Sense and Nonsens

Sense and Nonsens
Peggy Ashcroft and Martin Best
Argo (UK) ZSW 532

Contents:

  1. The Animal Fair (anon.)
  2. The Drover's Song (trad.)
  3. The Fox (anon.)
  4. The Frog and the Crow (trad.)
  5. Death of a Mad Dog (Oliver Goldsmith)
  6. The Golden Vanity (trad.)
  7. Little Billee (W. S. Gilbert)
  8. The Grey Cock (trad.)
  9. The Brown Girl (trad.)
  10. A Star in David's Land (trad.)
  11. The Cherry Tree Carol (anon.)
  12. The Sunny Bank (trad.)
  13. Christmas (Eleanor Farjeon)

    14. ---
  14. How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear (Edward Lear)
  15. Pelican Chorus (Edward Lear)
  16. The New Vestments (Edward Lear)
  17. The Yonghi Bonghi Bo (Edward Lear)
  18. There was a Naughty Boy (John Keats)
  19. In Nottamun Town (trad.)
  20. I saw a Peacock (trad.)
  21. Humpty-Dumpty's Song (Lewis Carroll)
  22. The Mad Gardener's Song (Lewis Carroll)
  23. The Children sliding on the Ice (anon.)
  24. Matilda (Hilaire Belloc)
  25. The False Knight on the Road (trad.)

Performers: Peggy Ashcroft (spoken word), Martin Best (voice, guitar), Edward Flower (guitar)

Release date: 1976

Perhaps this pairing arose as a result of Martin's role with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The word `charming' sounds like faint praise, but in fact this collection of songs and rhymes is just that. Peggy Ashcroft is, of course, more than a match for the material, and Martin Best and Edward Flower bring the music to life with none of the patronage we invariably suffer when professional `educators' sing to children on television. His Australian accent in `The Drover's Song' , by the way, is remarkably good - and many fine actors have failed to get it right. We know the song here as `The Drover's Dream'.

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Rob Smyth