humour in progressive music

BaldFriede wrote: Jeremy Bender wrote: To me Roger Waters as a person is someone with a great sense of(sarcastic) humour. Mostly after his PF period.   Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Nick Mason, Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford, Carl Palmer, Jordan Rudess, Robert Jan Stips and even professor Fripp often take things with a grain of salt. And don't take themselves too seriously. This may not be so obvious, but many of the lyrics of Van der Graaf Generator or Peter Hammill have to be taken with a grain of salt. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek going on there.

What would you say are some examples of humour in VdGG? I only have Pawn Hearts and Still Life but lately I've come to be rather obsessed with them, I just can't afford to buy more albums at the moment. Anyway, I'd like to hear of when Hammill wrote humourous lyrics because I would imagine his sense of humour would very very unique.

Also, I haven't heard much humour in the King Crimson I've heard, and Robert Fripp seems to be a rather serious person. What songs have they injected humour into, I think that'd be interesting.

BaldFriede wrote: "Cat Food" (on "In the Wake of Poseidon") and "Happy Family" (on "Lizard") are definitely examples of humour in King Crimson. As for Hammill: You have one example of his humour in your signature line. "Fishes can't fly"? Now really!

Taken on its own, that line from Killer is pretty funny, but the song as a whole seems pretty serious.

sean wrote: BaldFriede wrote: "Cat Food" (on "In the Wake of Poseidon") and "Happy Family" (on "Lizard") are definitely examples of humour in King Crimson. As for Hammill: You have one example of his humour in your signature line. "Fishes can't fly"? Now really! Taken on its own, that line from Killer is pretty funny, but the song as a whole seems pretty serious.

Yes, but I remember having read or heard an interview with Peter Hammill in which he explained that many of his lyrics should be taken with a grain of salt, and he especially pointed out this line. So while of course he deals with dark themes he often exaggerates them. This is even true for the lyrics on "Over", for example "Crying Wolf". Yes, he himself feels everything of what he writes about in this song, and yet he also takes the position of objective observer and makes fun of himself. "Crying wolf from the depths of your sheep's heart". This is a funny line, if you look at it closely.


Edited by BaldFriede - January 22 2008 at 12:55

BaldFriede wrote: sean wrote: BaldFriede wrote: "Cat Food" (on "In the Wake of Poseidon") and "Happy Family" (on "Lizard") are definitely examples of humour in King Crimson. As for Hammill: You have one example of his humour in your signature line. "Fishes can't fly"? Now really! Taken on its own, that line from Killer is pretty funny, but the song as a whole seems pretty serious. Yes, but I remember having read or heard an interview with Peter Hammill in which he explained that many of his lyrics should be taken with a grain of salt, and he especially pointed out this line. So while of course he deals with dark themes he often exaggerates them. This is even true for the lyrics on "Over", for example "Crying Wolf". Yes, he himself feels everything of what he writes about in this song, and yet he also takes the position of objective observer and makes fun of himself. "Crying wolf from the depths of your sheep's heart". This is a funny line, if you look at it closely.

Oh, and how about this:

He'd like you to call him lucky,
the original self-made man;
no sense of wide-screen vision,
no gender strangeness he can understand.
         
Roll on the old, old story,
you can call it original sin;
yeh, stamp that one in his passport,
paste it and colour it in.
         
Colour in a history of pride and prejudice;
what he wants is mystery, but what he gets is this:
a kick to kill the kiss.
         
He thinks it fair competition,
somehow having and eating the cake,
when the women are in their bodies
and the men are all over the place.

This is definitely very much tongue in cheek.

Also, I don't recall Rush being mentioned but they're pretty funny guys, mostly outside of the music though. 

I don't understand those who say humor does not belong into prog. in classical music there is a lot of humor. Mozart wrote a choral for the words "Leck mich am Arsch" ("Kiss my Ass"), Bach wrote his famous "Kaffeekantate" ("Coffee Cantata"), which is full of humor, Haydn has been called "the biggest musical joker of all times" by Leonard Bernstein, even Brahms, who is usually viewed as being without humor, showed some for his "Akademische Festovertüre", and this list could be continued endlessly. and yes, even Wagner can be funny (albeit sometimes unintentionally); in his "Meistersinger von Nürnberg", for example. and we proggers have to stay a humorless bunch? come on!

heyitsthatguy wrote: this isn't me trying to defend the band, but I kind of took the lyrics of Systematic Chaos (at least choice songs like The Dark Eternal Night, the others may vary) as a route of not taking themselves too seriously. The animation they played for The Dark Eternal Night in concert was hilarious

Don't worry,  I have the same view. I don't know if it's possible to think of anything but non-seriousness when seeing lyrics like The Dark Eternal Night. The footage was hilarious for that song. I don't know if you saw them on the Octavarium tour, but they had some pretty funny animations for Octavarium.

sean wrote: heyitsthatguy wrote: this isn't me trying to defend the band, but I kind of took the lyrics of Systematic Chaos (at least choice songs like The Dark Eternal Night, the others may vary) as a route of not taking themselves too seriously. The animation they played for The Dark Eternal Night in concert was hilarious Don't worry,  I have the same view. I don't know if it's possible to think of anything but non-seriousness when seeing lyrics like The Dark Eternal Night. The footage was hilarious for that song. I don't know if you saw them on the Octavarium tour, but they had some pretty funny animations for Octavarium.

I was there the night of the Score DVD that was a great animation as well...also the whole free word association part of that song could be viewed as humorous (sailing on the seven seize the day tripper)

heyitsthatguy wrote: sean wrote: heyitsthatguy wrote: this isn't me trying to defend the band, but I kind of took the lyrics of Systematic Chaos (at least choice songs like The Dark Eternal Night, the others may vary) as a route of not taking themselves too seriously. The animation they played for The Dark Eternal Night in concert was hilarious Don't worry,  I have the same view. I don't know if it's possible to think of anything but non-seriousness when seeing lyrics like The Dark Eternal Night. The footage was hilarious for that song. I don't know if you saw them on the Octavarium tour, but they had some pretty funny animations for Octavarium. I was there the night of the Score DVD that was a great animation as well...also the whole free word association part of that song could be viewed as humorous (sailing on the seven seize the day tripper)

diems ready, jack the ripper owens wilson, phillips and my supper's ready...

score is probably my favourite DVD of theirs. I know this is a completely irrelevant but that was a great show. I went to the one in CT a couple days before. I wish I had been there though.

Nobody mentions The "saint" Flower Kings and I recently have found a great line in The Sume Of No Reason: