Doo Dah Duo

It’s a Bonzopalooza on my favorite Internet radio channel, BBC Radio 4 Extra. The station is currently broadcasting programs by two different founding members of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

A new box set of the Bonzo Dog Band albums came out recently, but despite a few bonus tracks from the subsequent solo work of some of the band members, I’m still content with my copy of Cornology, a similar collection of all the BDDDB albums which came out in the early ‘90s.

Vivian Stanshall’s Henry at Rawlinson End, a series of deadpan melodramatic readings in the style of a bad Edwardian novel, pops up on Radio 4 Extra with regularity. But I never tire of it, and in fact tend to listen to every episode several times in a row in order to get all the jokes.

Innes Own World is well-named, not just because its star is Neil Innes, but because it exists as part of a fluid “world” of comedy material that has also fueled stand-up shows and albums. Innes’ later “bands” were more famous than the Bonzos: Monty Python (for whom he did musical arrangements and sang “Brave Sir Robin” in Holy Grail) and The Rutles (for whom he wrote the songs and embodied Ron Nasty). Some familiar songs and sketches are on this show, but not without being rejiggered. Some of the funniest bits are the laid-back anecdotes Innes spins about his real-life adventures with touring bands, moviemaking comedians and parody-appreciative Beatles.