Don't Get Married Girls
One of Leon's most celebrated/notorious songs, "Don't Get Married Girls" implores women not to trap themselves in life-long union with men who, in Leon's take, are invariably self-centred, dull and exploitative. The song inevitably met with mixed reactions when performed in clubs and pubs, but recalls a time when the feminist movement had a genuine momentum, and thanks in part to its sense of humour, is one of his more popular.
The first known recording is not by Leon, but by Gary & Vera Aspey, whose live version was included on their 1976 LP, A Taste Of Hotpot (Topic 12TS299). A year later it was recorded and released by Leon on Love, Loneliness, Laundry, and has since been re-recorded by him (with a minor tweak in the lyric) both in the studio and on stage.
The first known recording is not by Leon, but by Gary & Vera Aspey, whose live version was included on their 1976 LP, A Taste Of Hotpot (Topic 12TS299). A year later it was recorded and released by Leon on Love, Loneliness, Laundry, and has since been re-recorded by him (with a minor tweak in the lyric) both in the studio and on stage.
“As I think songwriters have some responsibility to catch the spirit of the times, I wrote this song, drawn from observation and some personal experience, which had quite a vogue for a time. It was featured in a TV programme about Fringe Theatre songs, sung in music hall style by Liz Mansfield, who was at that time in the Red Ladder Theatre Company, and recorded in a miners’ club in Yorkshire. The women seemed to relish the performance; the miners looked distinctly uncomfortable.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p24)
Recordings
Cover version (1976)
Version 1 (1977)
Cover version (2005)
Version 2 (2010)
Version 3 (2011) Live performance, released in 2014
- A Taste of Hotpot Live recording by Gary & Vera Aspey
Version 1 (1977)
Cover version (2005)
- And They All Sang Rosselsongs By Elizabeth Mansfield
Version 2 (2010)
Version 3 (2011) Live performance, released in 2014