Lyr Add: Song of Reproduction (Flanders & Swann)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of Reproduction (Flanders & Swann)
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 02:36 PM

T.S.: During W.W.2, IIRC, it was considered patriotic to use fiber needles to save steel for the war effort.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of Reproduction (Flanders & Swann)
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 07:26 PM

http://www.sparkplug.org.uk/wardworks/Gramophone/index.html

for playing 78rpm records (in the old days) the stylus was
a steel needle, loud or soft variations.
To reduce wear on the records, a plant based material (thorn)
could be used, which also produced a lower sound volume than steel.

Thomas.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of Reproduction (Flanders & Swann)
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 03:09 PM

Re: Song of Reproduction:

what are "fibre needles"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 04:45 PM

Ah, google brings me back to Mudcat for
Bring back the Birch

And I'm listening to
The Slow Train as I write, I'd forgotten that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 04:32 PM

I've enjoyed their songs (may even have a record somewhere) but can't remember the birch.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 06:47 PM

Oh, and when I first heard this song I was a very young child indeed,
and entirely clueless about all this hi-fi jargon.
So I thought Flanders had blurted out
"Flatter on your bottom!!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 12:46 PM

The anon post was from me: just cleaned up the computer and didn't reset cookie! Our party piece is Mud Mud Glorious Mud. We've got an international audience singing it on many a Greek holiday!
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 10:06 AM

Ah, GUEST, but have you heard their
"Bring Back the Birch" ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 05:17 AM

This song always reminds me of a Punch cartoon where a hifi enthusiast with complicated equipment is saying to a friend: "...and if you listen carefully you can even hear where Satchmo drops his handkerchief"!
RtS
(Flanders and Swann fan: we often try to offend as many of our foreign friends as possible with the "Song of Patriotic Prejudice")

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 07:15 PM

"I can make a Caruso sound like 'Hutch' " --

see Mudcat thread on Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchison (1900 - 1969)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: High Fidelity (Flanders & Swann)
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 06:43 PM

And here is that very performance.

"Song of Reproduction," performed 1957

Subject: Song of Reproduction (At the Drop of a Hat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 11:40 AM

More than one live recording exists of
At the Drop of a Hat,
the Flanders & Swann "farrago" from which this song comes.

Which means,
that from one version to the next,
the words may vary, although the music is pretty much the same.

So if these words differ from the version you recall,
it's because they come from a recording of a different performance.
This performance was released on Parlophone
and recorded in the Fortune Theatre
roughly one year into the "farrago"'s successful run.

SONG OF REPRODUCTION

Words by Michael Flanders
Music by Donald Swann

Introduction (sung)
I had a little gramophone,
I'd wind it round and round,
And with a sharpish needle,
It made a cheerful sound.
And then they amplified it,
It was much louder then:
And used sharpened fiber needles
To make it soft again.

Today for reproduction
I'm as eager as can be:
Count me among the faithful fans
Of High -- Fi - de - li - ty!


first chorus
High Fidelity!
Hi - Fi's the thing for me,
With an LP disc and an FM set
And a corner reflex cabinet.
High frequency range
Complete with auto-change!
All the highest notes, neither sharp nor flat:
The ear can't hear as high as that!
Still, I ought to please any passing bat
With my High Fidelity!

Swann, not singing, plays the piano, a 'vamp' on the chorus.
Flanders stops singing and speaks the following over the piano.

Who made this circuit up for you, anyway?
You bought it in a shop?!
Hoo, what a terrible job.
You've got your negative feedback
coupled in with your push-pull input-output.
Take that across through your red-headed pickup to your tweeter ...
If you're modding more than eight,
you're gonna get wow on your top!
You try to bring that down
through your rumble filter to your woofer,
and what'll you get?
Flutter on your bottom!!

second chorus
High Fidelity!
'ffrr' for me!
I've an opera here that you shan't escape
On miles and miles of recording tape.
High decibel gain
Is easy to obtain.
With a tone control at a single touch,
I can make a Caruso sound like 'Hutch'.
But then, I never did care for music much:
It's the High Fidelity!

Copyright to the Estate of Flanders & Swann / EMI Records