Flanders & Swann - Kokoraki.wmv
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- čas přidán 12. 01. 2011
- When it comes to songs, one thing that always attracts my curiosity is non-greeks singing greek songs. One of the most humorous such cases is Donald Swann, of the legendary 50's and 60's Flanders and Swann duo, singing To Kokoraki (Το Κοκοράκι - The Cockerel), a satyrical traditional greek song. Before joining Michael Flanders, composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923--1994) studied modern languages in Oxford, and during World War II served in Greece "whose music and culture became a life-long passion and influence". In that sense his admirable rendering of To Kokoraki is not surprising
Still, I think it's no small feat, as even native greek speakers can easily trip over their tongues trying to imitate the required animal sounds and going through the repetitions of this funny song.
This 1959 recording is from their musical revue At the Drop of a Hat. Swann's handwritten notes on the song are interesting themselves, with all the words mimicking the animal voices carefully written out. Greek listeners will easily recognize the tune, as it is a children's favorite and has been recorded many times. In Ζήτω το ελληνικό τραγούδι Dionysis Savvopoulos made a version where each animal voice was performed by another artist.
Perhaps the most famous Flanders and Swann song is the The Hippopotamus ("Mud, mud, glorious mud"). You can check out a couple of versions here - with a russian interlude - and here.
pyrroulas.blogspot.com/2009/01... - Hudba
I love Flanders & Swann.
The At the Drop of a Hat album was one of my childhood favourites. Me and my sister knew most of the lyrics by heart - that and Songs By Tom Lehrer.
My 5 year old daughter loves this, having first heard it as we drove on the back road from Iraklion to Rethimnon last week.
What a great example of the enormous talent of Donald Swann!
To clarify DrDave953's point, he is remembering the earlier mono recordings of the show made around its 50th performance in February 1957 and released on Parlophone PMC 1033 in June 1957.
The recording featured here seems to be from the stereo recording of the show's final performance at the Fortune Theatre in London on May 2nd 1959 and released on Parlophone PCS 3001.
Hope this helps those who remember the different versions.
Sitting here in my living room by the sea in Athens listening to this "historic" recording with some Greek friends and their children, they were fascinated that one of their ":Laiki" - literally Folk Song - had made the journey to London! I loved the original London production and insisted on being taken twice, The Hippopotamus song is still one of my party pieces and I dust it off every Christmas without fail!!_ "Flanders asks what animal says Tsiu Tsiu. Elderly Greek ladies to their cats!
Wonderful! So so much talent...
I love this so much! It's hilarious!!!
Utterly delightful!
I first heard this late 50's early 60's, still as funny as ever even though I don't understand Greek.
There are at least two different versions of the album, "At the drop of a hat". On the version I heard, Flanders asks what kind of animal says Tsiu Tsiu.
"We must have it in full some time - alternated with the Ring Cycle!","a more telling case for Enosis I've never heard."
My father had this on a 45 rpm record and had no idea it was Greek until he played it for a close friend of the family who was Greek. She laughed so hard and could only nod her head when my father said, "Oh so this is Greek?". lol
Play it at 75% speed! It’s better!
This might be in deference to the fact that they were refugee aid workers in Greece both during and after WWII...
"Think, when we speak of horses, that you see them, planting their proud hooves in the receiving earth."
"Not sure if we do talk of horses..."
There's a horse in this song!
Amazing!
Loved it!
I rolled with laughter hearing this for the first time.
He should have sung 'Old McDonald's farm' for a Greek audience. They'd all be wondering what 'E-I-E-I-O' means in English.
See : Nikos Gounaris + Chorus (1940) = czcams.com/video/VRQaDrH7hvU/video.html
: )
I'd kill to know what a "petinari" and "kotura" are! :)
A petinari is a bird like a canary and a kotoula is a hen.
Can someone please translate this to English please !!!!!!
When I go to the market, my lady, I will by you a rooster... to wake you up every morning. I think you can guess the other animals!
I'd always thought it was the Greek version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
Yeah, it is very similar