Second Skin

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Refusing to fit any molds either the mainstream or Christian music community might have in mind for her, Ashley Cleveland is one of the strongest and most righteous voices on the face of modern pop music. Cleveland has won multiple Grammy and Dove awards and toured with John Hiatt, but Second Skin, her fifth album, is her most ambitious and gritty recording to date. The release includes take-no-prisoner rockers, sweet pop tunes, soulful ballads, and slow-burning blues songs, plus splendid hybrids of them all. Her voice is smooth, strong, and incredibly expressive, adaptable to a wide array of song styles. She might remind you of Melissa Etheridge on one song, Bonnie Raitt on another, and Sheryl Crow on the next, but mostly she'll just remind you of herself. Cleveland smartly retools Hiatt's "Riding with the King" in a manner that implicitly replaces its original subject--Elvis--with Jesus Christ, while her covers of Tom Waits and Neil Young are irresistibly straightforward. Her own songs, especially "Wired" and "Don't Let Me Fall," reveal grace, humility, and courage. Now this is how rock gospel oughta sound! --Mike McGonigal

Tracks:

Warthog, The (The Hog Beneath The Skin)
The Sea Horse
The Chameleon
Whale, The (Mopy Dick)
Je Suis Le Tenebreux
Songs For Our Time
A Song Of The Weather - Flanders & Swann
The Reluctant Cannibal
Greensleeves
Misalliance
Kokoraki
Madeira M'Dear?
Too Many Cookers
Built Up Area
In The Bath (From 'At The Drop Of A Hat')
Sea Fever
The Hippopotamus Song

Tracks:

The Gas Man Cometh
Sounding Brass
Los Olividados
In The Desert
The Sloth
The Rhinoceros
Kangaroo Tango
Jaguar
Dead Ducks
The Elephant
By Air
Slow Train
A Song Of Patriotic Prejudice - Flanders & Swann
The Humming Bird
The Portuguese Man-Of-War
Sea Fever
The Hippopotamus Song

Tracks:

The Gas Man Cometh
Sounding Brass
Los Olividados
In The Desert
The Sloth
The Rhinoceros
Kangaroo Tango
Jaguar
Dead Ducks
The Elephant
By Air
Slow Train
A Song Of Patriotic Prejudice - Flanders & Swann
The Humming Bird
The Portuguese Man-Of-War
The Wild Boar
The Ostrich
The Wompom
Twice Shy
Commonwealth Fair
P** P* B**** B** D******
Paris
Eine Kleine Nacht Musik Cha Cha Cha
The Hundred Song
Food For Thought

Album Details

Fantastic Triple CD Box Set of the Recorded Works of One of Britain's Most Popular Comedy Duos. Their Keen Observations of Everyday British Life and Abilities to Exemplify them in Song Made them the Darlings of the UK. Cleverness, Wit and Absoute Hilarity were the Order of the Day, in Just About Any Style of Music. Pure Comic Genius on Three Discs!

Customer Reviews:

Return to Sanity.......2005-07-27

Before Monty Python, before the Beatles, before "'Enery the Aigth Oi Am" there was the subtle, sweet, insdious humor of Flanders and Swann, and their lyrics remain part of the recognition rituals of Ivy Leaguers of the sixties. For any aging hippies or yuppies who find life WAY more stressful than we ever expected, and for whom the down side of alcohol, sex, and drugs has become apparent, I recommend listening several times to "In the Bath". It raises a cry for peace among the nations by inviting all the leaders to sit congenially steaming in a communal bathtub. And they reminding us of our essential self-interest when they add the proviso "as long as Swann and Flanders get the end without the taps." On those nights when we suspect that there isn't any point to it all, reach for the Flanders and Swann. They won't convince you there is any meaning to life, but they'll make it a lot easier to bear. Don't even try to do without it.

Have Some Madeira.......2005-07-06

Not every line in Flanders and Swann has become part of our 37-year marriage, but many have. As our turntables fail, we are pleased that we can relive all the fun stuff we used to collect. Nothing is like this duo, especially what you usually hear as French horn by Mozart converted into "I found that horn go(r)ne." And, of course,
"Have some Madeira, m'dear" is an all-time favorite.

British humour at its best.......2003-03-15

When I started out as a teacher of English, I had the most wonderful colleague as a mentor -- when she retired she gave me three LPs with much of what is on these CDs, and it must be one of the best gifts I have ever been given. Practically all of it makes me smile or laugh out loud (although I must admit that some, like The Armadillo and Slow Train, make me so melancholy that I can just feel my lower lip tremble and my eyes fill up). How can you beat lines like "Hail to thee, blithe Wompom", or "The English are moral, the English are good / And clever, and modest, and misunderstood"? I find they make great listening exercises for my teenaged students as well -- they consider it ancient, but incredibly funny!

If you haven't heard this..........2003-01-16

The great comedic pairing of the late Michael Flanders (vocals) and Donald Swann (piano and occasional vocals) must surely rank among the hall of fame of comic singers and songwriters. Descended from the British music hall tradition, these two men wrote and performed music which still sparkles with wit today, some 40 or more years since it was recorded.

After being told to take up singing as a means of strengthening his polio-weakened lungs, the wheelchair-bound Flanders teamed up with pianist Swann and proceeded to write such classic songs as "The Hippo Song (Mud Mud Glorious Mud)", "The Gasman Cometh", "The Gnu Song", "A Transport of Delight" and many others. As well as a gently satirical spirit, all these songs feature the sublime wordplay and interplay of both men.

The first two discs of this box set are actual concerts - "At The Drop Of A Hat" and its successor "At The Drop Of Another Hat". Recorded at the height of the duo's popularity and form, the sound quality is surprisingly good for recordings this old.

"At The Drop Of A Hat" opens with three of the Flanders and Swann classics. "Transport Of Delight", a song in praise of the "97 horsepower omnibus" features the wonderful harmonies of the duo on lines like "any more fares" and Flanders' dead-on impression of a London busdriver "Geddardait, we're full right up inside". "Song of Reproduction" deals with the new, as it was then, stereo technology and features Flanders delivering an incredible monologue using every conceivable piece of audiophile jargon. "The Gnu Song" (in which "gnu" is pronounced phonetically) is a real treat. The audience's reaction to the reappearance of the gnu is superb.
As well as this opening trio, the disc features Flanders' snippets of "Songs For Our Time" (in which he experiments with conventions of hit songs), "Song of the Weather" (a rundown of English weather throughout the year), "The Reluctant Cannibal" (featuring Swann in the tititular role and the chorus "I can't eat people/I won't eat people/eatin' people is wrong"), Swann's foray into Greek folksong "Kokraki" and the justifiably famous "Madeira M'Dear". The performance ends with a rousing version of "The Hippo Song".
Flanders is in fine voice throughout and his comments introducing each song are delivered with deadpan accuracy. The story behind "The Gnu Song" is an absolute masterpiece. Flanders' monologue about the creation of "Greensleeves" is also superb - "'Greenfleeves'. That's an interesting name for a fong" (referencing old English script) being just a taste.

"Another Hat" begins in equally fine form with "Gasman Cometh" and "Ill Wind". "Gasman", presaged as "a tale of unending domestic upheaval", is sure to have most people who've ever dealt with unreliable tradesmen nodding in agreement, while "Ill Wind" is Flanders' attempt at setting words to a French horn concerto featuring the immortal lines "I lost that horn/lost that horn/lost that horn/found that horn/gorn". The performance continues with Swann's Russian/English song "In The Desert", the ending of which is truly side-splitting. "All Gall" (a reinterpretation of "This Old Man" to fit then-French President Charles de Gaulle) is a little dated but very cleverly done. "Song of Patriotic Prejudice", with its introduction and opening lines grabbing the audience's attention is another triumph, while the "Hippo Encore" is a great end to the performance.
Again Flanders is at his peak. His loving description of the Spanish olive-stuffers ("Olividados") and his superb story about flying ("By Air") are both brilliant examples of the shaggy dog story.
My favourite from both of these discs would have to be "First and Second Law". Flanders decides to educate Swann in elementary science and picks on the first and second laws of thermodynamics ("heat is work and work is heat" and "heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body") and the repetition of these phrases in time to Swann's barely-there piano accompaniment is one of the finest moments in British comedy.

The third disc is largely forgettable. It begins with a series of animal-related songs performed in a studio and without much of Flanders' rambling introductions. "Warthog" has its moments, while the others were clearly not performed in front of an audience for a reason. "Wompom" is also mildly diverting, presenting a story about a made-up substance which is the answer to everything.
The rest of the disc is then filled out with much earlier material in a rather poorly-recorded concert. "20 Tons of TNT" (related to the calculation the pair had done which gave that as the amount of TNT per person on the planet at the time) provides food for thought, but little more.

Is this box set for everyone? No. Much of the humour both within and without the songs does require a bit of background knowledge to what was going on in Britain and Europe at the time (1960s), John Profumo is referenced a few times as well as Charles de Gaulle and the Common Market, while a smattering of classical music knowledge can help out a bit with Swann's work and "Ill Wind". The fact that my grandfather (who's in his late 70s) recalls hearing these songs and laughing may give an indication as to the age of some of the subject matter. Equally the fact that "First and Second Law" references an awful lot of physics might do the same.

Nevertheless, for anyone who loves British humour done in a gentle manner or who is interested in the source of "mud mud glorious mud/nothing quite like it for cooling the blood", give these CDs some serious consideration.

Gentle Satire.......2002-04-03

I've been singing Flanders and Swann every day In the Bath since I first heard them in 1964. If you don't know them, think Gilbert and Sullivan by way of English music hall and Noel Coward, with a bit of Tom Lehrer musical satire and classic Bob Newhart or Charlie Manna monologues. F&S commented gently on their times: "The purpose of satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip away the veneer of comfortable illusion and cozy half-truth. And our job, as I see it, is to put it back again." Quite simply the best comic songs and patter of the 20th century. Michael died in 1975, Donald in 1994. Goodnight, Mabel Figworthy, wherever you are.

Here are some samples of Michael's verbal wit.

Wordplay:
- "A Transport of Delight," their song of the pleasures of the double-decker bus "has recently been adopted as the theme song of the Underground resistance movement."
- Speculating that Henry VIII wrote Greensleeves: "and the royalties go to royalty."
- About a tennis referee late in the day: "the umpire upon whom the sun never sets."
- Explaining how he was hoisted in his wheelchair onto airliners by a fork lift: "Why they need a great machine like that to lift forks I do not know. Well, they're only plastic, now, aren't they?"
- On status symbols: "The object is to Gunga Din your neighbor: 'I'm a better man than you' is the acid test," and, "let's bang our status cymbals with the best."
- To a disenchanted cannibal: "You used to be a regular anthropophagi."
- Of a lecher: "And he said as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar, and the lamps," while the girl "lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes, and his hopes."
- At the corrida d'olivas (the Andorran festival of olive stuffing, not to be confused with the Spanish corrida de toros, or bullfight): "And a great cry goes up of Ole! He has made an 'ol."
- "It's no good going up to a scientist and saying to him like you would to anybody else, 'Good morning, how are you, lend me a quid, and so on.' He'll just glare at you, or make a rude retort."

Throw-aways
- During the height of the cold war the Soviet Union sent the Moscow Ballet on a world tour. Donald sang one chorus of the Hippopotamus Song "mud, mud, glorious mud - nothing quite like it for cooling the blood" in Russian. Michael: "That should improve our cultural relations."
- During the 1963 Mandy Rice-Davies and Christine Keeler scandal: "None of that going around saying no smoke without fire. Nil cumbustibus, Profumo." Also, from "Friendly Duet," "such models of friendship are precious and rare, while the friendship of models is not."
- "Now if you're writing a musical, as I'm sure practically all of you are, . . ."
- Of Donald: "You know that no one has a higher regard for your music . . . than you do yourself. I merely meant that you are not great because you are not dead. If you wish to be great you must stop composing and start decomposing."
- "We never found a rhyme for (Soviet Premier Nikita) "Kruschev" until he was dead: Did he die or was he "pushed off"?"
- "We spent two dreadful, uh, delightful years, entertaining the Americans whose need, let's face it, is greater even than yours. Of course, when we're over there we say that the other way 'round."
- "No matter what you may say about the Germans, and who doesn't . . ."
- "Some of the songs that have made our names a household word, like slop-bucket . . ."
- "They've started testing cars now. They started at 10 years, then 5, now three. There's even some talk of having them tested before they leave the factory."

Absurdities
- "I'm delirious about our new oven fitted with the eye-level grill. This means that without my having to bend down the hot fat can squirt straight into my eye."
- A spectator during the construction of Stonehenge: "So, it's not going to be lived in. Well, that's something anyway. So what is it, then? It's a what?! A calendar?! A bit big for a calendar isn't it? You'd look pretty foolish with that on your desk."
- "Donald knocked himself out this morning. Got one of those new pop-up toasters. Nasty things."

Incredible multiple rhymes:
- "The fair hippoptama he aimed to entice from her seat on her hilltop above, as she hadn't got a ma to give her advice, went tip-toeing down to her love."
- Of Josephine: "Nonsense, said Bonaparte. She lives on her own, apart, in her own apartment."
- "Oh let us be married if our parents don't mind. We'd be happy and inseparable. Inextricably entwined. We'd live happily every after, said the Honeysuckle to the Bindweed."
- "And you'll always see a single lace-less left-hand leather boot. A bootless British river bank's a shock. We leave them there at midnight, you can track a member's route by the alternating print of boot and sock."

Second Skin
Average customer rating:

The Ashley Cleveland Album I've been waiting 10 years for...

Best Artist You Never Heard Of

Ashley does it again..

Ashley Rocks...Inspires....Brings Hope!!!

Second Skin
Ashley Cleveland
Manufacturer: 204 Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Amazon.com

Refusing to fit any molds either the mainstream or Christian music community might have in mind for her, Ashley Cleveland is one of the strongest and most righteous voices on the face of modern pop music. Cleveland has won multiple Grammy and Dove awards and toured with John Hiatt, but Second Skin, her fifth album, is her most ambitious and gritty recording to date. The release includes take-no-prisoner rockers, sweet pop tunes, soulful ballads, and slow-burning blues songs, plus splendid hybrids of them all. Her voice is smooth, strong, and incredibly expressive, adaptable to a wide array of song styles. She might remind you of Melissa Etheridge on one song, Bonnie Raitt on another, and Sheryl Crow on the next, but mostly she'll just remind you of herself. Cleveland smartly retools Hiatt's "Riding with the King" in a manner that implicitly replaces its original subject--Elvis--with Jesus Christ, while her covers of Tom Waits and Neil Young are irresistibly straightforward. Her own songs, especially "Wired" and "Don't Let Me Fall," reveal grace, humility, and courage. Now this is how rock gospel oughta sound! --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews:

The Ashley Cleveland Album I've been waiting 10 years for..........2005-01-21

If you've ever seen Ashley Cleveland in concert you know she puts on a passionate, energetic show and always leaves you challenged. I've got all of Ashley's projects and this is the first album that truly captures her live essence. There isn't a filler track on this album. Tracks like LIFE IS WAR and THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE show that Ashley is still not afraid to tackle subjects most in the genre won't even brush upon. This is one of the best projects of 2002 and should be in every music lovers collection.

Best Artist You Never Heard Of.......2004-04-13

Ashley Cleveland is one of those rare artists that just keeps getting better and better. She keeps turning our projects that are true to herself and not mainstream radio. The best part is that instead of running out of creative steam she is just getting stronger with every album.
Second skin seems like the strongest project yet. Somehow she has managed to keep her unique voice while experimenting with some new sounds in the studio. When I listen to this CD it is as if she is performing in the studio and I'm sitting in the control booth listening. It sounds so intimate that if you close your eyes its as if she is singing right to you.
If you are tired of weak whispy singers that dont sound as if they are sure of themselves then Ashley Cleveland is the antidote. She writes great songs and has the talent to sing them like she means them.
This is a must have CD....it just gets better with every listen.

Ashley does it again.........2002-08-30

Ashley Cleveland creates another musical masterpiece with her first studio album since 1995's "Lesson of Love". Although loved by many, there were complaints that "Lesson" didn't rock hard enough. Well, "Second Skin" definitely takes care of that. The hard-edged guitar work and production of Kenny Greenberg contribute to Ashley's hardest album since "Big Town". Combine that with the more faith-based lyrics of "Lesson Of Love", and you get a little glimpse of what "Second Skin" is like. Tracks that are not to be missed: the rocking "Power Of Love", excellent cover of "Riding With The King", "Broken Places" featuring guest vocals by Jennifer Knapp, the bluesy "What It Takes", and superb "Life Is War".

Ashley Rocks...Inspires....Brings Hope!!!.......2002-08-24

RUN, don't walk to go get Second Skin -- right now! The really cool thing about this record is that it's got blues, rock, folk, funk and gospel goin' on. Ashley has a voice that's got a range and a passion like no one else on the scene. She's as passionate as Aretha Franklin or Tina Turner.

This Amazon.com review above says it well, you know, this is truly how Rock Gospel ought to sound! If you are looking for excellence in Christian music, this is it. It's got to be one of the finest Rock/Gospel releases I've heard this year. Great CD for your car, (try not to blow your speakers out!)
I think this is Ashley's finest hour, it's clear this was a labor of love, the lyrics are amazing like this from the rock-out song "Power of Love"
Well I know that I can never be thankful enough/
How you turned me around with all of that love/
You set the edges of the sea/
It's a wonder that You ever even thought about me/

There's an awesome retake on John Hiatt's "Riding with the King" Some amazing guitar work by her husband, Kenny Greenberg and Jennifer Knapp joins her on one song. "Land of the Living" is a great song. I could go on and on but there isn't one bad apple in the whole bunch!

Cleveland, an awesome acoustic guitarist, has two Grammy awards to her credit, and there's a real winner here too. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!

Now y'all go get you some.

Second Skin
Average customer rating:

Mayfield Four

Kennedy Is The Best Vocalist Out There Today

a little something to fill the space in between alter bridge albums

Excellent album

I kinda think Myles is better with Mayfield

Second Skin
The Mayfield Four
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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