Browse: Home / I’ve Suffered For My Music; Now It’s Your Turn: Neil Innes, 1944-2019

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

I’ve Suffered For My Music; Now It’s Your Turn: Neil Innes, 1944-2019

Posted By Gillianren on December 30, 2019 in News | Leave a response

There are two non-Monty Python members credited with writing on the show. One is Douglas Adams. The other is Neil Innes. That is some pretty illustrious company. While Carol Cleveland has long been known as the Sixth Python, Neil Innes was the seventh. He didn’t write most of the songs on the TV show—just a few of the lesser bits on some of the less-famous episodes—but he did write all the songs to Holy Grail. And he performed with them a lot, when they needed an actual musician to give the place tone.

Can you talk about him without talking about Monty Python? I mean, sure, if you don’t mind an enormous hole in the middle of your discussion. He did do Rutland Weekend Television and The Rutles with Eric Idle, and of course there was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, whose one and only hit was produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth. It’s an impressive career, if an odd one. But from what I can tell, Neil Innes wasn’t interested in the conventional anyway.

Honestly, the thing of his I’m unfamiliar with that I’d like to seek out is Away With Words, a thirteen-episode series for Anglia Television where he went looking for the origins of well-known words and phrases. Because that sounds so exactly my thing, and it’s disappointing to me that I’m just learning about it now. Why was he the one hosting? I have no idea—maybe it was exactly his thing, too. He did write some books, over the years, and of course there are plenty of people who just find etymology fascinating. Because, you know, it is.

But okay, yes, when you picture him, you, too, probably picture the leader of Sir Robin’s minstrels. Or the page who gets crushed by the falling rabbit. Or, hey, the guitar player who plays the theme on the sketch about the most awful family in Britain. He did a lot of bit stuff, and I believe he led the chorus of Mounties in Live at the Hollywood Bowl, if not necessarily on the original episode. When you picture him, it’s hard not to picture him with the others, because he did so much work with various Pythons over the years.

I can’t say for sure that he’s the one who brought the Pythons and the Beatles together, because to be honest I don’t know. I’m not that obsessed with either Python history or Beatles history. But the connection is definitely there, and Innes was definitely part of that. To the extent that one of his non-Python performances of note is performing on the Concert for George, after George Harrison died. Remember that he was in Life of Brian, too, which was produced by George Harrison because he was interested in seeing the finished movie. So George was the eighth Beatle, I guess, after Neil?

Posted in News | Tagged Neil Innes, obituary

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Steve Morse, 1948-2024A show wasn’t a show until we saw you there: Steve Morse, 1948-2024 (by Miller)→

Invulnerable to ploys by music scene weasels: Steve Albini, 1962-2024 (by Miller)→

Such a great movie, such great performancesMake Sure It Flourishes: Andre Braugher, 1962-2023→

Also a demon poker playerI Gravitate Towards Sort of Broken Characters Who Try to Be Better People: Matthew Perry, 1969-2023→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38530 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    31145 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30544 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27730 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23642 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!