Song 25 – A song that makes you laugh...’He almost looks like you’ – Otis Lee Crenshaw
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| Rich Hall as 'Otis Lee Crenshaw' |
“Prison rape’s always had kind of a bad name, so when I wrote a song about it, I wanted to make it a good one” – Otis Lee Crenshaw.
Rich Hall’s character Otis Lee Crenshaw has lots of really good funny songs. The comedy song is not a genre I normally much care for. Aside from a few really great performers (Tom Lehrer, Jake Thackray) they’re generally not that funny and not that good as songs. There have been a few comics who started out as musicians (Jasper Carrot, Billy Connelly, Mike Harding), finding that the talking bits got longer and the songs fewer. They’ve tended not do funny songs though. Stewart Lee’s last stand-up show featured him playing a song at the end, but he got his guitar out 15 minutes early, occasionally picking out a chord, on the grounds that he’d “noticed having an instrument allows you to get away with having inferior material”. I’d agree with him. Again.
Otis Lee Crenshaw - He almost looks like you
Otis Lee Crenshaw’s songs are both great songs and very funny. This one has a fine tune, a sharp lyric and enough tenderness to make it a lot more uneasy listening than might otherwise be the case. I’ve never managed to see Rich Hall live, either in his stand-up mode or as Otis Lee Crenshaw. I must remedy that one of these days.
Jake Thackray - The Blacksmith and the Toffee Maker
Have a Jake Thackray song as a bonus. Jake Thackray was a Yorkshireman, who played in the French song style, the ‘chanson’, the most famous purveyor,or chansonnier being, ironically, the Belgian Jaques Brel. Despite the French style, he’s very English and there’s a real Yorkshire flavour running through his songs. It’s a flavour that feels very genuine and fresh to me, avoiding the ‘grim up north’ and Northern TV drama stereotypes. He was described as the ‘North Country Noel Coward’ and while he didn’t like the label he acknowledged being a part of that English Tradition. He was quite capable of playing some beautiful straight songs, but became a TV regular in the 1960’s and 1970's with his comic songs. His guitar playing is quite brilliant, part jazz and part classical, just have a listen to a few of his songs. A ‘best of Jake Thackray’ album is a worthwhile purchase. I’ve an extra soft spot for him as he was also an old Durham University graduate and my dad once played on the same bill as him too. Recent artists he’s said to have influenced include Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker and Alex Turner.
Jake Thackray sadly died in 2002 at the age of 64, following problems with his finances and alcohol. There’s no-one remotely like him around now.
Rich Hall is a comic who’s a musician, Jake Thackray was a musician who could be funny. There’s a lot of pleasure to be had in both.
David Millington
25th April 2011
Nottingham
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