Having had such a good reaction to the comedy stuff I brought to Titian's, I thought I'd try to write a piece on comedy music. This is such a vast subject (including comic opera) that I'll be very selective, looking mainly at comedy songs that exist independently of a funny show, and with a particular eye to satirical/fun-poking pieces. I see this one has already got out of hand (it's amazing what you can do in the train when you get fed up drawing funny molecules), so I'll test the waters with it, and go on to more contemporary artists (Tom Lehrer, Flanders & Swann, etc.) when I have the time (and should anyone be interested). You folk out there will know many others, so please add on contributions! Comic songs, especially those “sending up†people and institutions, have existed since time immemorial. I see the old heritage in Basel every Fasnacht. At Fasnacht, Basel's equivalent of Lenten carnival (Fasnacht is usually a week later than Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras), the cliques (the local associations that exist to prepare for and celebrate Fasnacht) go around in masks for three days (“die drey scheenschste Dääg†(the three most beautiful days) to Fasnachtlers). This was a mediaeval safety valve – behind masks, people could poke fun at authority with impunity. This tradition exists still in Basel. The cliques choose a “Sujetâ€Â, something in the news (local or international), which they lampoon, in the form of big (around 2M high and 1.5M wide) illuminated lanterns, which they keep secret to the last minute and then parade around the streets. Then there are the “Schnitzelbanks†(Schnitzelbänngs in Baslerdytsch), concerts of songs ridiculing whoever or whatever is this year's Sujet. See: http://www.fasnacht.ch/?pm_1=4&mid=4 The emergence of satire came as individual rights increased and the penalty for lampooning officialdom didn't mean a trip to the local slammer, or worse. England was the first country in Europe to clip royalty's wings and the art of lampooning advanced there at a greater rate than on the continent (the English political cartoonists of the 18th century could be every bit as vitriolic as their present day counterparts). Nothing was sacred, even in po-faced Victorian England, which saw the rise of… GILBERT & SULLIVAN whose operettas dared to poke fun at British institutions, when such institutions took themselves very seriously indeed. The duo was really a trio, William Schwenk Gilbert, who wrote the libretti, Arthur Sullivan, who wrote the music, and Richard D'Oyly Carte, who produced the shows and acted as general peacemaker between the other two, who frequently quarrelled. Sullivan had pretensions to be a grand opera writer, but Gilbert had the wit to see that the British public would never buy it. Sadly, Sullivan never realised that they were made for each other, and apart from Gilbert, he never wrote anything memorable (apart, perhaps, from “Onward, Christian soldiersâ€Â). Gilbert was kidnapped as a baby; he remembered nothing of it, but it's amazing how often childhood mix-ups form part of the plot (“Pinaforeâ€Â, “Piratesâ€Â, “Gondoliersâ€Â). Gilbert took British society as fair game and lampooned it ruthlessly. At a time when Britannia ruled the waves, to make fun of the Royal Navy was bad enough (in “HMS Pinaforeâ€Â). But to make fun of a First Sea Lord who had never been to sea was something else: So, landsmen all, wherever you may be If you want to climb to the top of the tree If your soul isn't fettered to an office stool Be careful to be bounded by this golden rule – Stick close to your desk and NEVER go to sea And you all may be the rulers of the Queen's Navy! He turned his sights on the House of Lords in “Iolanthe†When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte, As every child can tell, The House of Peers, throughout the war, Did nothing in particular, And did it very well; The fashion for things Japanese took a pasting in “The Mikadoâ€Â, the police in “The Pirates of Penzance†and the aesthete movement in “Patienceâ€Â. And in the Lord High Executioner's song in “Mikado†As some day it may happen that a victim must be found, I've got a little list--I've got a little list Of society offenders who might well be underground, And who never would be missed--who never would be missed! Gilbert obligingly leaves blanks for the filling in of contemporary names –which G&S companies gleefully do to this day. Perhaps it's not surprising that Gilbert was knighted 20 years after Sullivan. Sullivan's contribution was the excellent music, which is very Offenbachish (I often wonder who copied whom), the very best he ever wrote, perhaps reaching its pinnacle in "Yeoman of the Guardâ€Â, the only one of the operettas that is also a tragedy. One of the joys of the G&S operas are the “patter songsâ€Â, the songs full of rapidly spoken words, the most famous being from “Pirates†I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical; I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical, I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical, About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. And they could poke fun at themselves at the same time: Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore, And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore. They remain very listenable to this day. Gilbert's wit and Sullivan's lively music scores have retained their freshness. In addition, “fairy†has acquired a secondary meaning since “Iolanthe†was written, and the lines are invariably played for their recently-acquired ambiguity. And, since we've already mentioned him… JACQUES OFFENBACH This so very French composer was son of a Jewish Cantor from Cologne. His most famous piece was “Orphée aux enfers†(which someone translated as “To hell with Orpheusâ€Â). It is a deliberate burlesque of the classic Gluck opera “Orpheus and Eurydiceâ€Â, sometimes taking outrageous liberties with it. It's most famous for its Can-Can (yes, THAT one). (The best version I've ever heard of that is one by the Birmingham Symphony under Louis Frémaux). There's also “La belle Hélèneâ€Â, a send-up of the story of Helen of Troy, again totally outrageous, but very funny.
...and in the punk area, you could do worse than Albertos Y Los Trios Paranoias - their "Snuff rock EP" sends up punk bands, and even reggae, on the last track - pure fun... Or there's the Sex Pistols' "Great rock'n'roll swindle" - well, it's fairly bad anyway. Or you could go for "Neil's heavy concept album" - yep, Neil, the hippie, from the Young Ones - it's one hell of a funny record And yeah Tones - tell us more about Flanders and Swann as the stuff I've heard of theirs is totally brilliant
Welcome aboard, Dom. Now tell us something about these records you mention; I've heard of the Sex Pistols, but not the others. OK, F&S next - their songs are probably the nearest thing to lineal descendants of G&S (although Noël Coward wrote some very funny stuff).
Look forward to the next installment. While we've still got the historical perspective, though, even someone as (reputedly) serious as Beethoven let his hair down occasionally - the 8th symphony has the famous send-up of the newly-invented metronome, and its finale is a self-mocking tilt at his inability to end the 5th symphony. Then there's the "Toy Symphony", IIRC currently attributed to Mozart's Dad and Haydn's brother - with toy whistles, drums, rattles (I think) etc. (so Spike Jones - q.v. no doubt - was only nearly 200 years late ). And no doubt many more too numerous (or obscure) to mention.
OK - the Albertos... were around in the late 70s. I don't know very much about them, but had the first side of their "Snuff Rock EP" on a tape a mate had put together for me. Basically, they ape The Damned, The Ramones (I think), another punk band, and take a general swipe at reggae on the four tracks of the EP. "Kill" - the EP opener, is obviously a rip at The Damned - very energetic and very funny lyrics. "Gobbing on life" is more dark but has some great lyrics - like "Living is a cliche it's all been done before death is the only thing we've got left to live for" and "Don't wanna be cremated or buried in a grave just dump me in a plastic bag and leave me on the pavement a tribute to your modern world your great society I'm just another victim of your highrise fantasy"... The other side's tracks are more laid back - "Snuffin' in a Babylon" is the better of the two - a blatant stab at reggae in general with lyrics like "smash up de furniture/make it nice in here so we can all have a smoke", although the other track (I can't remember what it's called!) has the ultimate couplet "Council estate filled with hate/gonna leave it now before it's too late". The Sex Pistols' "Great rock'n'roll swindle" is the infamous album that has Sid Vicious' version of "My way" on - a rather, ahem, alternative take of the track, and a great part in the "Sid and Nancy" movie as well. The rest of the album is also covers and rip offs, and in the main is very very patchy IMHO. I really like "Who killed Bambi?" though - I think it's got Tenpole Tudor singing on it. Like I say though - approach this album with caution. In the pop genre we can always go onto others, like Marc Almond's cover of Jackie (I loved this when it came out - what a mad track), or Vic Reeves' "Abide by me" - it caused outrage in the Catholic Church when it came out ("a rave-esque remix of a hymn - uuuugh!") but my mum (who's pretty damn Catholic - her own brother is a Franciscan Monk) actually liked it! Also, there's the BLATANT spoof records like The Rutles' film soundtrack from "All you need is cash" - basically a total Beatles send up. Tracks like "Ouch!" (Help), "Piggie in the middle" (I am the walrus), "Hold my hand" (I wanna hold your hand crossed with 8 Days a week) and "Cheese and onions" (I *think this is a cross between A Day in the life and Fool on the hill but it's hard to tell - who cares when it has the lines "Do I have to spell it out? Cee aitch eee eee ess eee aye en dee oh en eye oh en ess oh yeah" in it?? Not forgetting Spinal Tap's soundtrack while on the subject of spoof records. And then in the Rap arena we can always admire Morris Minor and the Majors' "Stutter rap" (which funnily enough I played last night - NOW 11's banter on this track says "Deffer than the Beastie Boys, Hipper than the Toastie Boys" and the track is brilliant - instead of Beastie Boys' "No sleep 'til Brooklyn" we have "NO SLEEP 'TIL BEDTIME" - my favourite lines in this track are "NO NEED FOR SHOUTING!!!! Well why's that then? Well you'll wake Mr Whittaker at number 32 besides - it's not very good for the voice" - just the best. And the bit in the video where the guitar player gets shot - oh man - fantasticly hilarious. One reviewer didn't get the joke though - all he had to say on it was "Stutter rap - utter crap" - pure class! One last rap album I *wish* would appear is the soundtrack to the movie "Fear of a black hat" - this is the "black" community's answer to Spinal Tap's rockumentary spoof - the rapumentary. It has songs such as "Booty juice", "Mama said kick yo black ass" and "My peanuts" on it - not to mention "Guerillas in the midst" - the funniest song title I've ever heard! Phew
For more recent comedy music I'd recommend you check out the works of Half Man Half Biscuit whose many titles include: 1. Dickie Davies Eyes 2. D'ya ken Ted Moult 3. Rod Hull is alive, why? (obviously written some time ago) 4. Bas*ard son of Dean Freidman 5. The Trumpton riots ..and many, many more. Matt.
Don't forget the cuckoo in "Toy", Graham! Although the toys were being used in their own right, as it were, and not as sound effects àla Jones. I guess we could sort-of include "Farewell" as a protest against musicians' low wages. (I can't remember whether the Esterhàzys got the joke).
Just thought - for smutty, un-PC and irreverant humour, Kevin Bloody Wilson, that loveable rude-boy Oz man, cannot be ignored. His "Kev's back - return of the yobbo" LP is one of the best and includes such excellent tracks as "Mick the master farter", "Santa Claus you c**t" and "The pubic hair song" - we had HOURS of fun with this at school in the late 80s... I scored a VINYL version of it for peanuts last weekend and it has this sticker on the front "X rated humour - not to be played to minors or wowsers" - he he he
...and for the doyens of cheesy 80s pop, look no further than the HeeBeeGeeBees (e.g. here) Their biggest hit of course was "Meaningless Songs in Very High Voices", but I always had a soft spot for their "Boring Song" under their alias of "Status Quid" - and I can't find it now but they also had rather a good transformation into EZTop (We got beards - except him!). (I wondered about citing the "Farewell", but consider that more of a protest song - cry your hearts out Baez and Dylan)
let us not forget the macc lads for such gems as no sheep till buxton,sweaty betty,julie the schooly ect. A band that was allegdly sued by the american version of live aid for there cover of "feed the world" (feed your face). one lp i have of theres has the lovely warning "not for sale to miners,so f**ck off arthur scargill o and the baron knights some great paradys, the smurf song,dentist in birmingham,next doors cats and dogs,there chrismas version another brick in the wall ( hey santa,leave that booze alone)or " im olny a poor little fairy stuck at the top off the tree they turn on lights and bang whent my tights and off fell my legs 1 2 3" exallent stuff o and boy can there roadie drink. :beer: tones im slowley being converted to g+s:shame: we get a couple of shows in each year (local ametuer g+s sociaty) and initally i couldnt stand it,but had to pay attention for cues (no sneaking off for a quick fix of hawkwind )and realised some of it aint to bad
Your Australian is up to the word "wowser", Dom? (Usually used for fanatical teetotalers in Oz (not quite as uncommon as snow in the Sahara in July) but also for any sort of killjoy).
the greatest comedic band ever... how could you people miss this... spinal tap. surely everyone is familiar with the awesome hilarity that is big bottoms and stonehenge. (SORRY DOM, just noticed your mention buried in the middle of your post) following closely imho is bad news. 3/4 of the young ones + the drummer. in reallity brian may and some cronies messing about with dire versions of bohemian rhapsody, warriors of ghengis khan and drink 'til i die (hey give me another drink, or mr bartender. if you don't i'm gonna stick you d*ck in a blender). origionally part of the comic strip resents series it spawned a sequel (more bad news where they get to play at donnington) a christmas single and a couple of albums. next up insane clown possee not classicly funny per-se but their interviews on howard stern are mental and their wicked clown / carnival of carnage theme puts kiss completely in the shade when it comes to theatrics.. they also get through a silly amount of faygo root beer in their stage act by launching bottles of it off the stage into the audience via trampolines etc. wierd al yankovic... mr classic parody himself. surely no introduction necessary but getting a bit kak nowadays. cheers julian
For comedy/ satire in the rock arena, first stop must surely be the peerless Frank Zappa/ Beefheart axis !!! Admittedly some can be kinda cruel but very clever, very funny and often very acurate !!
Half Man Half Biscuit have indeed done some great stuff, sadly I've only got the Trouble over Bridgwater album, but it contains some great gems on there, check this great one based on Bob Dylan's With God On Our Side. With Goth On Our Side my name it is dai young im the king of welsh goth the village i come from is near abersoch i was brought up on bauhaus and black bedroom walls and i had my first snakebite when i was in halls now the graveyard is calling the skies getting greyer i'll drink the warm blood of the borough surveyor and i'll murder the verger ive seen how he gawps and i'll write on his headstone here lies jones the corpse now my overweight girlfriend she sits and she crimps her mothers convinced she's communing with imps her brothers alright though he's a good lad is wilf cause he's into placebo and cradle of filth at my gig up in butlins the redcoats complained they tried to remove me the bottles they rained but for the first time in history i did run and hide and the scousers in shell suits had goths on their side now this land of my fathers it dont suit my needs id rather be someplace like bradford or leeds where the gifted teenagers could meet in my shed for a price on mascara and things undead now my left index finger is nine inches long its hovering over a world thats gone wrong ask me to prestatyn and thats what i'll do and we'll all die together and dylan can sue In addition to the above, we have to include John Otway. His recent hit, bunsen burner, was a blatant rip of Disco Inferno, and other classics include a version of I WIll Survive sung in a Bob DYlan imitation voice, Headbutts, and general random acts of craziness on stage whilst performing.
Always liked Al's Star Wars version of "American Pie": My, my, this here Annikin Guy Some day later Will be Vader Now he's just a small fry Al was greatly influenced by Tom Lehrer - to whom I will get shortly. Watch This Space... P.S. Weird Al on Tom Lehrer: Tom Lehrer is one of my two living musical idols (Stan Freberg being the other). Even though his lifelong recorded output was not what you would call voluminous, the undisputed brilliance of those songs has inspired hero worship among several generations of fans of satire and funny music. I've never met Mr. Lehrer in person, but we've exchanged a couple letters and phone calls. (I was thrilled beyond words when he started quoting lines from my movie UHF!) I tried my best to get him to appear on my ill-fated CBS Saturday-morning kids show, but he declined. I knew it was a long shot: Lehrer treasures his anonymity so much that he has never allowed publicity photos to be taken for his albums, and he's successfully managed to avoid the spotlight for more than three decades. I've always kind of considered him the J.D. Salinger of demented music.
Ill second the mention of Zappa with his sometimes hilarious parodies on the great american way, the track Flakes from shiek yer bootie is an astounding obvious dig at the american way of life, but i suspect sadly missed by the culture it was aimed at, a culture that has ommited the word 'irony' from their vocab. Also i find Bobby Brown a great track along the same lines, such a sweet lil college grad who went bad, but hey he "can take about an hour on the tower of power" so he cant be all bad. and as for "Valley Girl" Also Joes Garage, starts with telling us how the band started, in the garage with a fender strat in the corner, and then on and thru the madness of the music bussiness/press at the time sidenote - Frank Zappa's auto-biography is well worth a read for an insight into himself and what made him dis-like the country he lived in
PLUS - he can play the Theremin live and dive off of a stepladder - that guy is one nutty dude Great gig at Glasters - cheers for dragging me along dude (plus it got us out the rain after the Inspirals!). Wierd Al Yankovic - I was going to put him in but couldn't remember how to spell his name - what was it, "Smells like Nirvana" or something wasn't it? Cool cover anyway... And "Eat it" instead of Beat it - I seem to remember that being quite funny!
dom, do a search for him on something like kazaa (how bored am i?) and see how many parodies he's done cheers julian
Is that the same guy who did the Aerosmith Living on the edge (?) cover "Living in my fridge" Think I remember a video for it which amused me.......... at the time
I find a lot of hip hop/rap lyrics funny. Dr Octagons "Visit to the Gynacologyst" is amusing. A lot of hip hop lyrics tend to have either very sharp inteligent huMOur to them, or go for the full on blunt and crude stuff. Both can be amusing in their own ways. Even if the content isn't funny, the prsentation can be. "super sonic bionic robot vOOdOO power.... space doo doo pistols" Oh, and what about classics like Mr Blobby and Barbie Girl! :inferno:
