We lost a great musical comic earlier this Sunday the 29th:
Neil Innes passed away at the age of 75. Any fan of Monty Python will be
familiar with his work if not his face. He wrote and sang the obscenely funny
“Tale of Brave Sir Robin” from Monty Python & The Holy Grail.
Don’t know him from Python? How about The Rutles? The
hilarious Beatles parody he and former Python Eric Idle dreamed up in 1978.
Anyone with even a vague recollection of the Beatles phenomenon in the 60’s
will laugh their butts off at this spot on parody of Beatlemania detailing the
rise to “prominence” of “The Prefab Fab Four”.
Still not ringing and bells? This may be a stretch but how
about from The Bonzo Dog Band. The Bonzos were the oddest musical/comedy troupe
this side of Zappa & the Mothers. Innes was the musical director for this
band of lunatics who were at times side-splitting, while at other times just
odd as hell.
My introduction to THE INTRO & THE OUTRO (and thus the
Bonzos) came while I was on the air at WWUH. I believe it was a 3 – 6am gig.
Every jock at ‘UH knew that is where you trolled their exceptional vinyl
library and expanded your musical vocabulary. Each album had a sticker on the
front allowing DJs to write their love (or hatred) of the music contained
inside. The double disc “The History of The Bonzos” had so many positive recommendations
that people had started to write on the gatefold liner notes. I gave it a spin
and 42 years later I present it to you today in honor of Neil Innes. It is
still one of my favorite tunes.
Thank you for the gales of uproarious laughter (Bruce) and
the whistling in “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.
No comments:
Post a Comment