In its heyday, Python LPs entered the public consciousness more than the TV shows ever could and, to that end, are responsible for the party-line opinion perpetuated by younger comedians that ‘80% of Python wasrubbish’. The dissenters in question were of course too young to appreciate Flying Circus when it was transmitted and, in the days before expensive video recorders were commonplace, could only enjoy the aural side of Python. Items like ‘Parrot Sketch’, ‘Nudge Nudge’, and ‘Lumberjack Song’ became regarded as ‘classics’ on account of their ubiquitous vinyl presence, not because a mass audience at the time recognised the ‘sporadic genius’ of the television originals. (Indeed, there is an unconfirmed theory that Series 1 was not dusted down for a second viewing until as recently as 1989. Python had a genuine cult audience at the time of the first series, but their firm favourite was always ‘Lemming Of The BDA’.)

The LPs are fantastic of course, and represent a glory age of comedy albums - the days when performers took an interest in designing and promoting their own work. These days, the best you're likely to get are some hastily-dubbed television soundtracks, around which is wrapped a pleb-pleasing generic inlay-card designed by a disinterested trainee ‘fully convergent with Photoshop’.

Well, that's enough soapbox - bring on the edits…

Some biographers claim that the audience was 'uninvited' and didn't feature any core Monty Python fans. Quite why this occurred has never been made clear but the results were frustrating, for the listener and the participants. By the end of the first series, Flying Circus had acquired an audience which knew exactly where Python was coming from and were hungry for more. The recording of this LP saw the Pythons taking a step backwards. The audience responses are genial but none-too-enthusiastic and the LP comes across like a badly-received radio show. This shouldn't have been the case as audiences for comedy shows like I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (of which cast Cleese was a member and which was still running at the time) always got terrific responses.

There were few jokey references to the medium of either radio recordings or gramophone records as there were on the TV series and on the later LPs, aside from Cleese' 'End of side one…' (at the end of side one) and Graham Chapman's 'Colonel' giving a demonstration of stereo at the start of side two. Apparently the Pythons only learned upon arriving at the studio, that the recording was to be monaural (although the joke was still used, Chapman growing ever more distant as he marches from speaker to speaker).

[NOTE (1): According to BBC producer Andy Foster, the mastertape of the LP was missing-presumed-lost for many years until it turned up, unlabelled, in a drawer. It is not clear precisely when this discovery was made: Foster asserts that the woman who opened the drawer was working for the BBC Radio Collection’s ‘Canned Laughter’ division (who issued the album on cassette in 1993), but this doesn’t explain how the LP was given a CD release in 1985. Was the original CD-pressing dubbed from vinyl?]

[NOTE (2): The 1970 cover design (featuring the crashing foot framed inside a television set) was original Gilliam artwork, and the same picture was also used for the first CD release. For the 1993 cassette version (and the 1998 CD/cassette re-issue), the cover was replaced with a blander, non-copyright version of the same design - in fact, the same illustration used on the BBC's Flying Circus ‘Killer Sheep’ video. This was presumably to avoid paying royalties to Gilliam.]

[NOTE (3): The 1993 and 1998 re-issues were dumbed down in other ways. The (real) newspaper cuttings which had adorned the original back sleeve were absent, and many of the original sketch-titles were given alternative, pleb-pleasing names: ‘Television Interviews’ became ‘Arthur Two Sheds’, ‘Trade Description Act’ became ‘Crunchy Frog’ and ‘Pet Shop’ became ‘Dead Parrot Sketch’ (as if we're meant to infer that the other sketches aren't sketches but candid real life documentary footage).]

The American (Buddha Records) version of Another Monty Python Record was released as a longer edit than the British edition, and featured studio versions of ‘Penguin On The TV’ and ‘Communist Quiz’ as well as new linking material like ‘A Book At Bedtime read by Mr N.D. Gumby’ (following the ‘Cherry Orchard’ sketch), together with a brief new link from Cleese, an extra apology concerning the Norwegian carpenters’ intrusion, an amusing item by Palin as an angry telephone-caller complaining about all the communists on the record, and a slightly revised running order. The edit was also generally looser, and there were many unnecessary pauses, footsteps and door-opening sound effects (especially during ‘Spanish Inquisition’) which were substantially tightened up for Charisma Records’ UK release. Buddha Records also insisted upon including a tracklisting, which seemed out of keeping with the presentation. This American edit is the version currently available through Virgin Chattering Classics.

[NOTE (1): At the 1997 reunion at the Aspen Comedy Festival, Terry Gilliam mentioned a plan he once suggested for Flying Circus which would involve turning the soundtrack down very slowly throughout a show (forcing the viewers to continually turn up the volume of their TV sets) until, when the level had dropped almost as low as it would go, they’d suddenly make the loudest noise possible, causing people all over the country to dive behind sofas. The BBC refused this proposal, but Another Monty Python Record appears to adopt the idea - the volume does appear to drop during the apologetic Terry Jones dialogue in ‘Be A Great Actor’, only to rise dramatically for the ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ fanfare which follows. However, being the worst-mixed of all the Python LPs, it could equally be accidental...]

[NOTE: We’re not entirely sure whether the above is correct and in fact have come to blows over it. One of us now has a bruised shin, the other has a shiner and a cauliflower ear (mind you, that’s what he started off with so he’s happy enough). Any further info would be welcome.]

[NOTE (1): All the songs used in the Election Night Special sketch (‘We’ll Keep A Welcome’, ‘Don’t Sleep In The Subway’, and ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’) had to be credited on the album sleeve, even though their quoteage was fleeting and largely tuneless. The current CD issue has a tracklisting clearly compiled by someone ignorant of the album’s contents: the songs are listed, alongside other incidental music (‘Granada’, ‘Prestige Theme’), as if they are substantial sketch items in their own right. The same ignorant tracklister has also listed a sketch called ‘Argument Song’.

[Note (2): The video release of the original Flying Circus Election Night Special sketch (Series 2, Show 6) does not feature any song credits on its sleeve.]

[NOTE (3): As a taster for the Drury Lane LP, the unedited rushes of the 'Election Night Special' sketch were released to New Musical Express and pressed as a double-sided flexidisc given away free with the magazine. The disc, called Monty Python's Tiny Black Round Thing was linked by Michael Palin as himself and as DP Gumby, proclaiming himself 'the Head of New Musical Express':

The Live At Drury Lane edit of the sketch tightens up the performance quite substantially. Most of the cuts are simply bits everyone knows from the TV version so we won't repeat them here. One confused handover however involves Palin delivering his line about 'the swong' despite Cleese forgetting to give him the feedline: 'Well, I've got the swong here in this box - thank you for asking..!' ]

[NOTE: A photograph of two ‘Pepperpots’ (Jones and Chapman) appears on the album cover, but no such sketch is on the LP.]

(a) A version of ‘Fish Licence’ which relieved us of Cleese’s stutter on the line ‘I’ve even got a licence for my pet cat Eric’, not to mention the references to Kemal Ataturk’s ‘entire menagerie, all called Abdul’.

(b) The previously unreleased ‘Summarising Proust’ - this was clearly an out-take from Previous Record, as ‘Proust Song’ had been erroneously credited on its sleeve.

(c) A new Palin-voiced link to the 'Alistair Cooke Being Attacked By A Duck' tape.

(d) 'Waltzing Matilda' dubbed over the intro to 'Bruces'. Oddly the sketch still follows on from 'Word Association' on the compilation so the music may have been added to break up a familiar link.

[NOTE: The original packaging of 'Instant Record Collection' featured a sleeve which folded out into a box which resembled a stack of LPs (with loads of fake LP spine titles). The reissue omitted the box design because, as every Wilmut-thieving Python biographer knows, the packages kept bursting open in shops. It's true - they did. Honestly, you couldn't walk past John Menzies back in '77 without at least a dozen of the cunts bursting open and showering you with vinyl and cellophane.

We braved the experience however and here is a list of all the fake LP titles:

The Pick Of The Best Of Some Recently Repeated Python Hits Again, Vol. II
Get Bach – The Best Of The Welsh Beatles
You And The Night And The Music And The Chicken: Ramon and Ted
Tom Jones Hits Frank Sinatra While Vic Damone And Mel Torme Grab Englebert Humperdinck,
At Las Vegas
Bing Is Back!
Back Is Bing!
Bang Goes Boing!
Bong Bangy Bing!
Boeing Boeing (cast album)
Monty Python Tries It On Again
Pet Smells – The Beach Boys
I’m In The Mood For Love And Goats And Chickens – Ramon And Ted
Ruling Songs And Ballads – H.M. The Queen And The Jordanaires
Accountants Work Songs
I’ve Got A Beer Glass Sticking In My Head And Other Rugby Songs
Rastaman – Sir Keith Joseph (Deleted)
Every Picture Tells A Story – Britt Eckland
Atlantic Crossing – Britt Eckland
Every Picture Tells A Story – Britt Eckland*
An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down – Britt Eckland
Never A Dull Moment – Britt Eckland
Gasoline Alley – Britt Eckland
Smiler – Britt Eckland
A Night On The Town – Britt Eckland
Footloose And Fancy Free – Britt Eckland
Bright Lights, Soft Music, Live Goats: Ramon & Ted
Bernard Delfont Live At The Bank Next To The London Palladium
More Songs from the Goole and District Catholic River Wideners Club
I Left My Pacemaker In San Francisco – Dr DeBakey
Scottish Airs – The Hamish McFart Singers
John, Paul, George & Ringo – The Davenport Brothers
It’s All Over My Friend – Earl K Vomit and the Meatabolic (sic) Processes
My Way Or Else – Frank Sinatra
Young, Gifted, Black And Furry: Ramon & Ted
Party Time, Princess "Piano" Margaret
The Horrid Brothers Kill Anyone In Sight
Beethoven’s Punk Symphony, In B Flat – "The Stinking Bastard" (Bandages Supplied)
The Wonderful Sound of Hip Injuries
The Best Of Reggae Maudling – (Rastatory Label)
The Dave Clark Five’s War Speeches
Raw Power Punk Kill Blast Throttle Destroy – Clodagh Rotten
A Man Who Once Sold Paul McCartney A Newspaper – Live!
Give Me The Moonlight And The Goats – Ramon And Ted
Ron Simon and Geoff Garfunkel: Live From The Tennis Club Purley
A Night In Casablanca – The Everley Sisters
An Evening with Martin Bormann (and the Trios los Paraguayos)
The Best of The Osmonds Teeth – Vol XI
My Brain Hurts And Other National Front Marching Songs
Hitting Ourselves With The Little Curved Bit On The End Of The Shaving Brush – Eric And The
Loonies
Monty Python’s Best Sketches Beginning With ‘R’
The Best Bits Of Rolf Harris
Teach Yourself Power
Norma Shearer Whistles Duane Eddie
Nixon’s Solid Gold Denials
When The Chickens Are Asleep – Ramon And Ted
Friday Night Is Bath Night, J.P. Gumby
When We’re Apart – The Legs
The Milkman Whistles Stockhausen – ‘A’ Milkman
My Brain Hurts – The Moron Tabernacle Choir
Together Again – Frank And Ifield
Ron Simon and Geoff Garfunkel: Live From The Tennis Club Purley*
Eternally Yours – The Massed Windscale Marching Scientists
Running Songs And Surrendering Ballads: The Massed Bands Of The Queens Own Cowards (Or
Some Of Them)
The Beatles Chauffeurs Live!
Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay Again!
The Monty Python Instant Record Collection

*asterisk denotes title which appears on the cover twice by mistake.]

The released LP features nice full stereo mixes of the title song and, obviously, 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'. 'Brian' features the few extra bars of the intro snipped cack-handedly from the film titles and removes the gunshot and death cry of the animated angel from the end of the song. 'Always Look…' is a nice remix of the film version. In fact the first few lines of the film version are spoken, though the 'When you're chewing on life's gristle…' bit is the same vocal as the LP version but sans acoustic guitar.

[NOTE: When 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' was released as a single in 1992 a special radio-edit was constructed which saw Idle re-record the line 'Life's a piece of shit…' as 'Life's a piece of spit…'. The chatter at the end of the song was also re-recorded. The promo video shown on The Chart Show featured a montage of Flying Circus clips which attempted to illustrate the lyrics (e.g. 'Don't grumble, give a whistle…' was illustrated by clips of Terry Jones grumbling father from Series 4's 'Mr Neutron' and Idle's 'Batley Townswomens Guild' woman blowing the whistle to kick off the mudfight). The more obvious choice of simply using the Brian visuals was obviously dropped for fear of sparking off another religious argument, though a brief clip of the supposedly dead Judean Peoples Front tapping along to the song is included. The original unchanged version of the song was used but the word 'shit' was beeped (and illustrated with Palin's George Bernard Shaw (from Series 3's 'Oscar Wilde' sketch blowing his raspberry).]

(a) One bizarre cut is in the ‘Sex Education’ sketch, where Cleese announces to a schoolboy (Terry Jones) that, because his joke is so funny, he thinks he’d ‘better be selected to play for the boys’ team in the rugby match against the masters this afternoon!’. Originally some dramatic Bach organ music is sounded and Jones cries ‘Oh no sir!’. However, the soundtrack album removes the words ‘this afternoon’ from Cleese’s speech, cutting immediately to Jones’ line (sans Bach). Why? It is understandable that they would avoid paying royalties to the organist, but since the dialogue appears to be dubbed from an organless rough cut, it would appear to be an artistic decision (to add immediacy and drama) but the effect doesn’t quite come off.

[NOTE: The 'Sex Education' sketch also features elegantly acted female sex-noises, purportedly coming from Cleese' screen wife as he demonstrates his technique, presumably to illustrate the scene more effectively. It is not known whether Patricia Quinn recorded this wild track especially for the LP or whether it was something from Andre Jaquemin's private collection.]

(b) In the ‘Fighting Each Other’ scene, the sound effects (explosions and clocks) are dubbed differently, and are in stereo.

(c) The ‘Dungeon’ sketch includes its original punchline:

IDLE Live organ transplants? What’s that?

(d) There are a few extra lines in the ‘Live Organ Transplant’ scene itself (indicated here by italics):

CLEESE Can we have your liver then?

JONES No...I’d be scared.

(e) In the ‘Protestant Couple’ sketch, there are 23 seconds of a radio news broadcast before Chapman’s first line which do not appear to be voiced by a Python member.

(f) There is the original Jones line ‘Ooh - ‘Have a nice month’...’ upon reading the wording on a box of complimentary tampons, given to his character in heaven. This was a hark back to an earlier cut scene during the ‘Dungeon’ sketch, where Carol Cleveland’s Beefeater waitress presented the couple with a packet of complimentary condoms and said ‘Have a nice fuck’. The tampon line was redubbed as ‘Ooh - After Life Mints..’ (ho ho), which made Cleveland’s ‘for the ladies?’ line, as she presented the flowery packages, rather purple.

(g) There are 18 seconds of the opening narration to ‘The Adventures of Martin Luther’ (cut from the film entirely), but a fake stylus skip relieves us of the sketch itself.

(h) The 'Amputated leg' sequence continues for a few more lines:

CLEESE The MO says that we can stitch it back on if we can find it immediately.

JONES Yessahh - I'll organise a party right away, Sah.

CLEESE Well it's hardly the time for that is it, Sergeant?

JONES A search party, Sah.

CLEESE Oh, ah ah ah - much better idea. [Tell you what - organise one right away!

[NOTE: The Meaning Of Life scriptbook - like the Grail and Brian books - features a fuller version of the script, including most of the stuff mentioned above.]

[NOTE: The rushes to ‘Spam Song’ evidently have not survived. On Monty Python Sings, the track starts at the point where the LP’s dialogue ends.]