All Topics  
Flanders and Swann

 
Flanders and Swann

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Flanders and Swann
 
 
  Topics Flanders and Swann Topic Home

The British duo "Flanders and Swann" were the actor and singer Michael Flanders
Michael Flanders

Michael Henry Flanders Order of the British Empire, was an England actor, Broadcast journalism, and writer and performer of Novelty song. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the double act Flanders and Swann....
 (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann
Donald Swann

Donald Ibrah?m Swann was a United Kingdom composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing Novelty song with Michael Flanders ....
 (1923–1994) who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
. Between 1956 and 1967 they performed some of their songs in their long-running two-man revue
Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
s At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat

At the Drop of a Hat is a musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
 and At the Drop of Another Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat

At the Drop of Another Hat is musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat. In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Flanders and Swann'
Start a new discussion about 'Flanders and Swann'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The British duo "Flanders and Swann" were the actor and singer Michael Flanders
Michael Flanders

Michael Henry Flanders Order of the British Empire, was an England actor, Broadcast journalism, and writer and performer of Novelty song. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the double act Flanders and Swann....
 (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann
Donald Swann

Donald Ibrah?m Swann was a United Kingdom composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing Novelty song with Michael Flanders ....
 (1923–1994) who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
.
Indexflanders57
Between 1956 and 1967 they performed some of their songs in their long-running two-man revue
Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
s At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat

At the Drop of a Hat is a musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
 and At the Drop of Another Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat

At the Drop of Another Hat is musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat. In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
. Both revues were recorded in concert along with several studio-based tracks.

The musical partnership

Flanders and Swann both attended Westminster School
Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
 — where in July and August 1940 they staged a revue called Go To It — and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
, two institutions which are linked by ancient tradition, but the pair went their separate ways during World War II. However, a chance meeting in 1948 led to a musical partnership writing songs and light opera, Flanders providing the words and Swann composing the music. Their songs have been sung by performers such as Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace (singer)

Ian Wallace, Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom bass-baritone opera and concert singer, of Scotland extraction.Born in London, Wallace trained as a lawyer, but never practiced....
 and Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Grenfell

Joyce Irene Grenfell, Order of the British Empire was an England actress, comedienne and singer-songwriter....
.

In December 1956, Flanders and Swann hired the New Lindsey Theatre, Notting Hill
Notting Hill

Notting Hill is an area in West London, England close to the north-western corner of Hyde Park, London, and lying within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea....
, to perform their own two-man revue At the Drop of a Hat, which opened on New Year's Eve. Flanders sang a selection of the songs that they had written, interspersed with comic monologues, and accompanied by Swann on the piano. An unusual feature of their act was that, due to Flanders' having contracted poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute virus infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route....
 in 1943, both men remained seated for their shows: Swann remained behind his piano, and Flanders used a wheelchair. The show was successful and transferred the next month to the Fortune Theatre, where it ran for over two years, before touring in the UK, the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

In 1963 Flanders and Swann opened in a second revue, At the Drop of Another Hat. Over the next four years they toured a combination of the two shows in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
, the United States and Canada, before finishing up at the Booth Theatre on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
. On April 9, 1967 they performed their last live show together. Ten days later, they moved into a studio and recorded the show for television.

Over the course of 11 years, Flanders and Swann gave nearly 2,000 live performances. Although their performing partnership ended in 1967, they remained friends afterwards and collaborated on occasional projects.

Timeline


Date Venue
1956 New Lindsey Theatre, Notting Hill
1957–59 Fortune Theatre (suspended one month because of Flanders' pneumonia)
1959 Edinburgh Festival "At the Drop of a Kilt"
1959–60 Golden Theater, New York
1960–61 12-city tour of USA, plus Toronto
1961 Switzerland
1962 9-city tour of UK, plus Toronto
1963 9-city tour of UK
1963 Haymarket Theatre
1964 4-city tour of Australia, 5 NZ, plus Hong Kong
1965 3-city tour of UK
1965 Globe Theatre (now the Gielgud)
1966 9-city tour of USA, plus Toronto
1966–67 New York


source: Sleeve notes to the CD box set "The Complete F & S"

The 21st Century


The style and presentation of Flanders and Swann have been parodied by British comedians Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Armstrong (comedian)

Alexander Armstrong is an England comedian, actor and television presenter....
 and Ben Miller
Ben Miller

Ben Miller, is an England comedian, television director and actor....
 in their sketch comedy television series The Armstrong and Miller Show
The Armstrong and Miller Show

The Armstrong and Miller Show is a United Kingdom sketch comedy television show produced by Hat Trick Productions for BBC One. It reunites the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, who had not appeared together on screen since 2001, and features League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson as scriptwriter....
 (2007) although the lyrics of the latter-day songs are somewhat more ribald than those of original duo.

Songs of Flanders and Swann

Flanders and Swann's songs are characterised by wit, gentle satire, complex rhyming schemes, and memorable choruses. They wrote over eighty comic songs together; the following selection gives an indication of their range:

  • "All Gall" — a political satire based on the long career of Charles de Gaulle
    Charles de Gaulle

    Charles Andr? Joseph Marie de Gaulle , , was a French people general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President of France from 1959 to 1969....
    . At the time of writing, de Gaulle had recently vetoed the UK's first application to join the European Economic Community
    European Economic Community

    The European Economic Community was an international organisation created in 1957 to bring about economic integration between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands....
    .
  • "First and Second Law" — perhaps the only comic song ever written about thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics

    In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
    .
  • "The Gasman Cometh" — relating the visits of a succession of tradesmen, each coming to repair the damage done by the previous tradesman.
  • "The Hippopotamus" — one of Flanders and Swann's best known songs ("Mud, mud, glorious mud"), and one of a range of songs that they wrote about different beasts, including "The Gnu
    The Gnu

    "The Gnu" is a humorous song about a talking wildebeest by Flanders and Swann.The song plays on silent letters in words such as "gnu", "know" and "who", and adds initial Voiced velar plosives to various other words....
    ", "The Warthog" and "The Armadillo".
  • "Ill Wind" — Flanders' words sung to a slightly cut version, with cadenza
    Cadenza

    In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a solo or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
    , of the rondo finale of Mozart's
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
     Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major
    Horn Concerto No. 4 (Mozart)

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, Kochel number 495 was completed in 1786....
    , K. 495.
  • "In The Desert" ("????????", lit. = "camel
    Camel

    Camels are even-toed ungulates within the genus Camelus. The dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and is well known for its healthy low fat milk, and the Bactrian camel has two humps....
    s") — a "traditional Russian" song, performed by Donald Swann, with an English-language
    English language

    English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
     translation after every line.
  • "In the D'Oyly Cart" — a satire of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
    D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

    The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas in the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and elsewhere from the 1870s until it closed in 1982....
    , it was first performed in the revue Oranges and Lemons (1948) and revived in Penny Plain (1951). It was included as the first track on Flanders and Swanns' 1974 album, And Then We Wrote.
  • "Madeira M'Dear" — a song about seduction, full of complex word-play, including three oft-quoted examples of syllepsis
    Zeugma

    Zeugma is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and Parallelism , the balance of several words or phrases....
    .
  • "Misalliance" — a political allegory concerning a love affair between a honeysuckle
    Honeysuckle

    Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, with by far the greatest diversity in China, where over 100 species occur; by comparison, Europe and North America have only about 20 native species each....
     and a bindweed
    Bindweed

    Bindweed may refer to:* Convolvulus, a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants* Calystegia, a related genus of about 25 species of flowering plants...
    .
  • "P** P* B**** B** D******" or "Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers" — a song comparing the use of profanity
    Profanity

    The original meaning of the adjective profane referred to items not belonging to the church, e.g. "The fort is the oldest profane building in the town, but the local monastery is older, and is the oldest sacred building," or "besides designing churches, he also designed many profane buildings"....
     among the intelligentsia to playground swearing.
  • "The Reluctant Cannibal" — an argument between father and son, disputing the topic of cannibalism (Son: "Eating people is wrong", Father: "Must have been someone he ate" — "he used to be a regular anthropophaguy").
  • "Slow Train
    Slow Train

    "Slow Train" is a song by the United Kingdom duo Flanders and Swann, written in 1963.It laments the loss of British stations and railway lines in that era, due to the Richard Beeching cuts, and also the passing of a way of life, with the advent of motorways etc....
    " — a nostalgic song about the railway stations closed by Dr Beeching
    Richard Beeching

    Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching , commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer. He became infamous in Britain in the early-1960s for his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", popularly known as the Beeching Axe, which led to far-reaching changes in the railway network....
    .
  • "A Song of Patriotic Prejudice" — (The English, the English, the English are best! I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!)
  • "A Song of Reproduction" — satire
    Satire

    Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
     on the (then very topical) mania for do-it-yourself hi-fi
    High fidelity

    High fidelity or hi-fi reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality sound reproduction or video that are very faithful to the original performance....
    . ("Raise the ceiling four feet, move the fireplace from that wall to that wall, you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard.")
  • "To Kokoraki" (?? ????????, The Cockerel) — A modern-Greek children's song, equivalent to "Old MacDonald's Farm" adding a new animal noise for each verse. Flanders, feigning impatience with it, says sarcastically "We must have it in full some night. Alternated with The Ring Cycle".
  • "A Transport of Delight" — with an increasing refrain about the "Big six-wheeler, scarlet-painted, London Transport
    London Transport Board

    The London Transport Board, commonly known as "London Transport", was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, United Kingdom, and its environs from 1963-1970....
    , diesel-engined, ninety-seven–horse-power om-ni-bus".
  • "20 Tons of TNT" — a song about thermonuclear weapons.
  • "The War of 14–18" — a translation of a French
    French language

    French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
     song by Georges Brassens
    Georges Brassens

    Georges Brassens was a France singer-songwriter.Georges Brassens was born in S?te , a town in southern France near Montpellier. Now an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his simple, elegant songs and articulate, diverse lyrics; indeed, he is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets....
    , this song 'celebrates' World War I.
  • "The Wompom" — a tale about a fictitious creature/plant/raw material and the British Industry that stems from it.


Songs on At the Drop of a Hat
At the Drop of a Hat

At the Drop of a Hat is a musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, described by them as "An After-Dinner Farrago". In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
 

Recorded in 1959 by engineer George Martin
George Martin

Sir George Henry Martin Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom record producer, arrangement and composer. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"?a title that he owes to his work as producer or co-producer of all of The Beatles' original records as well as playing piano on some of The Beatles tracks?and is considered one o...
  • "A Transport of Delight" 5:53
  • "Song of Reproduction" 7:06
  • "The Gnu Song" 3:26
  • "Design for Living" 3:52
  • "Je Suis Le Ténébreux" 2:27
  • "Songs for Our Time" ("Philological Waltz" / "Satellite Moon" / "A Happy Song") 4:16
  • "A Song for the Weather" 2:05
  • "The Reluctant Cannibal" 3:55
  • "Greensleeves" (monologue) 7:51
  • "Misalliance" 3:55
  • "To Kokoraki" 5:05
  • "Madeira M'Dear" 3:52
  • "Too Many Cookers" 3:12
  • "Vanessa" 3:55
  • "Tried by the Centre Court" (monologue) 3:45
  • "The Youth of the Heart" 4:17
  • "The Hippopotamus Song" 3:12


Songs on At the Drop of Another Hat
At the Drop of Another Hat

At the Drop of Another Hat is musical theatre revue by Flanders and Swann, similar in format to its predecessor, At the Drop of a Hat. In the show, they both sang, accompanied by Swann on the piano....
 

Recorded during a performance at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1963.

  • "The Gas Man Cometh" 6:44
  • "Sounding Brass" 2:53
  • "Los Olividados" (monologue) 6:38
  • "In the Desert" 3:45
  • "Ill Wind" 5:01
  • "First and Second Law" 2:56
  • "All Gall" 3:53
  • "Horoscope" 1:10
  • "Friendly Duet" 2:20
  • "Bedstead Men" 3:16
  • "By Air" (monologue) 6:17
  • "Slow Train" 5:26
  • "A Song of Patriotic Prejudice" 2:51
  • "Built-Up Area" (monologue) 3:22
  • "In the Bath" 2:34
  • "Sea Fever" 3;55
  • "Hippo Encore" 1:16


Songs on The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann

This collection was recorded in studio, with no audience.

  • "The Warthog" (The Hog Beneath the Skin) 4:14
  • "The Sea Horse" 1:31
  • "The Chameleon" 1:01
  • "The Whale" (Mopy Dick) 3:29
  • "The Sloth" 3:14
  • "The Rhinoceros" 2:36
  • "Twosome: Kang & Jag" (Kangaroo and Jaguar) 2:04
  • "Dead Ducks" 0:41
  • "The Elephant" 2:40
  • "The Armadillo" 3:52
  • "The Spider" 2:21
  • "Threesome: Duck Billed Platypus/The Humming Bird/The Portuguese Man-O'-War" 1:05
  • "The Wild Boar" 2:23
  • "The Ostrich" 2:56
  • "The Wompom" 5:52


Songs on Tried by the Centre Court

Fifteen songs that were part of the stage show at one time or another, released 1977. Seven of them were included on the 'Bestiary' CD (as The Extiary) to make up the running time.

  • "Twice Shy" 4:12
  • "Commonwealth Fair" 4:06
  • "P** P* B**** B** D******" 6:20
  • "Paris" 4:05
  • "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Cha-cha-cha" 0:31
  • "The Hundred song" 1:09
  • "Food for Thought" 3:55
  • "Bed" 3:19


Songs on And Then We Wrote

A BBC Radio production, 1974

  • Introduction
  • In The D'Oyly Cart
  • Prehistoric Complaint
  • The Album
  • There's A Hole In My Budget
  • Seven Ages Of Woman
  • Fragments
  • Pillar To Post
  • Guide To Britten
  • Excelsior
  • Rain On The Plage
  • Last Of The Line
  • Rockall
  • The Lord Chamberlain's Regulations
    Lord Chamberlain's requirements

    The Lord Chamberlain's requirements were a set of four prerequisites for a licence for a production in British theatres. These were printed in theatre programmes so the audience could be aware of them....


Songs released as a single

These were the only two songs recorded with musical instruments other than the piano. They were also included in The Extiary.
  • Side A: "20 Tons of TNT" 2:30
  • Side B: "The War of 14-18" 2:15


Monologues

Flanders' comic monologues include:
  • "By Air" — about the vogue for air travel. "I agree with the old lady who said, 'If God had meant us to fly, He would never have given us the railways.'"
  • "Tried by the Centre Court" — a Wimbledon
    The Championships, Wimbledon

    The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered the most prestigious....
     match between Miss L. Hammerfest and Miss J. Hunter-Dunn
    Joan Jackson

    Joan Jackson was the muse of Sir John Betjeman, best known from being the subject of his poem "A Subaltern's Love-song".Jackson was the daughter of Dr George Hunter Dunn, a General practitioner from Farnborough, Hampshire....
    . "They are bashing a ball with the gut of a cat".
  • "Greensleeves" — about the background to the composition of the famous English air
    Greensleeves

    "Greensleeves" is a traditional Folk Music of England and tune, a Ostinato#Ground bass of the form called a romanesca.A Broadside by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves"....
    . An annotated version, explaining all the jokes, is .
  • "Los Olividados" — describing a festival akin to bull-fighting, where the bull is replaced with an olive. The title is a reference to Los Olvidados
    Los olvidados

    Los Olvidados is a 1950 in film cinema of Mexico directed by Spain-Mexico filmaker Luis Bu?uel.?scar Dancigers, the producer, asked Bu?uel to direct this film after the success of the 1949 film El Gran Calavera....
    , or "The Forgotten Ones", a 1950 movie by the director Luis Buñuel
    Luis Buñuel

    Luis Bu?uel Portol?s was a Spanish people-born filmmaker who worked mainly in France and Mexico, but also in his native Spain and in the United States....
    .
  • "Built-up Area" — a prehistoric inhabitant of Salisbury Plain
    Salisbury Plain

    Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering . It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, with a little in Hampshire....
     complains about a new development
    Stonehenge

    Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the England county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of Earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age mon...
    .


Footnotes


External links

- A show which tours UK theatres with a production of Flanders and Swann songs. to the songs and monologues of Flanders and Swann by actors Mark Marlowe and Jonathan Roberts about her father.