Does Humor Belong In Music 1?
In 1986 Frank Zappa asked the above question without, so far as I know, coming to any conclusions. As for my opinion....depends…..in terms of entertainment value are we talking Little & Large, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and Bernie Winters or Eric & Ernie, Sgt.Bilko, and Norman Collier? (left) (I am concluding that the smart ones among you will know which of the above are in the "good" list and which are in the "bad")
Over the next 4 (or 5) blog posts I will include items that prove conclusively that the answer to the above is a resounding yes but, like most things, only if it’s done properly. Incidentally, I am not talking comedy albums - we are not on the Stan Freberg or Richard Pryor trail here. It's either music that is infused with a sense of fun or songwriters that by design make wry observations about the world around them, most of which happen to be funny.
One artist that fits into the former category is Listen With Sarah.
Sarah Nelson to quote the late and lamented John Peel was “A bit of a discovery I think” She was born in Portsmouth in 1965 and like a lot of artist ‘s championed by the great man, went from tape box to national radio seemingly overnight, first appearing on his program about 3 months before John went to that great gig in the sky and becoming a firm favourite thereafter.
Sarah “composes” her material on a PC and from what appears to be drum n’bass origins, she is developing an individual style that somehow manages to make modern music out of radio samples and old TV programmes.
One of her items – the delightful “Animal Hop” – posthumously appeared in Peel’s annual Festive 50 in 2004. Her sampling technique is inventive and clever and judging from recent releases, her sense of humour is now an integral part of what she does. She is unashamedly English, if only because the origins of her material tend to be U.K. based. Her propensity for kiddies programmes taken from that twilight zone of British Television that every 40 year-old kid remembers from days gone by strengthens the playfulness of her work but it has also landed her in hot water. Copies of her one and only album, a selection of EP’s trading under the collective title “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” is in danger of being banned due to litigation from Oliver Postgate, that god-like creator of such children’s classics as “Bagpuss” (below) “The Clangers” and “Noggin The Nog”. (Whatever happened to his sense of humour?)
Listeners from the U.S. (should there be any) will no doubt be somewhat perplexed by the “Trumpton” & “Watch with Mother” sound-bites whilst wondering who on earth this Postgate fellow is but check her out anyway.
LISTEN WITH SARAH - Animal Hop (2004)
P.S My thanks to Sarah for putting me right on a few factual inconsistencies and for allowing me to use her music (what a name-dropper I am!) Her album is no longer for sale but copies may still be available from www.normanrecords.com
posted by Dave Edney @ 6:37:00 PM
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3 Comments:
Dave,
Just looking at the blog and it is different to say the least. I will spend some more time on it and try to put some more erudite comments on later. The whole concept is interesting, it looks like you are trying to represent those of us with broad tastes, decent collections but with little connectivity. I like it.
Waiting for a mention of John Cooper Clark surely a luminary in terms of humour in music?
More later.
Doe’s humour belong in music? Well, the simple answer to that is, in most cases, NO! In your Blog you list the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band alongside the wonderful Randy Newman as examples, both poles apart regarding talent and song writing abilities. Randy’s humour in song has always be of a dry sarcastic wit, that has, in general, lasted the test of time. With the Bonzo’s, I feel the Oxbridge style humour is very dated, stale, in fact, childish at times. Proving the point that the talent and staying power of Randy Newman outweighs the Bonzo’s by miles! I’ve nothing personally against the Bonzo’s only that their hippy humour doe’s wear thin after a while.
My other thoughts are that humour cannot only be applied to lyrics. Have you ever wondered about visual humour as well as some of the sounds we hear on our CD’s/Records? I’ve often thought how some artists have gotten away with it, bands like Kiss, Sweet, The Glitter Band to name a few. Also when recording, how some of the background singers kept straight faces when doing some vocals has always amazed me. Just listen to some wonderful Doo-Wop music, and you’ll see what I mean.
Thanks for the comments Rockin’ Steve (hey, nice pseudonym!)
I think making a comparison between the song-writing abilities of Randy Newman & The Bonzo’s is missing the point somewhat. (In comedic terms it’s like comparing Monty Python to Lenny Bruce) They are both included here because they share one small thing in common and the clue is in the title of the post. I agree with you that some of the Bonzo’s stuff is dated as my Colston Hall comments suggests, but then they were primarily a 60’s band and their type of humour is more susceptible to age. Stanshall however, still remains an inspired entertainer - check out “Sir Henry At Rawlinson’s End” and you will see what I mean.
Regarding visual humour - were Kiss funny? I’d like to think that they did everything with a very large tongue stuck firmly in their collective cheeks (pun intended) but I get the impression that a lot of their fans take them very seriously.
As for Doo-Wop?? Well I understand what you are trying to say but doo-wop is not intentionally funny is it? Anyway, Steve you know what I think about this genre of music and at some point in the distant future I will include some on here for posterity but it doesn’t belong on this post.
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