The Man Who Puffs The Big Cigar
Along with "Plan", this song was conceived as a campaign number for Ed Berman (of Inter-Action) as part of the movement opposing the development of Piccadilly Circus in London, circa 1972. As a protest song, the lyric is a little oblique, using Piccadilly as a setting where two incompatible world views collide. The man in the song title, a property developer, wheels and deals his schemes to get even richer by making concrete towers rise from the earth. Meanwhile, a second story unfolds concerning Susie the stripper and her lover, the man who flies the high trapeze. The two arrange to meet next to the statue of Eros, only to find themselves lost in the concrete maze and kept apart by the traffic - a very different outcome for them.
The song was recorded in 1976 for the following year's Love, Loneliness, Laundry, where its original campaign connotations are less obvious. Nearly 30 years on a cover version turned up on the CD, And They All Sang Rosselsongs, in a performance by Eliza Carthy.
The song was recorded in 1976 for the following year's Love, Loneliness, Laundry, where its original campaign connotations are less obvious. Nearly 30 years on a cover version turned up on the CD, And They All Sang Rosselsongs, in a performance by Eliza Carthy.
"Since you ask, this might well be about the same Susie who bites policemen." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
“The Save Piccadilly Campaign asked me to write a ‘protest’ song. I wrote two. [‘Plan’] and this one that took a completely different approach, creating characters and a story rather than waving banners. Both approaches have their place but this is the song that has survived. In the event the plan was shelved.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p23)
“The Save Piccadilly Campaign asked me to write a ‘protest’ song. I wrote two. [‘Plan’] and this one that took a completely different approach, creating characters and a story rather than waving banners. Both approaches have their place but this is the song that has survived. In the event the plan was shelved.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p23)
Recordings
Version 1 (1977) Roy Bailey on lead vocal
Cover version (2005) by Eliza Carthy
Cover version (2005) by Eliza Carthy