I go with Jake Thackeray's performance of Brother Gorilla (written by George Brassens). I saw him do it live about 35 years ago (my band were supporting him), and still remember the penultimate verse word for word: "Now the gorilla is very proficient In the role of a paramour But his mental equipment's deficient And his eyesight's exceedingly poor. With a paleolithic leer He gave the old lady a miss And grabbing the judge by the ear Gave him an introductory kiss" As ever with JT, his morose, urbane, cultivated expression, courageous resistance to corpsing, and biting precision of delivery gave the lyrics a power they can lack on the page. (The triumphant yet restrained sneer as he spat out the "introductory kiss" phrase.) I was practically on the floor with stunned admiration at this point of the song - struggling not to collapse in case I missed the next finely honed gem.
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