch today I want you to kick the shit out of them! Young Chris though that was great. Jake was a lovely fellow and a great wit.
"She took in a breath and I knew, she could have gone on again on again till the entire congregation passed out and the vicar passed on and the choir boys passed through puberty" never fails to make me chuckle, brilliant writing :)
I'm pinching the phrase " bored the balls off a buffalo ". JT is total class - his fluidity with the often complicated lyrics is a joy to listen to. Not sure if we'll see his like again. Also, great bass playing from his young side kick. Bravo les deux 🫡
Was at a funeral today of a dear neighbour today, and the Cactus was played, never knew she liked Jake. Saw him perform luckily in Melksham Wilts in the day. What a wonderful witty clever guy he was. It prompted me to have a listen to some of my old favourites, how anyone could possibly be offended by his work is beyond me, but we live in strange times with some very strange people. A genius sorely missed.
Never Jake was on a different orbit from the self congratulary Wood And i think he would have seen through her irritating ditties No Jake stood on his own deeper merits ✌❤🎵🎶
What a lovely man he was. I first saw him at the legendry Boggery Folk Club.( jasper carrots club) A long time ago. Some many years later my wife was having surgery so me and the kids needed a laugh, so went to see Jake at a small folk club venue near Coventry. At the interval I bumped into Jake and we had couple of pints and a right good blather. Lovely man and good performer.
If a certain Chris Allen is out there somewhere, can I just say thank-you for first introducing me to Jake Thackray as a callow youth in the early '80s. I'm pretty sure that this wonderful rendition preceded a weekend tour on a 1917 tandem to Holmfirth where (with our other mate Robert), we drank it dry. Mind you, we'd had 6 pints at The Fountain Inn, Ingbirchworth en route; so you see, this iconic ditty lives with me as a constant reminder of happier days and how certain experiences live with you forever. Jake....bless you, you were a legend!
A very very clever man, and this is perhaps is one of the cleverest songs he wrote. Almost every line is genius. The "a prosteriori" line makes me chuckle every time I listen (which is relatively regularly). He learnt his unusual way to play guitar while on mission in French colonial Northern Africa, missing learning the rock and roll of his contemporaries. He became a secondary school teacher and supplemented his education with his many clever songs, before moving into the limelight at a later age. Although I was born far too late to ever meet the man, I have met those who knew him, and all agree he was an incredibly nice person too. (ignore the misogyny of the song, it is clearly self-deprecatory rather than unwittingly insulting. Just picture a man who has married a very chatty woman, and over a lifetime of bending his ear to her nattering he has been driven to general misogyny. This is of course not Jake Thackray himself, who was devoted to his wife and his children)
@@lanslater he's certainly a good guitarist, but I don't think I'm particularly good, and I can play all of his songs that I've tried (including this one). It sounds more complex than it actually is in practice
The recorded version is more than good enough; live, it's brilliant. And for those who think he's a misogynist, he warns us before he sings that this song is offensive. He knew what he was about, did our Jake :)
As a former English teacher, I like to think Jake would remind accusers of one of the tenets of Eng Lit: just because something is written in the first person, it doesn't mean (necessarily) that the narrator and the author are the same. To call JT a misogynist because he wrote "On Again! On Again!", is like accusing Randy Newman of supporting slavery because he penned "Sail Away"...
Randy Newman is irony. Since Americans don't understand, sometimes it's sarcasm. Which they don't get at all :) Sail Away is a good example of Randys irony. "You'll just sing about Jesus, and drink wine all day".
It's artistic license. The first person makes a limp lyric powerful. As Lou Reed said when asked if he really had waited for his man with 50 dollars in his hand, he had not but used the first person to give the song real edge then illustrated his point by singing, "He's waiting for his man, 50 dollars in his hand." Imagine Tom Jones's Delilah in the third person..... Limp!
If you think Jake Thackray was a misogynist, you are missing the wider context of his songs. Everyone was a caricature, certainly not just women. Listen to the Hair of the Widow of Bridlington, or the Bull, or the Brigadier, or even the Black Swan.
I just love JT...as a Poet I marvel at this 'Musical Doyen of Poetry'...I think I can honestly say quite authentically that I love every piece of his work... Thanks! Graham (Poet)...
I like his warning at the beginning 😅 I'm female & laugh so much every time i listen to this. Jake Thackray is intelligent & funny. I find many comedians these days truly misogynistic & offensive.
The same wicked wit. One of Jake's biggest influences, though, was Georges Brassens from whom he got the idea for "Brother Gorilla". For further info on Brassens, check out "Je suis un voyou".
I was a boy in the 1960's when I first heard him. I thought he was brilliant, and was fascinated by his resemblance to my favourite silent comedian, Buster Keaton. I'm a guitarist, and can't play in the intricate style he uses, let alone sing at the same time!
He has a touch of the George Formbys about him with Rowan Atkinson's face. He's no Mike Harding but I appreciate his cod Noel Coward intonations. A genius... uhmm
Will have a listen to Mike Harding, and recommend that you have a listen to the Widow of Bridlington and The Hole (and have a watch of Jake on the Box); and can you let me know when you have done? - as it's likely to be one of them small pleasant things we do from time to time that brightens a complete stranger's day.
Many of the comments here are kind of dispiriting. Is it not possible to enjoy something without having to position it first as some sort of culture war salvo? It is hardly different to the behaviour of the alleged "mob" that apparently wants to cancel everything. This song is hilarious I thought -and by most standards I probably count as "woke".
As a feminist from the 70's when I first heard this,I realized that Jake's attitude in this song is pure irony.What does offend me about his recording is the loud guy who obliterates some of the words.But there are other versions SANS loud laughter.
@@flossie5432 it sounds very strange without laughter though. I have to say I've never managed to replicate the same joy from audiences as he did when I've performed his songs (I hope they were just enjoying it so much they didn't want to miss any lyrics!)
2024 and still loving jakes music
I met him in his local in Monmouth just before he died and was able to tell him how much my family and friends back in North Yorkshire loved him
He nodded and said 'thanks' but I could tell he was really listening to me
I didn't realise that he was finding life difficult at that time so I feel so happy that I said that to him directly and maybe cheered him up a bit that night
Without doubt a poet.
His guitar playing was absolutely sublime though & nobody ever mentions that, so I thought I would.
He was self taught.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I performed this song at a local folk club some months ago and a young visitor was so offended she wrote to the chairperson saying she could not consider returning to the club "as long as this kind of misogynistic material remains unchallenged and uncensored ". Some people just don't get it, do they? It's a satirical caricature of misogyny and it's meant to offend exactly those people who deserve to be offended. Jake was never a misogynist, as anyone who has made any kind of examination of his life and work will tell you. He was a wonderfully intelligent wordsmith, humourist and wit. God preserve us from the entitled 'woke' brigade, I continue to perform and champion Jake's songs and if anybody is offended.......well, that's your right but so what? You have no right to deny people freedom of expression - your generation didn't fight, suffer - even die for it. You just 'have' it. Use it wisely because if you deny it to others you deny it to yourself. Rant over. 😎🎶
Their are people waiting to be offended. I bet she knew nothing about Jake, This is one of the funniest song I've ever heard.
I've bet she's never heard Leopold Alcocks that takes the rip out of men, Or Brother Gorilla I bet she'd think that's racist.
The bantam cock is as truer song as I've ever heard. Trust me your better of without moaning Minnie. I hope the club told her where to go.
I'm old and as "woke" (whatever the fuck that means) and left wing as they come and yet completely agree. I also could not give a rat's arse what gender people think they are, as long as I can get a word in edgeways when ordering a pint.
Parody and satire hs been cancelled by the progressive fascists
I don't think it's a satirical caricature of misogyny at all. Rather, it's a somewhat exaggerated for humourous effect description of the differences between the genders and a warm but tender ribbing towards his wife and life partner. People used to do that kind of thing back in the day. Sane people -- a vanishingly rare breed -- might still do it.
But of course, Jake was the furthest thing from a misogynist imaginable. Some people believe that posturing as offended makes them morally superior to the rest of us. Generally, it makes them mid-witted morons, but there's no telling them that.
@@twatmunro Totally agree. There is nothing that has to be defended here. If artists aren't allowed to freely express their observations, feelings, frustrations etc especially in comedic form, then we will have no art left. Or at least no art of any worth.
I saw jake Thackray sing in about 1980 and he was just a genius!! Yes, it would have been brilliant to see he and Victoria Wood together wouldn't it!! Brilliant, both, very sadly lost people 😢😢😊😊😊😊
"Palpable proof of God's existence a posteriori" - clever, educated, multilayered, funny, poetic and metrical. Genius.
John Ashtone - aye, wi' a dash o't Hendos.
If you don't find that joke funny, you're a bit of a Kant.
Crass, obvious laboured childish word play. I remember this irtitating drivel on TV growing up but we had Bob Dylan to Listen to, Robert Hunter, The Beatles, Captain Beefheart etc etc.
@@Dijahtal_Arts_Not_Digital_Arts if you want to listen to Dylan, you know where to find him
I heard this when I was a kid, now several decades later, I see the worth in my philosophy undergrad
After playing at our village hall some years ago we put him up for the night and over breakfast he was talking to my young son who was about to go out to play for his football team. Jake looked him in the eye and said "Young Chris when you go out on that pitch today I want you to kick the shit out of them! Young Chris though that was great. Jake was a lovely fellow and a great wit.
"She took in a breath and I knew, she could have gone on again on again till the entire congregation passed out and the vicar passed on and the choir boys passed through puberty" never fails to make me chuckle, brilliant writing :)
Saw him play this at UEA teacher-training in 1980. I cycled from UEA to see him. What a wonderful man.
How brilliant. Was this hero, he never got the accolade due to him, Thanks for all your skills Jake...an unsung hero. ❌❤️❌
I'm pinching the phrase " bored the balls off a buffalo ". JT is total class - his fluidity with the often complicated lyrics is a joy to listen to. Not sure if we'll see his like again. Also, great bass playing from his young side kick. Bravo les deux 🫡
Double bass player Alan Williams apparently?
How he ever got all the words out so clearly I don't know. especially the verse about the choirboys etc.! Utterly brilliant and unique genius!
i just found this guy a couple weeks ago. he is amazing
Now you know you've been missing out
Was at a funeral today of a dear neighbour today, and the Cactus was played, never knew she liked Jake.
Saw him perform luckily in Melksham Wilts in the day.
What a wonderful witty clever guy he was. It prompted me to have a listen to some of my old favourites, how anyone could possibly be offended by his work is beyond me, but we live in strange times with some very strange people. A genius sorely missed.
Much missed Northern genius.
I wish he and Victoria Wood had written a show together.
I wish you rainbows Jake.
Never Jake was on a different orbit from the self congratulary Wood
And i think he would have seen through her irritating ditties
No Jake stood on his own deeper merits ✌❤🎵🎶
Did Ms Wood base her act on Jake?
this just gets better every time i hear it , bravo !
You sir were a genius. Take a look modern celebrities, this is proper talent
What a lovely man he was. I first saw him at the legendry Boggery Folk Club.( jasper carrots club) A long time ago. Some many years later my wife was having surgery so me and the kids needed a laugh, so went to see Jake at a small folk club venue near Coventry.
At the interval I bumped into Jake and we had couple of pints and a right good blather. Lovely man and good performer.
Absolutely brilliant! Great man sadly missed. love this song!
If a certain Chris Allen is out there somewhere, can I just say thank-you for first introducing me to Jake Thackray as a callow youth in the early '80s. I'm pretty sure that this wonderful rendition preceded a weekend tour on a 1917 tandem to Holmfirth where (with our other mate Robert), we drank it dry. Mind you, we'd had 6 pints at The Fountain Inn, Ingbirchworth en route; so you see, this iconic ditty lives with me as a constant reminder of happier days and how certain experiences live with you forever. Jake....bless you, you were a legend!
One word... Genius!
that was three words
Very observant... well done.
A real treasure, was Jake. Bless 'im.
Brilliant , the good old days !
Absolute genius!!!
A very very clever man, and this is perhaps is one of the cleverest songs he wrote. Almost every line is genius. The "a prosteriori" line makes me chuckle every time I listen (which is relatively regularly).
He learnt his unusual way to play guitar while on mission in French colonial Northern Africa, missing learning the rock and roll of his contemporaries. He became a secondary school teacher and supplemented his education with his many clever songs, before moving into the limelight at a later age.
Although I was born far too late to ever meet the man, I have met those who knew him, and all agree he was an incredibly nice person too.
(ignore the misogyny of the song, it is clearly self-deprecatory rather than unwittingly insulting. Just picture a man who has married a very chatty woman, and over a lifetime of bending his ear to her nattering he has been driven to general misogyny. This is of course not Jake Thackray himself, who was devoted to his wife and his children)
Hes no slouch with the guitar either
@@lanslater he's certainly a good guitarist, but I don't think I'm particularly good, and I can play all of his songs that I've tried (including this one). It sounds more complex than it actually is in practice
The national anthem of residents in care homes
Criminally overlooked, although perhaps that's the way he would have wanted it
Feckin brilliant...what a guitarist
Best opening lyrics ever!
I love a good bum on a woman it makes my day - pure genius
Bring back those fucking days
...what with my back? Not on your nelly.
The recorded version is more than good enough; live, it's brilliant. And for those who think he's a misogynist, he warns us before he sings that this song is offensive. He knew what he was about, did our Jake :)
If people think he's misogynist, they must be very thick,but some people probably think he is
Brilliant
I have this on CD but this version is much better live and I listen to it every so often as it never fails to lift my spirits - wonderful!
Marvellous, what a wonderful man!
As a former English teacher, I like to think Jake would remind accusers of one of the tenets of Eng Lit: just because something is written in the first person, it doesn't mean (necessarily) that the narrator and the author are the same. To call JT a misogynist because he wrote "On Again! On Again!", is like accusing Randy Newman of supporting slavery because he penned "Sail Away"...
I agree wiv wot 'e said.
Randy Newman is irony. Since Americans don't understand, sometimes it's sarcasm.
Which they don't get at all :)
Sail Away is a good example of Randys irony. "You'll just sing about Jesus, and drink wine all day".
And he takes 600+ words to say it.
@@donaldasayers when a couple of thousand would easily do.
It's artistic license. The first person makes a limp lyric powerful. As Lou Reed said when asked if he really had waited for his man with 50 dollars in his hand, he had not but used the first person to give the song real edge then illustrated his point by singing, "He's waiting for his man, 50 dollars in his hand." Imagine Tom Jones's Delilah in the third person..... Limp!
Thanks very much for the up load, great performance
If you think Jake Thackray was a misogynist, you are missing the wider context of his songs. Everyone was a caricature, certainly not just women. Listen to the Hair of the Widow of Bridlington, or the Bull, or the Brigadier, or even the Black Swan.
I just love JT...as a Poet I marvel at this 'Musical Doyen of Poetry'...I think I can honestly say quite authentically that I love every piece of his work... Thanks! Graham (Poet)...
Simply the best
"Please understand I respect and admire the frailer sex / And I honour them every bit as much as the next misogynist."
Such a talented man that was never fully recognised.
The greatest opening line in music? A contender that's for sure. He does go on a bit though
Just fantastic, thanks for posting.
Enjoy the songwriting masterclass. It’s sublime.
Whent to see him at the Sunderland empire theatre
He was champion !
Jake was so unique...
+Lee Mitchell That is an understatement :)
I like his warning at the beginning 😅 I'm female & laugh so much every time i listen to this. Jake Thackray is intelligent & funny. I find many comedians these days truly misogynistic & offensive.
A Great Tallent!
good to genuinely laugh again!!! Luv JT.
Fantastic !
Terribly brilliant .
Hes got the same repertoire as Tom lehrer....Absolute legends the pair of them
The same wicked wit. One of Jake's biggest influences, though, was Georges Brassens from whom he got the idea for "Brother Gorilla". For further info on Brassens, check out "Je suis un voyou".
Greatest song ever for humour
Brilliant.
Magic.
LEGENDARY WHAT A GUY
Incredible.
A unique musical talent, greatly missed. Yes, a product of his time, with all that phrase entails, but a wonderful performer, greatly missed.
I was a boy in the 1960's when I first heard him. I thought he was brilliant, and was fascinated by his resemblance to my favourite silent comedian, Buster Keaton. I'm a guitarist, and can't play in the intricate style he uses, let alone sing at the same time!
Sublime
The greatest Hatfielder to exist
Would love to hear what he's say/write/sing 'bout Brexit.
Brilliant
I've personally never noticed any of these women who go "On Again"; oh, hang on, I am stone deaf!
Lol
Learn to lipread.....
I'm exceptionally offended, as I'm a feminist. At least, that's why my husband just told me to type.
Hilarious. Genius. The best thing about "That's Life", by miles.
There is truth in this. Some people, mostly women do talk incessantly. It is insecurity that is behind it.
Rip Jake
Brilliant Jake Thackray, but that guffawing ass in the audience was too near the mic.
Oh I don't know, the audience reactions were part of the entertainment!
Also just a quick view of the great Danny Thompson on bass?
Pretty sure it's Alan Williams.
Mega 🤗
Meet the richardsons, had to take a look 😂
Hilarious 😂
own it uncle J....
Youre dreamy xx
@@LeeuHartma’am 😁❤️🦴
So clever.
(the neilinnes link is now neilinnes.media)
"brilliant" is not superlative enough
The day is nigh when this will be cancelled ...until then...
Alex Turner is a fan
Does anyone know the name of the bass player, please?
Alan Williams. He was with him when I saw them in Welwyn Garden City in the early seventies.
Brill fun dare to laugh ;
Misogynistic?
Tell that to all the women you can hear laughing, sometimes louder than the men.
Some people are pretty thick, unfortunately.
@@lesleythornton1811 There are a lot of subscribers to the truth : Those who try and think for everyone else cannot think for themselves!
My other half is appalled by how appallingly misogynistic this song is...she doesn’t half go on again, on again, on again on about it
He has a touch of the George Formbys about him with Rowan Atkinson's face. He's no Mike Harding but I appreciate his cod Noel Coward intonations. A genius... uhmm
Will have a listen to Mike Harding, and recommend that you have a listen to the Widow of Bridlington and The Hole (and have a watch of Jake on the Box); and can you let me know when you have done? - as it's likely to be one of them small pleasant things we do from time to time that brightens a complete stranger's day.
He's none of those things. Jake was pure Georges Brassens/Jaques Brel
'I genuinely regard [Jake Thackray] as one of the greatest songwriters this country has ever produced...' - Mike Harding.
x Impossible x
it's funny because nowadays people would think of other things than talking if you talked about sex and women and their tongues
Excellent. It's a joke and many of my female friends would laugh. It's a joke.
Haha, for all married men in lockdown
Of course it is misogynist from our 21st century perspective, but you should accept it because it is 'of it's day'. 1970's !
this song is offensive - no its not
I just not notice her lips ....
Many of the comments here are kind of dispiriting.
Is it not possible to enjoy something without having to position it first as some sort of culture war salvo? It is hardly different to the behaviour of the alleged "mob" that apparently wants to cancel everything. This song is hilarious I thought -and by most standards I probably count as "woke".
Don't know what hes on about🙄🤣🤣
the 3 dislikes were militant feminists
As a feminist from the 70's when I first heard this,I realized that Jake's attitude in this song is pure irony.What does offend me about his recording is the loud guy who obliterates some of the words.But there are other versions SANS loud laughter.
@@flossie5432 it sounds very strange without laughter though. I have to say I've never managed to replicate the same joy from audiences as he did when I've performed his songs (I hope they were just enjoying it so much they didn't want to miss any lyrics!)
Or virtue-signalling 'white knights.'
Seventies Rap answer to Feminism...?
this song is.. offensive
fuckin hilariously genius! true wordsmtith.
Why have I never heard of him until now, was watching some Jasper Carrot
Wonderful!