Wonderful Nonsense: Fun Songs Of The Roaring Twenties
(2-CD set) This 40-track, 2-CD set of recordings from the roaring twenties period focuses on the frivolous, and in doing so it reveals much about the period. It began with a 1920 recording ofAin't We Got Fun, which notes that ''the rich get rich and the poor get poorer''; continuing through 1925'sPardon Me (While I Laugh), which slyly comments on the ways by which Prohibition, among other things, was being subverted; to 1928's baby-talkI Faw Down and Go Boom, which seems to anticipate the market crash by a year, these are songs that remain timely. Of course, there are outright gibberish tunes likeYes! We Have No Bananas, comic romps likeDon't Bring Lulu, and examples of wordplay such asMy Cutie's Due at Two to Two Today.F. Scott Fitzgerald described the period as ''the gaudiest spree in history,'' which may have been an understatement. Songs likeCollegiate Samportrayed our centers of higher learning as a place for amusement and romance. Numerous selections touch upon the liberation of women, notablyMasculine Women! Feminine MenandMama's Gone Young, Papa's Gone Old.Etiquette Bluespokes fun at Emily Post and her best selling bookEtiquette, and a debunking of innocence is suggested byHow Could Red Riding Hood(the first song to be banned on radio). Leading topics for songs in this collection are food and lovemaking, both high on the scale of human appetites. But fads such as facelifts and diets also receive some attention. Featured here are 40 amusing recordings from that period when songwriters couched their keen observations of behavior and the foibles of the Jazz Age in songs of ''wonderful nonsense''.