Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978 film)

Oh Blasphemy of Blasphemies! I had a warning that this would be bad, but I thought it had a Beatles soundtrack and after-all all 4 Beatles were still alive would John, Paul, George and Ringo all sit back and let such an atrocity happen in their name!!! Okay enough over-drama, but really this film although filled the joyful tunes of the Beatles (an all Beatle soundtrack with an albums worth of songs qualifies as a Beatles specialty and up for a personal review) but it does not contain the spirit of the Beatles as I knew the experience coming as a fan. So what I say may not apply to every Beatle fan. Anyway, the problem is a band that sang "All You Need Is Love" and "Revolution" it doesn't seem likely to have designed their alter ego band to have literal militant origins. In the previous film incarnation of Sgt. Pepper's via Yellow Submarine Sgt. Pepper's had no military background and the Beatles posed as Sgt. Pepper's to fight the meanies with music and they joined to Pepperland and left the Dark Side. A children's tale of ideology worthy of Dr. Seuss. But in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band it lacked the charm of an urban fantasy of a Utopian Wonderland and went for the unbelievable concept of small town patriotism who shamed Hollywood fame. The 70's generation seemed so hypocritical making this moral lesson against materialistic decadence. Really think of how many coke induced orgies the stars of this film participated in. The 70's was the worst elements of the 60's and this film to me perfectly reflects that, not that I don't like many of the performers or that I think ill of all who participated afterall Aerosmith sobered up and in this film gave one of the best Beatles covers ever (note on Permanent Vacation they also did a great job on the Beatle tune "I'm Down"). Back to the theme of the film, it just seemed too preachy and yet not saying anything. And I suppose I'm still being overdramatic but to quote John Lennon in a depressed stage of his career circa 1970 Plastic Ono Band "The dream is over." And for a long time it seemed to ring true for generations of disingenuous charities and self indulgence.

Life Of Brian (1979 film)

Look before the fundamentalists stone me let me say just one thing "JEHOVAH!" Okay I love that scene and if you don't know what I'm talking about don't criticize this film (but who does anymore?) The long chronicled critical debate on this film has left me feeling somewhat isolated. Not to sound preachy I'll just say I'm a Christian and I love how this film makes fun of politics and religion and particularly the corruption of politics and the lack of spirituality in one's religious odyssey. The people lampooned are those who don't reason just look for riddles to solve. The people who take for granted the very fundamental elements of Christianity, true Christianity. I love watching the Pythons, especially Terry Jones and Eric Idle, defend this film because I think they understand the difference between blasphemy and heresy and don't take this condescendingly but I think they made God proud to have them serve the purpose of making His sincere and insincere followers think, a reward for the sincere and a punishment for the insincere. Aside from religion I want to add the Stan/Loretta scene is hysterical as is the "What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?" scene and many more scenes. Thank you for indulging my rant

Yellow Submarine (1968 film)

Okay the Beatles only appeared in the last two minutes of the film and it wasn't their voices in the cartoon, but Audrey Hepburn didn't sing in My Fair Lady so I say they are even. It is a Beatles film, a mere technicality will not change that! Anyway as usual I will reminisce of my early adventures of watching this film. I would check out the video at the Springboro Public Library and view it alone while close relatives wondered what drugs I was on. Watching and listening to the Beatles Yellow Submarine I realized they shouldn't associate the Beatles with drugs, it just makes drugs sound more appealing! My favorite character in particular was Jeremy/Hilary/Boob/Ph.D aka the Nowhere Man. I related to him as any blogger would. As I write this I realize he's sort of a lovable Comic Boy Guy from The Simpsons and that reminds me DISNEY STOP RUINING EVERYTHING, YOU STOLE THE MUPPETS DON'T STEAL THE BEATLES TOO! Like you jerks don't make billions off of whoring out your regular hack. You don't make real family entertainment you suppress real family entertainment, buy it out or slander it. Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, Jim Henson all entertain families without talking down to them. 40 years ago the Beatles wouldn't be allowed in Disneyland and condemned as commie heathens by the Puritanical Mickey Mouse Club. Anyway the plot is perfect, the Beatles save Pepperland from an anti-musical, anti-peace, anti-love group of Blue Meanies. In their travels they discover no one is a nobody and everybody has a place and a purpose. I found a sense of security that I found in no other cartoon and when I got the DVD with the scene "Hey Bulldog" placed back in and the lyrics spoke to me (as I somehow wasn't familiar with that song even though my dad had every Beatles album on vinyl which I listened to constantly) Here are some of the lyrics that comfort me;

Child-like, no one understands
Jack knife, in your sweaty hands
Some kind of innocence is measured out in years
You don’t know what it’s like to listen to your fears
...
Big man (Yea), Walking in the park
Whigwam, frightened of the dark
Some kind of solitude is measured out in you
You think you know me but you haven’t got a clue

Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck never sung something so meaningful at least not to me!

The Final Rip Off (1988 album)

Oh the confusion of this masterpiece! It's like listening to a description of a Dali painting, I still don't understand "Cocktail Bar." But it was wonderful. Is it the ideal Python album? I don't know it's hard finding them. I buy used but never over the internet I don't trust the liability how do I know if it's really in suitable condition? Anyway, it was my first impression of "The Architect Sketch" "The Spanish Inquisition" "Cheese Shop" and "The Argument Clinic" and they killed me! The visual deficiency is a lost on tracks like "Cherry Orchid" but most the time you get the point. This could be a better buy than And Now For Something Completely Different or Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl if Eric Idle was your favorite Python, which he was for me after listening to this album. The hilarity of "I Like Chinese" "I Bet They Won't Play This Song On The Radio" but no "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" but then again it has "Bruces" with the Philosophical Song and "Travel Agent" prime Eric Idle sketches along with "Nudge Nudge" also included. A few good Holy Grail moments are part of it too, no Castle Anthrax wise choice as it was too visual but it does have "French Taunter" "Swamp Castle" and a personal favorite "Constitutional Peasant." It is a more practical starter for Python fans over And Now For Something Completely Different as The Final Rip Off has some album only routines and ANFSCD is all re-enacted television sketches. But what you get on their albums and more precisely on The Final Rip Off is "Bells" featuring Chapman and Jones and "String" featuring Cleese and Idle and a cult classic song by Michael Palin "Finland" which are of a stronger Python taste than most of their more mainstream humor. Sorry Gilliamites but as you would expect Terry G. is virtually none existent on this album.

Magical Mystery Tour (1967 album)

"Living is easy with eyes closed; misunderstanding's all you see" Nothing expressed escapism as well as this. Although Paul dominated the album with some of his best work ("The Fool On The Hill," "Hello Goodbye," "Magical Mystery Tour," "Penny Lane," "Your Mother Should Know") John's work continued to shine. What's more the tunes complimented each other and worked to a common goal. John's "I Am The Walrus," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "All You Need Is Love," and "Baby You're A Rich Man" all helped create another world one could retreat to when the real world lost all sense. As said in the movie 'when a man buys a ticket for a magical mystery tour he knows what to expect, we guarantee him the trip of a lifetime and that's just what he gets THE INCREDIBLE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR' I get chills just writing that. This album captures the pain of the real world receding as one takes to a world of comfort and finds relief from it as if not ignoring the pain but letting yourself fit in and your pain feel isolated. I should mention that George wrote a good song "Blue Jay Way" if not as impressive as other songs written at this time like "Within You Without You" or "It's All Too Much" but still good and wonderfully rare instrumental track from the whole foursome "Flying." Being unique in the Beatles catalog it's hard to appraise it's worth (to sound like a critical snob) except to say it's essential. (To Note: I historically distinguish who technically wrote each song, but as this album is evidence of the mutual jumping board John and Paul were to each other I maintain devoted to the Lennon/McCartney credits formality after all could Paul write "Eleanor Rigby" without John's "Nowhere Man" or John write "Good Morning Good Morning" without Paul's "Good Day Sunshine")

And Now For Something Completely Different (1971 film)

There used to be an independent video rental store down the road from where I live (back before DVDs became popular where I lived) where you could rent 5 movies for 5 days for 5 bucks (you can't find deals like that anymore!) and as Monty Python And The Holy Grail was a new favorite I found this film And Now For Something Completely Different there and it was an instant favorite to rent along with a then rare "Weird Al" film UHF (along with three other films not on the new-release-wall). It was such an innocent memory of a conflicted time for universally personal reasons (I was a teen). I immediately realized it was technically the funniest movie ever made. It was one of the rare films that is truly a laugh a minute (or sometimes very often more)! You immediately see the gifts of Cleese and Palin working together, but the success of the "Parrot Sketch/Lumberjack Song" was a curse on them to draw attention away from equally hysterical moments. The partnerships seem to work so interchangeable well.
Eric Idle and Michael Palin in "The Marriage Counselor Sketch"
to John Cleese and Palin in "Vocational Guidance Counselor Sketch"
to Terry Jones and Cleese in "The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook Sketch" (which is very improved upon from the tv series version of the sketch),
to Terry Jones and Idle in the "Nudge Nudge" sketch.
and of course Graham had many great parts usually as the Colonel breaking up scenes that "got much too silly" and the Terry Gilliam animation segue ways.
Five of the six worked supremely well together in the "Restaurant Sketch" with Graham Chapman as the diner, Carol Cleveland as his date, Terry Jones as the waiter, Michael Palin as the head waiter, Eric Idle as the manager, and John Cleese as MUNGO ("YOU VICIOUS HEARTLESS BASTARDS"). Oh how even though I have every sketch on the the original tv show DVD set I would love to dig this movie up and watch it for old times sake.
Of course any great artist, comic or otherwise, will have too many classics that can be put in a single collection (at least those who are so idolized as the Pythons are). There's no Spanish Inquisition "well I wasn't expecting one" and this time you don't have any. There's no Ministry of Silly Walks, no Argument Clinic, no Architect Sketch and many others but that's for another time. You could just get the tv series or perhaps slowly work your way up to it by banking or insurance or getting The Final Rip Off (album) or Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl (film) but I'm partial to this film as an introduction to the world's greatest tv series ever!

Past Masters (1988 album)

Originally released in 1988 as a double album and 2 single albums, the remastered version is now a double disc and as such I will refer to it as a single work. It is, after all, to serve a single simple purpose; to fill in the singles only songs into the album catalog of the Beatles. Personally I feel this technique should be used in the Beatles solo works (Shaved Fish by John Lennon is a less formal less strict form of this but not inclusive enough). "Give Peace A Chance", "Instant Karma", "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" etc are not on any official John Lennon or Lennon/Ono albums and are sometimes just added on as a bonus track to an album it doesn't fit on (ie "Power To The People" closing Plastic Ono Band wtf). Also what about Paul's "Live And Let Die" "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" George's "Shanghai Surprise" "Bangla Desh" or Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy" "Back Off Boogaloo." But enough digression, my point is although technically labeled a compilation album it is rightfully considered part of the studio album canon. After all no proper British studio album has "She Loves You" "From Me To You" "I Want To Hold Your Hand" "We Can Work It Out" "Paperback Writer" "Hey Jude" "Lady Madonna" etc. Past Masters is possibly the best single place to start on Beatles album as it is the most diverse album aside from The White Album and it has more universally beloved hits as well as some glorious underdogs like "I Call Your Name" and "The Inner Light." In short this may be the desert island pick album of the Beatles or any collection.