He's an Australian living in Britain. He has unkempt red hair and uses lots of eye-liner. He writes songs which he sings while playing the piano. He's a very talented guy. Also very funny. Very uninhibited when it comes to discussing sex. Prudes and Republicans will not approve.
More importantly, his music shows a strong political sense. If you believe in things like religion, alternative medicine or the paranormal, Tim Minchin is not going to amuse you.
Some of his songs are definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK since he often deals with sexual topics. The first video at least makes the effort at a G rating. It was written especially for television broadcast in the UK. It's clean - if you ignore the double entendres.
I like self-reflexive art like this: songs about songs. Here he performs at the Proms, with full symphonic accompaniment. It's a song about singing the pitch F-sharp while playing in the key of F.
Tim does not mince words about controversial subjects. The Pope Song, for example, deals with priestly pedophilia - a hot button topic. He clothes this delicate subject with countless repetitions of the f-word Reminds me of Frank Zappa in that sense.
You could compare Minchin to Victor Borge, as a comedian pianist - only with sex. Or to Tom Lehrer, as a comedian, pianist, social commentator - only with sex added. Minchin's use of clever wordplay can be really remarkable - I'd compare that aspect of his work to someone as good as Cole Porter - just with lots of explicit sex.
In this last video, an animation of a Minchin monologue, you might sense a resemblance to Ken Nordine. You might get the impression that Tim is a really smart guy who does not suffer fools one little bit. Someone who's pretty confident that his way of understanding of the world is the proper one and isn't afraid to get into your face to tell you just how wrong you are.
There's a lot more Minchin on YouTube. What the heck - here's one more: Some People Have It Worse than Me - which contains this great existentialist line:
But the total non-existence
of colonic animation
Seems to me
the perfect metaphor
for the utter constipation
of my soul.
This just in: Tim Minchin here in Los Angeles on April 10 at Amoeba Records in darkest Hollywood. He's got a lot of work to do before he cracks the U.S. market.
I know it's a pale comparison to Minchin's songs, but you could listen to my own piece which overuses the word fuck: Frustration Etude No. 1.
Fuck Tags: Tim Minchin. . . songwriter
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