Flanders And Swann

Michael Flanders was a Londoner, born in 1922, mother was a violinist, father an actor, and would-be estate agent. He grew up surrounded by music and the stage. He joined the navy and during WWII, was torpedoed and contracted polio, which confined him to a wheelchair.

Donald Swann was Welsh, born (of Russian parents) in Llanelli in 1923. He was primarily the pianist, whereas Michael was the singer (apparently this helped his lungs, one of which collapsed, again as a result of polio) although many of their works were duets, and there was the occasional solo by Donald and the occasional monologue by Michael

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On Satire

"We've been travelling a lot since we saw you last. We went to American, New York. We spent two dreadfu... delightful years in America, entertaining the Americans, whose need, let's face it, is greater even than yours. Of course when we're over there we say that the other way round ...

"I must say that wandering around things have come to a pretty underpass here in England while we've been away. Small wonder to us that Satire squats hoof-in-mouth under every bush. The purpose of Satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half-truth. [Gap] And our job, as I see it ... is to put it back again!"

-- Michael Flanders, from the introduction to their show, At The Drop Of Another Hat

Yes, I was well pleased that HumphreyCarpenter quoted this very thing in his recent history of (mostly UK) satire from the 60s, ThatWasSatireThatWas. It was this passage on vinyl in the 1970s that explained everything I felt I would ever need to know about the earlier stuff. In fact I now find PeterCook and JonathanMiller interesting for other reasons. But FlandersAndSwann remain one of my favorite comedic pairs of all time. -- RichardDrake

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In song

Songs include:

• The Gasman Cometh (a tale of unending domestic upheaval)
• The Spider in the Bath
• Misalliance (the honeysuckle and the bindweed)
• The Sloth
• The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics
• Transport of Delight (London buses)
• The Hippopotamus Song ("Mud, mud, glorious mud")
• The Armadillo
• Have Some Madeira, M'dear (Three superb examples of syllepsis (or zeugma))
• Ill Wind (set to the rondo from Mozart's horn concerto no. 4 in E-flat major, KV495)
• The Gnu ("The G-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo")
• Slow Train (for those of you who know this - I used to live in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.)

and many, many more.

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Donald Swann also wrote settings of several songs from LordOfTheRings, under the collective title of The Road Goes Ever On. And very good they are, too. -- ChrisSandow

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CategoryArtist