h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

I keep seeing references to people who play Jake's songs (presumably in pubs and clubs and things). But where?

I'd quite like a night out listening to songs we know, love and can always laugh at.

Can't we start a mini gig listing, perhaps those who do play Jake can mention where and when. And those who want to listen can trot along. (Although, given the current livestock situation, trotting might not be such a good idea...)

Also, anyone in London into Jake? It would be nice to occasionally share a pint with someone else who can appreciate a good lyric...

Mail me if you're up for it. I'm not a monster or a weirdo - honest, guv... If you don't believe me, ask my social worker. Or my probation officer. Or my psychiatrist. Or even my mum.

Actually... no, better not ask my mum.

I do a couple of his songs, but I normally would only do one as part of a comedy break with my band while they disappear to the bar. There are a lot of people who do this sort of thing, I haven't come across anybody yet who would do a whole act based on Jake's stuff.

However, let's all keep looking!

The best thing to do is locate a folk club, join and go regularly. The suggest to the organisers that you/they arrange a Jake evening. Now I'm in Waitakere, New Zealand so I can't help you, in fact I'm looking for Jake lyrics which no one seems to remember!

If by any chance YOU know those about the young lover picking a rose but in reality he was picking his nose...please let me know.
[email protected]
Thanks
Lynda

That would be great, a whole set of Jake songs. There's a gap in the market for a one-man Jake tribute band, if it was me I'd call myself "Fake Thackray"!

Groan!

I play Jake.
He was the first person to inspire me to play guitar when I was about 12 years old. The first song I ever learnt was Bantam Cock and have been doing as part of my set ever since. My other favourites for performance are Leopold Alcocks, The Jolly Captain, Grandad, I came searching for Jake Thackray pages in the search for the chords for "On again on again" which keeps getting requested, but I can't play it....... yet!. If anyone has these I would be very interested.

I have a copy of "on again" - rather than write out the chords I will try scanning it and putting it on the net somewhere. It doesn't have the instrumental break between each verse, but running a series of diminished chords up the neck towards the starting chord of E9 sounds OK.

I'm still struggling to sort out the lyrics in my head - they are typical of Jake at his finest!

I'll try to do this over the weekend and get back to you.

If my scanner palys up again I will write evrything down

Wow! thanks for such a rapid answer..
I play regularly at Dartford Folk Club. So when I've got this one down and ready for performance, I'll let you know.

OK - there are links on my space to the two pages of "On Again" - if they cause problems I have also put links on my home page which you can also access from there.

Happy Playing

Further to my links - I think they will get moderated out - I suspect that I may have inadvertently broken the copyright rules.
Sooooooo, if they are not back up by Monday I'll think again .

I listened to it again last night - the intro and music breaks are really great - I think I'll just stick with a sliding sequence of diminisheds! I find most of his stuff very difficult to play in his style (deep down at heart I'm a 3-chord busker) so I tend to simplify a lot of it. Fortunately, most of the time the lyrics carry it.

I'm impressed that you do the "Jolly Captain" - I like the song but have never dared attempt it because of what he does to the words. I might give it a go.

Thanks for having a go with the chords for On Again, you were right, they are inaccesible to me.
I wil just have to knuckle down and do some hard listening. The clue about the diminished chords should get me started. I agree, the words of Jolly Captain are wonderful, getting some of those rhymes working is a wonder.
cheers.

To Lynda,
the song about the nose picking: from memory it goes something like this:

When I first fell in love I thought,
my whole existance would now be fraught,
with ecstasy, felicity, blessed content,
It would be different.

I got ready to climb up the balcony of my beloved,
with aftershaving lotion and a dab of talc,
behind my ear, .?...?. a pint of beer, clean underpants,
this was romance,

And she was waiting for me there, with some egg on her chin,
I dreamed she'd have a rose in her hair,
and she'd be softly plucking at a mandolin,
to tell you the truth, there wasn't a rose,
and as a matter of fact,
she was plucking her nose.

I'll knock up something with the chords on before the end of the weekend. Off the top of my head, after the intro, it goes E9....A
E9..... A

G F sharp BM7

and then the last bit goes something like E .. D (or Bm7?) G sharp DIM A - then do the break. This isn't all correct, but should give you a start - I'm trying to play it starting at the 6th for the E9, which gives a nice sound as you work back towards the nut.

It's hard work for a 3-chord man!

Have you tried going to my web page (from my H2G2 space) and looking at the song from there? It works on my own home machine, which is very old and slow.

Ostroman! - this might save you a bit of effort:


I intend using the diminished chords sliding up from the lowest to the third fret, then down one and up two for the intro and breaks. With a simple finger style I hope to get away with it.

line1. E9............A
line 2. E9.............A
line3. G F# Bm
line 4. E F#m7sus4 Gdim E7 A

(you may feel as I do, that life is too short to worry about sus4 things!)

Obviously this repeats twice per verse.

Starting on E9 at the 6th leads nicely into an A on the 5th etc - all very Jake!
The end bit basically uses the line 4 sequences, then when the words change to "They will go on..." the chords are:

A/C# Am/C natural A/B A/Bb A then use A6 as the final chord

I will probably simplify this bit and play the A instead of the Am. The bass notes seem essential. In fact I am seriously considering working out some sort of arrangement just using bass.

Have fun - what nights is the Dartford folk club, and where? And don't invite me to perform if I ever turn up - I'm a great theory man but less good in practice!

Thank you VERY much for finding the chords for me, it is much appreciated. I have a guitar here by my office desk, so I'll go and have a try.

Dartford club plays every Tuesday night at the Working Men's Club in Essex Road. I shall be running the proceedings there tonight (and will probably sing Jolly Captain), the guest are Dave Ellis and Boo Howard. Dartford has web site at:

[URL removed by moderator]
The next time I am on is the Vin Garbutt night, my aim is now to get On Again to performance level for then!!
cheers.

How great it is to find Jake stuff on the web!

I remember seeing him on the Braden Beat etc. when I was a kid, then years later a (Canadian!?) girlfriend had a tape of (what turned out to be) the Bantam Cock album which she'd taped off the radio in Toronto when she was a kid. I dived into learning most of the songs on the old nylon strung. Then to my absolute delight, I discovered he was booked to play the tiny upstairs room of a pub in my native Sheffield.

I sat right next to him in a tightly packed room as he played - often having to duck to avoid getting hit on the head with the neck of his guitar. One of the machine heads was broken, and I asked him what he did if it needed tuning, to which he replied "I just tune all the others to it." ...Legendry!

Over the next year or so I saw him twice more - in pubs. The gigs were barely publicized, but it was clear from chatting to him a couple of times that Jake shuns attention and recognition, to the point of being embarrassed by it.
Its a shame, because I recon he deserves to be a lot more widely recognized for his genius. But then if that were the case, maybe he wouldn't be quite the same Jake Thackray...

There's a friend of ours that lives in Burnham (near Bristol) who does play a whole evening of Jake Thackray songs and indeed does use the name of Fake Thackray. It's a tribute to, rather than a copy of, and he provided a great night at our folk club recently. He's also on the look out for copies of Jake's albums.
If anybody wishes to contact him they should ring [details removed by moderator]

I have loved Jake's stuff for years and seen him perform a couple of times. I don't play guitar but do several of his songs unaccompanied, in the pub session I go to or, more usually in singarounds at folk festivals, my favourite is 'The Widdow of Brid'(I live 30 miles from Bridlington). there are lots, like 'On again on again' that I'd love to be able to do but sound odd from a lass!! Often in there are people in the crowd who have never heard of him or his songs, every time someone will ask about the songs, where they are from, who wrote them...they give a lot of pleasure.

I know Jake isn't in the public eye anymore, and says he's happier that way, and maybe in recent years life has dealt him a few blows, but I wonder if he ever looks in on this page to see what we are saying about him! well if anyone ever built an unofficial Jarra1 webpage I'd sneak an occasional look!

If he does I'd personally ilke to thank him for some wonderful material...30+ years on those songs are making people laugh, think...and sometimes cry...that is an amazing gift.

Oh and the ?? in the nose picking song...'a couple of pints of beer'

Hi Lynda
I'm from Christchurch New Zealandand have a copy of the lyric book Jakes Progress. Most lyrics are in this book. Which are you looking for.
John

Hi ! I've been doing Jake stuff since 1982 and have a load of his songs ready to perform at the drop of a pint. I regularly do any of these :

The Ballad Of Billy Kershaw
The Bantam Cock
The Blacksmith And The Toffee-Maker
The Bull
The Cactus
Country Girl
The Gorilla
Grandad
The Hole
I Stayed Off Work Today
Isobel
Isabel Makes Love Upon National Monuments
Isabella
It Was Only A Gypsy
The Jolly Captain
Joseph
The Jumble Sale
The Kiss
Lah-Di-Dah
The Last Will And Testament Of Jake Thackray
The Lodger
The Little Black Foal
The Castleford Ladies' Magic Circle
Mrs. Murphy
Nurse
On Again ! On Again !
The Remembrance
Sister Josephine
The Statues
Ulysses
The Hair Of The Widow Of Bridlington

I also used to do “On The Shelf”, and still one day plan to learn “Old Molly Metcalfe” too.
So I'm always available for lyrics or chords if anyone's stuck. I do a lot of long distance running so I've got plenty of time to learn lyrics while I'm out for 10 miles - believe me, you need it if you're trying to get "The Lodger" right... !
I sing in a different key to Jake so if I can't reach the melody I've changed the keys/chords to fit my throat but tried to keep the general feel. I'm no Jake on the classical either (I'm a bass-player really) so I've not duplicated the stuff parrot-fashion but tried to keep the spirit !
I can be found at [email protected], but more lyrics are of course on Edmund Chattoe's JT site at http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ec/jakethackray.html It's also worth looking at Sarah Lawson's other conversation about a new Thackray appreciation group she's trying to get going !

Cheers -
Malcolm