Product Description

Fantastic three CD box set of the recorded works of one of Britain's most popular comedy duos. Their keen observations of everyday British life and abilities to exemplify them in song made them the darlings of the UK. Cleverness, wit and absolute hilarity were the order of the day, in just about any style of music. Pure comic genius on three discs!

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Transport of Delight
2. Song of Reproduction
3. Gnu Song
4. Design for Living
5. Je Suis Les Tenebreux
6. Songs for Our Time
7. Song of the Weather
8. Reluctant Cannibal
9. Greensleeves
10. Misalliance
11. Kokoraki
12. Madeira, M'Dear
13. Too Many Cookers
14. Vanessa
15. Tried by the Centre Court
16. Youth of the Heart
17. Hippopotamus Song

Disc 2:

1. Gas-Man Cometh
2. Sounding Brass
3. Olividados
4. In the Desert
5. Ill Wind
6. First and Second Law
7. All Gall
8. Horoscope
9. Friendly Duet
10. Bedstead Men
11. By Air
12. Slow Train
13. Song of Patriotic Prejudice
14. Built up Area
15. In the Bath
16. Sea Fever
17. Hippo Encore

Disc 3:

1. Warthog (The Hog Beneath the Skin)
2. Sea Horse
3. Chameleon
4. Whale (Mopy Dick)
5. Sloth
6. Rhinoceros
7. Twosome-Kang & Jag (Kangaroo Tango and Jaguar)
8. Dead Ducks
9. Elephant
10. Armadillo
11. Spider
12. Threesome-Duck Billed Platypus/... [Medley]
13. Wild Boar
14. Ostrich
15. Wompom
16. Twice Shy
17. Commomwealth Fair
18. p**p*b****b**d******
19. Paris
20. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Cha Cha Cha
21. Hundred Song
22. Food for Thought
23. Bed
24. 20 Tons of TNT
25. War of 14-18

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2422 in Music
• Released on: 1991-10-14
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

You may be a trifle concerned at the thought ...
... of buying three CDs of two men singing comic songs.

Don't be.

Flanders and Swann's "comic songs" are different from most. They have bite, wit, character, fire and - just below the surface - sometimes profound meaning. These are no "ordinary" comic songs.

Neither is Swann's accompaniment at the piano ordinary.

These are CDs that contain true gems. Buy them.

Witty, civilised, scintillating
Bliss! If you tire of entertainment aimed purely at the lowest common denominator then this is the welcome antithesis. The other reviews say it all really. The wordplay of Flanders is just fabulous, the wit perfect, Swann's music light but expertly arranged, and they're not afraid to make references that are, for want of a better word, "intellectual" - in other words, for all the fun and silliness (and they really are very funny), they treat their audience like grown-ups. The result is a box set that is highly original, utterly pleasurable, and often of a range and depth that one wouldn't have at first suspected. "Misalliance" is, at first glance a trivial piece of nonsense about a honeysuckle and a bindweed, but ends up as a surprisingly powerful piece about the freedom to love regardless of race, religion or any other restriction.

I too would place Flanders and Swann in the same corpus as Gilbert and Sullivan, Wilde, Jerome K Jerome, Chesterton and Wodehouse, but that doesn't mean this box set can't sit next to your Franz Ferdinand or Scissor Sisters albums - the criterion isn't whether something is modern bur whether its good. Listen to these three CDs and you realise you are in the presence of two massive talents. Sometimes you have to look to the past to find something new and Flanders and Swann are a breath of fresh air. Brilliant!

Timeless humour
I don't expect there are many 20-something year olds who enjoy Flanders and Swann but I am proud to be one of them. I learnt to sing the Hippopotamus Song at school and then my mum introduced me to this fine collection.

Nothing makes me giggle more that The Gas Man Cometh or playing the Song of Patriotic Prejudice at top volume with 'foreigners' in the house!

I am proud to say I once saw Donald Swann on stage about a year before his death (and, thanks to a kindly employee, even have his autograph). Together, Flanders and Swann were one of a kind - unmissable British humour at its best!