"Square" was a word that had very little existence except in the media,rather like the word "boobs" a few years ago and the word "romp" today.It was used in the M.M. and the N.M.E.(how square were they for using it)and D.J.s like Jack Jackson (like Jack Jackson?he was about the only D.J. at the BBC)used it on the air,but in the youth clubs and coffee bars where we used to hang out I never heard it.The word,like so many others in popspeak,had been lifted from the jazz lexicon of 20 years before.Jazz musicians,stolidly traditional as any "Daily Mail" reader , occasionally borrowed it back as when alto saxist Bruce Turner was asked why his band didn't go down too well in Russia and he replied "Too many Red squares,dad".(The word "dad" had a shortish life as an alternative for the word "man",but died out soon after the movie "It's Trad,dad" brought it into common currency). Certainly Miss Anna Neagle could have been correctly described as a square.Anybody over the age of 20 was a square - which put Messrs Vaughan and Newley beyond the pale for anybody who was likely to be going to see this movie.The only people over the age of 20 I knew were my parents.Mr Vaughan tried hard but missed the cut.My mother liked his record of "Green door" for heaven's sake,instant death for any would-be pop star.He was very big on white teeth and just the suggestion of a sneer,not the full-on Presley sneer but more a pre - Stallone sneer. When he sang "Give me the moonlight,give me the girl,and leave the rest he,he,he,he......to me" I wanted to throw up. But "The lady is a square" instantly transports me back to the days when you either liked Humphrey Lyttelton or Chris Barber but you couldn't like them both.The only thing I know to equal it in the "A la recherche du temps perdu" stakes is opening the sleeve of a 1950s "Vogue" L.P. and sniffing hard.Suddenly it's 1957 again and you're going to finish your homework and walk down to Baker's Wood and hope Sue Wilkins will be there.Amazing how potent cheap music is.............
Review of The Lady Is a Square
