George Formby-Classic or dud

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OK, I've just got back from the pub, a bit pissed and I've put on the new Morrissey album, but what I REALLY want to listen to is George Formby.So out goes Morrissey and George is on. First track is Leaning on a lampost, hmm, one of the big hits but not great so lets skip it and we're into Hi-Tiddly-Hi-Ti-Island, a strange Egyptian world music(50 years before world music was invented) track with risque lyrics and a ukele solo in the middle. Hurrah ! George Formby is GREAT ! Does anyone agree ?

― Beryl Fairgrieve, Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Go to bed.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

V. Classic.

George refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa, y'know.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

He was cheeky, he was chirpy, and he fought racism. He's a British national hero.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

And "With Me Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock" just kicks arse.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Sunday, 20 June 2004 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

>And "With Me Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock" just kicks arse

As does "Fanlight Fanny" and "Hindoo man". Oh, and "I wonder who's under her balcony now ?" And "Sitting on the ice in the ice rink" - funnier than Morrissey (and he's funny).

― Fishman, Sunday, 20 June 2004 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Ever since seeing one of the George Formby/Gracie Fields films made in the 1930s about twenty years ago, I've been in the 'Formby Is Classic' camp.

― Amarga (Amarga), Sunday, 20 June 2004 01:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought this thread might be about woodworking, you learn something new every day.

― earlnash, Sunday, 20 June 2004 03:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic for the song title 'If Women Like that Like Men Like Those, Why Don't Women Like Me?' Which could easily be Morrissey, or the Wedding Present.

― bham, Monday, 21 June 2004 07:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Is Momus out there tonight?

― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 21 June 2004 07:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I just got the 5 cd box set "England's famed clown prince of song"- dreadful title but it includes every track recorded by George Formby from 1926 to 1939. Apparantly there's a second volume out later in the year which goes from 1939-1950. £13.99 from Play. Bargain or what ?

― Fishman, Thursday, 1 July 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Bah. Out of stock. :-(

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 2 July 2004 07:54 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

-- Fishman (Fishfromtahit...) (webmail), July 1st, 2004 4:17 PM. (link)

i've been eyeing this at the tower records downtown. something tells me i'd dig this dude--big goofy smile, plays the banjo, cheeky song titles, and lots of good people seem to like him. also i like stuff that is very british.

so can some one provide a keener sense of this guy's schtick? what's he all about?

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Saturday, 7 August 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

did i say banjo? i meant UKELELE! even better!!

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Saturday, 7 August 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

also, the company that puts this box out, JSP, typically puts out box sets of music by american jazz, blues, and country musicians. those sets are pretty conservatively packaged with little in the way of excitable cover copy and pretty blasé liner notes (although i still love them). this package reads "125 sides from one of the cheekiest, cheeriest entertainers, ever" (sounds like something from ILM!) on the front, and on the back is a long, impassioned explanation of why this set was Absolutely Necessary. coming from a label that's given to self-effacing presentation, this sort of enthusiasm seems to signal something really special.

and on THIRD thought, he IS playing a BANJO on the cover. BANJO and UKELELE! ace.

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Saturday, 7 August 2004 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

For a full appreciation of George's schtick, try the George Formby Society.

In my head he has this affinity with early blues, not in terms of the sound but in the way he uses outrageously sexual lyrics disguised through cheeky metaphor. That boxed set sounds ridiculously exciting.

Plus, as any Chris Morris fan knows, George wrote "Subterranean Homesick Blues". I've never been able to hear Oasis' "Roll With It" without immediately thinking of him performing it, either.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 7 August 2004 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

He was well known for playing the Banjo Ukulele, a hybrid instrument combining the Hawaiian ukulele and the big American Banjo, which had been invented by Alvin D. Keech and christened by him as the 'Banjulele'

oh, wow.

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Saturday, 7 August 2004 07:47 (twenty-one years ago)

more formby pls

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Saturday, 7 August 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The fact that he is still mentioned as an important factor in the development of a typically English popular musical sound means that he is probably classic, doesn't it?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 8 August 2004 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic : The Day Today skit with George Formby playing Subterranean Homesick Blues.

― Wooden (Wooden), Sunday, 8 August 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

so i read today about a formby movie that is supposed to be good. granted, it's not on video and i have no easy means of seeing it, but.... anyone here seen his movies? are they interesting? is he interesting in them?

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't seen any George films since I was a kid, but I loved them then. He usually plays the cheeky working class lad who sings a few songs, triumphs against the odds and gets the girl. There's a great film set at the Isle Of Man TT Races, which like most of the ones I remember involves him beating his "betters" to win the competition.

Given the fact that he basically made Romantic Comedies (plus at least one patriotic "little guy takes on Hitler" movie during WW2), there's a sharpness and a sly northern wit in George's performances that keeps the films fresh when lots of similar genre pics from the same era look sentimental or silly today.

So in short, definitely worth seeing. Not as good as Laurel and Hardy, but way better than almost all of his contemporaries.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Monday, 9 August 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

He sometimes gets a little tiring on stuff like 'mr wu's a window cleaner now'. but on 'fanlight fanny' he sounds so sad... as all the best comic songwriters should.

― matthew james (matthew james), Monday, 9 August 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

Program about him on BBC4, btw, quite liking it.

lol @ some ridic ukelele rockism at the night Frank attended.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 22 April 2012 18:44 (fourteen years ago)

This was mentioned upthread but it's worth posting anyway. Richard Thompson did a rather good version too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktB9z1CccLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwcGOmEF7tI

― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Sunday, 22 April 2012 18:51 (fourteen years ago)

have seen a little into the murky underbelly of new school Uke players, there is an unbelievable amount of bitterness and self-aggrandisement in there

― aboulia banks (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 22 April 2012 18:52 (fourteen years ago)

and lots of good lookng women go to these classes, I note.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 22 April 2012 18:56 (fourteen years ago)

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