MUSICAL SATIRE

David Misch

CLASS 1

TOPICS Introduction What is Satire? Randy Newman

READING “Rebels Wit Attitude” (Ellis), pp. 124-8 (Newman) Wikipedia: “Satire”, “Randy Newman”

LISTENING: “The Best of Randy Newman”

CLASS 2

TOPICS Ancient (Trickster, Plato; Hipponax, Lucilius, Petronius, Horace, Juvenal) Pop-Rock 1 (Chuck Berry, The Coasters/Lieber & Stoller, The Beatles, The Fugs, Coun- try Joe & The Fish, The Kinks, The Village People)

READING Selections from Horace, Juvenal “Rebels Wit Attitude”: pp. 50-54 (The Coasters/Lieber & Stoller); pp. 88-92 (Country Joe & the Fish)

LISTENING: Various tracks

CLASS 3

TOPICS Historical (tribal satire; “Yankee Doodle”, Jonathan Swift, American slave satire, Mark Twain, Weimar Germany, “the dozens”) Blues / country / folk (Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joe Hill, Bo Diddley, Charlie & His Orchestra)

READING “A Modest Proposal” (Swift) Selections from “Satire: Spirit and Art” (George Austin Test) Selections from “The Satirical Song: Text versus Context” (Donald Ward) Selections from “Puttin’ Down Ole Masa: African Satire In The New World” (William Pierson) “Make Mosques Not War” (Misch) “Rebels Wit Attitude”: pp. 74-8 (Ochs) -2-

LISTENING: Various tracks

CLASS 4

TOPICS Movies / Television / Internet 1 (“South Park”, “The Producers”, Monty Python, the Marx Brothers) The Rutles “The Producers” Professional Satirists: Roy Zimmerman

READING Wikipedia: “Mel Brooks”, “Neil Innes” “With Comedy, We Can Rob Hitler of his Posthumous Power” (Brooks interview)

LISTENING: Various tracks

VIEWING: Zimmerman on the net

QUESTIONS: Prepare two questions for Roy Zimmerman

CLASS 5

TOPICS Pop-Rock 2 (Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa/The Mothers of Invention, The Shaggs, Talking Heads, Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords) Professional Satirists: Al Yankovic

READING “Rebels Wit Attitude”: pp. 98-102 (Frank Zappa/The Mothers of Invention); pp. 205-8 (Yankovic) Wikipedia: “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic” Selection from “From The Sublime…” (Yankovic)

LISTENING: various tracks

VIEWING: “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic: The Video Collection” “The Starving Ear: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (Roy Zimmerman interview)

QUESTIONS: Prepare two questions for Al Yankovic

CLASS 6

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TOPICS Classical (“Le Roman de Fauvel”, “Carmina Burana”, “The Colonel Bogey Suite”) Opera (opera buffa, Jacques Offenbach, Richard Wagner, Leonard Bernstein) Gilbert & Sullivan “Candide”

READING Wikipedia – “Gilbert & Sullivan” Excerpts from “The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Guide” (Jefferson)

LISTENING Various tracks

VIEWING Selections from “The Pirates of Penzance” (The Public Theater, 1980)

CLASS 7

TOPIC Movies / TV / Internet 2 (Looney Tunes, “Saturday Night Live”, “Family Guy”, “The Simpsons”) Metal / punk / rap (Marilyn Manson, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys) Spinal Tap

READING: “Rebels Wit Attitude”: pp. 176-80 (Kennedys), pp. 262-6 (Manson)

LISTENING: various tracks

VIEWING: “This Is Spinal Tap”

QUESTIONS: Prepare two questions for Harry Shearer

CLASS 8

TOPICS Broadway and the Great American Songbook (George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Yip Harburg, Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, “Hair”, “Spamalot”, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”, Bertold Brecht) Professional Satirists: Tom Lehrer

READING “A Conversation With Tom Lehrer” (Lehrman) “That Was The Wit That Was” (Boulware) “Satiristas”: “Tom Lehrer” (Provenza and Dion)

LISTENING: “The Tom Lehrer Collection” -4-

CLASS 9

TOPIC: Whatever We’ve Missed

Presentations

LISTENING: TBA

CLASS 10

Remainder of Presentations