Back for more? My goodness… THE COMEDIAN HARMONISTS This is a personal indulgence, so bear with me. This was a group of German singers (6 guys, 5 singers and a pianist) that appeared out of the music scene in Weimar Germany between the wars. Most of you will never have heard of them; even the recent excellent German film “The Comedian Harmonists†detailing their history appears never to have been released in an English version. In a way, they were a forerunner of the King's Singers, but without the counter-tenors. They were also the world's first “boy bandâ€Â, but immensely more talented than the present lot. Their songs and arrangements were witty and beautifully performed and they took the German music world by storm, even making a successful tour of America. Unfortunately their rise to the peak of fame and popularity coincided with the rise of Nazism in Germany and three of the members were Jewish. They soldiered on for a while, hoping, like many Jews, that if they ignored Nazism, it would go away. However, although initially grudgingly tolerated by the Nazi authorities because of their popularity, the combination of the Jewishness and the style (also disapproved of by the Nazis) ensured that it couldn't last. The group disbanded in 1935 and the Jewish members left Germany. A reformed group existed for a few more years in Europe and America, but it just wasn't the same. The original records (now on CD) can still be had. I'd recommend the tribute CD by (who else?) the King's Singers. It is not sung in the same style as that of the Comedian Harmonists (nobody else could really do it), but it has renditions of many of the favourites (“Veronika, der Lenz ist daâ€Â, “Mein kleiner grüner Kaktusâ€Â, “Eins, zwei, drei, vierâ€Â). Cheery, happy songs from another era, beautifully done, even if you don't understand the lingo. SPIKE JONES AND HIS CITY SLICKERS Everyone who has ever wilfully murdered a straight song in the name of humour owes a debt to Lindley Armstrong Jones (his father was a railroad worker, hence the nickname), who wrote the book on the subject. There were relatively few new comic songs in the Jones repertoire, but lots of non-comic songs given the Jones treatment, i.e., sent up so high that they still may be up there. Indeed, an artist in the 1940s knew that s/he'd arrived when his/her efforts were comprehensively deconstructed by Spike & Co. The battery of sound effects (many operated by Spike) was awesome – tuned bottles and jars, firebells, cowbells, sirens, horns, firearms, whistles and a medley of self-invented instruments – all in time and more or less in tune! Added to that was the remarkable “glugging†of Carl Grayson and the wild and weird commentaries and spoonerisms of Winstead “Doodles†Weaver (whose niece Sigourney later became slightly famous). For example, Doodles and “The man on the flying trapezeâ€Â: He floats by his hair. Ooh. Not by his hair. That would hurt! Speaking of hair, a man came up to me and said, "Doodles, your hair is getting thin." And I said, "Well, who wants fat hair?" THAT'S A KILLER!!!!! (pitch pipe) (sings out of tune) OOOWWWWWOOOOO He floats through the air with the aidest of grease, with the latest of fleas, uhh... with plates full of cheese. No, no. With the birds and the bees, uhh... he can't miss. (pitch pipe) (sings out of tune) OOOWWWWWOOOOO The manning young dare, uh, the daring young mare, He's not a horse, that's silly. He'd break his neck. The fanny young dan, The danny young fan, He's an awful old ham, uh, he's a young fellow 'bout my age. You know, a funny thing happened, a man came up to me and said, "Doodles, Doodles, did you leave home? I said, "I left home." He said, "Did you put the cat out?" I said, "I didn't know he was on fire!" THAT'S A KILLER!!!!! (pitch pipe) (sings out of tune) OOOWWWWWOOOOO The daring young man on the flapping tripeze, uh, treezing triflaps, uh, trying flip flips, uh, flipping triflop, uh, flapping trivalve, HORIZONTAL BARS! (pitch pipe) (sings out of tune) OOOWWWWWOOOOO The result was apparently total musical mayhem, but in fact it was highly disciplined. These records were made in the days before multi-tracking and that meant that all this lunacy had to be recorded in a single take. Jones's group were superb musicians and rarely missed a beat. Spike was playing the drums in a number of bands and doing extensive session work in the 1930s when the idea came to him. The first record that featured the unique Jones style was “Clink, clink, another drinkâ€Â, also featured as a soloist, Mel Blanc “the man of a thousand voicesâ€Â, who was later to give the voices to the whole stable of Warner Bros. cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Pepe le Pew etc., etc., etc. – even the “Meep! Meep!†of the Roadrunner!). The big breakthrough came in 1941 with “Der Fuehrer's Face†When der Fuehrer says, “Ve is ze Master Race†Ve say Heil! (raspberry) Heil! (raspberry) right in der Fueher's face Not to love the Fuehrer is a big disgrace Heil! (raspberry) Heil! (raspberry) right in der Fueher's face which, in the circumstances of the time, did rather well. From that point on, nothing was safe, whether popular or classical. Jones's version of “William Tell†turns into a horse race and his version of Ponicelli's “Dance of the Hours†into the Indy 500 (both won by the same horse!). Often, as in Jones's all-time best-seller “Cocktails for twoâ€Â, the song starts off conventionally, even in a rather syrupy fashion, lulling the listeners into a false sense of security – and then total bedlam breaks loose. In “Glow Wormâ€Â, the soprano holds a long, long note, which you think is an impressive bit of vocalising – but not Spike: “TURN THE PAGE, YA FATHEAD!†Spike did try for musical respectability with a straight group that he called Spike Jones's Other Orchestra, but it didn't work – it played superbly, but it was as conservative as the City Slickers were anarchic, and the public wasn't interested. Some of the Other Orchestra work carried over into the City Slickers, where OO-type nicely-played but thoroughly bland parts were used as the calm before the City Slickers storm erupted, e.g., “Cocktails for two†and “Lauraâ€Â. Jones made it to television, where he presided in the loudest of loud check suits over his battery of percussion instruments while lunacy erupted all around him. One of the great benefits of CD is that many old, forgotten recording have become available again. So, the work of Spike Jones (and also the Comedian Harmonists) can now be bought. Amazon has a stunningly-priced Jones collection at [URL]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003ZKVH/qid=1058437244/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2_2/026-0111128-1014807[/URL] Even though I have many of them, I'm sorely tempted… MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS It tends to be forgotten that the Pythons has produced many very funny songs, starting with the classic “Lumberjack Songâ€Â, sung by Michael Palin and a chorus of of intrepid, manly Mounties, which becomes steadily more, er, unmanly: Ah cut down trees Ah wear high heels Suspendies and a brar Ah wish ah'd been a girlie Jes' like ma dear Papar! The Python stage shows also generated a few good songs, such as the deeply philosophic: Emmanuel Kant was a real pissant He was very rarely stable Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar He could drink you under the table. or the reason for liking Chinese They only come up to your knees But they're ready and they're willing and they're able to please! However, the best songs came from the films, such as “Always look on the bright side of life†from “Life of Brian†and “Every sperm is sacred†from “The Meaning of Lifeâ€Â. My personal favourite is Eric Idle's delightful “Galaxy Song†from “Meaningâ€Â: The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all the directions it can whiz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth And we pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space 'Cos there's bugger all down here on earth! The best collection I know is a CD called “Monty Python singsâ€Â, [URL]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000WIA/qid=1058507696/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/026-0111128-1014807[/URL] which even includes John Cleese's “Oliver Cromwell†to the tune of a Chopin polonaise – this goes right back to the BBC radio series “I'm sorry, I'll read that againâ€Â, which also launched “Goodies†Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. So, that concludes my little(??) dissertation on comedy. 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