Customer Reviews
You may be a trifle concerned at the thought ... - By: J. W. Chew, 24 Dec 2007 
... of buying three CDs of two men singing comic songs.
Don't be.
Flanders & Swann's "comic songs" are different from most. They have bite, wit, character, fire & - 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 - By: Darren Ross, 24 Nov 2005 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, & they're not afraid to make references that are, for want of a better word, "intellectual" -in other words, for all the fun & 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, & often of a range & depth that one wouldn't have at first suspected. "Misalliance" is, at first glance a trivial piece of nonsense about a honeysuckle & 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 & Swannin the same corpus as Gilbert & Sullivan, Wilde, Jerome K Jerome, Chesterton & 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 & you realise you arein the presence of two massive talents. Sometimes you have to look to the past to find something new & Flanders & Swann are a breath of fresh air. Brilliant!
Timeless humour - By: , 11 Jan 2005 I don't expect there are many 20-something year olds who enjoy Flanders & Swann but I am proud to be one of them. I learnt to sing the Hippopotamus Song at school & 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 & Swann were one of a kind - unmissable British humour at its best!
Comedy changes with the seasons, wit is timeless - By: Andy Millward, 23 Mar 2004 Comedy changes with the seasons, but wit is timeless. Oscar Wilde never goes out of fashion, because he ignored fashion. In the same way, Flanders & Swann remain relevant because their material was selected with care to tap into the eternal concerns of middle-class audiences.
There is still much to surprise & delight as F&S take on public transport, hi-hi, parking, xenophobia, relationships, popular songs, animals fictional & real, even war (arguably, F&S were never more powerful & relevant thanin the two very dark anti-war songs included on the third CD, perhaps inspired by Swann's Quaker sympathies), & much more besides.
True, many songs & commentaries by Flanders & Swann may seem dated because the personalities are long gone, but the veracity of Flanders' rapier witin pricking inflated egos is just as relevant today as it has ever been, echoing the skills of WS Gilbert & others to transcend their time (just insert the names of your least favourite politicians!) While Flanders publically mocked satire ("It has rightly been said that the role of satire is to strip away the veneer from society. Our role as I see it is to put it back"), he was not averse to indulgingin what for the time was fairly pungent satire (shame that the wonderful 'Holein my Budget' is not included here.)
But overall, the mood is light & affectionately funny. Who could fail to enjoy Madeira M'dear, The Gasman Cometh or Ill Wind. Simple, light, refreshing & performed with consummate skill, & leaving the listener with a smile. What more could you want?
Two Gentlemen of Music - By: A G Tottle, 09 Jan 2004 I was fortunate enough to see At The Drop of Another Hatin London. These CDs bring back the memory of that evening very clearly indeed. The gentle satire of Flanders' words combined with Swann's incomparable music epitomise that era. Ifin doubt, buy it. You won't regret it at all.
