Tom Jones had his 25th hit single with The Young New Mexican Puppeteer in April 1972, still at the top of his game in a career that began back in the mid-Sixties.
I’m fairly sure this is the first Tom Jones song I ever heard. Oddly, it’s one that I don’t think I’ve ever heard since then. It’s got barely any YouTube views compared to his more famous songs and, although I’ve seen him live a couple of times, he never sang this.
I remember being mesmerised by the heartfelt passion with which Tom sang this story song when it came out – though I can’t find any footage so I suppose it’s among those TOTP appearances that got accidentally wiped. I also remember not having a clue what the song was all about. It’s a strange and wordy yarn, written in an unusual lyrical style: “In a town near Albuquerque / Lived a most concerned young boy / He said lately I have noticed / Folks don’t live with peace and joy.” Fortunately, he has the remedy at hand – a puppet show.
Wiki sums it up succinctly: “The song tells the story of a puppeteer from New Mexico, who uses puppets to encourage social and political change” – figures of Abe Lincoln, Mark Twain and “a King named Martin Luther” – and also reveals that the chorus melody is adapted from the score of the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio.”
Which I didn’t know either.
It would be years before I realised the puppeteer came from New Mexico – my favourite US state- rather than being some sort of puppeteering prodigy from the country of Mexico taking the puppetry world by storm, and I’m not convinced Tom was too sure of the distinction either, judging by the nylon-stringed Spanish (ie ‘Mexican’) guitar and mariachi trumpets on that wonderful chorus: “He got some string and he got some wood / He did some carving and he was good / And folks came running so they could hear / The young New Mexican puppeteer.”
The guitarist, incidentally, is Big Jim Sullivan, the legendary English session man who is said to have played on some 750 hit singles, including 54 number ones for artists including Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Ken Dodd, Des O’Connor, Dana, The Walker Brothers, Chris Farlowe, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Alvin Stardust, The Scaffold, Middle of the Road, Benny Hill and, awkwardly, Rolf Harris.