Tag: Monty Python

Rutles redux

I’m working on some too-ambitious posts that are getting away from me, so I’m letting them sit in the drafts bin for a while. In the meantime I’m just going to enjoy some books, music, and movies.

I’m listening to Neil Innes’ Rutles follow-up, called Archaeology, and it’s really good. Innes displays an uncanny ability to be insightful and funny at the same time, while turning a catchy tune that turns Rock and Roll musical conventions on their side. He could be called a completely unique talent if not for Ray Davies. Give a listen to Hey Mister!

Innes does an inspired twist on McCartney’s When I’m Sixty Four, called Back in ’64. This is the closing of the second Rutles mockumentary, Can’t Buy Me Lunch.

http://youtu.be/LZiWqI3lZqE?t=2m30s

Pythons before Monty

If you poke around the videos that show up after the Bonzo Dog Band skit-song I used in my last Neil Innes post, you’ll find this amazing video.

http://youtu.be/-VxV0ZjOcQg

Keep in mind this was before Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And these are cartoons that Terry Gilliam did for the programme.

http://youtu.be/edsgfNFjLYw

As I pointed out years ago, Gilliam had met John Cleese in New York in 1965, and they collaborated on a somewhat notorious magazine project. Later, at the same time when Palin, Idle, and Jones were being very silly with Innes and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Cleese and Graham Chapman were working with Marty Feldman.

http://youtu.be/DAtSw3daGoo

So, in a way, Gilliam was the bridge between the two camps — Palin-Idle-Jones and Cleese-Chapman — and Neil Innes was the de facto seventh Python.

And, of course, they just have to knock Belgium, don’t they? 😉

Innes much as Ron’s Nasty

From Neil Innes last Saturday I got a typically nasty autograph from his Rutles alter ego, Ron Nasty.

After Innes and the Bonzo Dog Band were in Magical Mystery Tour with the Beatles, they were on a BBC TV show for kids called Do Not Adjust Your Set, where they met Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam.

http://youtu.be/AI4ekBi5Hhc

During A People’s Guide to World Domination last Saturday night, Innes sang the “Brave” Sir Robin song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail…

… but he didn’t do the famous Knights of the Round Table song, for which he wrote the tune but not the words, which were by Cleese and Chapman.

http://youtu.be/sGAYk5VWkTw

A People’s Guide to World Domination is a wonderfully funny and engaging show, mixing British music hall humor with social satire. When Innes was in town he did this interview, and on his way up to Boston he stopped at the NPR music studios in Washington, for a Tiny Desk Concert. When I saw Innes he didn’t play Urban Spaceman, a Bonzo-era favorite, but you’ll hear it here.

A tip o’ the virtual toupee to Samjay, for spotting a Rutles song in the credits when he saw The Robber last weekend. It’s I Love You, from the Rutles second album, Archaeology.

Monty Python’s Boston Radio Connection

Another Monty Python Record

On January 1, 1967, an FCC ruling went into effect that required major market radio stations — those with an FM frequency that was simulcasting their AM signal — to broadcast alternative programming at least half the time on FM. What resulted was a sweeping change in the radio business. From the late 60’s into the early 70’s, there was a shift from singles played on AM, to albums on FM.

In a way, it was timely that my family moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts only a few weeks after Herb Oscar Anderson quit 77 WABC in September, 1968, because the times had indeed a’changed. (Note: HOA’s site auto-plays audio.) Anderson was still #1 in New York, but songs such as this one drove HOA away.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/Fire.mp3]

“Fire”, a top 10 hit on AM radio in Sept. ’68, was the first song I heard on WBCN-FM in Boston, which had switched formats from Classical to Underground music six months prior to my arrival in Massachusetts. Four years later, in 1972, I heard a record on WBCN that had a huge effect on me. This is exactly the point where I picked it up…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/MontyPython.mp3]

… and after that bit I heard “The Argument Clinic” and I was hooked. Eric Idle’s Money song pre-dates the Euro, but it correctly predicted that “everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker,” because that’s the world we had until last September.

That was the first time I encountered Monty Python, and I felt as though a bullet had hit me between my ears. I LOVED those guys. And I mean I LOVED them, like they were the Beatles. But I was lucky to have heard them, because ‘BCN was just about the only place where Python had a home in America at the time. There’s an excellent little documentary called “Monty Python Conquers America” that tells of WBCN’s role in paving the way for Python. I’ve stitched together the pertinent bits.

[MEDIA=46]

I didn’t look all that different from that young DJ in the stock footage, and I know that Gates control console well from my own radio days, but it couldn’t have been BCN’s, because it’s monaural.

Something that isn’t pointed out is that before Monty Python, WBCN had played Firesign Theatre records, and I think those guys deserve credit for creating a new generation of comedy record fans. Not only that, Firesign Theatre albums were intricate and fully produced, as were the Python records, making them eminently re-listenable, like a Rock record.