'Come Outside' is a would be comedy song wherein Mike has been 'jiving all night long' with his 'little doll' (Wendy Richard, starting out on her career as a professional cockney) but he's worried that the night is getting on and as he's in the mood for a little 'romancing' before he goes home and so he tries his damndest to get her to 'come outside' with him for a bit of slap and tickle.Sarne would go on to pull this trick again on 'Will I What', employing the same level of ruthless persistence to get Billie Davis to go on a date with him ("Just how much can a poor bloke do, when he wants to know a bird like you") only to get cold feet and make his excuses when she started talking about marriage. Two different songs maybe, but to my mind they're inseparable in painting a picture of Sarne as a borderline sex pest - even Sid James knew when to knock it on the head. Sarne has no such compunction - he wants to get his 'little doll' outside for some how's your father and he's going to keep on and on and on, completely ignoring the protestations of Wendy until the Stockholm Syndrome kicks in and he wears her down into acquiescence. This type of humour may be typical of the times but such contextualising doesn't make it any less creepy - that cover picture says it all really; smarmy Sarne grinning like a letch as he drags an obviously unwilling female outside with both hands. The fact that Wendy was only 15 at the time doesn't add any class.
A comedy song that's not funny isn't that unusual, but this one kind of makes me wish that the B side was called 'Once Outside' and that it involved Wendy's older brothers lying in wait to give Sarne a good kicking.
No comments:
Post a Comment