Good Evening, Record Lovers...

These are the first few words spoken by Graham Chapman on Side Two of Monty Python's first album, the self-titled Monty Python's Flying Circus. Despite the lack of visual elements, Theatre of the Mind tells us -- by his tone of voice, his air of authority, and his command to "Stand at ease!" -- that Graham is in his famous peremptory Army Colonel guise. That and the fact that he introduces himself as "The GOC Commanding Southern Area Relief Force with Special Responsibility for Any Waxings or Mechanical Reproductions of Any Kind," (followed immediately by a stern, "Don't snicker, Pearson!") (Apparently Pearson found it humorous when The Colonel said "reproductions.")  (*snicker*) 

Graham Chapman
as the Colonel from
the television series

Anyway, the so-called G.O.C.C.S.A.R.F.w/S.R.A.W.M.R.A.K., is there, in fact, to demonstrate how stereophonics work, first by walking from "this speaker here," and through the stereo image to "that speaker over there." Trouble is, Monty Python's Flying Circus was recorded and released only in mono. There's no stereo image at all, you see. Granted, Graham's voice gets further from the mic as he walks to "that speaker over there," but he undoubtedly can be heard in both speakers. "It don't work!"
Was that the joke? A stereo test on a monaural recording? Could be. It is, after all, Monty Python, and therefore... silly. 
A more interesting story exists that the Pythons had originally scripted The Colonel sketch to work in true stereo, and, only discovered in the eleventh hour, i.e. recording day, that the album was going to be issued only in mono.

An excerpt from Michael Palin's diary:

"The record, we were told, was to be done extremely cheaply, we were not going to have it in stereo, we could not afford to pay any copyright for the use of our invaluable music links -- so it was all done on organ, which reduced everything to the level of tatty amateur dramatics."

So perhaps the Stereophonic Test was supposed to be real, but you know what? When I first heard this record -- in my friend Paul's basement, circa age twelve -- I still found it funny. To me the bit was not lost because the stereo test didn't work. I thought it was intentional that it didn't work. It was Python after all. It was meant to be silly. Which made Graham's closing statement that if the test indeed failed, "See me after!" all the funnier.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. That all happened on Side Two of the album. Let's go back to the beginning...

Monty Python's Flying Circus Front Cover

Monty Python's Flying Circus

BBC Records #REB 73M

Copyright BBC London W.1. 1970

Produced by Ian McNaughton

Incidental Music by Anthony Foster

Chorus: The Fred Tomlinson Singers

Extra Sound Effects by Harry Morris

Sleeve Design by Terry Gilliam

Now, in most cases, there are (at least) two different versions of every Monty Python record: a UK version and a US version (probably many other countries too, but this blog is only concerning itself with the UK and US versions.) Sometimes the differences are minuscule, sometimes they're quite drastic. Well, perhaps drastic is too... drastic of a term. After all, their just comedy records. What I should have said is that sometimes the differences are big, sometimes they're littler. Either way I suck at writing.

Terry Gilliam, circa 1974,
in a scene from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

In the case of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the differences between the UK version and the US version are in the littler category. Content-wise they are identical. That is, both albums contain the same tracks and they run in the same order. The sleeves and the labels, however, are different. In both cases, the copyright holder is indeed the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) and both are released by BBC Records (the record division of the British Broadcasting Corporation) part of BBC Enterprises (the parent company of the British Broadcasting Corporation), London England. In the case of the UK version, the album was distributed by PYE Records, England. The US version was distributed by ATV Records Incorporated, New York New York under a license to PYE Records, England. So you see, there are a lot of fingers in this... PYE. (*heh-heh*) (I told you I suck at writing.)

But the littler differences don't stop there, oh no. There are also two more versions, i.e. the original, and the reissue(s). Again the content is the same, only the packaging is different. The album cover shown above is from the original release of Monty Python's Flying Circus, with a sleeve design by Terry Gilliam, the American Python, a.k.a. the visual Python. He's the one who did all the animations on the TV series and in the movies.
Gilliam originally designed a wraparound cover for the Monty Python's Flying Circus album, that is to say the image on the front cover continued onto the back cover, giving the complete package a consistent look, fit and feel about it. The original back cover is shown below:

Monty Python's Flying Circus Back Cover

Gilliam carried over the string-tag concept from the front to the back, as well as the airbrushed gray-sky and yellow-ground elements. Within the tags are printed actual critiques from the era (circa 1970) from such publications as The Sun, The Washington Post, The Morning Star, The Observer, and The Daily Telegraph. There's also some fine print, down by the copyright information, stating that:

"Delicacies such as Crunchy Frog, Cockroach Clusters, Anthrax Ripples, and Frozen Albatross On A Stick mentioned on this record are probably obtainable from Monty Python Enterprises." 

They weren't. Probably. Most of these delicacies were, in fact, candies mentioned in the Side One Track Three skit entitled Trade Description Act, which, over the years became better known as the Crunchy Frog sketch. The Frozen Albatross On A Stick is in reference to the Side Two Track Four skit entitled The Cinema.

The Issue of Reissue. After a record stops selling well, they usually pull it from the market, or sometimes reissue it as a budget release, tantamount to a book coming out in papperbok, I suppose. This happened to Monty Python's Flying Circus. It ran it's course and the BBC pulled it off the market once it stopped being profitable. In the meantime, or during the meanwhilst, the Pythons went on to do a second season of their TV series... and another... and another... for the BBC, but chose to bypass the Beeb when it came time to do another album... and another... etc. Once they became a viable record selling machine, BBC wisely decided to reissue the first album.

I'm not sure why they decided to change Terry Gilliam's original graphics this time around, but they did. They kept the basic Foot-of-Cupid-Stomping-Through-The-TV-Set art, but changed the placement of the title, and removed the tag "WARNING! THIS ALBUM IS ORIGINAL MATERIAL FROM THE TV SERIES." It's possible that the reissue came out after the series had run it's course (circa 1974) and to advertise it as a soundtrack to a defunct TV show may have led to them removing said tag, but at the bottom of the new release, it still says, "From the BBC Television Series."

Reissue of Monty Python's Flying Circus Front Cover

I do know the reprinted cover was done very cheaply, as they just blocked-out the old yellow Warning! tag and replaced it with a white box with black lettering overprinted on it. Overprinting is a money-saving printing process, where they keep the multi-colored image from the earlier version and just print any new information using only black ink. This saves them from printing all new, full-color covers.

This is obviously what they did with the new back cover, too. They just threw away Terry Gilliam's original back cover with the multi-colored string tags and airbrushed clouds wrapping around from the front. Just threw it all away! And replaced it with...

Reissue of Monty Python's Flying Circus Back Cover

... nothing! Virtually nothing at all. Just a white back cover with black text. Oh, okay, they kinda drew a string tag in the upper left hand corner, and used the fancy Pythonesque Calliope font for the title, and kept the lame "The Worst Of" joke, but short of that, there's literally no design to it. It may as well be a newspaper: three columns of type, black and white and read all over. Word for word all the text remains from the original cover, including the real critiques and the sur-real "Crunchy Frog Probably Available..." delicacies verbiage. But clearly this cover was done in the name of saving money. The only thing cheaper than one color printing is no-color printing, and The Beatles already did that with an album cover in 1968.

More to come. Where's the PUBLISH button on this blogspot...? Oh here it