ERIC IDLE
The Rutland Isles (IM Music)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

---

It was back in 1976 that Eric Idle and Neil Innes recorded The Rutland Weekend Songbook, the precursor to Idle's latest CD, The Rutland Isles. Much of his musical work was with Innes, who is also noteworthy as a member of England's legendary comedy band, the Bonzo Dog Band. Songbook was the launching point for their legendary spoof of the Beatles, The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash, which came two years later. Idle of course is also a member of Monty Python, the member who was responsible for quite a lot of the musical work they did, including "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life," from the Life Of Brian, and "The Galaxy Song" from Meaning Of Life.

Here Eric draws from the Rutland tradition, but doesn't really reprise the Songbook. That doesn't stop it from being hilarious though. Where the Rutland Weekend Songbook was a lot looser in format, the Rutland Isles is a series of pieces that segue together, in this case an audio travelogue of the Rutland Isles, featuring visits to the islands of Paranoia and Liberacion.

Eric does nearly all the voices but he's aided on some tracks by Samantha Harris and his musical collaborator John Du Prez. Idle and Du Prez did a lot of work musically, the numbers required lots of different arrangements, especially when they tell us of all the big stars (from Elvis to Dylan) who have written songs about the Rutland Isles. The spoken bits are all punchy and several are drop dead funny. Favorites from the album include the songs "Flipper Minelli," featuring the dolphin who does Liza Minelli impersonations, "Killing For God," "Muff Diving" and the "Gay Animal Song," plus the spoken pieces "Randi Statistics" and "Analology".

The CD actually hews a lot more to the Firesign Theater's style of audio production than most Monty Python work, though the Python soundtrack albums are first class productions that are great audio movies. All told it's well worth a first class ticket to see The Rutlands, even though it's an audio only trip.

© 2004 - Rusty Pipes