Dead Parrot Society - The Best of British Comedy

Review by Heather Phares 
Dead Parrot Society: The Best of British Comedy gathers sketches and music from witty British comedians and musicians such as Peter Cook, Listen With Mother, and, of course, Monty Python and its individual members. Three extended sketches, Peter Cooks "Memoirs of a Miner," Graham Chapmans "Oral Majority!," and Monty Pythons "Courtroom",  are interspersed with the Portsmouth Sinfonias classically silly interpretations of "The William Tell Overture," and "Pinball Wizard," and sketches and songs like Dudley Moores "Psychedelic Baby," John Birds "The Audition," and Neil Innes "Protest Song." Python gems such as "The Dead Parrot," "Crunchy Frog," and "The Lumberjack Song" round out Dead Parrot Society, making it a fun, if somewhat anachronistic, look back at whimsical British comedy from the 60s and 70s. 
 
   
 
       01  Also Sprach Zarathurstra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey)  Portsmouth Sinfonia  2:00  
       02  The Dead Parrot  Monty Python  6:11  
       03  The Courtroom - Scene I: "The Charges"  Monty Python  4:30  
       04  Memoirs of a Miner, Pt. 1: "Which Ones Marcel Proust?"  Peter Cook  2:23  
       05  Protest Song  Neil Innes  3:20  
       06  Happy, Darling?  Eleanor Bron, John Fortune  :59  
       07  The Courtroom - Scene II: "Counsel for the Defence"  Monty Python  1:30  
       08  Psychedelic Baby  Dudley Moore  :56  
       09  Crunchy Frog  Monty Python  4:19  
       10  Memoirs of a Miner, Pt. 2: "Sex and Violence Down the Mines"  Peter Cook  4:34  
       11  The Oral Majority!, Pt. 1  Graham Chapman  :22  
       12  William Tell Overture: Lone Ranger Theme  Portsmouth Sinfonia  1:59  
       13  The Courtroom - Scene III: "Police Constable Pan Am"  Monty Python  2:20  
       14  The Audition  John Bird, John Fortune  2:08  
       15  Top of the Form  Clesse, John & Company  5:35  
       16  Transcendental Mastication  Peter Cook  :58  
       17  The Courtroom - Scene IV: "Counsel for the Prosecution"  Monty Python  2:52  
       18  Overture/Pinball Wizard [live]  Portsmouth Sinfonia  6:45  
       19  The Penultimate Supper?!  John Cleese, Jonathan Lynn  3:59  
       20  Take off Your Clothes!  John & Yoko  1:06  
       21  The Courtroom - Scene V: "Very Expensive Gaiters"  Monty Python  1:36  
       22  Memoirs of a Miner, Pt. 3: "Final Judgement"  Peter Cook  1:49  
       23  The Oral Majority!, Pt. 2  Graham Chapman  1:26  
       24  Balls!  Listen With Mother  3:27  
       25  The Courtroom - Scene VI: There Goes the Judge  Monty Python  1:44  
       26  The Argument Clinic  Monty Python  3:57  
       27  Classical Massacre!  Portsmouth Sinfonia  3:11  
       28  Lumberjack Song  Monty Python,  2:23  
  
 
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gvfixq8gld0e
 
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Parrot-Society-British-Comedy/dp/B0000032V4

Product Details

Audio CD (April 6, 1993) 
Original Release Date: 1993 
Number of Discs: 1 
Label: Rhino / Wea 
ASIN: B0000032V4