Log #81 - Madcap Humour Masking Serious Musicianship - The Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band

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1. Coldplay - X&Y

2. Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time

3. Kings of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud

4. The Bonzo Dog Band - Cornology CD1

5. Bear's Den - Islands

6. Boubacar Traore -  Kongo Magni

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Although many people will be familiar with the Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band’s biggest hit Urban Spaceman (produced by Paul McCartney under the name Apollo C. Vermouth!) and the anarchic The Intro and the Outro (where the band members plus notable guests are introduced with their bizarre instruments) the comprehensive Cornology collection brings together five fully fledged albums and a selection of solo offerings in a sumptuous 3-CD box set.

The three CDs each have subtitles. Volume one is entitled The Intro and contains the original albums Gorilla and The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse. Volume two is subtitled The Outro and contains the albums Tadpoles and Keynsham. Volume three is entitled Dog Ends and contains the band's final original album Let's Make Up and Be Friendly along with early Bonzo Dog singles, odds and ends and solo material.

The band are fondly remembered for their silly humour and dandy tailoring which most obviously influenced Monty Python but aside from the comedy they were also accomplished musicians being masters of a range of genres. 

Drawing largely on their unique readings of trad jazz standards (pumping tubas) and music hall novelties (plumy English accents) the Bonzo’s repertoire is supplemented by eccentric front man Vivian Stanshall’s own comic observations and Neil Innes’ finely crafted Beatlesque pop songs.

He was wearing Billy Bunter check trousers, a Victorian frock coat, black coat tails, horrible little oval, violet-tinted pince-nez glasses, he had a euphonium under his arm, and large rubber false ears. And I thought, well, this is an interesting character.

Neil Innes on meeting Stanshall for the first time.

The Bonzos were admired by contemporaries of London’s swinging 60s scene sharing a residency at the famous London UFO club with Pink Floyd and appearing in the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Despite such exposure lasting commercial success eluded them and they remained an underground cult band on the fringes of the art school circuit. Their quintessentially English brand of madcap humour lampooning colonialism, the upper class, and seaside holidays, didn’t travel well and a badly managed American tour was aborted; “there’s a good chance we won’t get into the country again” said Stanshall. By 1970 it was all over aside from a brief reunion for the self explanatory Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly album.

The most accessible stand alone CD for beginners is probably Tadpoles which includes some of the Bonzo’s best known songs like the singalong Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah and children’s favourite Monster Mash, as well as Space Cowboy. However this is to overlook the surprising depth displayed across the less celebrated of these 72 songs as demonstrated on this particular album by the delicate By a Waterfall and brilliant variations on traditional forms in Dr Jazz and Laughing Blues. Tadpoles ends with Stanshall’s rather apt Canyons of Your Mind resplendent with Elvis vocals and a guitar solo so terrible it is very funny:

So if you fancy something completely different, that the kids will love on long car journeys, and is guaranteed to raise a smile, take a punt on at least one of the Bonzo albums. Before long you will be singing the chorus to Hunting Tigers out loud at the office water dispenser.

Bonzo mainstay Viv Stanshall died in a house fire in 1995

The Intro and the Outro:

Hi there, nice to be with you, glad you could stick around. 

Like to introduce `Legs' Larry Smith, drums 

And Sam Spoons, rhythm pole 

And Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, bass guitar 

And Neil Innes, piano. 

Come in Rodney Slater on the saxophone 

With Roger Ruskin Spear on tenor sax. 

I, Vivian Stanshall, trumpet. 

Say hello to big John Wayne, xylophone 

And Robert Morley, guitar. 

Billy Butlin, spoons. 

And looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes. 

Nice! 

Princess Anne on sousaphone. 

Mmm. 

Introducing Liberace, clarinet 

With Garner "Ted" Armstrong on vocals. 

[Jazzy scat singing] 

Lord Snooty and his pals, tap dancing. 

In the groove with Harold Wilson, violin 

And Franklin McCormack on harmonica. 

Over there, Eric Clapton, ukulele. 

Hi Eric! 

On my left Sir Kenneth Clark, bass sax. 

A great honor, sir. 

And specially flown in for us, the session's gorilla on vox humana. 

Nice to see Incredible Shrinking Man on euphonium. 

Drop out with Peter Scott on duck call. 

Hearing from you later, Casanova on horn. 

Yeah! Digging General de Gaulle on accordion. 

Rather wild, General! 

Thank you, sir. 

Roy Rogers on Trigger. 

Tune in Wild Man of Borneo on bongos. 

Count Basie Orchestra on triangle. 

[CBO:] (Ting!) 

Thank you. 

Great to hear the Rawlinsons on trombone. 

Back from his recent operation, Dan Druff, harp. 

And representing the flower people, Quasimodo on bells. 

[Q:] Hooray! 

Wonderful to hear Brainiac on banjo. 

We welcome Val Doonican as himself. 

[V:] Hullo there! 

Very appealing, Max Jaffa. 

Mmm, that's nice, Max! 

What a team, Zebra Kid and Horace Batchelor on percussion. 

A great favourite and a wonderful...

Also in the magazine this week we have what I consider Hawkwind's best album Warrior on the Edge of Time. This is probably their most "prog" album. I love the cover too. It's a simple illustration yet manages to convey the atmosphere of the album.

Bear's Den are not particularly original being another of those lo-fi acoustic groups from the Fleet Foxes school but they are definitely one of the best. Islands is full of melodic numbers beautifully sung in harmony.

I'm not sure about Coldplay. I think they are good but they also annoy me. I don't know why. Maybe their music just seems a bit earnest and possibly overrated? Good at what they do but not particularly original or exciting. I'm new to the X&Y album and on early listens it seems quite heavy which is a good thing in my book. One to return to another time.