Jeremy Taylor Musical artist

Jeremy Taylor (born 24 November 1937 in Newbury, Berkshire) is a retired English folk singer and songwriter who has spent much of his life in South Africa, originally as a teacher of English at St. Martin's School (Rosettenville) in southern Johannesburg, but since 1994 has lived in Wales and in France. Part stand-up comedian, part singer, Taylor has used his talents to confront the idiosyncrasies as well as societal woes in life. Much of Taylor's unique songwriting and the success he has enjoyed with many of his songs originate with his live performances. His various accents, facial expressions, mannerisms, and dramatic pauses at critical points in his songs, with a particular chosen word or two, often are arguably what makes his humorous songs so popular. Taylor has the distinction of having performed songs that not only question social problems in society, but was a pioneer in the area of finding ways to do so while allowing the audience to laugh at themselves, especially in an era where, in the late 1950s and early 1960s McCarthyism menaced free thinkers in the United States, while at home in South Africa, both Taylor, and his songs, often political, were banned in South Africa by the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the Government, during the apartheid era.