Customer Reviews
the sweet essence of giraffe - By: freewheeling frankie, 20 Apr 2008 
At last, quality reissues of all the Bonzos' albums - it's hard to believe that the only one previously issued separately on CD was Gorilla. The Cornology box valiantly collected (nearly) all the previously available material into one place but these reissues are the real deal - superbly remastered & packaged, augmented with bonus tracks that are worth listening to more than twice, & featuring extremely droll sleeve notes by surviving joint chief Bonzo Neil Innes.
The Bonzos' third album could be looked at as a slight regression after the all original The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse, with a return to the music hall novelties & trad jazz parodies of their early days. But if it isn't quite as brilliant as Doughnut, it's still an extremely fine album, worthy of at least 4.5 stars if not 5.
The two sides of the original LP began with a pair of their finest music hall coversin Hunting Tigers Out In "Indiah" & Ali Baba's Camel, & if the colonial attitudes of the former are slightly iffy, they're also being lampooned mercilessly. Shirt, by Roger Ruskin Spear, is a hilarious mixture of sketch & music, the pinnacle or indeed acme of his eccentric clothing-related oeuvre. Tubas In The Moonlight, another Spear effort, is an endearingly daft parody of 30s novelty songs. Dr Jazz & Laughing Blues are, according to Neil Innes's sleeve notes, live recordings from around 1966, the former very muchin the vein of Jazz Delicious Hot Disgusting Cold off Gorilla, the latter a slow blues (in a trad jazz sense) featuring Rodney Slater on laughing (and crying) clarinet, & perhaps the worst track here (relatively speaking, it's still a worthwhile inclusion). A quick listen to the original makes their cover of Monster Mash completely understandable - Bobby "Boris" Pickett managed to sound remarkably like Vivian Stanshall four years before the Bonzos had a record out, a considerable achievement for an American. The Bonzos version lacks the original's killer twist beat but makes up for it with Stanshall's superb delivery, his hilarious liberties with the lyric ("Comein Horace, we always have a breast for geckfast...") & his fabulous mad laughter over the fade. I'm The Urban Spaceman somehow managed to be their only hit single. It's far from being Innes's greatest song but still very charming; it would be nice to have the single version without the mad laughter from the end of Monster Mash over the intro. The original of By A Waterfall soundtracked a formation swimming sequencein a 30s Busby Berkeley musical, it gives Stanshall a chance to come over all sincere over a very silly arrangement. Mr Apollo is one of the Bonzos' greatest creations - it starts off like Jimi Hendrixin feedback heaven before going all poppy, with a lyric lampooning old-style fitness gurus like Charles Atlas. Stanshall's testimonial over the fade ("Five years ago I was a 4 stone apology, now I am two separate gorillas ... Wrestle poodles & win") is marvellous. The original album closes with the equally wonderful Canyons Of Your Mind, first issued as the B-side of Urban Spaceman. It's a deranged parody of a bombastic 50s ballad, with a magnificently awful comedy guitar solo.
The bonus tracks kick off with the previously unissued Boo!, a decent song which desperately needs a more committed performance. Readymades, originally a B-side, is one of Innes's best songs, wry rather than overtly comic. The last three songs are all from BBC sessions, with "Legs" Larry Smith gettingin some tap-dancingin an excellent version of Look At Me I'm Wonderful, a fine version of We Were Wrong & the previously unissued Craig Torso Christmas Show; the latter has been rescued from a slightly dubious (off air?) tape but has been lovingly remastered to make it perfectly listenable, as well as very funny.
Not bad, really - By: Derick Holcombe, 29 Oct 2007 
Tadpoles is the third Bonzo's album & includes several songs they played on "Do Not Adjust Your Set" - a pre Python showcase TV programme. It is a bit of a mixed bag & might be considered a step back from its wonderful predecessor, but it still has a lot of charm & laughs throughout. It also has the big hit record with "I'm the Urban Spaceman" & the fantastic "Canyons of Your Mind". Personally, I could do without "The Monster Mash" but the bonus tracks are fun & don't seem too out of place with the rest of the songs. If you like "Gorilla" you should like this one, but "Doughnut" & "Keynsham" are the must have Bonzo records.
