Flanders & Swann

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The decline of wit lamented in the wither English bands/songs questions sent me back to 'At the drop of a hat', 'Another Hat' and 'Bestiary'. I haven't listened to Flanders and Swann since childhood, when I played them endlessly. Expecting rampant smuggery I was surprised to find myself grinning throughout. Am I sadly sentimental (perhaps these are only of interest as early George Martin productions) or are they elegant, slyly subversive and melodically inventive?

― Guy, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yo Guy:
I think they were pretty funny (tho Victor Borge is surely funnier). In they day they were considered hard(ish). I think what they were smug about has so evaporated as a Cultural Threat that it's at worst chintzy-quaint and probably not even visible- audible any more (ie assumptions of shared cultural refs: that particular Mozart Horn Concerto = the Vivaldi's Four Seasons of the early 50s — my mum or dad told me this)

I like em because mum and dad liked em when they were young… What Britain actually felt like before the Beatles: cf also Nell Dunn's great novel Up The Junction

― mark s, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought this thread would focus on Flemish bands. Alas, not the case. Off to listen to my Bobbejaan Schoepen mp3s.

― nathalie, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I also associate them w/Gerard Hoffnung and Tom Lehrer - can't really think of any contemporary equivalents. 'Sophisticated' musical comedy - who could revive it now, and how?

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

milles plateaux!!

― mark s, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I only know Swann through the music he created for a variety of Tolkien's poetry. Figures.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Personal classic, my folks loved 'em when I was a kid, so I did, too. Nowhere near as subversive as Tom Lehrer, or Beyond the Fringe, but witty, relaxed, clever, sounded very grown up when I was about 6 years old. "Have some Maderia, m'dear" is a particular favourite, and one I hope to be singing to myself (and select others, ahem) when I'm an old(er) reprobate. But those who did not grow up listening to them might well find them insufferable.

― pauls00, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's curious that everyone else also likes them because their parents did. I can't think of many other musicians my parents liked (James Galway, Sky, Chris Barber, Humphrey Lyttleton) that I liked then or now. Why do they seem to be the exception?

For me it maybe to do with their urbanity and intellect - whilst liked by my parents they were not like my parents. There is a pseudo-gay-couple quality to their relationship as well which might have accounted for some of the appeal.

― Guy, Wednesday, 12 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gay rel'nship: never tht of that — yes, very. My mum and dad were big big big Beatles fans of course and almost-pop kids, so this was less their standard-issue taste. My mum as a teen spent hours drawing up tables of how the songs in the charts were moving up and down!! She = the T.Ewing of early 50s Welwyn Garden City!

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What a sweet image Mark - almost Dennis Potteresque. Did it turn you on or off the Beatles?

― Guy, Wednesday, 12 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wuv em, pretty much. Ground zero.

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

AGANOTHER GNU! Classic. Grew up listening to them, still listen to them now.

― Madchen, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Assumption of shared cultural references, Mark, yes, exactly, and something I was thinking of while watching Monty Python on Paramount then The Comedians on Granada Plus: amazingly, the former is full of as many such references, and as specific to a certain time / place / social background, as the latter. Has David Stubbs / The Reaper in Uncut ever done Python, out of interest?

What Britain felt like at the time: yes, exactly. Flanders & Swann were a key, fixed, consistently funny part of the background to my childhood (before I discovered Black Box & Technotronic ...) so add me to the list: certainly I'd rather listen to them today than the "adult contemporary" bollocks that Radio 2 plays all the time now. I *think* 'twas them that did "The Slow Train", which is as eloquent a response to the High Modernist ideologues of the time as you can get. Classic, all told.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Thread revival inspired by this Tom Lehrer one

Classic. I guess like everyone else on this thread, I remember my Dad playing them to me in the car. My girlfriend likes Tom Lehrer, but doesn't think Flanders and Swann are funny. I wonder if others who've only been exposed to them in adulthood share that opinion (disregarding of course those who were alive at the time.) Interesting to see how subtle they were, compared to satire now. I guess it's a generation thing, society becoming brasher over the decades, and comedy either reflecting or willingly participating in this shift.

― Ben Dot, Thursday, 18 September 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I never heard either T. Lehrer or Flanders & Swann in my childhood and I like 'em both tho F+S are a little cosy at times. Can I at this juncture just mention the late (and) great(est) Jake Thackray who is undoubtedly my favourite comic songwriter - imagine Noel Coward, Jacques Brel and George Formby put in a blender and you're coming close to his essence.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 September 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

I heard them for the first time this morning (listening to CBC radio online) and enjoyed it. Kind of the missing link for me between Noel Coward and Monty Python.

― Eazy, Friday, 12 October 2007 18:10 (eighteen years ago)

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Flanders & Swann - COD?