I always loved The Bonzos, and Python, and Rutland Weekend Television, and The Rutles; and the common denominator within all of those things is Neil Innes.Having a copy of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's History of the Bonzos, I knew Innes was part of a band called The World, as it included their '9-5 Pollution Blues' in the side projects section.
With keen eye I found a copy in my favourite second hand record store, and over the years I've almost played it bald.
So here's a tidier version, ripped @320 from CD; including the band's only single release: 'Angelina' and its B side 'Come Out Into the Open [Part 1]'.
It's of real interest to those who know Innes's work, revealing what happened to his music before he set off on a solo career.
Harder than his later releases, The World allowed Innes to fulfil a few rocky and rolly ideas, beyond the limitations of working within the Variety-like troupe The Bonzos.
It's a bit pub rock, a bit psychedelic, a bit pop, and just a little avant; with lyrics you'd expect from a witty wordsmith such as Innes.
It is also rather Beatlesque - like much of his music.
For me, most of Innes's solo material is just too twee; but he really shone, both as a writer and as performer, when it came to putting songs together for The Rutles: one of the greatest works of homage through pastiche in modern music.
(A friend once said to me that he rarely listened to The Beatles anymore, he listened to The Rutles; because when you listen to a Rutles' album, the whole of The Beatles' oevure is encapsulated in forty minutes.
And the fact that Rutles' tribute bands exist [!], as well as Rutles Highway Revisited, only goes to show how solid and strong the songs are even out of context.)
So, this is what Neil Innes did when The Bonzos came to an end; before he and Viv got together with Scaffold and became Grimms; and before he tentatively set out on his own path declaring How Sweet it was to be an Idiot, creating Book of Records, and nailing the history of The Beatles in his songs for The Rutles, etc.
I dunno, Rutles' tribute bands! Post-modernism gone mad!
The World really has been turned upside down.
The World - Lucky Planet (1970)
Not the First Time
Sail Away
9-5 Pollution Blues
Lead Us
Things I Could Have Said
Come Out Into the Open (2)
Godzilla's Return
Angelina*
Come Out Into the Open*
*Bonus tracks.
CD rip with artwork
Get the whole World here
