John Wayne Is Big Leggy

The song was a combination of political satire and sexual humour, using nursery rhyme-style lyrics. The protagonist, John Wayne, is having sexual intercourse with a Native American female. When Wayne's bandolier restricts their intimacy, she suggests he remove it. He refuses and suggests he sodomize her instead.

This surreal image is intended as a comment on the treatment of indigenous people during the European colonisation, and was written after Jeremy Healy read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by historian Dee Brown. Wayne represents the European colonist, while his partner is the Native American people.

{{blockquote|It was an allegory for treatment of which the white settlers used, but on the Native American Indians. However, I wrote it like John Wayne having anal sex with a squaw. I thought this was hilarious!|source=Jeremy Healy of Haysi Fantayzee{{cite web|title='80s Actual On Haysi Fantayzee - The Facts...|work='80s actual|url=http://www.80sactual.com/2008/05/haysi-fantayzee.html|accessdate=8 March 2013}}}}

Unusually for a song with explicit sexual content in the 1980s, the song escaped being banned from broadcast by the BBC, was playlisted on BBC Radio 1, and the band performed the song twice on Top of the Pops and on Saturday morning children's television. The song, with its "Shotgun, gimme gimme lowdown fun, boy! Okay, yeah, showdown!" intro, was taken to be a nonsensical novelty song about cowboys.

{{blockquote|People kept saying we were writing nonsense lyrics, but we didn't explain anything, because if they knew, it wouldn't get played.|source=Kate Garner of Haysi Fantayzee{{cite web|title=Pop Focus: Haysi Fantayzee|url=http://www.deadoralive.net/haysifantayzee/articles/pf.html|accessdate=8 March 2013|work=Haysi Recollections|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106082314/http://www.deadoralive.net/haysifantayzee/articles/pf.html|archivedate=6 January 2012}}}}

{{Album ratings

|rev1 = Bravo

|rev1score = {{rating|3|5}}

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The single was well received in the British and European music press.{{cite journal|title=Platten Prufstand: Hits & Flops der woche|journal=Bravo|volume=41|year=1982}} Smash Hits described it as a Wild West shoot-out between Madness, Bow Wow Wow and Altered Images.{{cite web|last=Rimmer|first=Dave|title=Haysi Fantayzee|work=Smash Hits|date=July–August 1982|url=http://www.deadoralive.net/haysifantayzee/articles/sh.html|accessdate=8 March 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102000306/http://www.deadoralive.net/haysifantayzee/articles/sh.html|archivedate=2 November 2011}} Stewart Mason of AllMusic wrote, "it all sounds like an enormous put-on, but it's an entertaining one for anyone with a taste for early '80s ephemera."{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/john-wayne-is-big-leggy-mt0009366170|title=John Wayne Is Big Leggy - Haysi Fantayzee|website=AllMusic|first=Stewart|last=Mason|accessdate=9 March 2013}} The song was listed in Smash Hits{{'}} top 10 lyrics of the 80s.{{citation|title=Our Fave Lyrics|work=The Best of Smash Hits: the '80s|pages=44–51|year=2006|publisher=Sphere}}

Boy George, who had been a schoolfriend of Jeremy Healy and a fellow Blitz club regular, spoke of his jealousy of Haysi Fantayzee's success:

{{blockquote|To add to the depression, Haysi Fantayzee's debut single, "John Wayne Is Big Leggy," was being played on Radio One. It became the soundtrack to my despair, slowly climbing the charts and staying there for ten weeks, niggling at my psyche. I knew it was a good record too. Clever, original, and very annoying. I wanted to retire when I saw the video on Saturday-morning kids' TV. I couldn't believe they had a video and we didn't.|source=Boy George, Take It Like a Man{{cite book|title=Take It Like a Man: The Autobiography of Boy George|last1=Boy George|last2=Bright|first2=Spencer|year=1995|publisher=Sidgewick & Jackson|page=178}}}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 7-inch version

| title1 = John Wayne Is Big Leggy

| length1 = 3:18

| title2 = The Sabres of Paradise

| length2 = 6:38

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 12-inch version

| title1 = John Wayne Is Big Leggy

| length1 = 6:55

| title2 = The Sabres of Paradise

| length2 = 6:38

}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs master|116538|John Wayne Is Big Leggy|type=single}}

{{Haysi Fantayzee}}

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Category:1982 debut singles

Category:1981 songs

Category:Haysi Fantayzee songs

Category:Songs written by Jeremy Healy

Category:Songs about actors

Category:Cultural depictions of John Wayne

Category:Songs written by Paul Caplin

Category:Songs about Native Americans