Marty Feldman
I recently got a British comedy sampler LP on Decca UK "The World of British Comedy" (PA 30) - and cut 1, side 1 was "The Great Bell" by Marty Feldman. I immediately put this song on one of my sampler 'various artist' MD's to play in the car. Well, it's a great song. Upon returning to my home, I discovered this song is also found on the 2nd Marty Feldman LP, "I Feel A Song Going Off" (Decca SKL 4983 stereo). Looks like it's time to pull this chestnut out of the wall and give it a spin.I only know of one other Marty Feldman LP, the self-titled LP on Pye UK (NPL 18258 mono) which features material from Feldman's BBC TV series. Of particular note is that some of Mr. Feldman's material was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman - 'round about 1968 or so.
There must be hundreds of excellent (?) British comedy LP's that I've never seen or heard - still lurking out there. Just last year, I found the Stanley Baxter LP. He had completely dropped off of my radar - and I certainly never knew that he made a comedy LP.
What are your favorite British comedy LP's?
posted by Ron Kane @ 7:16 AM
5 Comments:
Re: Marty Feldman
OH how I loved The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine as a child! I think it can out in the States as a summer replacement series and I recall watching the amazing Terry Gilliam opening animation and knowing that this would be a funny show, and it certainly was! It would be a decade before I finally really saw Python after sampling it a little too early on PBS. Let's face it, without at least an English Lit. class under your belt, there's too much material that would fly over a pre-teen head. But not on the Feldman show! That was funny stuff no matter what your age or edcational background. I vivdly recall a paparazzi sketch that had Feldman stalking some government minister with the phrase "one more please,' his sole line of dialogue after each increasingly invasive appearance followed by a flashbulb.
Re: Favorite British Comedy LP?
Rutland Weekend Television always hits a soft spot for me. I love the heavy Neil Innes influence allowed to run rampant with just enough Eric Idle to make it tasty. Of course, Idle was unafraid of music. But this one works for me even more than the similar "Contractual Obligation Album."
Jim-san,
Happily, I am familiar with the Rutland Weekend Songbook LP. I have lots of nice Neil Innes (and related) works.
If you have fond memories of the Marty Feldman show, you may well really enjoy his two LP's!
- RK
I just discovered that "I Feel A Song Going Off" by Marty Feldman has been released on CD in England at the end of July. Toddle on off to amazon.co.uk and check it out for yourself!
I love Marty Feldman! Thanks for posting that funny pic btw. He's wonderful.
I was so happy to hear that "I Feel A Song Going Off" is now on CD, with two bonus tracks. Being here in the states, I deff. have to buy it off of Amazon soon. Anyway, he's great and he proves with the album that even in musical format he's hillarious. I actually think it's one of his best comedic works haha.
The songs are so great. "The Great Bell" is one of the best. My little sister loves "My Father's Shirt" and "Please Let Me Love You".
The album that is of his sketch shows, I don't own, but I've heard some clips from it. One in particular, the 'Ballet' sketch, made me mad that it seems the actual FOOTAGE of that sketch isn't available...because the sketch itself seems HILARIOUS!
I actually maintain a myspace page on the comedian, if you'd like to check it out...
http://www.myspace.com/feldmanmarty
Anyway, great blog. Being only 20, I never saw Feldman's work the first time around, so the only thing I've ever seen of his sketch show is from that best of DVD and also what people put on You Tube. But anyway...he's great. One of my favorites.
~Angela
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