They Came In Countless Numbers
One of the blogs that I regularly check out is Time Has Told Me - his taste mirrors mine in many ways, and more than once he's posted something that I had ripped and ready to go. Some of his posts are vinyl rips, some are CDs (and occasionally I send my high horse off for a feed and grab one or two things I haven't yet ripped from vinyl), and recently he's started posting some rather nice folky bootlegs. Check him out.
Last week he posted Neil Innes' "How Sweet To Be An Idiot", which I put up a few months ago - but his seems to be a CD rip so I suggest you go and get his rather than mine. He has some bonus tracks as well.
"Idiot" is Neil Innes' first (and I think best) solo album. The 2nd and 3rd are available from Amazon as a two-fer (only 8 quid, folks) but his 4th album has never been released as far as I can see, so here it is. And I might as well take the opportunity to repost the Rutland Weekend Television Songbook (co-credited to Eric Idle), one of my earliest posts and a very popular download.
If you're familiar with Neil Innes you'll know what to expect - witty punning lyrics & catchy melodies (Pete Atkin and Jake Thackray come to mind, though Neil is more pop/rock than acoustic guitar). And if you're not familiar with him (Bonzo Dog Band?) ...well, that's *still* what you should expect.
And if you don't like witty English singer-songwriters, how about deadly serious Finnish jazz-prog-rockers?
I picked up 'Lambertland' in Crouch End (yes, Harum Records) some time in the early 70s, attracted by a sticker on the sleeve that claimed Tasavallan Presidentii were "...like a tidied-up Traffic". Never could see the comparison, mind you.
The singer and lyrics are ludicrous, as only Scandinavian prog-rock can be ("there's room for doubt bigger than three, and rug enough... link step from the bottom up", anyone?) but Jukka Tolonen is a hell of a guitarist and over the years I've become extremely fond of this album. I don't have any of their albums (are they any good?) but I do have the solo "Tolonen!" album and "B The Magpie" (was Pekka Pohjola ever in TP?) and they're both pretty good as well.
The only other person I've ever met who'd heard of this lot was a Finnish user interface designer with Nokia when I was out in Tampere a few years ago. He made me a copy of a more recent Jukka Tolonen album but it's pretty grim guitar stuff a la Steve Vai (I think, only played it once and that was years ago).
Neil Innes & Eric Idle - The Rutland Weekend Songbook (1976)
01 - L'Amour Perdu
02 - Gibberish
03 - Front Loader
04 - Say Sorry Again
05 - I Must Be In Love
06 - 24 Hours In Tunbridge Wells
07 - The Fabulous Bingo Brothers
08 - Concrete Jungle Boy
09 - The Children of Rock And Roll
10 - Stoop Solo
11 - The Song O' The Insurance Men
12 - Testing
13 - I Give Myself To You
14 - Communist Cooking
15 - Johnny Cash
16 - Protest Song
17 - Accountancy Shanty
18 - Football
19 - Boring
20 - L'Amour Perdue Cha Cha Cha
21 - The Hard To Get
22 - The Song O' The Continuity Announcers
Download The Rutland Weekend Songbook
Neil Innes - Off The Record (1982)
01 - Libido
02 - City Of The Angels
03 - Them
04 - Time To Kill
05 - Rock Of Ages
06 - One Thing On your Mind
07 - The Worm And The Angel
08 - Not Getting Any Younger
09 - Take Away
10 - Happy Ending
11 - Stoned On Rock
12 - Knicker Elastic King
13 - Spaghetti Western
14 - Mr Eurovision
15 - Ungawa
16 - Godfrey Daniel
17 - Fortune Teller
18 - Mother
19 - Burlesque
20 - That Road
Tasavallan Presidentti - Lambertland (1972)
01 - Lounge
02 - Lambertland
03 - Celebration Of The Saved Nine
04 - The Bargain
05 - Dance
06 - Last Quarters
posted by Witchseason at 10:23 am
13 Comments:
Thanks for the Neil Innes.
The man is great.
Link on the Rutland Weekend points to a Jpg file.
Trying to track down Keynsham as my Vinyl copy did'nt survive to the other side of the world
Thanks for the bug report - fixed now. Let me have your email & I'll send you a link to my rip of Keynsham.
J.
hi,
i've upped Tasavallan Presidentti II (1971) for you, if you want to check it out.
http://rs203.rapidshare.com/files/59598816/Tasavallan_Presidentti_II.zip
all the best,
-rbrt
just to say - gr8 blog and music here! dont suppose you heard of - or got anything by "Wally" who were around c 1973/74?
Hello
Thanks for TP 2 - will listen soon.
No, no Wally. Sorry.
J.
Hi
I recently re-listened to your old rip of RWTV and enjoyed it a lot.
R
Grrrrrreat stuff thanks!
Any chance of a re-up of those Area Code 615 albums please?
This Neil & Eric album is one of my favorites. I glad I'm not the only one who's aware of it. Thanks!
-->>D.Moose
Area Code 615 albums already re-upped - see http://rapidshare.com/files/30373361/615.zip
Thanks for the Neil Innes stuff!
Someone recently upped a torrent of Eric Idle hosting an old SNL episode from 1977. Innes performs two songs (Cheese & Onions and Shangri La) and as a bonus, Alan Price plays a couple as well (including my fave Poor People).
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1388922
The music on Tasavallan presidentti's first two LP's (both called "Tasavallan presidentti") from 1969 & 1970 are really much more Traffic'ky than Lambertland. The vocalist on them was an Englishman Frank Robson. The rumour goes that when TP began its conquest of England in 1972, backing Traffic, they had to change the singer, because Robson sounded too much of Winwood. The both albums can be found at FinnArctic: http://finnishrock.blogspot.com/2007/12/tasavallan-presidentti-prog-rock.html
Well written article.
Saw TP on their own a few times in the early 1970's, but haven't got a clue when the personnel changed. Last time was at Reading Uni in 72/73 - booked by a friend who had introduced me to them and had a key hand in the Rag Week entertainment. Badfinger also played - earbleedingly loud!
Jukka Tolonen has made some great music for many years, but I read somewhere that he's banged up at the moment on a firearms charge (Validity needs checking). You can get some TP and JT cds from http://www.recordshopx.com/ based in Finland, the sort of webshop where you can do serious damage to a credit card. My experience of their service is first class.
It's hard to ignore the lyrics of Lambertland, though some are decidedly Zapppa-esque, but mercifully there is a lot of music as well, which is wonderful fusion. Another album where I've got the vinyl and finally tracked down the cd.
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