ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp fame) have cited Jake Thackray as a key influence. Who was he?

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp fame) have cited Jake Thackray as a key influence. Who was he? Is there a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY; or email charles.legge@dailymail.

co.uk By Charles Legge Published: 01:02, 23 August 2024 | Updated: 01:03, 23 August 2024 e-mail View comments QUESTION: Morrissey and Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp fame) have cited Jake Thackray as a key influence. Who was he? Jake Thackray was unique; he was a Yorkshire-born chansonnier who sang songs of outcasts, boozers, lonely widows, retired brigadiers and spurned country girls.

His beautiful and often hilarious songs have not only been admired by Jarvis Cocker and Morrissey but also by Alex Turner , of Arctic Monkeys fame; Thea Gilmore, Cerys Matthews and Jasper Carrott. Born into a Catholic household in Leeds in 1938, Thackray attended a boarding school in North Wales and was awarded an English degree from Durham University. He then spent three years teaching in France and Algeria.

There he discovered the work of Georges Brassens, a celebrated French chansonnier. This tradition dates back to the medieval jongleurs, producing songs that were sometimes bawdy, other times tender or nostalgic, and always irreverent. On his return to England, Thackray taught in Leeds, where he became a fine guitarist, using his skills to calm un.