Another Monty Python Blog: 03/22/12

Thursday, March 22, 2012

A Gem from the Previous Record

As read by Eric Idle on Monty Python's Previous Record, these brief advertisements are pure Eric. The first one always made me laugh. Still does. The second one, Funerals at Prestatyn, had to grow on me. As a younger chap, aged 11 or 12, I couldn't always decipher what the English lads were saying. I always thought Eric said, "... and our fee at 8.50, we'll be at your door within 10 minutes..." thinking the joke was, this funeral service is so cut rate, that if you wave 8 pounds 50p at them, they'll be at your door within ten minutes. Then when I saw my first Fiat 850 and realized that was in fact the vehicle of choice that Eric planned to use to pick up said certified stiff, well... his version was way funnier than mine. I still don't know what the last line of this bit means: "Danish and Scandinavian books see everything?" Excuse me while I kiss this guy.

Fiat 850

Is the first Monty Python album available on CD?

Virgin Records, the current owner of the Python catalogue, has released all of the original albums on CD. Except the first one. The first one has always been kind of the "misfit" in the Python oeuvre, since it was created before the Python's had achieved creative control of their work. (For example, they wanted to record in stereo; they didn't want to record in front of a live audience; and they wanted real dramatic music to link bits together, instead of one guy with a Hammond Organ (no offence, Hammond). Their wishes came true on subsequent albums, but their debut remains what it is: a product of the BBC, and is still in their copyright possession to this day. However, like The Beatles' Decca recordings, the first Python album stands as an important piece of their overall history, and yes, it is available on CD. Look for it in the book shop as opposed to the record store, though, because, for some reason, BBC has issued it as an AudioBook, packaged in a papperboard slipcase, minus the original album cover, but sporting a "oh, this will do" rip-off of Gilliam's original design. At least they used the proper Foot of Cupid.

Monty Python's First Album Re-reissued... Again.

Wait a minute, I'm just getting.... I'm just getting... a loud buzzing noise in my left ear... Stop press! This just in! (And all the rest of it.) It seems as if, while I was writing this blog in 2011, someone's decided to re-issue Monty Python's Flying Circus on CD in an effort to sort of "catch it up" with the 2006 reissues of all their other albums. I have only seen this on the internet, so I've not inspected it myself, but it appears to be in a plastic jewel case containing an insert that replicates the original album cover. A major step up from the prior cardboard audio-book edition. However, it appears to feature the cover design from the 2nd vinyl generation with the white string tag and not the original 1st generation Gilliam design with the yellow string tag (see my entry on cover design in the main text for details). Again, I'm not complaining about it, I'm just reporting what I see. This is a fan blog, after all, not an official Python site. The CD itself is designed to replicate the original BBC label, and the disc looks like a little vinyl record, which is kinda cool. Kudos to whoever put this package together.

According to the internet, this album has been digitally remastered by AudioGo as part of a Vintage Beeb series of comedy records, including Dad's Army and I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (a wonderfully silly album, by the way.)

Here's where I found out about it: Suite 101.com. (I hope they don't mind me spreading the good news to my two blog readers) (one of whom is me).

A couple more things of note on the new CD: Out of respect, they have corrected the spelling of Graham Chapman's name on the front cover. The first and second generation vinyl editions both had Graham's name misspelled as "Grahame". Omitted from both the vinyl editions and this newly remastered CD is Terry Gilliam's name as a performer. He does get credit on the back for creating the cover art, but only Cleese, Palin, Chapman, Idle, Jones, and Carol Cleveland receive front cover credit. Gilliam does indeed perform on the album, but as far as I know, he's only on one track, The Visitors on Side Two as the "poofy friend" of Mr Equator.

I suppose, when you're reissuing something in it's original packaging, you don't want to take too many liberties like adding Gilliam's name when it wasn't there before. Nice touch, though, correcting Grahame's name. I plan to order this disc so I'll prob'ly bore you (both of you) more once I've seen and heard it. Anyway, our thirty minutes is up. Goodnight. Baaaaahhh!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

A Gem from the Previous Record

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