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Hold It!!!! You are about to enter a page dedicated to |
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Please read the following and select the posted instructions as appropriate. |
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I realize that if I continue past this page that I might possibly, perhaps, and maybe will find something that might offend the sensibilities of maidenly aunts, dainty women, and delicate men. Therefore if I am offended and so show my own lack of sophistication, tolerance, and belief in the right of people to read and learn what they will, then that's just tough tiddy. |
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Return to Oscar Brand Caricature |
The Songs of Oscar Brand
Truly American Tunes from the Folk Singer Without Peer!
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We're the finest f------ family in the land! |
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We're the finest f------ family in the land! |
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--- excerpt "The Finest F------ Family" |
Well, even preceded by the disclaimer page for CooperToons Knowledge for the Politically Incorrect, there are still bounds of decorum that a family website must follow. But fortunately as a scholar and artist, Oscar has never been beholden to such petty boundaries, and his albums of bawdy songs have to rank among the finest every sung.
Now many of the songs, such as "The Finest F------ Family", are indeed not for the fainthearted. At first glance, though, the first verse of "The Finest F------ Family" seems quiet mild:
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There's a gentleman's convenience in the north of Waterloo |
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And another for their ladies further down |
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For a penny on deposit, you can hire a watercloset |
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But a season ticket costs you half a crown. |
But rest assured, it goes downhill rapidly from there - or uphill depending on your point of view. True, some of the more outspoken verses might cause a blush to touch the cheeks of a maidenly aunt, unless she were a sophisticated maidenly aunt, that is. Take, for example, "Turalai":
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The sexual life of the camel |
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Is not quite what everyone thinks. |
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One night in an excess of passion. |
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He tried to deflower the sphinx. |
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Singing turalai, uralai, uralai, |
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Turalai, uralai-ay. |
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Singing turalai, uralai, uralai, |
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Turalai, uralai-yay. |
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Further experimentation |
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Has incontrovertably shown |
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That comparative safety on shipboard |
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Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone. |
The discerning reader might deduce the source of "Turalai" and correctly conclude the best of Oscar's bawdy tunes are without doubt his military songs. Of them all, "Frig the Flying Fortress" hits the perfect balance of having a catchy tune (which discerning ears will recognize as Stephen Foster's "Glendy Burke") blended with the patriotic yet thumb-the-nose lyrics of the World War II airmen.
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The captain sets upon the left |
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He flies the Fort with ease. |
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But he hands it to the copilot |
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When we're heading for the trees. |
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Frig the Flying Fortress |
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And pray that she'll abort. |
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We'd rather be at home |
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Than in the friggin' Flying Fort. |
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Then pity the poor tail gunner |
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For his face is very sparse, |
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And when the landing gear retracts |
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He gets it up the arse. |
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Frig the Flying Fortress |
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And pray that she'll abort. |
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We'd rather be at home |
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Than in the friggin' Flying Fort. |
Oscar's air force albums "Wild Blue Younder" and followed by "Out of the Blue" were not his first bawdy albums, but they cemented his reputation as a master of the genre. The albums were produced by a reasonably mainstream producer who, when Oscar asked if they should censor the lyrics, said no. Make them honest. Although any concern is laughable by today's standards, this was the time a mild "damn" in public could get you fined or arrested and get a kid expelled from school.
Some of the soldier songs were in oral circulation around the air bases; others were original works suitable to be sung with equal gusto.
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Oh, that in flight refueling! |
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Don't leave much time for fooling! |
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The bastard won't fly |
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If the tanks they run dry. |
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We depend on that in flight refueling. |
Oscar started recording his bawdy ballads in 1949 and kept on for more than 50 years. They are (at least in part) Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads (Volumes 1 - 4), G.I. American Army Songs, Bawdy Sea Shanties, Rollicking Sea Shanties, Bawdy Hootenanny, Bawdy Songs Goes to College, Sing-Along Bawdy Songs, The Wild Blue Yonder, Bawdy Western Songs, The Best of Bawdy Songs, Oscar Brand Sings for Adults, Brand X, and Bawdy Songs Rides Again. We must add these are only a small portion of Oscar's output, and the majority of his albums contain more or less traditional, but no less distinguished, fare.
.Oh, yes. In addition to writing and singing, Oscar has been a continual presence in radio since 1945, picking up two Peabody Awards.
.References
Yes, Oscar has his own website at http://www.oscarbrand.com/
"Out of the Blue", John Starr, Air and Space/Smithsonian Magazine, November 1997. Online at http://www.fabulousrocketeers.com/Out_of_the_Blue.htm
The story of Oscar's Air Force songs written by the son of one Oscar's first source.
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