DOES HUMOUR BELONG IN MUSIC? (2021): Does anybody remember laughter?

If you look at the charts, MTV or scoure your way through iTunes or whatever you'd be mistaken for thinking that songwriters only ever write about serious stuff. Not at all, there is a looooong tradition of comedy songs, parodies and so on.

Most of them are gimmicky songs however and the artists are soon forgotten (one-hit wonders like Bob the Builder) but a number of them had good careers. The Beatles made any number of funny songs and it didn't seem to hinder their career.

While we are waiting for funny songs from U2, Coldplay, Mumford and Son, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift or whoever, let's have a run through some amusing songs . . . 

So what happens after the great love affair is over?

Well actually life carries on . . . but not many people write songs about that.

"The saddest thing about love, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten" -- William Faulkner in Soldier's Pay

Here's Loudon Wainwright III singing "a blues song", but he isn't blue at all.

Loudon Wainwright III, I'm Alright, 1985

and here's Solomon King. It's over . . . cheer up, it isn't the end of the world!

Solomon King, Happy Again (1968)

and you're allowed to be angry, as the great Harry Nilsson shows

 

and here's sensitive singer-songwriter Henry Phillips . . .

The First Time I Saw You

Sweet Little Blossom of Mine

Drivin'

The Bitch Song

Victor Borge

Phoentic punctuation

The William Tell Overture etc

start 1.25 

 

Post-modern or just dumb?

What do you get when you add reggae to Led Zeppelin songs and have the band fronted by an Elvis impersonator? 

You get Dread Zeppelin

 

 

And there are also many parodies of famous songs

1996, OMC with How Bizarre

and the parody

 

here's the Michael Jackson original

here's the parody by the brilliant Weird Al Yaknovic (which you have to watch on You Tube, it's worth it)

and remember this . . .

Here's the Simon and Garfunkel hit from 1965.

Simon and Garfunkel

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and this anti-Trump version

 

SATIRE

This is Spinal Tap: parody and satire

A definition of parody? An imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style etc.

A definition of satire? A form in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule.

So what easier target than a heavy metal band? 

 

 

 

These are same people showing what the band Spinal Tap used to do before they went heavy metal: they emerged in the era of the Beatles so . . . 

 

and then when hippie days rolled around they . . . 

 

A Mighty Wind: another parody

The same musicians who did Spinal Tap also took on folk musicians 

 

 

 

Black humour

Humour which makes fun of a serious subject or delights in cruelty, misfortune and so on 

Here is Tom Lehrer, an American satirist and songwriter

a song about a nice day in the park

Wordplay

Butch Hancock: Split and Slide

 

Ian Dury (1942-2000)

From London, had a tough upbringing, contracted polio at seven, went to a school for the disabled, studied art, formed bands and was aware of the British music hall and entertainment tradition. A rogue.

This song was on the flipside of his single Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll ("are very good indeed"). It's about thievin' nudie books from a shop as a kid . . .

Razzle in my Pocket, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, 1977

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The art of the insult

Here's Mareko from South Auckland getting his gangsta on with Celph Titled

(you are warned, there is profane gangsta language and worse!)

Here's some more angry rap, two gay guys from Los Angeles who are prepared to fight back against queer bashers etc

Fight Back, Age of Consent, 1983

 

The Beatles had fun

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)

Lennon referencing other Beatles' songs

Glass Onion (1968)

And people had fun with the Beatles

This is the Rutles

A Beatles documentary

and the Rutles documentary 

here's the Rutles' Hold My Hand (essentially a mash of the Beatles' She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand)

Hold My Hand

 

Piggy in the Middle

here's the trailer for the Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine

and the Rutles version of a "Lennon" song. 

 

and She Loves You by . . . 

 

AND

the greatest use of a pause [and self-editing] in music history . . . 

. . .

FINALLY FOLKS ...... THE LATE FRANK ZAPPA

who had a long career as a brilliant non-genre musician, satirist, intellectual and political dissenter, and agent-provocateur. And he kicked people out of his bands if they took drugs.

He was once asked, "Frank, what are you on?"

His answer?

"I'M ON DUTY"