John Wayne Is Big Leggy

"John Wayne Is Big Leggy"
Single by Haysi Fantayzee
from the album Battle Hymns For Children Singing
B-side The Sabres of Paradise
Released 1982
Format 45 Record
Recorded 1982
Genre New wave
Length 3:22
Label Regard
Writer(s) Jeremy Healy
Kate Garner
Paul Caplin
Haysi Fantayzee singles chronology
"John Wayne is Big Leggy"
(1982)		 "Holy Joe"
(1982)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Bravo[1]

"John Wayne Is Big Leggy" is a controversial song written by, and recorded by the band Haysi Fantayzee. It was their debut single and most successful hit, charting in the UK, Germany and Austria. It gained notoriety for its treatment of the taboo subject of anal sex.

Themes

The song was a combination of political satire and sexual humour wrapped in nursery rhyme style lyrics. The protagonist, John Wayne, is having sexual intercourse with a Native American female. When Wayne's bandolier restricts their intimacy, she suggests he removes it. He refuses and suggests he sodomises her instead:

“

So she says to him - Take off that thing, It's getting right between us.
Now listen honey I can't do that, not even for you my sweetness.
Now Big John, if that's a fact, then how'd you propose we do our act?
If that's the way it's gonna be, get the hell out of my tepee.
Now speckled hen just stop your squawkin', Big Bad Rooster's doin' the talking.
I know a trick we ought to try, turn right over - you'll know why.

 ”
— Haysi Fantaysi, John Wayne is Big Leggy lyrics

This surreal image is intended as a comment on the treatment of indigenous people during the European colonisation and was written after Healy read the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by historian Dee Brown. Wayne represents the European colonist, while his partner is the Native American people.

“ It was an allegory for treatment of which the white settlers used, but on the Native American Indians. However, I wrote it like John Wayne having anal sex with a squaw. I thought this was hilarious! ”
— Jeremy Healy of Haysi Fantayzee, [2]

Unusually for a song with explicit sexual content in the 1980s, the song escaped being banned from broadcast by the BBC, was playlisted on BBC Radio 1 and the band performed the song twice on Top of the Pops and on Saturday morning children's television. The song, with its Shotgun, gimme gimme low down fun boy, okay, showdown intro was taken to be a nonsensical novelty song about cowboys.

“ People kept saying we were writing nonsense lyrics but we didn't explain anything because, if they knew, it wouldn't get played. ”
— Kate Garner of Haysi Fantayzee, [3]

Reception and success

The single was well received in the British and European music press.[1][4] Smash Hits described it as a Wild West shoot-out between Madness, Bow Wow Wow and Altered Images.[4] Allmusic state that it is "an entertaining one for anyone with a taste for early '80s ephemera"[5] The song was listed in Smash Hits top 10 lyrics of the 80s.[6]

Boy George, who had been a school friend of Jeremy Healy and fellow Blitz club regular, spoke of his jealousy of Haysi Fantayzee's success:

“ To add to the depression, Haysi Fantayzee's debut single, "John Wayne Is Big Leggy," was being played on Radio One. It became the soundtrack to my despair, slowly climbing the charts and staying there for ten weeks, niggling at my psyche. I knew it was a good record too. Clever, original, and very annoying. I wanted to retire when I saw the video on Saturday-morning kids' TV. I couldn't believe they had a video and we didn't. ”
— Boy George, Take it Like a Man[7]

The song reached number 11 in the UK chart, number 3 in the German chart and number 13 in Austria.[8][9][10][11][12]

Cover versions

John Wayne is Big Leggy has been recorded by German band Bienenstich. This German language version is entitled John Wayne ist der Größte

References

  1. 1 2 "Platten Prufstand: Hits & Flops der woche", Bravo Magazine (German) 41, 1982
  2. ↑ "'80s Actual On Haysi Fantayzee - The Facts...", '80s actual, retrieved March 8, 2013
  3. ↑ "Pop Focus: Haysi Fantayzee", Haysi Recollections, retrieved March 8, 2013
  4. 1 2 Rimmer, Dave (July–August 1982), "Haysi Fantayzee", Smash Hits, retrieved March 8, 2013
  5. ↑ "John Wayne Is Big Leggy", Allmusic, retrieved March 9, 2013
  6. ↑ "Our Fave Lyrics", The Best Of Smash Hits: the '80s (Sphere), 2006, pp. 44–51
  7. ↑ Boy George; Bright, Spencer (1995), Take It Like a Man: The Autobiography of Boy George, Sidgewick & Jackson, p. 178
  8. ↑ "British Chart". Chart Stats. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Artist Chart History: Haysi Fantayzee". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  10. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 247. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  11. ↑ "German charts". Retrieved March 8, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Austrian Chart" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-12-16.

External links

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