Flanders and Swann: Difference between revisions
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (work->creator, creatortropes) |
Haggishunter (talk | contribs) (+tropes) |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown) | |||
| Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: "Greensleeves" |
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: "Greensleeves" |
||
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: "The Reluctant Cannibal" |
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: "The Reluctant Cannibal" |
||
* [[Intellectual Animal]]: The gnu(s) in "I'm a Gnu". |
|||
* [[Least Rhymable Word]]: |
* [[Least Rhymable Word]]: |
||
{{quote|We were never able to come up with a rhyme for "Khrushchev" until he'd gone: "Did he fall, or was he pusch off?"}} |
{{quote|We were never able to come up with a rhyme for "Khrushchev" until he'd gone: "Did he fall, or was he pusch off?"}} |
||
* [[Life of the Party]]: "Twice Shy" |
* [[Life of the Party]]: "Twice Shy" |
||
* [[List Song]]: "A Song of the Weather" goes by month. |
|||
** See also [[Days of the Week Song]] and [[Listing Cities]]. |
|||
* [[Listing Cities]]: "Slow Train" |
* [[Listing Cities]]: "Slow Train" |
||
* [[Multipurpose Monocultured Crop]]: "The Wompom" is about the world's most miraculous, all-purpose plant. |
* [[Multipurpose Monocultured Crop]]: "The Wompom" is about the world's most miraculous, all-purpose plant. |
||
| Line 35: | Line 38: | ||
* [[Translation: "Yes"]]: "Songs For Our Time" |
* [[Translation: "Yes"]]: "Songs For Our Time" |
||
* [[Weird Trade Union]]: "Bedstead Men" (or possibly it's a Weird Secret Society) |
* [[Weird Trade Union]]: "Bedstead Men" (or possibly it's a Weird Secret Society) |
||
* [[Western Zodiac]]: "Horoscope" |
|||
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: "The Spider" |
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: "The Spider" |
||
* [[With Lyrics]]: "Ill Wind" |
* [[With Lyrics]]: "Ill Wind" |
||
| Line 43: | Line 47: | ||
[[Category:Flanders and Swann]] |
[[Category:Flanders and Swann]] |
||
[[Category:Music]] |
[[Category:Music]] |
||
[[Category:Double Acts and Groups]] |
|||
Latest revision as of 12:10, 11 June 2024
Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who co-wrote and performed comic songs in the 1950s and 1960s. Unusually for the time neither performer stood during their shows, Swann being seated at the piano and Flanders confined to a wheelchair by polio (contracted in service during World War 2).
 |
The purpose of satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip away the blanket of comforting illusion and cozy half-truth with which we surround ourselves. And our job, as I see it, is to put it back again.
—Michael Flanders At The Drop Of Another Hat
|
 |
The two began their musical careers together at school but were drawn apart on the outbreak of the war. A chance meeting in 1948 led them to begin writing comic songs for other performers to sing before they decided to start performing for themselves in a show titled At The Drop Of A Hat. After touring worldwide they returned to Britain to open their new show At The Drop Of Another Hat and recorded a number of songs not heard in either show.
In 1967 they ceased touring together but remained friends until Flanders' death in 1975.
- Affectionate Parody: Many of their songs use this trope, and recently they have become subject to one themselves by Armstrong And Miller.
- Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: "Sounding Brass"
- Audience Participation: "The Hippopotamus"
|
Flanders: And tonight, by way of encouragement attendants will be passing among you. With rawhide whips. |
|
- Black Comedy Rape: "Madeira, M'Dear" and "Philological Waltz"
- But Liquor Is Quicker: "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear"
- Days of the Week Song: "The Gasman Cometh"
- Disaster Dominoes: "The Gasman Cometh"
- Father, I Don't Want to Fight: "The Reluctant Cannibal"
- He Also Did: Donald Swann, working alone, produced an album of music from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and became good friends with Tolkien himself.
- Here We Go Again: "The Gasman Cometh"
- Hurricane of Puns: "Greensleeves"
- I'm a Humanitarian: "The Reluctant Cannibal"
- Intellectual Animal: The gnu(s) in "I'm a Gnu".
- Least Rhymable Word:
|
We were never able to come up with a rhyme for "Khrushchev" until he'd gone: "Did he fall, or was he pusch off?" |
|
- Life of the Party: "Twice Shy"
- List Song: "A Song of the Weather" goes by month.
- See also Days of the Week Song and Listing Cities.
- Listing Cities: "Slow Train"
- Multipurpose Monocultured Crop: "The Wompom" is about the world's most miraculous, all-purpose plant.
- Napoleon Delusion: "The Elephant"
- Overly Long Gag: "In the Desert" and "Kokoraki"
|
Swann: I omitted eight verses! |
|
- Patriotic Fervour: "A Song of Patriotic Prejudice" is an Affectionate Parody.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: "Misalliance" (The tragic tale of the right-handed Honeysuckle and the left-handed Bindweed.)
- Translation: "Yes": "Songs For Our Time"
- Weird Trade Union: "Bedstead Men" (or possibly it's a Weird Secret Society)
- Western Zodiac: "Horoscope"
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "The Spider"
- With Lyrics: "Ill Wind"
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: "Greensleeves"