Michael Flanders and Donald Swann

Michael Flanders' introduction on At The Drop Of Another Hat:

I must say, wandering around, [..] things have come to a pretty underpass here in England while we've been away. It's 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 - and our job, as I see it, is to put it back again.

The combination of Michael Flanders (the words) and Donald Swann (the music) resulted in many memorable comic songs and a few serious ones, broadly gently satirical and in sharp contrast to the new wave of satire which followed them, led by Beyond The Fringe and David Frost.

Their greatest hits were The Hippopotamus and The Gnu, and their friend Ian Wallace had a lot of success performing their animal songs.

Note: please do not contact me asking about any other Flanders & Swann lyrics. There isn't anything I can do to help and there's nothing I can add to what's already in these pages.
These pages were begun on 13th August 1995
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