Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975 film)

Certainly the Sgt. Pepper's of the Monty Python collection Monty Python And The Holy Grail represents underground integrity and pop culture appeal (even if film critics like Leonard Maltin think it's not a true classic). This film represents irreverent humor done right back in the days of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen when comedy was breaking boundaries. Now maybe I'm a fuddy-duddy for putting this above films like There's Something About Mary and Airplane but The Holy Grail hits you with humor at every level. High with the constitutional peasant Dennis, low with the Black Knight, and sideways over the head with the argument of how a 5 ounce European swallow can carry a 2 lb coconut. Watch this and fall in love with Monty Python. The first scene I walked in on was Sir Galahad walking into the Castle Anthrax and at my early teens that was all I needed to get hooked. But I would feel slightly amiss to leave out the Knights Who Say Ni, the French Taunter, The Killer Rabbit and other bits, but there's too many and it will ruin the film and perhaps taint your expectations of this wonderful film. However I must mention some more key parts that made me laugh, well at least one the Plague scene with 'bring out your dead' was hysterical as an impatient body collector doesn't want to wait for the Plague infested villagers to die before getting rid of them as the body collectors only comes once a week and along those lines there's a hilarious scene where other villagers want to burn a woman who they are convinced is a witch in which the logic to test her is a riot. I will mention as a tool for decoding who is who in the film whether than list all their parts. This will help you recognize them in other sketches and films (hopefully); Graham Chapman (King Arthur) John Cleese (Sir Lancelot) Terry Gilliam (Patsy) Eric Idle (Sir Robin) Terry Jones (Sir Bedevere) and Michael Palin (Sir Galahad).

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967 album)

Being a Beatles fan first (at least time wise) I felt I should start the blog entries with the Beatles and start with something to represent diversity and universality and that falls right into the area of Sgt. Pepper's. Nothing is more cult/mainstream except perhaps for Monty Python And The Holy Grail. One of the things I like about it is that it was released with the same tracklist in America as it was in England. Previous albums like A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver had been edited down taking about ten to fifteen minutes off the album to be put into Something New, Yesterday And Today etc. However Sgt. Pepper's was too cohesive to be broken up (although some songs were edited out in other countries like the Philippines). The first three songs are regarded as legendary even in Beatles standards as "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was a number one for Elton John, Joe Cocker had his signature hit with the song "With A Little Help From My Friends" (which was made into the theme song for The Wonder Years) and the opening self-titled track was famously covered by Jimi Hendrix. Outside of that "Getting Better" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" are huge crowd pleasers even by people who don't know who made them. "Good Morning Good Morning" strangely enough was the first song from the album I ever heard though and continues to be a favorite. When I was a toddler I was a huge Monkees fan (and still am) and I would watch the episode "Mijacogeo aka The Frodis Caper" and hear the opening to "Good Morning Good Morning" serve as an alarm clock and occasionally I would think that was so cool because they didn't actually have an alarm clock but at sunrise the needle (by means of a simple contraption) would fall on a blank vinyl (which made it bothersome not to see the name of the album) and play the song. When I finally heard it on Sgt. Pepper's I was ecstatic (after I recognized the connection). Outside of that there was even the epic closer, perhaps the best finale ever, the song "A Day In The Life" primarily a John Lennon song with a Paul McCartney bridge which as a John Lennon sider I am reluctant to say made the song better giving a five minute tune the complexity that would serve it well. "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" was a wonderful escape song. "Within You Without You" a George tune was philosophically and spiritually profound. "Lovely Rita" was a fun, flirty song and for a last tidbit I will mention I am for the Lucy O'Donnell explanation of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" as I've seen the picture Julian allegedly drew of her that inspired his father to write this song. The trippy elements are simply of a Lewis Carrol theme who was one of John's favorite writers so it naturally influenced to fantasy tone of the song.

Reorganization

Another MASSIVE reorganization. To make this less of an ever edited list of Monty Python/Beatle works vainly classifying and cataloging them endlessly each work of of Beatles/Monty Python oeuvre will commented on individually on each post making it an endless editorial without a rigid dateline list structure.

A New Trend

Elvis is referred to as the King of Rock
Michael Jackson is referred to as the King of Pop
and Howard Stern the self-proclaimed King of All Media

But I thought given the pop culture status of the Beatles and Monty Python they deserve a royal alias. So I've decided to start a trend of calling the Beatles and Monty Python together as the Parliament of Entertainment (i.e. as they made the time tested laws as to boundaries of how far entertainment can go and be in good taste and have artistic value) Technically I will designate the Beatles as the House of Lords and Monty Python as the House of Commons.

A Petition

Every book, film, album, television show and video game listed and cataloged on this blog is done so to represent the wealth of material these ten men; Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, George Harrison, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Michael Palin, and Ringo Starr, had left behind and some still continue to make and in educating even some die hard fans into some their lesser known works that they may not even had known since many of these items are only on outdated formats (VHS, vinyl, IBM computer games, and books that stopped making new editions decades ago) and have therefore not been exposed to the current generation of fans who would like the opportunity to own them in practical formats both digital and hardcopy and so to anyone coming to my blog please leave a comment about what you like or like to have on this blog and email a letter to the copyright holders of Monty Python and/or Beatles as it may apply. As litigation is continually open to the rights of this content it would be hard to find who to send this message too and so I ask the fans across the web to help track down the copyright holders and petition for re-release of these treasured classics and refer them to this blog which I will continue regularly updating. Only voice over work and cameos are to omitted from filmographies and discographies are to have all official studio albums or in the case of the Past Masters (which complete the catalog) the Anthologies (key outtakes) or The Final and Ultimate Rip Off (as the sequence chances alter the body of work into something new). Books will only include things that are not wholly reprinting of lyrics or scripts as this would be endless. Video games must relate to the franchises of Monty Python or the Beatles directly. Thank you Beatlemaniacs and Pythonites alike!