Customer Reviews
The Road To Unreason... - By: Vitamino, 31 Jul 2008 
Not as some have said, the original version of 'Sir Henry at Rawlinson End' but by far & away the most concise. It's all you really wanted to know about Henry Rawlinsonin an easy to swallow, beautifully performed hour.
And I've enjoyed this hour for what must amount to weeksin repeated plays. Even now, a word or phrase can suddenly shine out as a meaning or reference becomes clear. The narrative & songs are examples of Vivian at his very best & it comes as no surprise that this album continues to enthrall listeners decades after it's first release.
It's actually a condensed version or fragment of a much bigger series of recorded works which were performedin an equally erudite & mellifluous fashion for radio. Not that this album contains any part of the actual radio transmissions themselves.
One day perhaps, with enough encoragement, the BBC may release the original recordings. Until then the avid listener can only imagine the content of episodes such as 'Spades, Balls & Sausage Trees', 'Cabbage Looking In Mufti', 'Crackpot At The End Of The Rainbow' & 'The Road To Unreason'.
Utterly unique & extraordinary, this single hour of Stanshall opens up a world of astonishing beauty & invention like no other.
Frightening but exquisite - By: L. J. Payne, 29 Apr 2008 I recently bought this album having read about Stanshall's friendship with Keith Moon. At first listen it is quite bizarre, but the exquisite rhythm of the prose rings through & with some great comic moments you're immediately tempted to listen again.
I can understand the other reviews suggesting that this album grows on you; I've listened to nothing else for some time. Stanshall's careful delivery, comic voices & incredible throw-away one liners mean that there is something new to discover every time.
In short, a masterpiece & highly undervalued bothin pecuniary & cultural terms!
Awkward beasts, winkles - By: John Tree, 08 Oct 2006 Born out of short interludesin Bonzo Dog albums & Peel Show contributionsin the late Seventies, this recording contains, quite possibly, the most entertaining 40 minutes you are ever likely to enjoy. The scene is setin the faded grandeur of dust-shrouded aristocratic manor Rawlinson End where the terrifying Sir Henry & a cast of larger than life grotesques, of League of Gentlemen proportions, go about their daily excursions under Stanshall's relentless microscope.
His use of language is extraordinary, & he can move from the bawdily asinine (the downtrodden manservant is called Scrotum: the wrinkled retainer) to space-cadet surrealin the course of a single sentence.
The piece is crammed to the gills with throwaway one-liners... for example when some of the characters are playing cards, one remarks to Sir Henry "why, if filthy fingers were trumps, what a marvellous hand you'd have."
All is narrated with his plummy, rounded, & hugely expressive voice morphing wonderfully into each perfectly realised character. The scenes are intersperced with musical interludes, which the idiosyncratic but canny Stanshall made timelessly gauche (echoes of the Bonzo's here).
Viv Stanshall's exquisitely sharp, savage & witty descriptions paint some of the most vivid & side splittingly laugh out loud funny scenes this writer has ever heard. The rich density of the descriptions & narrative will bring the listener back time & again to find nuances & meanings that elude first listens. An undeniable work of genius from the finest hour of this sadly missed English eccentric ... Indispensible.
Vivian Stanshall's poetic & witty masterpiece - By: Jazzrook, 19 May 2006 This is Vivian Stanshall's crowning achievement - a poetic & brilliantly witty epic tale deliveredin Viv's wonderful rich baritone voice with musical interludes. It features the decadent eccentric aristocrat, Sir Henry Rawlinson, along with his grotesque relatives & acquaintances inhabiting Rawlinson End, a stately pile "nestlingin green nowhere"in the English countryside.
John Peel believed that Viv Stanshall was "on his day,the funniest manin Britain" & along with producer John Walters encouraged Viv to develop the Sir Henry character on his Radio 1 show which led to this marvellous album.
Viv Stanshall's influences included Marcel Duchamp, Dada & Oscar Wilde & all are evident on this bizarre, hilarious & literate masterpiece.
Sublime - By: P. C. Hackett, 09 Jan 2006 Does it get any better? If you like the Bonzos or Stanshallin general then this is a must. I dont think I have ever heard such exquisite wordplay, fine diction & off the wall humourin one place before.
My only question - When is the film going to be available on DVD?
