Customer Reviews

Monty Pythons Previous Record

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great Monty Python album which I had on LP years ago. Unfortunately, on the CD you can't easily find a favorite skit (and TRAVEL AGENT is on this one! ) because there are only two "tracks" representing sides 1 and 2 of the album. Sadly, a terrible CD presentation for a classic comedy album.

FYI, the skits are: SIDE ONE: Embarrassment/A Bed-Time Book; England 1747--Dennis Moore; Money Programme; Dennis Moore Continues; Australian Table Wines; Argument Clinic; Putting Budgies Down; Eric The Half A Bee; Travel Agency

SIDE TWO: Radio Quiz Game; A Massage/City Noises Quiz; Miss Anne Elk; We Love The Yangtse; How-To-Do-It Lessons; A Minute Passed; Eclipse Of The Sun; Alistair Cooke; Wonderful World Of Sounds; A Fairy Tale

The main weakness of this CD version of the LP is that it misses the surprise of the LP's side two. Two parallel spirals were printed onto side two, and the audio content divided between the two parallel grooves. The result was that you got a shock on your second, third or fourth play of the admittedly rather brief side two, in that it was a totally different set of sketches.

This album isn't quite as good as 'Another Monty Python Record'. It's a bit too lavatorial for my liking, though less so that 'Holy Grail'. Much of Eric Idle's sketches rely on an appreciation of the Home Programme on BBC Radio in the late 1960s. His other sketches -- eg the brilliant Australian wine critic and the Watney's Red Barrel hater -- were clearly written first not as dramatic pieces but as essays to be read. Michael Palin's love of football comes through in his Great Yang-tse (Yellow River) sketch. You don't need to know who Bill Shankly or Gary Sprake were, but it helps.

Eric the Half-a-Bee is a great sketch and not a bad song, but I sometimes wonder whether the Cambridge Footlights sketch format has much to answer for, in prompting the Pythons to write fairly dismal tunes such as the 'Wonderful as Money' song.

This is a great album. Dennis Moore is a particularly good set of sketches, and I loved hearing 'Happy Valley' and Prince Walter again.

Buy 'Another Monty Python' first, then the BBC CD (if you can -- available from amazon.co.uk but not amazon.com), then get this one.

TAKE IT OFF!!!!!!!! FOR GOD'S SAKES TAKE IT OFF TAKE IT OFF!!!!!!!!!! bzutbuzweeezweee

Yes!! This is what comedy on record is all about! From Dennis Moore to Dr Carl (Karl??) Gruber ("Noises are a major embarrasment source.") this, and its companion "Another Monty Python Record", is a continued hoot from start to finish.

Except for all those stupid "a massage from the swedish prime minister" sayings that are simply embarrasing.

And the moral is, smoking can ruin your health!

Please buy this album. It's the second-funniest album ever made (The first being Negativland's "U2" ep, but good luck finding that one). Listen to it. Cherish it. Love it. Laugh with it. And throw out all those awful Firesign Theatre records!!

What CD collection would be complete without a cd that starts out with a maniacal voice saying "NOT THIS RECORD! OH GOD! NOT THIS RECORD!". This is another good cd because it used special skits made specially for audio-only.

I very much enjoyed this album. From the strange cover to the last bits of the fairy tale, it is a well-done comedy album.

The best things about Monty Python's albums is that you can watch all the movies, see all the episodes of the Flying Circus, and even see the two German episodes of Fliegender Zirkus, and you'll still find new stuff on these records which the boys would write specifically for record. (How else can you do Alistair Cooke being attacked by ducks?) Granted, there are some rehashed bits (thankfully re-recorded so as to become laugh-track free) including Dennis Moore, the Money Programme, and the Argument Clinic, but the funniest bits are the ones that are new-all-new.

Listen to "What Do You [Toot!]," a game show where the ["Beethoven's Fifth"] contestant competes against the contestant with the ["Clementine"] buzzer to win [cha-ching!] and [hurrah!]. Marvel at the sound of a tiger going down to the chemist's (or, in America, drugstore.) And, of course, the often raved rage of the opening statement, "Not This Record!!!!"

In addition, the old sketches have some new bits as well. Dennis Moore is still a running gag, but in a different set of sketches. The section about old women killing budgies has a radio-appropriate ending. The Fish Liscense Sketch includes a new song, "Eric the Half-a-Bee". And, of course, Anne Elk gets shot.

The only complaint I have [if you wanna complain and nothing happens... oh bugger] is that the CD (at least my copy) is in a different order from the original LP my friend owns. It annoys the heck out of me, but still, it doesn't interfere too much.

I reccomend this to anyone who wants a good laugh and doesn't mind the f-word suddenly popping up at the very end (and in a fairy tale, no less).

The overseas antics of Englands premiere comedy team prove that you don't need to be visual to portray insanity. Once again the lads weave one comedic situation into the next as they leave the listner trying to catch up with the laughs. Idle, Gilliam, Chapman, Cleese, Palin & Jones are truly the cream of the crop in recording comedy. A lot of people poo poo Monty Python but the realametic fan will double over in gut splitting fashion for the crazy hi-jinks of Previous Record. Listen to it a few hundred times and it'll grow on you. The timing is brilliant. Young fans will digest this and most likely get a kick out of the absurd skits. It's enough to make you at least giggle

This is yet another of the very good early years Monty Python albums that has been put onto CD and no track listing added nor have the tracks been separated, you get two tracks, the equivalent of side one and side two of the original LP release from the 70's.

That gripe aside there is some pretty darn excellent skits on here such as Travel Agent which has gone down as not only one of the great Python sketches but really should be in every comedy fans collection somewhere. Elsewhere while I found plenty of guffaws on this as a teenager it's the early album I reach for least out of them all. After all with a couple of albums already under their belts at this point much of their best material had already been released onto audio by this point.

Still, Python fans are nothing if not committed and really given the price most of these albums are available for there is no reason not to get the whole lot.

While not as good as, say, "Another Monty Python CD," this one definitely amuses. "Argument Clinic," "1972 Eclipse of the Sun," "Dennis Moore," and the various radio quiz-game segments are hilarious. "The Brontasaurus Sketch" will either annoy or delight you, and doesn't hold up well under repeated listenings, nor does the fairy tale bit at the end. However, if you're a Python fan, you'll want this CD, and if you're not, you should get it anyway, because the good parts definitely outway the bad parts.

The MPFC are the quintessential English nonsense humour, the most talented comic characters & shows of our times owe them something. Their songs are as hilarious as their shows (& that's saying something). You suddendly become aware of the incredible gap between American humour, essentially based on parody, and our fellow Brittons'.As hilarious as a good P.G. Wodehouse novel,as nonsensical as their forerunners, the Goons. They did 1000 times more for the reputation of the United Kingdom than, let's say... The Osbournes or the late queen mum (though her hats wouldn't have been out of place on John Cleese's head)

I'm giving you a review of the original 73 lp and not of the cd, which apparently doesn't have all the songs as the record. Your better off with the lp, which i will make a list of the songs and ratings:

1.Emmbaressment-When I first heard this I laughed my head off. That is to say, while my head was on.
2.England 1747/Dennis Moore- I like both parts, nuff said
3.Money Prog...NOT THIS RECORDDDD!!!

I don't feel like writing any more but i will write this.

The best skits are the argument clinic,emmbaressment test,eric the bee,radio quiz game,a minute passed,the message from the sweedish prime minister,the wonderful world of sounds,how to lessons,the fairy tale,travel agency and of course the loveable character in An Elk <blahhh>i'm sorry, miss anne elk, which is my favorite skit on the whole citybuster album (not blockbuster).

GET THE LP.NOT THE CD.NOT THE CD. NOT THE CDDDAAHHH.