Jeremy Taylor (singer)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jeremy Taylor


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Background = solo_singer
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Born = Birth date and age|1937|11|24
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Origin = Newbury, Berkshire, England
Instrument = Guitar
Genre = Folk
Occupation = Singer-songwriter, Humorist, Poet, Political commentator
Years_active = 1961-2008
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Associated_acts = Spike Milligan, Alun Davies
URL = [http://www.jeremytaylor.info www.jeremytaylor.info]
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Jeremy Taylor (born 24 November 1937 in Newbury, Berkshire) is an English folk singer and songwriter who has spent much of his life in South Africa, but since 1994 has lived in Wales and in France [ [http://www.3rdearmusic.com/forum/forumfeb03/taylorj.html Jeremy Taylor 3rd earmusic.com] ] . Taylor has the distinction of having performed songs that not only question social problems in society, but was a pioneer in the area of finding ways to do so while allowing the audience to laugh at themselves, especially in an era where, in the late 1950s and early 1960s McCarthyism menaced free thinkers in the United States and in his home in South Africa, where his songs, often political, were banned in South Africa by the South African Broadcasting Corporation during the apartheid era.

Musical Career

outh Africa

Taylor began performing in clubs and coffee-bars such as the "Cul de Sac" in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in the 1960s and achieved massive success with the comedy song "Ballad of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town", known also as "Ag Pleez Deddy" in 1961.

Folk music

After returning to Britain to perform in the West End musical revue "Wait a Minim", which opened in 1964, he joined the British folk music circuit and regularly appeared on British television. One album he recorded was produced by Alun Davies, (guitarist for popular folk-rock singer-songwriter, Cat Stevens). Davies also guested on a couple of the songs, but was uncomfortable with the idea of playing two roles on an another person's album, saying to "Melody Maker", "You can’t put yourself in two places at once and get the best results." Plummer, Mark "Melody Maker", September 16, 1972 [http://www.majicat.com/alun/mmdavis1972.htm Davies the Guitar] ]

Popular work

Some of Taylor's popular songs are: "Jobsworth", "Huberta, the hippopotamus", "The Pot song", "Mrs Harris" and "Prawns in the game". His song "Piece of Ground" was recorded in the United States by Miriam Makeba, however, his albums never reached most of the American music audience. Taylor, Jeremy [http://www.jeremytaylor.info/index.htm Jeremy Taylor Official Website] ]

Taylor was a long-term collaborator and performer with Spike Milligan and recorded a live album with him entitled "Spike Milligan and Jeremy Taylor: An Adult Entertainment".

Jeremy Taylor continues to write songs and to perform, in recent times in the UK, in France and in the United States, with an album recorded in Chicago, in 1996; "Live in Chicago". (2005)

Discography

* "Ag Pleez Deddy" (1961)
* "The Very Best of Jeremy Taylor" (1996); Reissue in (2004)
* "Live in Chicago" (2005)
* "Spike Milligan and Jeremy Taylor: An Adult Entertainment] "

References

External links

* [http://www.jeremytaylor.info Official website]