Contents: Right-Thinking People / Dead Bishop on the Landing / Elephantoplasty* / Novel Writing* / Word Association* / Bruces' Philosopher Song / Nothing Happened* / Cheese Shop / Thomas Hardy Again* / Tiger Club* / Great Actors* / Infant Minister for Overseas Development / Oscar Wilde's Party / Pet Shop Conversions / Mr. Phone-In* / Background to History* / First World War Noises* / Boxing Tonight
(* denotes material not available in any other Python movies or TV episodes)
Review: Another Python album that relies somewhat on their familiar TV sketches--strangely so, as the "new" sketches are as good as anything they ever did. Just to name a few highlights: John Cleese's interview of a plastic surgeon (Graham Chapman) who grafts anything handy onto his patients; an interview of an actor (Cleese) who thinks the number of words in a play are just as important as their content; and the glorious "Background to History," featuring another of Python's sublimely incongruent breaking-into-song routines.
Purchasers of the original vinyl LP of this album are one-up on the CD purchasers. The original album contains a couple of surprises. First off, the titular tie and handkerchief, when the album's cover was unveiled, turned out to be hanging from a green-faced hanging victim (courtesy of Terry Gilliam's artwork). And the album was initially touted as "the world's first three-sided album"; depending on where you placed your record player's needle, Side 2 would begin with either the "Infant" sketch or "The Background to History." Ah, what Python could do with the CD format if they were still together.
Our rating: 
Click on the appropriate link to:
Return to our record-albums page
© 2004, Sit on My Monty Python Website.
