Customer Reviews

Cornology [3CD Set]

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If you're only going to get one Bonzos collection on CD, this is the one to have. It's the most comprehensive - 72 tracks, including the whole of each of their five albums: Gorilla, The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse, Tadpoles, Keynsham and their 1972 reunion album, Let's Make Up And Be Friendly. And there are some extras, or "Dog Ends" as they are described, including their quite splendid debut single, My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies. The accompanying notes on the Bonzos by Brian Hogg include such delightful details as that their hit single I'm The Urban Spaceman was produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C Vermouth. Apparently McCartney agreed to do it after Vivian Stanshall met him in a pub. The notes also point out that the Bonzos were part of the new wave of British comedy in the 1960s which led to Monty Python's Flying Circus. It's an interesting parallel - in the Bonzos' whimsical lyrics one can hear prototype Python dialogue, and in the way they borrowed earlier styles and subverted them one could see a musical precursor to Terry Gilliam's animations. But The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band are best appreciated on their own terms. Here is the work of a group of people of considerable musical ability and rich comic imagination, having a great time taking musical, comic and social conventions and turning them upside down. It's an approach which has stood the test of time. Enjoy.

All the Bonzo albums (here packaged as a definitive archive) are funny, but calling them comedy albums is like classifying the Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner as a sitcom. The many parodies here have their serious side--typically a lambast of the poverty of pop culture, but Keynsham (tracks 39-52) is a nightmarish descent whose only parallels are Dante's Inferno and Kafka's The Trial (which also have their humorous moments). Keynsham is a concept album about concepts, about the prisons we build for ourselves, only we don't think of them as prisons because we build them ourselves, and we're proud of the little decorative touches, and because we'll take the trite over the beautiful anyday. (In "Sport," "it's an odd boy who doesn't like sport" and who would rather read Mallarme under a tree than play football). In the Gilbert and Sullivanish finale, "Busted," policeman and pothead set out on a jolly chase ("running like a rabbit from a frisky poodle") but the free spirit (who's free because he sleeps on the beach and thinks "it would do more good to try / and understand the other guy") ultimately gets "busted, by the law." Fortunately the next Bonzo album, Let's Make Up and Be Friends (tracks 59-69) returns to parody and pastiche, comic relief from the despair (except there is that final track with the mechanical laughter...). Keynsham is probably the profoundest and darkest work of rock/pop, and civilization should be grateful the Bonzos didn't push the envelope any further.

There is nothing like the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band out there. Nothing at all. Listening to this "cornology" could only lead you to one conclusion - this music could not have been made by human beings. And you'd be half right, really, for Vivien Stanshall, the late driving force of the Bonzos, could definately be described as from another planet.
The album has a quintissentially British sense of wit, of being able to poke fun at ones self. It also contains the most askewed view on life and music you are ever likely to hear. Traditional music hall, put through a rock mangler, washed in a psychedellic washing machine and then dried in a satirical tumble dryer, is the best description of this collection of the bizarre, the brilliant, and the incisive. There are no apt words for these albums, but they take you on a journey from which you may never fully recover but you'll probably enjoy. These are musically gifted people (including future Monty Python collaborator and Rutle Neil Innes) having a whale of a time and masterly subverting genre and perception of class and social structure.
The best of the five albums included is Gorilla, a laugh riot from start to finish, without the pretensiousness that sometimes (though not often) creeps into the later albums. Stand out tracks are the absolute classic "The into and the outro" the spot on jazz spoof "Big shot" the instrumental piece "Music for the head ballet" and the strangely disturbing "Look out there's a monster coming." But there are gems littered throughout, such as "Hunting tigers out in INDIAH", the bouncy "Ali Baba's Camel" and the band's biggest hit "The Urban Spaceman."
All though other members of the band deserve merit, the real star of the show is Stanshall, a talent of which the phrase "a one-off" was coined for. It is his bizarre genius that shines through, as he fronts many of the tracks with his oh-so-British accent. A delight from start to finish. Go on - treat yourself.

If only all box sets and retrospectives were so all-inclusive... the only missing things I could smell were the John-Lennon-and-John-Cage-both-get-spanked merriment of "Sofa Head" from the Peel sessions, their cover of "the Young Ones," and their absolutely perverse oompah-loompah rendition of "Wicked Uncle Ernie" from TOMMY... Otherwise it's all here, 5 albums plus unfindable goodies like the classic "I'm Going to Bring a Watermelon to My Gal Tonight," and for those of us everywhere who grew up seeing British humor as at least one half of a viable alternative to its very different American counterpart, this set comes out like a two-headed, four-armed baby with flippers instead of hands: "Whatever it is, dear, it doesn't come from MY family's side of the gene pool..."

The Bonzo Dog Band were to music what Monty Python's Flying Circus were to TV. Small wonder that BDB member Neil Innes was recruited to do much of the Pythons' music, and later became the genius behind THE RUTLES. If you know what I'm talking about, THIS is for you! (If not, well... who knows?) Now-- ALL 5 ALBUMS in one set?? THIS is the way to do a "repackage"!

Well, the only song I remember hearing contemporary to its release was Mr. Apollo. This was not similar to anything on American radio at that time. I suppose this was the peak for the Bonzos, but this chronology shows that they made an incredible musical journey.

The early stuff is built around English music hall performance. So, it's partly songs but the songs are really part of a show. Obviously, you won't get that just from the songs, but it's worth noting. The 'group' were all fairly disciplined and trained artists. The most talented member, Stanshall, wanted to be a painter. The 'da da' name reflects a painting style brought to music, and it is the only way to understand this group.

Take the song the Beatles put in Magical Mystery Tour, "Death Cab for Cutie". It's kind of an Elvis send-up, but it's also a film noir style from the 30's. This group did style, but mostly they played with style in the early days, like songs from the early 20th century. There is a link to later British comedy like Python or 'The Rutles' but the Bonzos were never just about being funny. With Bonzo you never know.

The later albums reflect more of a rock band style, but they really stretch the limits of music. There are lighthearted pieces like "I Want to Be with You" and "I'm the Urban Spaceman". Then, there are brilliant little dramas set as music like "Sport, the Odd Boy". The problem with this group is that they always reached for the limit of music, which took them way away from music. But, no one has ever done more.

One of the more interesting songs is called "King of Scurf" It's about a boy with acne and bad dandruff (scurf). It is rather poignant. How many artists could write a song that lasts 6 minutes about a boy with dandruff. It's comedy, basically, but it's not a bad view of adolescence, either.

The last bits are very close to the edge, songs like Fresh Wound. It's sort of a song about a relationship, but not any relationship that would normally be examined in a song. It starts out asking how love can be expressed, but then asks about truth. There's a narrative on top of the music, but the narrative is sort of out of synch, asking:

"Truth is just a word and words are just
Words are words but truth is what we trust
How can we know if words fill our brains?
How can we show if blood fills our veins?
Truth in words is like our blood congealed
Words like turds escape but truth is sealed
Analysis

Transplant has gone wrong
Paralysis
Now you don't belong

This is an interesting song, to say the least. It has a power that most music does not possess. Or, perhaps, should not possess. Is this what we want from music? There are somewhat less extreme examples, like "Bad Blood". "Don't Get Me Wrong is perhaps a bit more extreme.

So, it was an interesting journey. They knew how to craft words and their musical ability got progressively better. Innes is still around, writing music. Stanshall is dead, but had some interesting projects after Bonzo.

Some lament the Bonzos never made it big or continued. What they did was remarkable and given what the band was producing toward the end, one wonders what else it could have done.

This set is a dream come true. Everything the great, great Bonzo Dog Band recorded in one package. Now, if you've never heard the Bonzos, you may want to start with "Gorilla." And then you'll say, "why didn't I just buy Cornology? It's got everything." So, it's up to you. Timeless music, eternally funny, absolutely unique. I'm talking Beatles and Monty Python level here; the real deal. These albums were part of our lives in college; now I'm an old man with a cane and they're still hysterical. Just kidding; I'm only 42. Do the trouser press, baby. Highest recommendation.

First and most importantly, this is the best way to get all of the Bonzos that you'll likely ever want or need - a great set. But it is not yet the perfect collection. For some inexplicable reason the version of "Canyons Of Your Mind" included on this set is missing a couple of spoken lines at the very beginning on the original that I have always found hilarious: ""Tis the b-side of our platter, sports fans... and I'm singing for you covered in sequins." Aside from that omission, though, which only those acquainted with the original LPs will truly miss, really, it's fine. (One final note and caveat - at least this version is, aside from the noted omission, the original version. The one included on Rhino's earlier collection, "The Best Of The Bonzo Dog Band," contained a completely different vocal track that was obviously different and decidedly inferior - all without noting it as an alternate version.)

So buy this set - but be aware that at least one song will be different from what you remember if you're a dedicated, long-time fan.

Everybody has their own favorites. The reviewer above liked Urban Spaceman, that's one of my least favorites (even if Paul McCartney did produce it.) CORNOLOGY has more than enough songs to ensure that you will find your own favorites. You may love the whimsy of "Jollity Farm", the black humor of Elvis (the late great Vivian Stanshall) doing "Death Cab For Cutie", the classic but way-too-short "Intro & The Outro", the freakazoid "We Are Normal", the romantic "Postcard", the spaced-out "Beautiful Zelda", the evocative narrative of "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe", or the bewitched psychedelia of "11 Mustachioed Daughters". There's enough here to please everyone!

And don't believe that guy who said the Bonzos musical parodies were all dependent on playing out of tune. Its not true! From the French accordion of "Rhinocratic Oaths" to the rocking anthem "Busted" the Bonzos could PLAY!

This set has almost everything you'll need by the Bonzos, an anarchic, daft, dotty, and hugely enjoyable set of art students who made a handful of albums and some memorable live performances in the late 1960s and early 1970s before they split and went their separate ways. This set has all their five albums, although the remixing is sometimes a bit odd (Tadpoles notoriously mixes Monster Mash into Urban Spaceman, and ditches the 'sequins' version of Canyons for a different one). You'll find 'Gorilla', 'The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse', 'Tadpoles', 'Keynsham', and 'Let's Make Up and Be Friendly', as well as the A and B sides of their first two singles from 1966 and some post-Bonzo solo work from Vivian, Neil, and Roger.

This is seriously good stuff, whether the jaunty pop stuff Neil Innes was so keen on (particularly coming to the fore on 'Keynsham'), or the slightly more edgy stuff which tipped from the increasingly unhinged mind of the multi-talented Viv Stanshall - together they were a fabulous combination to front a memorable band.