Rhino and Hippo song help needed

[Dan Casali]

Ok, these little clots of music seem to have stuck throughout many years,
and now I'd like to find out their identity (title,composer, availability,
and yes! even the lyrics. The great search engines of the web have failed
me, but I know I'm at the right place here.

My subconscious must have a fondness for large african mammals. The two
snippets I'm trying to identify are:

#1 a song about hippopotamus - the refrain goes:

"Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow
and there we shall wallow
in glorious mud"

(it still moves me)

#2 a song about a pet rhinoceros - again, only the refrain seems to have stuck

"My rhinoceros, my rhinoceros,
He had such a wonderful smile.

"My rhinoceros, my rhinoceros,
but he only smiled once in a while.

Can anyone tell me more about these? Thanks....

[William Wagman]

It's Flanders and Swann. It's all been reissued on CD.

Dan Casali (dca...@micron.net) wrote:
: Ok, these little clots of music seem to have stuck throughout many years,

: (it still moves me)

--
Bill Wagman
I.T. Campus Access Point
wjwa...@ucdavis.edu
(916) 752-1208

[BANilsson]

Let me give you the definitive answer on the Hippopotamus. (I have no idea
who wrote the Rhinoceros song you asked about.)

Michael Flanders and Donald Swann wrote words and music (pretty much
respectively) for English revues, and came up with a mixture of very
topical numbers and some that are wonderfully timeless. Many of the animal
songs, of which the Hippo was the first, were written for baritone Ian
Wallace, who lamented that when Flanders & Swann themselves took to the
stage in 1956 they not only were tough competition, but also hard-pressed
to keep up the writing end.

Happily, there were five LPs, two EPs, and a 45 single issued of Flanders
& Swann performing their own material. Four of the LPs and a little extra
have been reissued on three CDs (I know, this gets confusing), which will
give you not only the Hippo but also a short Hippo encore.

Because I sing this as part of a cabaret revue, I should be able to give
you the lyrics off the top of my head. Here goes:

A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as it peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star;
Away on a hilltop sat coming her hair
His fair Hippopotami maid.
The Hip-po-po-tay-mus
Was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade:

(Chorus:)
Mud, mud, glorious mud,
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood,
So follow me, follow,
Down to the hollow,
And there let us wallow
In glorious mud!

The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
From her seat on that hilltop above.
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice,
Came tiptoing down to her love.
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang as they met;
His inamorata
Adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet:

(Chorus)

Now more hippopotami began to convene
On the banks of that river so wide;
I wonder, now, what am I to say of the scene
That ensued by the Shalimar's side?
They dived all at once with an ear-splitting splash,
Then rose to the surface again.
A regular army
Of hippopotami
All singing this haunting refrain:

(Chorus)

Encore:

The amorous hippopotamus, whose love song we know,
Is now married and father of ten.
He murmurs, "God rot 'em" as he watches them grow,
And he longs to be single again.
He'll gambol no more on the banks of the Nile,
Which Nasser is flooding next spring;
With hippopotamas
In silken pajamas,
No more will he teach them to sing:

(Chorus)

-- Byron