THE BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND: THE COMPLETE BBC RECORDINGS (1967-1986/2002)
1) Do The Trouser Press; 2) Canyons
Of Your Mind; 3) I'm The Urban Spaceman; 4) Hello Mabel; 5) Mr. Apollo; 6)
Tent; 7) Monster Mash; 8) Give Booze A Chance; 9) We Were Wrong; 10) Keynsham;
11) I Want To Be With You; 12) Mickey's Son And Daughter; 13) Craig Torso Show;
14) Can Blue Men Sing The Whites; 15) Look At Me I'm Wonderful; 16) Quiet Talks
And Summer Walks; 17) We're Going To Bring It On Home; 18) Sofa Head; 19) Canyons
Of Your Mind; 20) I'm The Urban Spaceman.
And another one for completists only — released
on the semi-official Strange Fruit label that, among other things, specializes
on disclosing radio archives (such as the various John Peel sessions, etc.). I
have no idea whether this is really «complete» (most probably not, since there
are too few track repetitions for a «complete» package), but it does combine
tracks from a variety of performances, mostly recorded for «Top Gear» in 1968
and 1969, and ending with a very brief snippet of ʽUrban Spacemanʼ, performed
solo by Neil Innes on vocals and acoustic guitar for «Late Night Lineup» as
late, indeed, as 1986.
Even the true completist might be disappointed,
though, because the collection offers no genuinely new material. The few songs
that had not been included on the original LPs are available these days as
bonus tracks (e. g. the mini-spoof of ʽThe Craig Torso Showʼ), and others have
been included on Anthropology (ʽSofa
Headʼ, ʽGive Booze A Chanceʼ). If I am not mistaken, the only exception is
ʽWe're Going To Bring It On Homeʼ, a quirky mix of a flute-led art pop song and
a barroom-style roots-rocker that is neither too funny nor too touching (in the
same way as quite a few songs on Keynsham)
— Strange Fruit have a monopoly on this one, having originally released it in
1990 as part of a small Peel Sessions
EP.
Everything else is just the same old stuff,
treasurable only for the fact that these are the original young Bonzos playing
their material live in the studio, showing off their accomplishment as genuine
musicians and offering a rare occasional twist on the studio version. (Actually,
I think that the first live version of ʽCanyonsʼ here might predate the studio
version, because instead of the rather incoherent "to the ventricles of
your heart / I'm in love with you again", Stanshall sings "through
the ventricles of your heart / I am pumping you again" — what looks like
the probable original lyrics, later censored by the band themselves in order to
avoid extreme ambiguity by inadvertently introducing a new meaning of the verb
"to pump" in the English language.)
It should probably be added that Stanshall's
vocal style on ʽThe Monster Mashʼ leans here towards the «comically crazy»
rather than the «ironically croony», and that the «trouser pressing» guitar
imitation on ʽDo The Trouser Pressʼ, done without the benefit of additional
studio effects, is still inventive and funny (the freshly demented Syd Barrett
would have probably appreciated it). Other than that, there is nothing to add —
except that I am still a little disappointed to learn once more that there are
indeed no hidden wonders in the vaults for Britain's greatest comic band of
rock music's finest era. Oh well — at the very least, it's not as if the album,
loaded with all these wonderful tunes in solid renditions and stable sound
quality, were an unpleasant listen or anything. Completists won't be
disappointed.
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