Contents: Sit on My Face / Announcement* / Henry Kissinger* / String* / Never Be Rude to an Arab / I Like Chinese* / Bishop* / Medical Love Song* / Farewell to John Denver* / Finland* / I'm So Worried* / I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio* / Martyrdom of St. Victor* / Here Comes Another One* / Bookshop* / Do What John?* / Rock Notes* / Muddy Knees* / Crocodile* / Decomposing Composers* / Bells* / Traffic Lights* / All Things Dull and Ugly* / A Scottish Farewell*
(* denotes material not available in any other Python movies or TV episodes)
Review: The album is just as the title describes it and is all the more uneven for it. While one can be grateful that a contractual obligation brought the Pythons together for one more album of original material, some of it truly plays like it was dashed off just to finish out a...well, you know.
The absolute low point is licensed doctor Graham Chapman's "Medical Love Song," which exists mainly to name every form of venereal disease known to man. It's a song guaranteed to never be played at frat parties. A couple of legal near-misses are "Sit on My Face" (using the tune of an old song by Gracie Fields, whose estate threatened to sue) and the aptly named "Farewell to John Denver" (which was removed from subsequent pressings of the album).
And some of the sketches are just head-scratching, such as "Bishop" (why does he keep saying "fish," anyway?) and the seemingly unending "Traffic Lights."
Then again, some of the work ranks with Python's best, especially two John Cleese contributions. "String" features the kind of one-track-mind manic that only Cleese does so well. And "Bookshop"--a sketch which one Python bio says "pre-dates Python," though the book never tells the sketch's origin--builds beautifully to a final big laugh. Many of the songs are wonderful, too, particularly Terry Jones' paean to neurosis, "I'm So Worried." (When the album was first released, Rolling Stone said it had so many songs that it should have been titled "Monty Python Sings." Typically, the Pythons knicked that title a decade later for a greatest-hits compilation.)
As with any Python effort, this is worth seeking out, but be prepared for a few stretches between the genuine comedy bits.
Our rating: 
Click on the appropriate link to:
Return to our record-albums page
© 2004, Sit on My Monty Python Website.
