Originally released in 1974, two years after the greatest comedy rock band in history discovered that, contrary to the title of their reunion album, they couldn't make up and be friendly, The History of the Bonzos has long been one of the most fondly remembered compilations of the age. Like the Beatles' red and blue collections, the Rolling Stones' Hot Rocks, and the Who's Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, albums that so effortlessly absorbed the oeuvre that a discography seems incomplete without them, the two-album History of the Bonzos was conceived, designed, and universally lauded for delivering precisely what it promised, a seamless history and a priceless artifact…
Volume 1 - BBC Radio Sessions & Jazz Bilzen Festival, Belgium). Rare and collectable recordings from 1967-1969 - digitally remastered. Classic BBC radio sessions plus live at the Jazz Bilzen Festival, Belgium. Versions of Mr Apollo, I'm The Urban Spaceman & Canyons Of Your Mind plus many other classic tracks.
Recorded by the band in 1969, this was a frantic year for the Bonzos, and the album shows the lads going in several directions, but still with many strong numbers and the Bonzos trademark brand of whimsy (such as "Mr. Slater's Parrot", "Sport", and the Rhinocentric "We Were Wrong.") I was delighted to learn from the liner notes that the "hexachloraphine" referred to in "Keynsham" is the red stripe in a well-known brand of toothpaste. There are no coincidences, but sometimes the pattern *is* more obvious.
While not up to the high standards set by the band's earlier work, this contractual obligation album does offer a few glimpses of the skewed brilliance for which the Bonzos were so rightly famous. Highlighting the LP is "Rawlinson End," and perhaps Viv Stanshall's finest narrative. A spoken word tour de force, this intricately surreal English soap opera is a worthy successor to the earlier "Rhinocratic Oaths," and offers a preview of Stanshall's full-length solo effort, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. With some exceptions, the rest of the LP replaces the previous Bonzo albums' affectionate throwbacks to the music of earlier eras with broad rock parodies and defiantly tasteless humor.