matching tie and the bonus groove? Posted Mon Aug 13 16:17:03 BST 2001 by 'hemidemisemiderm'

Back in my criminal youth, I stole a vinyl copy of Python's Matching Tie And Hanky album from Camden Libraries. Thing is, on one side of the record, there were two grooves running next to each other, and with a carefully timed nudge of the needle, you could skip from one groove to t'other.

The second groove lasted about halfway round the record, but I'm damned if I can remember what sketches were on it... they were definitely different from those on the first groove though.

So, what happened here? Did I have an incredibly rare freak version of MTAH until my public spirited Mother found it and sent it back to the library? Or was this on all the MTAH records?


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Peter on Mon Aug 13 17:36:30 BST 2001:

There was something about it in the edit news when that was around i think - i think thats how its supposed to be


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Joe4SOTCAA on Mon Aug 13 18:22:41 BST 2001:

SOTCAA Edit News text:

"6. Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973) is generally agreed to be the best mixed and aurally inventive of the Python LPs. It also features the famous double-banded grooves on Side Two (two separate grooves featuring exclusive material - a trick which had hitherto only ever been attempted on 78 rpm discs). However, when the LP was re-released on vinyl by Virgin in the late 80s they obviously thought it was more trouble than it was worth and presented the two chunks of material as one groove (with an uncharacteristic gap in the middle. As the collective Side Two material didn't exactly match the running time of Side One they also restructured the LP so that everything from Palin's 'Before the next joke there will be a short raspberry' (which was part of the preceding 'Wasp Club' silliness) up to and including the 'Great Actors' interview was hacked off from the end of Side One and presented as the first part of Side Two. Unfortunately by the time of the CD release, this structure had become recognised as 'official' and it is still presented in this revised form."


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Martin on Mon Aug 13 18:29:34 BST 2001:

I am a proud owner of this record (picked it up in a Tunbridge Wells 2nd-hand record shop for a quid a couple of years back), and it is indeed an intentional feature -- a feature I only discovered after listening to both sides of the record several times in bewilderment. To add to the confusion, both sides are labelled "2 1/2". The double-tracked side starts with either the "John Cleese as a baby being fawned over by old ladies" sketch, or, on the other groove, the rather wonderful Open Field Farming System sketch in which all the historians' contributions are performed as rock pastiches ("It's written in the village scrolls, that when a ploughman owns an oxen and that oxen is lent, then the villeins and the plougman have got to have the lord's consent" done Hey Jude style). One of the tracks also includes a particularly confusing sketch where Eric Idle enters a record shop, listens to a record which turns out to be another sketch. Suddenly the record gets stuck (very realistically), and then Idle emerges and says "Scuse me, the record's stuck * the record's stuck * the record's stuck" etc.)

It's strange to think that the record's available on CD. Does anyone know if they tried to emulate this weirdness, perhaps by putting this material on a hidden track or something?

The record also contains especially recorded versions of the Bruce sketch and The Cheese Shop sketch, notable for the alarming use of the word "fucking" ("...I don't care how fucking runny it is...") which I don't think was used in the TV version.

Very cool indeed.


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Martin on Mon Aug 13 18:31:10 BST 2001:

We were obviously posting at the same time. That resolves one of my questions, then. Cheers!

>SOTCAA Edit News text:
Unfortunately by the time of the CD release, this structure had become recognised as 'official' and it is still presented in this revised form."


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'SE1' on Mon Aug 13 18:42:28 BST 2001:

It's a Porky Prime Cut, isn't it? The original version I mean (I thought it said something like "I'll be home late, mum, I'm cutting another Python album" but my deeply buggered copy says "Tony Porky")

Is there an official list of Porky Prime Cuts anywhere?


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Joe4SOTCAA on Mon Aug 13 18:53:18 BST 2001:

>Is there an official list of Porky Prime Cuts anywhere?

There's some info here:

http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/lp_grooves.html


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Martin on Mon Aug 13 18:59:37 BST 2001:

>It's a Porky Prime Cut, isn't it? The original version I mean (I thought it said something like "I'll be home late, mum, I'm cutting another Python album" but my deeply buggered copy says "Tony Porky")

I'll check mine next time I'm back at my parents'.


Subject: Re: matching tie and the bonus groove? [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Anonymous' on Mon Aug 13 19:08:32 BST 2001:

>>Is there an official list of Porky Prime Cuts anywhere?
>
>There's some info here:
>
>http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/lp_grooves.html
>

Any chance of posting the entire Q article, rather than selected highlights?


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