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I have always thought in the back of my mind Do I have to spell it out? Innes is also one of the founders and leading writers of The Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band. His song "I am the Urban Spaceman" was as close as that illustrious band had to a hit. I'm the Urban Spaceman, baby But like Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Neil Innes has been committing musical mayhem for years since both the Bonzos and the Rutles broke up. In the past few years, his fan club has bullied him into releasing the Recollections series, limited edition CDs that are "a mixture of old favourites and unreleased tracks include demos from Neil's private archive." Recollections 3 is the latest and last in the series. The range and accuracy of Neil Innes's musical pastiche is amazing. Take "Protest Song," a parody of early Dylan. It starts with the sounds of inept and seemingly endless guitar tuning finally followed by the famous announcement, "Uhhh... uhhh... this next song is a protest song. Ladies and gentleman, I've suffered for my music, now it's your turn." Then the wheezing harmonica and nasal singing: All the prophets of doom O.K., Dylan invites parody. Hell, Dylan even parodies himself sometimes. In "Let's Go Crazy," Innes takes on generic British guitar rock. Listen to some of the tamest bad boys recorded: Oh boy, we're gonna have some fun tonight So let's go! How about a parody of the Rolling Stones parodying country music? "One Thing on Your Mind" rolls on longer and sounds cornier than "Far Away Eyes," but Innes is less interested in ridiculing hicks than he is in taking on more pretentious folk. Well I was somewhat taken by surprise and even lost for
a word "Libido" sounds like a Latin dance craze. "Front Loader" is techno-funk devoted to the celebration of washing machines; "Give It Up" is a piano lounge ballad about giving up cigarettes. "Human Race" is mock-Reggae. But the tour-de-force here is "Slaves of Freedom." Stamp your feet and clap your hands Freedom is the handle on the bucket of your soul If all other music of the last forty years is somehow destroyed, it'll probably be possible for future musicologists to reconstruct the sounds of bad pop music in the late 20th century just from this CD. Recollections 3 makes a fine introduction to the career of a man who would be a national treasure if he wasn't English. *The web is home to many things Innes. Recollections 3,
as well as two early volumes of Innes's music can be ordered
through Neil Innes Music www.enygmag.com/neil/index.htm.
"Words of Innespiration," a site largely devoted to
Innes's lyrics, is at www.neilinnes.org
Louise and Samantha's fan club is found at www.neilinnesclub.co.uk
The story of the Rutles can be found at rutlemania.org
Go to The Big Bonzo Website bridge.anglia.ac.uk/~systimk/music/Bonzos/Index.Html#Contents
for more about the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band. |
Neil Innes may forever
be best known for his portrayal of Ron Nasty and for writing
the entire Rutles songbook for the mockumentary All You Need
is Cash. On camera, he made a better John Lennon than John
Lennon did. When he performed his song "Cheese and Onions"
on Saturday Night Live, bootleggers circulated copies
as a new John Lennon song. It's a comic turn on "Imagine."
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