Ballad of the Gentleman and the Docker
This song has as its focus events of April 1968, in particular reaction to Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Support for Powell came from an unlikely source - the dockers of London - 1,000 of whom went on strike in his cause the day after he was sacked by the Conservative party. In the song, Leon outlines the arguments made by the gentleman - a composite of several rich, well-to-do Tories with devious racist intent - all of which are intended to provide the docker (symbolic of the working class generally) with a foreign scapegoat for his and society's problems. (The Docker himself doesn't speak; he is merely a receptive target for the gentleman's prejudice.)
The song does not appear to have been recorded, or at least, was not released commercially. However, Leon would return to it later in his life to develop and re-work its elements, coming up with the less topical and more generalised, "A Question of Numbers" (1981).
The song does not appear to have been recorded, or at least, was not released commercially. However, Leon would return to it later in his life to develop and re-work its elements, coming up with the less topical and more generalised, "A Question of Numbers" (1981).
"The hero of the (deliberately doggerel) ballad is not one particular gentleman, but an amalgam of many." - LR (Look Here (songbook), 1968)