The Story In The Song Keith West Excerpt From A Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)

Preston, England
February 9, 2017 11:30am CST
1967. One of the earliest songs I remember hearing and one of the saddest I can still recall. The song tells of a sleepy English village where the ever dependent local green-grocer, Jack, opens his shop and does door to door deliveries and provides the people with their basic goods. Everyone likes Jack until the day they find the shop inexplicably closed. Suddenly the gossip starts and even the children call him lazy and spread the word that he isn’t getting out of bed to bring them their food. Only when it is proved that Jack hasn’t opened the shop because he has died do the villagers realize they have misjudged him. Lots of songs use choruses of children’s voices to sound cute but here the voices are made to sound ironic and even ugly in their cruel rumour spreading. The overall opera conceived by Mark Wirtz and Keith West never saw fruition but other songs considered for it were recorded but the overall concept album never saw the light of day. Compilations of Wirtz songs include hits intended for the opera but only Grocer Jack was ever given a real chance to fly. The song on Youtube Arthur Chappell
Skip navigation Sign inSearch Loading... Close Yeah, keep it Undo Close Sorry about that. Watch QueueQueueWatch QueueQueue The next video is startingstop Loading... Watch Queue Queue __count__/__total__ Loading... Find out whyClose Chris Daley SubscribeSu
4 people like this
3 responses
Scott Ganschow
@teamfreak16 (43710)
• Denver, Colorado
10 Feb 17
It's blocking me due to copyright issues. I tried the link below, same thing.
1 person likes this
Arthur Chappell
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
10 Feb 17
@teamfreak16 not seen that happen before - shame
1 person likes this
Scott Ganschow
@teamfreak16 (43710)
• Denver, Colorado
10 Feb 17
@arthurchappell - It's happened to me before, when I tried to listen to "Shaolin Satellite" by Thievery Corporation. I've heard it happens more in other countries.
1 person likes this
Arthur Chappell
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
10 Feb 17
@teamfreak16 presumably some bands and record companies try to protect their royalties - can't really blame them
1 person likes this
Ron Rybs
@Ronrybs (21492)
• London, England
9 Feb 17
When I read the title, my first thought was this must be among the first songs I heard as a youngster. I still have a copy
1 person likes this
Nick R Thomas
@asfarasiknow (3340)
• Bournemouth, England
9 Feb 17
I usually detest any song that has a singing kiddie chorus but this is an exception, I love its gorgeous intro - which is repeated towards the end. I remember it from the charts when I was about six and am always pleased to hear it as an oldie on the radio.
1 person likes this