RITZ by Cockney Rebel (music and lyrics by Steve Harley, 1974)

Elegance

Ostentatious (like Roxy Music dropped glam [for elegance], was Steve sensing the end for glam, I think it's fair to say that, by 1974, glam was becoming, slowly, unfashionable)?

Did Steve enjoy staying in hotels? More than once during the late interviews he stated, 'We live well...[on the road]'?

For us wee things, in 1974, the reference to Pablo Fanque, must have been lost on most - certainly on me - but then we didn't have Google Chrome or even, Google Scholar, etc!

The thing is Fanque was (also) born in 1810 (Norwich) and died in 1871 (Stockport). He was a circus owner and equestrian performer. He was black and popular for decades, in the Victorian era...

Could Steve see some parallel in his ('74 established) own career?

Although fanciful on my part, Steve's love outside his work, became horses and a couple of years after this track, he was donning a clown like suit with wide toed shoes - after buying and seeing the images on Face To Face, three years later, I bought myself a pair of similar shoes (to his) - they didn't work for me like wedges or DM's though! Such was his influence on me...

In the same vein (as wondering about the lyrics...), whilst I knew about a few artists (at 15 - now I know much more...) the first line, "Hark to Rouault's white insanity" - I hadn't a clue.

Georges Rouault, French painter, 1871-1958 was a Fauvist and Expressionist. Colour and expression. Like early Cockney Rebel, yes? I think so.

Steve's love of literature is also 'in there' i.e. Shakespeare (Hamlet and Othello - we've seen modern productions of the same in the theatre ourselves). Ophelia and Desdemona (the latter is also 'dropped' in Psychomodo, of course).

The power struggle for Nero - he sought to rule independently - [16/09 I removed this next bit - forgive me, I've been preoccupied today, but now I realised!!! X]

Anyway, my ramblings are one thing, but another is that I always liked this track of the album and yesterday I reminded myself.

Postscript (17/09/25): I've listened to the song three or four times over as many days and now I find myself humming the tune quite often...anywhere, slightly obsessively. This hasn't happened for me, in a while.

In parts of the song, Steve's voice goes as high as maybe his range allows but he commands (like Nero). There are darker sides to the narrative, but these have to be touched upon - to escape the shackles of restraint...

For me, parallels (with his own songs), like Cavaliers, Sebastian, Death Trip to name but a few, and similarities with other contemporaries, Bowie's Five Years, Ferry's In Every Dream Home A Heartache (not necessarily in song narrative entirely - but in emotional feel, in my view). It's what fans in the 1970's wanted...for 'anything' to be possible...Such songs also allow performers to deliver. Free, like Papillon.

R.I.P. another fine performer, Robert Redford (1936 - 2025), actor, director and producer...

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Hi Alexa,

Hope your weekend is going well! Thanks for your kind words (below). I thanked you last night - when we'd returned from - the latest 'thing' - relevant to part of my post above (when talking of the theatre) - a kind of joint venture between the theatre and the cinema - we saw and heard the National Theatre Live's production of INTER ALIA (or, 'Among Other Things') with Rosamund Pike, Jamie Glover and Jasper Talbot in the lead roles - which was captivating - 1hr 45mins with no interval - Rosamund was particularly brilliant, so were the males but I can't imagine how she managed to learn and recite so much dialogue.

Last year we saw and heard Jodie Comer in a similar production - PRIMA FACIE (or, At First Sight or On The Face Of It)- more Latin! You said Steve was intelligent - ...PRIMA DONNA springs to mind! This type of production is all the vogue - it makes commercial sense plus it makes the experience more affordable - a live recording of the performance from the theatre to the cinema, which can obviously be re-run again and again, like our live LP's!

We had chips on the way home and then watched the first season show of Strictly Come Dancing BBC1 (recorded rather than I Player), so we are a bit knackered this morning. Have a good day, take care and keep posting!

Jem

Hi Jem
Another brilliant post from yourself. Steve always claimed to be a wandering minstrel and truly enjoyed living life on the road. Different hotel each night.
He was so clever, before his time yet in touch with the past and the brilliance of poets and writers who came before and inspired and influenced him.
We miss that intelligence that is so rare these days.
Keep posting
Alexa