Invisible Married Breakfast Blues
A song written from a female perspective, set over an empty, loveless (and entirely routine) breakfast table. The woman is screaming inside, but in the same way that nobody is looking at her, no-one seems to be able to hear her cries. Leon adapted the text from Déjeuner du Matin, a verse by French poet Jacques Prévert, which reads in part (in approximate English translation):
He put the coffee in the cup /
He put the milk in the coffee /
He put sugar in the coffee with a small spoon /
He drank the coffee, and put down the cup /
Without speaking to me
He lit a cigarette /
He made smoke rings /
He put ash in the ashtray /
Without speaking to me /
Without looking at me
Leon's song adaptation dates to circa 1967 but would have to wait a decade before being committed to vinyl. When it was, it was delivered in an exceptionally raw state by vocalist Val Bailey, a quality not as apparent in the later remake.
He put the coffee in the cup /
He put the milk in the coffee /
He put sugar in the coffee with a small spoon /
He drank the coffee, and put down the cup /
Without speaking to me
He lit a cigarette /
He made smoke rings /
He put ash in the ashtray /
Without speaking to me /
Without looking at me
Leon's song adaptation dates to circa 1967 but would have to wait a decade before being committed to vinyl. When it was, it was delivered in an exceptionally raw state by vocalist Val Bailey, a quality not as apparent in the later remake.
"A song which seems to touch on too many women's experience. Its literary origins are in a poem by Jacques Prévert." - LR (sleevenotes to Guess What They're Selling at the Happiness Counter, 1992)
“In Paris, I heard Yves Montand interpret settings of Jaques Prévert’s poems... That opened up another door. You could write songs by pretending to be someone else, by adopting a persona. A song could get inside somebody else’s head. ‘Invisible Married Breakfast Blues’, one such dramatic monologue that I wrote at the time, is actually a version of a poem by Jaques Prévert.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p13)
“In Paris, I heard Yves Montand interpret settings of Jaques Prévert’s poems... That opened up another door. You could write songs by pretending to be someone else, by adopting a persona. A song could get inside somebody else’s head. ‘Invisible Married Breakfast Blues’, one such dramatic monologue that I wrote at the time, is actually a version of a poem by Jaques Prévert.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p13)
Recordings
Version 1 (1977) Val Bailey on vocals
Version 2 (1992) Liz Mansfield on vocals
Cover version (2005)
Version 2 (1992) Liz Mansfield on vocals
Cover version (2005)
- And They All Sang Rosselsongs By Barb Jungr