Trivia about the Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band, who mashed up British music hall, rock, trad jazz, and other arcane styles to become
what the Mothers of Invention were too pedantic to remain: funny as hell music satirists (who weren't anywhere near as condescending
or even contemptuous as Frank Zappa too often could be):
* They played (well, mimed to) this number (which gave a turn-of-this-century rock band their name) during the stripper-in-the-tent segment of the Beatles' ill-fated television film
Magical Mystery Tour; trumpeter/songwriter Vivian Stanshall sang the ersatz-Elvis-style lead . . . (shame Elvis had a lame sense of humour, he'd have brought the house down singing it) . . .
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"
! No longer available* They originally called themselves the Bonzo Dog Dada Band, then the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and finally the Bonzo Dog Band.
* Their live shows included anything from incendiary devices planted in their instruments to hoisting cartoon-like thought balloons over each other's
heads; their music and satire wielded a big influence on Monty Python (with whom their own keyboardsman Neil Innes eventually became involved).
* Their connection to the Beatles didn't stop there; Paul McCartney produced "I'm the Urban Spaceman" (under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth); and, Innes
eventually became part of the Beatles satire
The Rutles.
* When British songwriter/producer Geoff Stephens came up with a number saluting as well as satirising classic British music-hall styles, he needed a touring group fast
when the song became an unexpected blockbuster in 1966. He invited the Bonzos to be that group; the band turned him down, but one of their original saxophonists,
Bob Kerr, decided to throw in with Stephens. The Stephens group: the New Vaudeville Band; their hit . . .
The New Vaudeville Band, "Winchester Cathedral"
! No longer available* Vivian Stanshall, possibly the best-known of the Bonzos other than Neil Innes, worked with assorted projects after the Bonzos broke up in 1970, before he suffered
a nervous breakdown. After he was released from hospital, he collaborated with Steve Winwood on the latter's first true solo album; then, did a narration for Mike
Oldfield's
Tubular Bells in the late 1970s; then, was involved with assorted music and film projects (including voiceovers), including his old-time radio satire
Sir Henry at Rawlinson's End, until his tragic death in a house fire in 1995.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "The Intro and the Outro"
! No longer available