a rich man living in a shed....

As the great man's golden coffin lay on public display in a hotel bar near the train station in Leeds, I found myself with an entirely unavoidable earworm.



I first heard 1962's "Very Unlikely" played in a lovely tribute put together by Jarvis Cocker on 6Music on Sunday evening, and I've pretty much been unable to get it out of my head ever since. Jarvis didn't introduce the record, but it quickly becomes apparent who the quirky, happy-go-lucky vocalist on the track really is.

Raindrops falling up
A rich man living in a shed
A big bald eagle with plenty of hair
And a hat trying on a head.

Very unlikely, isn't it?
Most improbably too
And it's just as unlikely that I'll fall
For anyone else but you.....

It's probably best to gloss over his claim that a Frenchman eating from a tin is unlikely (cassoulet? confit?) and you're best off ignoring the other side of the record ("Ahab the Arab") entirely..... but love it or loathe it (and C. loathes it), in its own little way, this record is a slice of pop genius.

Well.  Nearly.

A very unlikely song for a lifelong bachelor to be singing, you might think.... but perhaps he was thinking about the Duchess?  Who knows?

Anyway.

R.I.P. Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KSCG 

The great man is apparently being buried in Scarborough at a 45-degree angle so he can see the sea.

In a coffin.

Buried six feet underground.

Dead.

Brilliant.

Legend.