Neil Innes

How Sweet To Be An Idiot Bonzo Dog lynchpin, Rutles mastermind and honorary Python’s life in music.

One of the saddest losses of the early part of 2020, Neil Innes remains an undercelebrated talent. The melodic genius behind the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, who gave them their hit (I’m The Urban Spaceman) as well as balancing Vivian Stanshall’s wild flights, Innes also gave audio flesh to Eric Idle’s Rutles, as well as being an essential extra Python and recording with the ramshackle GRIMMS. He had a long and extraordinary career, as befits someone with links to both the Pythons and The Beatles (he is the only person to appear in both Magical Mystery Tour and Monty Python And The Holy Grail).

The secret to his longevity and popularity is that he transcended the limits of the comedy record, being much, much more than a novelty artist. From the mid-60s, when he took the Bonzos from being an art-school jazz covers band with a surreal singer to their heyday as a classy, acerbic pop band in the vein of a somewhat weirder Kinks, to the 70s when he gave pinpoint authenticity to The Rutles’ music and became, albeit briefly, a fixture on the better shores of British television, Innes was more than just a clever parodist; he was a brilliant song writer of both character songs and slightly skewed pop romances.

Every aspect of his long career is worth investigating, but this record, his solo debut from 1973, is probably the most essential album he made under his own name. A varied, exciting and often rocking set of songs, it’s full of the liberation that a solo excursion made by someone who’s been a group animal often brings; the energy here is often as striking as the songs. And it’s the title track – made famous by its appearance on both Monty Python Live At Drury Lane and Innes’s Book Of Records TV series – that many love him for, the high point of that album, here reissued with many extra tracks. With a real rock punch– a lot of boogie numbers here – among the usual wit and melancholy, How Sweet To Be An Idiot is Innes’s manifesto, a document of his love of small-town romances, odd characters and a skewed view of life, religion and humanity. Ranging from the floaty pop of Dream and the title track to the rockin’ Momma B and the muchloved Music From Rawlinson’s End, it’s an album that all of us, not just the fans, should own. ■■■■■■■■■■