Added to iPod

March 28, 2008 | Filed Under Music |

I’ve been thinking about the Marx Brothers lately. I even went out and ordered a DVD of a quickly cancelled 1970 music-based TV show because Groucho was the final guest host.

I’m afraid they are being forgotten. Their movies don’t run on TV any more (the good ones, anyway). The kids don’t get it. I have been trying for years to get that teenager I sired to watch and laugh at their movies. Nothing. I think it’s because they are in black and white – as if you can’t see the humor if it’s in black and white. BUT he likes Monty Python. And where would they be without the Marx Brothers? Where would Robin Williams be? Hell – Bugs Bunny stole his entire act from the Marx Brothers!

So on a lark, I went out to iTunes and – lo and behold – there were surprises. Seems iTunes carries a soundtrack to two of the Brothers greatest films – Horse Feathers and Animal Crackers. Not only do you get the songs and music (“Hello, I Must Be Going”, Chico’s piano) and great bits of dialogue (“The password is swordfish…” or “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude…”) These are true gems, ladies and germs, and the sound quality is as good as the films. Digging a bit deeper, I even found Groucho singing my favorite song, “Lydia, The Tattooed Lady”.

If you keep comedy in your library, these are necessary additions.

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6 comments so far
  1. Mike March 28, 2008 7:42 am

    Show Chris “Duck Soup”. If he doesn’t laugh at the peanut vendor scene…”We no see Firefly…”, then we are going to have to have an intervention like the Three Stooges No-Smoking Clinic!

  2. mburma March 28, 2008 9:12 am

    What do you think I went for first?!

    That kid has no respect.

  3. TSS March 31, 2008 11:14 am

    We’ve been showing our kids the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, thanx to Netflix. A Night at the Opera had them in stitches as well. The Cocoanuts started out fast and petered out. Modern Times was awesome because 1&2 had just done a WW2 unit. It may be that the cynicism is just too much now. If he likes the film media, he’ll get to the oldies, but from a different way. OR not. Maybe it’s just Will Farrell and Jim Carrey.

  4. mburma March 31, 2008 11:21 am

    And drug humor. “Super Troopers” and “Harold & Kumar” are big favs.

  5. Ray The Brother in Law April 11, 2008 6:33 pm

    I am a lifelong devotee of the Marx Brothers (A Night at the Opera, Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup).

    Classic line at the end of Duck Soup as the brothers are attacking the bad guys with food Margaret Dumont walks in and demands to know what they are doing. To which Groucho replies, “Remember, we’re fighting for this woman’s honor which is probably more than she ever did.”

    They are woefully underappreciated in this day and age of Dane Cook.

  6. mburma April 11, 2008 11:33 pm

    Dane Cook - What is funny about him? I tried to watch his standup special, but he never said anything funny!

    Chris Rock once called David Blaine a “trick-less magician”. Dane Cook is a joke-less comedian.