The EP was compiled from a mono recording of a live solo gig
in Cambridge, made by Bill Leader.
These song selections are pointedly political, with three of the four targeted
directly at then current members of parliament, whom Leon
describes in the sleeve notes as, “the heroes of the 1960s... [a] galaxy of
brilliant public figures who illuminate the dull, bed & breakfast twilight
of our private worlds.”
"My first solo recording was in 1962, an EP for Topic Records called Songs For City Squares. It wasn't my choice of title." - LR (Where Are The Elephants?, 2023)
"These songs celebrate the heroes of the 1960s. Not the lonesome boys and little girls of the pop-song world nor the outlaws and bandits of the folk-world song, but the galaxy of brilliant public figures who illuminate the dull, bed & breakfast twilight of our private worlds... It is such men, surely, who will one day take their place among the giants (and fairies) of folk mythology. Meanwhile, these songs are dedicated to them, or to put it more accurately, 'them'." - LR (sleevenotes)
"His first solo record was an EP of political satirical songs which prompted various reviewers to describe him as 'a sort of anarchist Noel Coward', 'The best satirical songwriter since Tom Lehrer' and 'a British Brassens'." - Sleevenotes to A Laugh, A Song, & A Hand-Grenade
“I found the EP in the BBC record library. Against each of the songs, apart from ‘Down the Drain’, was written ‘For restricted listening only’. Which meant it might be played on the intellectual Third Programme but should at all costs be kept from the ears of the plebs.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p5)
"These songs celebrate the heroes of the 1960s. Not the lonesome boys and little girls of the pop-song world nor the outlaws and bandits of the folk-world song, but the galaxy of brilliant public figures who illuminate the dull, bed & breakfast twilight of our private worlds... It is such men, surely, who will one day take their place among the giants (and fairies) of folk mythology. Meanwhile, these songs are dedicated to them, or to put it more accurately, 'them'." - LR (sleevenotes)
"His first solo record was an EP of political satirical songs which prompted various reviewers to describe him as 'a sort of anarchist Noel Coward', 'The best satirical songwriter since Tom Lehrer' and 'a British Brassens'." - Sleevenotes to A Laugh, A Song, & A Hand-Grenade
“I found the EP in the BBC record library. Against each of the songs, apart from ‘Down the Drain’, was written ‘For restricted listening only’. Which meant it might be played on the intellectual Third Programme but should at all costs be kept from the ears of the plebs.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p5)