It's a Vile Violation
A witty twist on a real situation in which the US was found to have been snooping on its Cold War adversary using U2 spy planes, considerably straining relations. Soviet leader, Nikita Kruschev, complained bitterly that the country's airspace had been "violated", a word which seems to have inspired Leon to imagine Kruschev as a young lady rebuffing the unwanted advances of a suitor. Leon developed the idea into an obviously Freudian lyric packed with double-entendre, with the firing of the man's "rockets" onto her "mountains and valleys".
"The germ-cell of this song was the U2 incident which broke up the Kruschev-Eisenhower flirtation, Kruschev reacting with maidenly outrage to what he called (in Russian) 'this vile violation of our airspace'. Some people have asked me what the point of the song is." - LR (Look Here (songbook), 1968)
"I couldn't quite take his exploitation of the phallic significance of guided missiles. Perhaps this is what he intended, for Leon's great talent is a refusal to let us sit comfortably and rejoice in our own self-righteous protest." - Review in Melody Maker, 1.4.67
"I couldn't quite take his exploitation of the phallic significance of guided missiles. Perhaps this is what he intended, for Leon's great talent is a refusal to let us sit comfortably and rejoice in our own self-righteous protest." - Review in Melody Maker, 1.4.67
Recordings
Version 1 (1966)
Version 2 (1970)
Version 2 (1970)
Sheet music
- Look Here p46. Copyright is given as 1967, despite it having been released on vinyl in 1966.