MONTY PYTHON'S HASTILY COBBLED TOGETHER FOR A FAST BUCK ALBUM - Monty Python's Flying Circus

YEAR: 1981

LABEL: None/Bootleg

TRACK LISTING: An Announcer, Here Comes Another One (A Clockwork Orange Version), I'm So Worried (Country/Western Version), Mrs. Particle and Mrs. Velocity, Otto and the Suicide Squad/Otto Song, Rooting Around In My Attic, Psychopath, Olympic Shopping, Bunn Whackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot, Talking Science (DNA), School Song (Play Up!), Headmaster/Dead School Boy, Laughing at the Unfortunate, Rainy Day In Berlin, I've Got Two Legs, Leg Amputation, Re-Assuring You About the Doctor, Deep-Sea Insurance Agent/Accountancy Shanty, Indian Restaurant, Minister of Defence, Freelance Undertaker, Rudyard Kipling, Apology, Memory Training, Acronyms, Hi-Fi Shop

IMPRESSIONS: As hinted at in yesterday's post, MONTY PYTHON'S CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION ALBUM wasn't quite the final word in Python album releases that we all thought it was. Although HASTILY COBBLED was never an official release (despite engineer André Jacquemin's best efforts), this is like the final Monty Python album that never was. Sure, it consists of material the Pythons thought weren't good enough to make it onto their CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION ALBUM but the stuff is still a gold mine for any Python fan and actually contains some good stuff. And any time we get to hear something previously unheard from the Python's peak creative years is cause for celebration.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Here Comes Another One (A Clockwork Orange Version), Mrs. Particle and Mrs. Velocity, Rooting Around In My Attic, Psychopath, Olympic Shopping, Bunn Whackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot, School Song (Play Up!), Headmaster/Dead School Boy, Laughing at the Unfortunate, Rainy Day In Berlin, I've Got Two Legs, Leg Amputation, Re-Assuring You About the Doctor, Deep-Sea Insurance Agent/Accountancy Shanty, Minister of Defence, Freelance Undertaker, Rudyard Kipling, Apology, Memory Training

GUEST ARTISTS: André Jacquemin (as the "Announcer")

FACT SHEET: THE HASTILY COBBLED TOGETHER FOR A FAST BUCK ALBUM is a bootleg recording of unused material recorded by Monty Python's Flying Circus during their Charisma Records sessions which produced their previously released albums. The material was culled together by the Pythons' engineer/record producer André Jacquemin in 1981 which was never officially released. In 2005, EMI announced they were going to released the album officially but the project was eventually shelved.

MONTY PYTHON'S CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION ALBUM - Monty Python's Flying Circus

YEAR: 1980

LABEL: Charisma/Arista

TRACK LISTING: 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, The Martyrdom of St. Victor, Here Comes Another One, Bookshop, Do Wot John, Rock Notes, Muddy Knees, Crocodile, Decomposing Composers, Bells, Traffic Lights, All Things Dull & Ugly, A Scottish Farewell

IMPRESSIONS: The last thing anybody ever expected in the year 1980 was for Monty Python's Flying Circus to suddenly release another album. However, that's what astonished fans got when they group was obliged to provide a final album for their record label after all those years. Luckily for us, the material was not just dashed off but in fact stands quite well with Python's previous recorded output. This album more music-heavy than previous Python albums and, while some of the songs don't quite match up to their usual standards, many are now beloved classic Python tunes. Each of the non-musical comedy sketches also has a lot to recommend them and hold up for me very well; even the couple which are not particularly hilarious are still well-worth listening to and I hold them all close to my heart. This was, in fact, the first new album of Python material I ever bought since everything else had already been released by the time I became a Python fan in the late 70s. And, with the possible exception of a couple new tracks included on the 1990s cd collection "MONTY PYTHON SINGS", this would be the final (non-soundtrack or "best of" collection) album the Pythons would give us. Or would it. . . ? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post for the surprising answer. . . .

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Sit On My Face, Henry Kissinger, String, Never Be Rude To an Arab, I Like Chinese, Bishop, Medical Love Song, Farewell To John Denver, Finland, I Bet You They Won't Play This Song On the Radio, Here Comes Another One, Bookshop, Do Wot John, Rock Notes, Crocodile, Decomposing Composers, Bells, All Things Dull and Ugly, A Scottish Farewell

FACT SHEET: MONTY PYTHON'S CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION ALBUM is Monty Python's Flying Circus' ninth album (not counting "best of" MONTY PYTHON'S INSTANT RECORD COLLECTION). It is, obviously from the title, an album made by the comedy troupe to fulfill a contractual obligation to produce one more album owed to Charisma Records. "Bookshop" was originally performed on "AT LAST THE 1948 SHOW" in 1967 by John Cleese & Marty Feldman. "Sit On My Face" uses the melody of Gracie Fields' "Sing As We Go" and was threatened with legal action for copyright infringement for using the tune without permission; however the song remained on the album. The same cannot be said however for "Farewell to John Denver" which was removed from subsequent pressings of the U.K. album on "legal advice" presumably because of threats from John Denver due to the use of "Annie's Song" without permission. Subsequent pressings of the album contain a spoken "Apology" by Terry Jones where the original song appeared. Original print advertising for the album by Charisma Records contained the tagline: "Now A Major Lawsuit!". Since CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION was released on Arista Records in the U.S., who also owned the copyright to John Denver's "Annie's Song", the track remained on U.S. pressings. The original U.K. pressing of the album contained an unintentionally out-of-sync mix of the song "I'm So Worried" which was corrected in subsequent pressings and never appeared on the U.S. release. "Henry Kissinger" and "Medical Love Song" exist in two versions: longer versions containing extra verses appear on the "MONTY PYTHON SINGS" cd. "Rock Notes" provided the name for late 80's-early 90's actual rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket"; the original occurrence of the group name actually pre-dates the CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION album and appeared in Eric Idle & Neil Innes' mid-70's TV programme "RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION" in a parody of "THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST".

ANOTHER MONTY PYTHON RECORD - Monty Python's Flying Circus

YEAR: 1971

LABEL: Charisma

TRACK LISTING: Apologies, Spanish Inquisition, Gumby Theatre, Contradicting People, The Architect Sketch, Spanish Inquisition Part 2, Royal Festival Hall Concert, The Pirahna Brothers, The Death of Mary Queen of Scots, Penguin, Spam, Comfy Chair, Sound Quiz, Be A Great Actor, Theatre Critic, The Judges, Stake Your Claim, Lifeboat (Still No Sign of Land), The Undertaker Sketch

IMPRESSIONS: This is the first "real" Monty Python album (i.e. recorded in a studio) and the first one I ever got my hands on via a high school friend named Chris (no, not Cheeks). Chris and I both were huge fans of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS when the local PBS station began running the show (and the movies) in the late 1970s. He was the first one who had the actual record and I taped his copy for myself. That was only a stop-gap measure since I very quickly went out and bought all the records at Sound Odyssey in the Cherry Hill Mall (remember Sound Odyssey with the purple shag carpet on the walls?!?!?!) and all the books at The Book End in the Moorestown Mall. The album is jam-packed with more classic Python sketches than you can shake a penguin at; it also makes wonderful use of the stereo medium -- regardless of the Pythons' unhappy recording experiences.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Spanish Inquisition, The Architect Sketch, The Pirahna Brothers, The Death of Mary Queen of Scots, Penguin, Spam, Lifeboat, The Undertaker Sketch

FACT SHEET: ANOTHER MONTY PYTHON RECORD is the second album by Monty Python's Flying Circus (if one counts the BBC Radio LP of sketches from the TV programme performed in front of a live audience). The album cover is a defaced cover of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dietriech Walther. Many of the sketches are studio recreations of television sketches but there are some which are original to the album. The actual recording of the album was not a very rewarding one, at least according to Terry Jones, who sites the fact that they had a hippy engineer who was so out of it most of the time that they couldn't locate anything on the tapes. The recording studio also was apparently the size of a garden shed.