Mixtape: Anxious Jugglers

Every once in awhile I like to challenge myself in mixtape creation and go places where I'm pretty positive nobody else is going. Of course, that usually results in mixtapes which virtually nobody will listen to. I'm expecting that fate for Anxious Jugglers, even as I maintain it's a wildly entertaining lineup. The basic concept: songs from the rich, very witty history of British music halls, alongside songs that could have been British music hall songs if the tradition had lasted longer than it did.

This tape goes all the way back to 1909 with music hall legends like Marie Lloyd, George Formby, Bob Roberts and Tessie O'Shea, and also includes latter-day, simpatico suggestions from Tom Lehrer, Julie Andrews, Eddie Cantor, Noel Coward and Elsa Lanchester (aka The Bride of Frankenstein). All the songs are connected by their high wit, bawdy undercurrents and detail-rich storytelling. It's great fun. It's less than an hour. You got less than an hour, right?

Tracklist:

Bob Roberts - Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay

Marie Lloyd - I'd Like to Live in Paris All the Time

Jerry Fenwyck (Ben Selvin) & his Orchestra - Makin' Faces at the Man in the Moon

Tessie O'Shea - You're at Blackpool by the Sea

George Formby - Got to Get Your Photo in the Press

Leslie Sarony - Ain't it Grand to be Blooming Well Dead

Smacka Fitzgibbon - Don't Bring Lulu

Saul T. Peter - Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter

Julie Andrews - Pedro, the Fisherman

Elsa Lanchester - At the Drive-In (introduced by Charles Laughton)

Eddie Cantor - Josephine Please No Lean on the Bell

Stanley Holloway - The Spaniard That Blighted My Life

Rita Williams – My Old Man (Said Follow the Van)

Noel Coward - A Bar on the Piccola Marina

Tom Lehrer - Oedipus Rex

Max Miller - Ain’t Love Grand

Anna Russell - For Loud Singers With No Brains: Ah Lover! (from the operetta The Prince of Philadelphia)

Nat Gonella & his Georgians - Sensation

Frank Crumit - Show Me the Way to Go Home