From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #301 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, August 11 1999 Volume 08 : Number 301 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Fegday the 13th (FegBand Blowout!) [Bayard ] JfS Review in CMJ [shmac@ix.netcom.com (Scott Hunter McCleary)] Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #300 [edoxtato@intentia.com] Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #300 [edoxtato@intentia.com] Speaking of Spleen [shmac@ix.netcom.com (Scott Hunter McCleary)] vic w. [hal brandt ] my cat fetches foil balls ["Andrew D. Simchik" ] comedy, censorship, tiny frogs, Airscape [James Dignan ] The Green Book [Terrence M Marks ] Re: Pictures & notes of Robyn in Austin ["Capitalism Blows" ] the church ["jbranscombe@compuserve.com" ] Re: Hep me, hep me brainstorm ["D B" ] Commie jokes [Christopher Gross ] Re: Hep me, hep me brainstorm [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: Beyond the Fringe [Michael R Godwin ] Re: The Green Book [Michael R Godwin ] Pete 'n' Python ["jbranscombe@compuserve.com" ] Re: Pete 'n' Python [Michael R Godwin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 21:21:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Bayard Subject: Fegday the 13th (FegBand Blowout!) A motion has been passed to blow off the 'lung degeneration' fest and instead attend the Fegstravaganza this Friday night, when the Number Nine Line and Feckless Beast light up the stage on the Hill. Who knows what surprises they have in store? There will be food consumed, and good tunes. who could ask for anything more? Plus it is said that this will be the last Number Nine Line show ever, so if you've never seen them... Let me know if you want to go and feg out. =b ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 22:32:10 -0400 From: shmac@ix.netcom.com (Scott Hunter McCleary) Subject: JfS Review in CMJ For what it's worth: 9/99 CMJ Review of JfS Jewels For Sophia continues a resurgence Robyn Hitchcock launched in 1996's Moss Elixir, averting a path to self-parody while retaining the essence that made him special in the first place. Jewels was recorded in various studios with an assortment of name collaborators, and has the disjointed feel you'd expect from such an approach. Peter Buck and the Young Fresh Fellows anchor the highlight "Viva Sea-Tac," which ambles along at a "Subterranean Homesick Blues" pace while Hitchcock spews lyrics with the perfect blend of humor and spleen venting.* The overdue reunion with Soft Boy cohort Kimberly Rew yields mixed results: "Sally Was A Legend" delivers chiming pop reminiscent of "Black Snake Diamond Role [sic]," while the gonzo energy of "NASA Clapping" sounds forced. The balance of the record is sparser and more intimate, draped in a shimmering recording quality. Hitchcock's whimsical non-sequiturs and vaguely insightful wordplay remain, and mostly pass muster, but he seems to be consciously building a bridge to mature acoustic tunesmithery he can gracefully stride into middle age. Last time I saw him play, someone yelled out for the old Soft Boys song "I Wanna Destroy You." Hitchcock responded, "Can you imagine someone my age singing a song called 'I Wanna Destroy You'?" No matter -- Jewels For Sophia holds pleasures for a few eras of Robyn Hitchcock fans. - -- Glen Sarvady Their Recommended If You Likes for this one are: Billy Bragg, Ben Lee, Syd Barrett, Freedy Johnston. *Any Spleen venting on Robyn's part must be the work of that dastardly Taco Bell animal. n.p. -- Charles Lloyd, Voice in the Night ========= SH McCleary Prodigal Dog Communications Arlington, VA 22206 shmac@prodigaldog.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 02:48:43 GMT From: edoxtato@intentia.com Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #300 Rich did say: >The song JfS is great and really reminds me of >The Blue Aeroplanes. Anybody else think that as well? Funny, now thatcha mention it, I agree. Specially with the multi-guitar parts and the chorus with the wanger screwed up high. - -Doc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 02:56:53 GMT From: edoxtato@intentia.com Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #300 Oh, dear. I haven't any critical perspective at all. I like ALL of Queen Elvis, ALL of Eye, ALL of Respect, and ALL of Perspex Island. No problems with reverb...erb...erb..rb...b... ... >Eb, still wondering how the Church manages to keep its fans awake zzzzzzzzzzzZZZzzzz -snork- .....huh? Whussat? Oh, nothing. Just the voice of God. Go back to bed. Doc, "I wish those bloody bells would stop." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 23:01:45 -0400 From: shmac@ix.netcom.com (Scott Hunter McCleary) Subject: Speaking of Spleen Those of you who do NOT wish your firstborn to be fathered by Liam or Noel may find this amusing. http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Amphitheatre/1560/ The guestbook is like spleen central. If you love a good bar argument as much as me (and you know who you are), this is about as close as you can get. ========= SH McCleary Prodigal Dog Communications Arlington, VA 22206 shmac@prodigaldog.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 21:18:06 -0600 From: hal brandt Subject: vic w. edoxtato@intentia.com wrote: > Um... who's Victoria Williams? Remember Pearl Jam's "Crazy Mary"? or Soul Asylum's "Summer of Drugs"? Well, she wrote those. But discover for yourself: http://www.victoriawilliams.com/ http://www.thegrid.net/creekdipper/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 23:15:32 -0400 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: my cat fetches foil balls >From: Christopher Gross >I've never liked this dog people vs. cat people thing. First of all, I >like both. Yeah...I love cats categorically. I dislike dogs categorically, but I love many individual dogs (like our friend's dog whom we visited tonight... the friend, not the dog). >From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Okay. Already I feel a little disagreement with myself. >Queen Elvis: I like about a third of it. "Madonna of the Wasps," "Veins of the Queen," "One Long Pair of Eyes," and part of "Autumn Leaves" (?). I don't like the rest of it much. >Perspex Island: I like only half. Actually, I would really like it if it weren't for "Oceanside" and (ugggggh) "Child of the Universe." Those really spoil all of it for me. But also I find the rest of the songs, while very good, a little too tight and predictable in their performance. "If You Go Away" could really use an excessive, moody, two-minute intro, I think, for example. "Ride" should be slower. "She Doesn't Exist" could use some extra instrumentation, a la "Dark Princess." And so on. But I guess I like more than half of it. >Groovy Decay: I like all of it in a lukewarm way, so I >never listen to it. I guess this one is the second iffiest for me. I like the odder stuff ("Midnight Fish," "How Do You Work This Thing?", "Inner Plane") better than the more old-skool RH stuff. >You and Oblivion: a handful of gems, but a real drag >for the most part. Definitely the iffiest for me. Apart from "Birdshead," "Victorian Squid," and maybe one or two others, I can hardly bear to listen to this one. >and >Invisible Hits: Not my thing at all. Much. I should stress that I do mean the Soft Boys CD and not Invisible Hitchcock, which is fabulous. >From: ultraconformist@mail.weboffices.com >Sorry, perhaps that snip was a bit unfair but........these opinions are not >universal, nope. You were closer to the mark when you talked about reviving >debates (a cry goes up in Fegland: please, not "Eye" vs. "Respect" AGAIN). Wow...for me that just might be a tie ("Eye" greatest amplitude, "Respect" more consistent). Another of those opinions I thought might be universal would be that "Respect" was not so hot -- I really liked it and assumed I was out of step. >I think that there may be a certain division I've noticed among the RH fans >at work here. People tend to divide (understand, I'm generalizing and this >is kinda rough, it's mostly a feeling I have) along lines of.....more of a >preference for the poppy RH or the creepy or somber RH. Hmmm. For me it really depends. Generally, creepy or somber is safe. The poppy stuff on Eye and IODOT tends to nauseate me. But give me the singles on Queen Elvis and nothing else -- see above for my preferences on Groovy Decay. >Which, before anyone starts getting flamethrowers out and pointing them at >me (don't point that thing at me, you know I'm scared of guns!), Would saying "point it at Gran" at this stage be like quoting Grail? >Additionally, I would not agree that the rest are unassailable aside from a >few rough spots. "Element", favorite of so many, is actually kinda B+ for >me, as is "Respect", and I just don't think "Globe" is all that, either, >probably a B. There aren't any Robyn albums I love unconditionally, but the high points on those for me are very high. I don't really know which album is my favorite. For a while it was Gotta Let This Hen Out, actually. >As much as I love "Eye", and would give it an A+, I'm aware >there are things to not love about it. "Beautiful Girl" and "Clean Steve" might make that list for me. I like them okay, but with the surrounding material they seem annoying. >"Underwater Moonlight" -is- actually >perfect, tho, IMO :). Well, natch. >"Perspex" is a D for me. I'm sorry, there were some songs that sounded good >in live versions there, but on the album it all came out like lumpy jello >pudding. Yes, that's the problem. I've always been partial to "Vegetation and Dimes," though, and there are some fun singalong tunes (the first side, mostly). Drew - -- Andrew D. Simchik, wyrd@rochester.rr.com http://home.rochester.rr.com/wyrd/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 16:26:44 +1200 From: James Dignan Subject: comedy, censorship, tiny frogs, Airscape >>But there's still hope for future Afghan humorists! After all, we're >>only now finally starting to hear some of the zingers people came >>up with in Russia during the Soviet era, for example. > >Well, it's not as if these regimes were -completely- able to repress satire. > >People who are familiar with Czech literature/history will know something >(probably more than I do) about a character called Good Soldier Svejk. Good >Soldier Svejk was a stupid party believer who followed orders -to the >letter-, no more, no less. These stories were cleverly written so that the >powers that be let them by, since after all he was a good Communist boy. >The Czech population knew it was satire. lessee... thgere's the one about the Hungarian Government applying to Moscow to create a ministry of the navy. The USSR government replied that it didn't have a navy, so it didn't need a ministry. The Hungarians replied that in that case how did Bulgaria get a ministry of culture and the USSR get a ministry of Justice? And there's an old Russian saying about their two main communist newspapers: "Pravda ne isvestiya, Isvestiya ne pravda", which basically translates as "There's no truth in 'the News', and no news in 'The Truth'". >Terry: >>I'm not familiar with "Beyond the Fringe". A handful of years after the Goons - about 1960-62. The first of the big university footlights reviews. Consisted of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett. Lots of very topical (read: dated) comedy, and highly un-PC (Bollards!). Bennett's sermons as a slightly dotty vicar were the highpoint for me, although as far as late 50s early 60s British comedy goes, I prefer Flanders & Swann (Britain's equivalent of Tom Lehrer). Alan Bennett is now a very successful playwright (and did the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love). Talking of Shakespeare, remember that censorship dates back at least to his day. Our popular view of Richard III as an evil tyrant is shaped mainly by his wildly inaccurate portrayal of the man. But would you have liked to have written a play in 1600 that said "well, the Queen's great granddad's enemy was actually quite a nice chap"? As for what can be done despite censorship, I direct you to some of the subtexts of 50s movies under McCarthyism, and some of the sly slang that the Beatles got into their songs during the 60s... James (np - Hounds of Love; next - The Blurred Crusade :) PS - the "Introducing Alice to Robyn's Music" progress... she has apparently had Airscape in her head almost constantly since seeing SH, and has provided an interesting interpretation of "the air in columns" - 'well it is if you're a gull and the columns are thermals...' PPS - I have written a song called "Tiny Frogs", for which Alice has provided me with a spoken intro that talks about clear plastic trousers filled with goldfish and a grand piano that can only play two notes. Very Robynesque (perhaps too much so?). James James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 00:56:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: comedy, censorship, tiny frogs, Airscape On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, James Dignan wrote: > And there's an old Russian saying about their two main communist > newspapers: "Pravda ne isvestiya, Isvestiya ne pravda", which basically > translates as "There's no truth in 'the News', and no news in 'The Truth'". They don't, however, complain that there aren't any crocodiles in Krokodil. > >Terry: > >>I'm not familiar with "Beyond the Fringe". > > A handful of years after the Goons - about 1960-62. The first of the big I'll ask about it. > Talking of Shakespeare, remember that censorship dates back at least to his > day. The Romans, according to St. Augustine, forbade comment on any living man under penalty of death. > Our popular view of Richard III as an evil tyrant is shaped mainly by > his wildly inaccurate portrayal of the man. But would you have liked to > have written a play in 1600 that said "well, the Queen's great granddad's > enemy was actually quite a nice chap"? Wasn't James I king in 1600? (Many of Shake's plays were written while James was king) > As for what can be done despite > censorship, I direct you to some of the subtexts of 50s movies under > McCarthyism, and some of the sly slang that the Beatles got into their > songs during the 60s... Getting things past censors is an art too. I'm much more impressed that Tex Avery (?) managed to put in "Coldernel" as a refrigerator's brand name than I am that Trey Parker managed to work "Dude! It's colder than ing hell in here!" into a South Park script. And the idea that censorship held steady until 1967 is false. We've gone back and forth between permissiveness and restriction repeatedly. The late middle ages and the 1700s were quite permissive. Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 00:56:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: reap "The Big" Victor Mature. Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 03:18:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: The Green Book The Green Book forbade any refernce to the MacGillicuddy of the Reeks and jokes about his name. Who is he? And do any of you English-type folks have an explanation for "Semprini" or is that just silliness? Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 01:19:01 PDT From: "Capitalism Blows" Subject: Re: Pictures & notes of Robyn in Austin i'm afraid i don't know any of the lips' names, save wayne. but i'm guessing it belongs to the bloke who was on his right, and who was playing it all night, except that wayne played it for one song. well, that's how it went in seattle and portland, anyhow. _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 02:04:03 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Hep me, hep me brainstorm Give me some ideas: What are the greatest protest songs of all time? They do NOT have to be from the rock 'n' roll era. Email or post, I don't care which. Tanx, Ebbsy ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 05:40:06 -0400 From: "jbranscombe@compuserve.com" Subject: the church The Church's new album, Box Of Birds, is one of the worst I've ever heard. It consists of entirely redundant covers of songs such as All The Young Dudes, Silver Machine and and Television's Friction. Aaargh. jmbc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 06:59:10 PDT From: "D B" Subject: Re: Hep me, hep me brainstorm > >Give me some ideas: What are the greatest protest songs of all time? They >do NOT have to be from the rock 'n' roll era. Email or post, I don't care >which. Blowin' in the Wind Eve of Destruction Chimes of Freedom ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 10:36:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Commie jokes Now that JH3 and James Dignan have started the ball rolling, here are a few more classic Soviet jokes. [Some of these require you to know who the Soviet leaders Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev were, for which I make no apology.] There is a vast collection of jokes about Brezhnev, who by the mid-70s was widely disliked even by Communists for his corruption, his clumsy cult of personality, and his apparent stupidity: Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev are travelling cross-country in a train. After a while, the train breaks down. When Stalin is asked what to do, he says, "Shoot the engineers and exile the crew." The train starts up again, but soon there is another breakdown. When Khrushchev is asked what to do, he says, "Pardon the surviving crew members and make them the new engineers." Once more the train starts up, only to break down again. This time Brezhnev is asked what to do. He thinks a bit and then replies, "Pull down the window shades and pretend we're moving." One day Brezhnev receives a crew of cosmonauts who have just completed a mission. After congratulating them he adds, "For your next mission, we've thought of something that will really put the Americans in their place. You're going to be the first men to land on the sun!" "WHAT?! But we'll be burned to death!" "Do you think your leaders are stupid? Everything has been carefully planned. We've arranged for you to land at night." A joke about Gorbachev and glasnost (and dogs!): first dog: "So how are things under Gorbachev?" second dog: "Well, the chain is still too short and the food bowl is still too far away, but now they let us bark as loud as we want." Q: What is a Soviet string quartet? A: A Soviet orchestra returning from a foreign tour. In the 1970s, the Soviet government allowed unprecedented numbers of Jews to emigrate to Israel. At the height of this period,a Jewish factory worker told his boss he was applying for permission to emigrate. The boss tried to dissuade him. "What's the matter? Don't you like the job?" "The job is just fine. But my wife, she really wants to go." "Then what? You don't love your Socialist Motherland?" "I'm as patriotic as the next man. But my wife's parents, they really want to go." "Well, then, do you just want to live in a Jewish society?" "Hey, I've never even kept Sabbath. But my brother-in-law, he really wants to go." "Well, then," the exasperated boss exclaimed, "Why don't you just let all them emigrate without you?" "They can't. I'm the only Jew in the family." Q: What's the difference between capitalism and socialism? A: Capitalism is man exploiting man, while socialism is the exact reverse. [The old Russian imperial capital was St. Petersburg. During WWI it was renamed Petrograd. After Lenin's death, it was renamed Leningrad.] Around 1938, an old man applied for a new apartment. A government clerk took down his name and age and then asked, "Where were you born?" "St. Petersburg." "Where were you living at the time of the Revolution?" "Petrograd." "Where do you live now?" "Leningrad." "And where would you like to live?" "St. Petersburg." One more Brezhnev joke: One day Brezhnev decided to bring his aged mother to Moscow to show her how well her son had done for himself. First he showed her around his Kremlin office with its chandeliers, its teak desk, its priceless antique knicknacks, the AK-47 carved from solid ivory (a gift from a grateful Angolan government). She just muttered something non-committal in response. Slightly miffed, Brezhnev then took her to his apartment. Again he showed off the expensive furniture, the larder full of exotic imported food, the private swimming pool and the servants. Again, her reaction was rather disappointing. Finally, Brezhnev summoned his personal helicopter and flew her out to his nearest dacha. As he showed her around the huge mansion, the vast gardens, the cavernous garage holding his collection of foreign cars, Brezhnev thought that his mother looked even less happy than before. Finally, he burst out, "So what do you think, Ma? Do you like it?" "It's all very nice, Leonid," his mother answered hesitantly. "But what are you going to do if the Communists come back?" ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 08:03:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Hep me, hep me brainstorm - --- D B wrote: >>Give me some ideas: What are the greatest protest songs of >>all time? They do NOT have to be from the rock 'n' roll era. > Blowin' in the Wind > Eve of Destruction > Chimes of Freedom (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody) Turn Me Around (not terribly certain of the title; it's the first song of the joan baez live album from 1976 or so on A&M) Let's Lynch the Landlord (kinda narrow, but...) We Shall Overcome Give Peace a Chance Which Side are You on? There is Power in a Union Fight the Power Public Image Anarchy in the UK London's Burning I Wanna Destroy You :P i blame these suggestions on lack of sleep, only having nonfat milk for my coffee, the letter "F," and jimmy haynes === "America's greatest natural resource, still, to this day, is the moron" --Martin Mull _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 16:19:46 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Beyond the Fringe On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, James Dignan wrote: > A handful of years after the Goons - about 1960-62. The first of the big > university footlights reviews. Consisted of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, > Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett. Lots of very topical (read: dated) > comedy, and highly un-PC (Bollards!). Bennett's sermons as a slightly dotty > vicar were the highpoint for me, although as far as late 50s early 60s > British comedy goes, I prefer Flanders & Swann (Britain's equivalent of Tom > Lehrer). Alan Bennett is now a very successful playwright (and did the > screenplay for Shakespeare in Love). I've got a book of the 'Beyond the Fringe' script and variations at home, and believe me, BTF is funnier than anything in Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. I was too young to see any of those shows (first time I've been able to claim that on this list) but I did catch Flanders and Swann's follow-up 'At the drop of another hat' and I did see Pete and Dud in their 'Behind the Fridge' stage show (highlight: Dudley Moore's song about Edward Heath to the tune of 'Shaft'). The best thing in BTF is the Shakespeare 'Age of Kings' parody, which I will try to dig out and post. - - Mike 'I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin' Godwin PS Has anyone ever heard Donald Swann's musical settings for Tolkien's verses? I always imagine them as sort of: "When you are lost in London And you don't know where you are You'll hear my voice a-calling A Elbereth Gilthoniel" But presumably they are better than that. PPS I'm sure Susan will agree with me that Peter Cook was a huge influence on Robyn Hitchcock. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 16:26:54 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: The Green Book On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, Terrence M Marks wrote: > The Green Book forbade any refernce to the MacGillicuddy of the Reeks and > jokes about his name. Who is he? Stewart, over to you - presumably he is a Scottish clan chieftain. My guess is that this name was used as a synonym for D and V, or something unpleasant like that. > And do any of you English-type folks have an explanation for "Semprini" or > is that just silliness? Semprini was a pianist on the BBC Light Programme who used to play easy listening classics before the term 'easy listening' existed. And I'm pretty sure that James I (and VI) acceded to the English throne in 1603, so it would still have been E1 in 1600. - - Hugh Jampton and Mike Godwin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 11:47:35 -0400 From: "jbranscombe@compuserve.com" Subject: Pete 'n' Python Mike G mentions Peter Cook's influence on Robyn. Never mind his influence - on the booklet pictures for JfS he *looks* astonishingly like him. Also to chip in on the 'Being just contaminates the void, Everybody' argument a) I think it's superb, and b) it has the same ethos as several Python songs - notably The Philosopher's Song, Always Look On The Bright Side and that one about the place earth-has-in-our-ever-expanding-universe whose title I can't remember. Someone also mentioned a Sartre connection, but I can't remember whether they noted that Jean-Paul's philosophical magnum opus is called Being And Nothingness. This fits neatly with Robyn's self-confessed Camus influence and the strong grasp of French he evinced at his Paris shows. Camus and Sartre are pretty de rigueur (oops,sorry...) for gun-slinging French A Level students. I'm with Eb on JfS's production values, and with Susan on Underwater Moonlight as Platonic Ideal Form. Eb, how about I Wanna Destroy You as a protest song... jmbc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 11:27:50 -0600 From: ultraconformist@mail.weboffices.com Subject: Re: Beyond the Fringe >I've got a book of the 'Beyond the Fringe' script and variations at home, >and believe me, BTF is funnier than anything in Michael Flanders and >Donald Swann. Yeah, I definitely agree. With all due respect to James, F&S is to me just funny, where "Beyond The Fringe" is genius. I actually don't really feel that the political humor has dated so very badly, either. Most of that has to do with stupidity/incompetence/absurdity, which is pretty universal- you might miss some nuances if you don't know exactly who Harold MacMillan was, but in large part they don't depend on that. A few topical references here and there help you a lot with some of the skits: "The English Way of Death", for example, it helps if you're familiar with Mitford's "The American Way of Death". But there's nothing that's really impenetrable without knowledge of British politics circa 1961. Maybe "Steppes In The Right Direction" and such like, which would be more "what the hell are they on about?" than funny to people who have only a dim memory or none at all of the Cold War. >PPS I'm sure Susan will agree with me that Peter Cook was a huge influence >on Robyn Hitchcock. I -would- agree with that. Robyn's stories bear a striking resemblance to Peter Cook's hysterical "Sitting on The Bench" rambles, particularly the "Madonna of the Wasps" intro one about "You forgot the bean, didn't you?". That one is very like Peter Cook, particularly in the repetition, although Robyn's stories are of course, a bit different......I don't know how to express this, best way I can think of to say it is they're a bit more fantastic and not quite as hyperactively verbal. Love on ya, Susan "They only ask you one question "Who are you?", and I got 75 percent on that" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 12:26:01 -0400 From: "jbranscombe@compuserve.com" Subject: loooong tracks I may have imagined it, but was there a thread about long tracks recently. Can anyone remember what was the longest one. I've just heard a seventy minute effort. It takes up the whole of Paul Simpson (ex-Teardrop Explodes) new album. jmbc. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 17:39:13 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Pete 'n' Python On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, jbranscombe@compuserve.com wrote: > Mike G mentions Peter Cook's influence on Robyn. Never mind his influence - > on the booklet pictures for JfS he *looks* astonishingly like him. I am aware. I have seen a video of Hitchcock performing a Brian Ferry number where he even moves like the late Peter C. The hair is all wrong, though, and from some angles there is no resemblance at all. Where did you get your copy of the album? A quick tour of Bath's two largest music shops this a.m. revealed that HMV had 2 Hitchcock CDs in stock (SH and Greatest Hits) while MVC had none whatsover - they used to have a Hitchcock divider card, but even that has disappeared. Meanwhile the adjoining Hendrix section gets bulkier and bulkier as the Hendrix Family reprocess more and more tapes ... - - Mike 'Trembling Knees' Godwin ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #301 *******************************