I Feel Liberal

I've no recollection of ever hearing at the time about this record - David Steel's "I Feel Liberal, Alright!"  -  which predates  Neil Kinnock's fumbling attempts to get down with the youth via Tracy Ulmann videos by several years. 

While trawling through old music papers recently I came across this news item about Steel's attempt to rejuvenate the Liberal Party's image.

Until Steel's spoken bit - NME's Pennie Taylor describes it, generously, as rapping -  it's a convincingly funky tune, almost disconcertingly so. 

The reason for that is the man responsible for the music, Jesse Rae, a serious funkateer. 

As a songwriter he penned this classic discofunk tune

Whose melodic structure (and off-color lyrics) I analysed here

Rae then finally broke out as a performer in his own right and had some success, or at least, garnered a heap of attention, in substantial part for his image - the full-blown Braveheart look of kilt, sporran, shield, helmet, scabbard, and sword.  He also sung in his native brogue. 

This song got quite a bit of attention, as much for the video as the tune.

A few years later I reviewed the single "Houdini"

I mention Zappman Roger Troutman in the review, but this video's titling namechecks Jimmy Douglass - formerly of tough funk unit Slave, he'd produced Gang of Four's Solid Gold, and later he would be Timbaland's right hand man in the studio. 

Then when it transpired that this was no one-off but from a very solidly funky album, I did an interview. Which Rae conducted in full costume, wearing that helmet with the metal noseguard strip.  I was worried that the man wielding a huge broadsword might have taken exception to the comparison about Fulton Mackay, but he was all affability. 

Stubbs gave the album The Thistle the thumbs-up too. 

He carried on fitfully putting out music over the next decade or two... but, here's a funny thing, he had a stab at politics, running not as a Liberal (despite the admiration for Steel) nor as Scottish Nationalist, but as an independent. 

In 2007, Rae stood for the Scottish Parliament as an independent in the Scottish Borders electoral constituency of Roxburgh and Berwickshire to warn the Scottish Borders that they would be losing their high street banks and of the devastation to local shops and businesses this would cause.[ He gained 318 votes for a 1.2% share of the vote.  He stood again in 2011 as an independent candidate in the expanded seat of Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, this time polling 308 votes for a 1.1% share. In the 2015 general and 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, he stood in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.