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Does Humour Belong in Music?


Nail Soup

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The Macc Lads always made me laugh, I know in todays world their style might not be flavour of the day but to the 20 year old me I found them hilarious. Sadly not many realised the actual joke - and nearly 40 years later that’s still the case.

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Yes, of course.   That's one of the attractions to The Beatles. Quite a few songs are meant to be silly and funny, and some of the stuff is just plain naughty--"four of fish and finger pie".  Some of it is dark--Maxwell and Bungalow Bill.  Even I am the Walrus is comical.

 

And I do love Zappa--The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is one of the greatest albums of the rock era--the lonesome cowboy Burt stuff is hilarious to those of us who saw that donkey Swaggart get his own.  Most listeners now probably don't get the references, but even without, the lyrics are funny.

 

I love humor in music. What I don't like is those who take themselves and stupid macho-ism seriously. It ruins a band like Foreigner for me.

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Why not? The world is pretty ludicrous, and some of the best music tends to reflect this in one way or other. Personally, I like some of Zappa's less cynical humour. Other bands I like whose oeuvre includes a degree of humour of one form or another would include The Tubes, Steely Dan, The Stranglers, Tom Waits, Primus the aforementioned 10cc to name but a few.

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I love Bloodhound Gang's Hooray For Boobies. 

It's extremely purile, which would normally be a big turn off for me, but it's so well written and just so damn catchy!

 

Also Tenacious D. I've always thought Jack Black has too good a voice to be in a comedy band. 

 

One thing I don't like about humourous bands is when they have talky bits between tracks. It soon gets really old after repeated listens. 

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Does politics belong in music?

Does a social conscience belong in music?

Does love belong in music?

etc...

 

But to answer with some favourites:

 

Hurry up Harry - Sham 69

My cousin Kevin - The Undertones

Be Chrool to Your Scuel - Twisted Sister and Alice Cooper

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I suspect there has always been humor in music.

 

There are historical references to Roman troops singing bawdy songs about their commanders.

 

It probably goes back to some caveman chanting rude things about his neighbours while banging stones together.

Edited by Cato
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Humour definitely belongs in music, just like love, life, sorrow and death. 
 

I appreciate that reads a bit like one of those tacky living-room wall slogans which are all the rage these days.

 

A bit of light-hearted wit does not mean the music is not taken seriously. More humour, please, the world will be better for it.

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11 minutes ago, Cato said:

It probably goes back to some caveman chanting rude things about his neighbours while banging stones together.
 

Oh god yes, Ugg and his greatest hit "ugg ugg ug UGG ug uggg". It's a classic.

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