They're Going to Build a Motorway
This humorous song, delineating the plight of a helpless individual whose back-yard allotment is about to be bulldozed by the council, dates to Leon's Inter-Action years, and was written for the Fun Art Bus in 1972. As such, it falls into the category of children's songs, although the subject matter is equally relevant to the adult worlds of industry and politics. (It also includes mild expletives and beer-drinking.)
In the song, the humble but keen gardener is mournful about the plan to drive a main road through his little patch of ground, but supposes that there must be a good reason. Of course he has to live with the consequences when he can no longer wander outside to meet his brother and enjoy a quiet drink, as he used to. The theme of the song sat well with several other period pieces, and Leon recorded it for release on a 1975 album. Wittily written, and to-the-point, it has since been used on television programs about Britain's ever increasing car culture. (A cover version by The Black Family was released in the 1980s, re-christening it "The Motorway Song".)
In the song, the humble but keen gardener is mournful about the plan to drive a main road through his little patch of ground, but supposes that there must be a good reason. Of course he has to live with the consequences when he can no longer wander outside to meet his brother and enjoy a quiet drink, as he used to. The theme of the song sat well with several other period pieces, and Leon recorded it for release on a 1975 album. Wittily written, and to-the-point, it has since been used on television programs about Britain's ever increasing car culture. (A cover version by The Black Family was released in the 1980s, re-christening it "The Motorway Song".)
"The protagonist of 'They're Going to Build a Motorway' - a man who recognises that he can't hit back, who acknowledges that those in authority know what they're doing and do it for the common good." - Stephen Sedley (sleevenotes to That's Not the Way It's Got To Be (LP), 1975)
"The quotation that precedes the song [on the album] is taken from the London Evening Standard and describes an old man's reaction to the road widening scheme at Neasden in North London. The song was not written specifically about that road development but about all the urban motorways that - as a result of the power of the road lobby - have been built over the last fifteen years, destroying houses, dividing communities, causing unbearable noise and pollution, making people feel, like the man in the song, cut off and helpless." - LR (sleevenotes to the US edition of That's Not the Way It's Got To Be (LP), 1981)
"The song actually received its first performance on a double-decker bus, Inter-Action's Fun Art Bus, to be precise, with its singing conductor and a driver who doubled on the electric piano, which rolled around the streets of London in the sunny summer days of 1972." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
“The most outlandish of Ed Berman’s creations was the Fun Art Bus... my contributions were a bus ticket poem (“School Taught Me”); a musical show called ‘There’s No Bussiness Like Show Bussiness’ and this song which reflected the craze for ramming urban motorways through unwilling communities. While it was being performed on the upper deck of the bus, a solemn ritual was enacted. A single daffodil in a pot was carefully cut down and the pot cemented over. Subtle stuff.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p21-23)
"The quotation that precedes the song [on the album] is taken from the London Evening Standard and describes an old man's reaction to the road widening scheme at Neasden in North London. The song was not written specifically about that road development but about all the urban motorways that - as a result of the power of the road lobby - have been built over the last fifteen years, destroying houses, dividing communities, causing unbearable noise and pollution, making people feel, like the man in the song, cut off and helpless." - LR (sleevenotes to the US edition of That's Not the Way It's Got To Be (LP), 1981)
"The song actually received its first performance on a double-decker bus, Inter-Action's Fun Art Bus, to be precise, with its singing conductor and a driver who doubled on the electric piano, which rolled around the streets of London in the sunny summer days of 1972." - LR (sleevenotes to Perspectives, 1997)
“The most outlandish of Ed Berman’s creations was the Fun Art Bus... my contributions were a bus ticket poem (“School Taught Me”); a musical show called ‘There’s No Bussiness Like Show Bussiness’ and this song which reflected the craze for ramming urban motorways through unwilling communities. While it was being performed on the upper deck of the bus, a solemn ritual was enacted. A single daffodil in a pot was carefully cut down and the pot cemented over. Subtle stuff.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p21-23)
Recordings
Version 1 (1975)
Version 2 (1997)
Version 2 (1997)