It Wasn't Me I Didn't Do It
A light-hearted number, set to a quick pace, "It Wasn't Me" is loosely based on the concept employed in Ewan MacColl's "Legal Illegal", which compares two sets of deeds - some officially sanctioned, others outlawed. Leon's song picks up the idea, and uses alternate verses to contrast the actions of some vaguley defined agitator/protestor/anarchist with those of a figure representing the state/military/upper class. The unacceptable deeds of the former, such as holding pagan love-ins and causing affrays are of course strenuously denied. Instead, it is for those in authority to behave in far more reasonable and responsible ways: launching missiles, avoiding taxes, turning fields into developments and so on. (The line concerning nuclear poker is perhaps recalled from the Adrian Mitchell poem, "Take Stalk Between Teeth..." on A Laugh, A Song & A Hand-grenade, which contains the line, "Hitler's in the bunker playing nuclear chess".)
“It was hearing [Ewan MacColl’s] ‘Legal Illegal’ that prompted me to write ‘It Wasn’t Me’... But the song didn’t exactly set my brain alight. So I wondered if it was possible to take the idea and turn it into a less predictable more theatrical song form. The obvious difference between the songs is that the voice in ‘Legal Illegal’ is MacColl’s, whereas neither of the voices in ‘It Wasn’t Me’ is mine.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p40)