A Murmuration of Tired Starlings: Cream – Wheels of Fire (Super Deluxe Edition)

by Stuart Penney

I must declare a vested interest here. There was a period when Wheels of Fire was my all-time favourite album. From Martin Sharp’s eye-watering psychedelic sleeve artwork to the life-affirming music within, Cream’s third LP was (and still is) just about perfect.

Nestling alongside the timeless self-penned heavy rock anthems (“White Room”, “Politician”), high octane psychedelia (“Passing the Time”, “Those Were the Days”, “Deserted Cities of the Heart”) and the just plain bizarre (“Pressed Rat and Warthog”) are supercharged blues classics learned from Albert King, Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf. 

The performance of “Crossroads” here is sometimes described as the greatest live rock ensemble recording ever committed to vinyl and it’s hard to argue with that. On an album bursting at the seams with great music, this titanic performance of Robert Johnson’s most famous song towers above all else.

I bought my original vinyl copy of Wheels of Fire within days of release in August 1968, and it was very expensive at the time. Available in mono or stereo (mine was mono, although I didn’t specify a preference at the record store counter), the double album retailed at 72s/2d (£3.60). To put that in perspective, it was getting on for a third of my £12 weekly wage at the time. But it was worth every penny. Despite acquiring several more copies both on vinyl and CD over the years, I still own that original double LP. It’s looking a little dog eared now, but I’ll never part with it.

And now here comes this much-anticipated five CD box set which surely must be the last word on all things Wheels of Fire. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but I have to say I was a little underwhelmed, if not exactly disappointed.

It goes without saying that the packaging is excellent. No problem there. It comes housed in a beautiful 10-inch slipcover box. Inside is a 30-page book incorporating sleeve notes by Jim Farber plus a wealth of era-correct colour and black and white photos showing onstage action, together with US and UK record labels (although I have to say the binding is already coming unglued on my copy of the book).

The problem for me is the music, or the repetition thereof. The original remastered album sounds magnificent naturally. It always has and probably always will. But you can have too much of a good thing and stretching what is basically the same double LP out over most of the five CDs is overegging the pudding somewhat.

Disc One contains the studio album – twice. I confess I didn’t understand the technical jargon used such as “CSG Encoded Version” and “Phase Corrected (de-CSG’d) Version” so had to look it up. I discovered that CSG was used primarily between 1968-70 to make two-channel stereo recordings compatible with mono equipment. It’s estimated that 10% of all stereo albums released in the late 60s and early 70s employed the CSG system. Unfortunately, it apparently made listening on stereo headphones less than ideal resulting in a “tinny” sound. That doesn’t appear to be a problem here, but I simply couldn’t hear much difference between the two versions.

Disc Two contains the studio album twice (again), this time as “Stereo and Mono Reference Reels”. Ginger Baker’s “Pressed Rat and Warthog” features a brief spoken introduction we’ve not heard before and there are small differences in the track timings but, again, you’d be hard pushed to notice too much difference between the two versions, other than the obvious, of course.

Disc Three features the WOF live material and at 44 minutes has the shortest running time of the lot. The original double LP told us that the live album was recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium when, in fact, only Ginger’s drum marathon “Toad” originated there. The rest (including the aforementioned magnificent “Crossroads”) were recorded a few streets away at Bill Graham’s other San Francisco venue, the Winterland Ballroom. It’s good to see that information finally corrected here.

The 1968 album also credited “Sitting on Top of the World” to Chester Burnett (aka Howlin’ Wolf). The Wolf made the song famous, it’s true, but it was first recorded in 1930 by the Mississippi Sheiks as a fiddle and guitar country blues. That credit has also been amended for the box set.

Disc Four gives us eight more live tracks recorded at the Fillmore and Winterland in March 1968. Aside from a previously unreleased version of “We’re Going Wrong” all of these tracks originally appeared on Live Cream (1970) and Live Cream Volume II (1972). Three tracks from Volume II are not included here, however, because they were recorded later in 1968 at the Oakland Coliseum. The three live tracks from Goodbye Cream also date from the LA Forum in October 1968 and these were included on the 2020 box set Goodbye Tour (1968). Some early vinyl pressings of Volume II erroneously listed “Steppin’ Out” as “Hideaway” and, again, that mistake has been fixed.

Disc Five. This 15-track CD is the pick of the bunch. Featuring alternate mixes, early versions, rare live cuts and the non-album single “Anyone For Tennis” it’s worth the price of admission alone.

It’s all great stuff, but the stand-out tracks are an early mono mix of “White Room” with different guitar parts (sans wah-wah) and 1968 live versions of “N.S.U.” (previously available only on the Those Were The Days box set) and “Sunshine of Your Love” (previously available only on a rare Eric Clapton CD single).

58 years after it was first released this is probably the ultimate version of Wheels of Fire. Featuring three of the finest rock musicians of the era at the very top of their game, it was the pinnacle of their brief three-year career. At fifty quid, this is not a cheap item, especially as much of the material is repeated several times over with (to my ears) little difference between the many versions. But to hard core Cream aficionados that will matter not at all.

TRACK LISTING:

Disc One:

Wheels of Fire: In the Studio (2026 Remaster)

1968 Originally Released CSG Encoded Version

1. White Room (4:59)
2. Sitting On Top of the World (4:59)
3. Passing The Time (4:33)
4. As You Said (4:22)
5. Pressed Rat and Warthog (3:15)
6. Politician (4:14)
7. Those Were the Days (2:55)
8. Born Under a Bad Sign (3:11)
9. Deserted Cities of the Heart (3:42)

Wheels of Fire: In the Studio (Phase Corrected 2026 Remaster)

Previously Unreleased Phase Corrected (De-CSG’d) Version

10. White Room (4:59)
11. Sitting On Top of the World (4:59)
12. Passing The Time (4:32)
13. As You Said (4:22)
14. Pressed Rat and Warthog (3:15)
15. Politician (4:14)
16. Those Were the Days (2:55)
17. Born Under a Bad Sign (3:11)
18. Deserted Cities of the Heart (3:40)

Disc Two:

Wheels of Fire: In the Studio (Stereo Reference Reels)

Previously Unreleased Stereo Tapes

1. White Room (4:59)
2. Sitting On Top of the World (4:55)
3. Passing The Time (Long Version) (5:50)
4. As You Said (4:16)
5. Pressed Rat and Warthog (With Spoken Intro) (3:16)
6. Politician (4:10)
7. Those Were the Days (2:54)
8. Born Under a Bad Sign (3:08)
9. Deserted Cities of the Heart (3:36)

Wheels of Fire: In the Studio (Mono Reference Reels)

Previously Unreleased Mono Tapes

10. White Room (4:59)
11. Sitting On Top of the World (4:57)
12. Passing The Time (Long Version) (5:50)
13. As You Said (4:18)
14. Pressed Rat and Warthog (With Spoken Intro) (3:15)
15. Politician (4:11)
16. Those Were the Days (2:54)
17. Born Under a Bad Sign (3:10)
18. Deserted Cities of the Heart (3:39)

Disc Three:

Wheels of Fire: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium & Winterland Ballroom (2026 Remaster)

1. Crossroads (4:16)
2. Spoonful (16:48)
3. Traintime (7:02)
4. Toad (16:16)

Disc Four:

Wheels of Fire: More Live at the Fillmore Auditorium & Winterland Ballroom (2026 Remaster)

1. N.S.U. (10:15)
2. Sleepy Time Time (6:51)
3. Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (6:45)
4. Sweet Wine (15:18)
5. Tales Of Brave Ulysses (4:45)
6. We’re Going Wrong (6:55)
7. Sunshine Of Your Love (7:25)
8. Steppin’ Out (13:41)

Disc Five:

Wheels of Fire: Rarities (2026 Remaster)

Early Versions, Alternate Mixes, Single Versions and Live Recordings + Previously Unreleased

1. White Room (Stereo Us Single Edit) (3:05)
2. Sitting On Top of the World (Alternate Stereo Mix) (4:57) +
3. Passing The Time (Alternate Long Stereo Mix) (5:51) +
4. As You Said (Alternate Stereo Mix) (4:19) +
5. Pressed Rat and Warthog (Alternate Stereo Mix) (3:10) +
6. Politician (Alternate Stereo Mix) (4:11) +
7. Anyone For Tennis (Stereo Single Mix) (2:39)
8. White Room (Early Version Mono Mix) (4:29) +
9. Deserted Cities of the Heart (Rough Mono Mix / No Strings) (3:37) +
10. Pressed Rat and Warthog (Alternate Mono Mix) (3:14) +
11. As You Said (Alternate Mono Mix) (4:21) +
12. Anyone For Tennis (Mono Single Mix) (2:39)
13. Crossroads (Mono Single Version) (4:16)
14. N.S.U. (Recorded 9 March 1968 At Winterland Ballroom) (12:38)
15. Sunshine Of Your Love (Recorded 7 March 1968 at the Fillmore Auditorium) (6:58)

Double Diamonds! Famous Double Albums Sold Individually

by Stuart Penney

We all love records, right? Despite being declared dead and buried at the turn of the century, vinyl is back with a vengeance. Tactile, with proper, decent sized artwork, LPs really are the most desirable way to listen to recorded music. Add to this the powerful nostalgia factor and the lure of old records is irresistible.

On the minus side, records are extremely easy to damage and need to be handled with great care. They are also bulky, ridiculously heavy in quantity and prohibitively costly to ship. All of which explains why they were so easily superseded by the soulless CD. But, against the odds, LP records have made a Lazarus-like comeback in recent years.

You may have noticed that new “vinyls” (as the kids of today like to call their records) are also exorbitantly expensive, often retailing at more than two or three times the price of a CD.

But then, records have never been especially cheap. Except, perhaps for that brief period in the early 2000s when those pesky CDs were poised to take over the world and vinyl was experiencing a worldwide slump in popularity, LPs have always been costly (OK, they were always much cheaper in America than in the UK and Europe, but that’s another story for another time).

Come with me now back to the late 60s when records were king. This was a time when our favourite artists were getting serious about their art and some of the more cerebral musicians (Pete Townshend, I’m looking at you) felt that a solitary LP was simply not enough to contain the fruits of their genius. That’s when we started to see double albums appearing by some of the biggest names in rock.

OK, Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa had got there first in a 1966 photo finish with Blonde on Blonde and Freak Out respectively but, as they did with so many other things, it was the Beatles who really kick-started the double LP craze in 1968 with The Beatles (aka "The White Album").

The problem was, late 60s UK double albums often retailed at literally twice the price of a single LP, making them unaffordable for many record buyers. While regular single albums hovered around the 40 shillings (£2) mark, some double sets – Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland for example - sold for 85 shillings (£4.25). That translates to a not-insignificant £62 today.

Polydor was one of the main offenders in the LP price wars and in 1968 they came up with the bright idea of splitting some of their popular double albums and offering them as individual single LPs, presumably to soften the financial blow. The theory seemed to be: you could buy one half now and the other half next payday. Or perhaps you'd decided you didn't like 50% of the album, who knows? It was a curious phenomenon which must have made some kind of sense in the Polydor boardroom at the time, although it seems little short of madness from this distance. 

Even though the truncated versions often had new and interesting artwork, it was a flawed artistic and commercial concept which simply didn’t catch on, for obvious reasons. But, for a brief period, we saw big-name UK double album sets on Polydor (and their affiliated family of labels Track and Elektra) such as Tommy, Electric Ladyland and Wheels of Fire sold individually as parts 1 and 2.

It had been tried before, of course. Jazz, folk and classical multi-LP sets had long been sold in separate volumes, but it was a brand-new innovation in rock and pop.

This is not a comprehensive list of late 60s double albums, by the way, just a handful that were offered as both 2/LP sets and single albums. 

DONOVAN - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden (Epic 1967)

The earliest rock double album I remember being split and offered individually was Donovan’s 1967 A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. Unlike most of the other titles mentioned here, this elaborate box set was not a Polydor release. It appeared on the Epic label in the US and on Pye records in Britain.

When originally issued in the UK in early 1968 AGFAFTAG retailed at £3/17s/6d (£3.88), twice the price of a single LP at that time and the equivalent of almost £60 today. The British release was delayed for three months, so in late 1967 I bit the bullet and bought a US Epic pressing at a London import store for £5, which converts to a wallet-worrying £81 in 2026. That was more than 50% of my weekly wage at the time.

In America the two LPs were also sold individually as Wear Your Love Like Heaven and For Little Ones. In fact, in some territories (eg Australia, S.E. Asia and parts of mainland Europe) the box set was considered too extravagant for local release and the A Gift From A Flower To A Garden material was only ever sold as these two separate records. The pair were scheduled to be issued this way in Britain and were even allocated Pye catalogue numbers, but the release was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

Japan didn't get the individual LPs but typically went one better and in 1969 issued the AGFAFTAG double album, not in a box, but in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with a unique 12-page colour booklet featuring lyrics (in Japanese and English) and photos, some taken from the Donovan's Greatest Hits album insert booklet, others unseen elsewhere.

In December 2023 Donovan re-released a signed, limited edition of the mono vinyl box set with all inserts through his website. The asking price was an eye-watering £180.

The sleeve design of For Little Ones was taken from the inside tray of the AGFAFTAG box, while the artwork for Wear Your Love Like Heaven appeared nowhere else at the time. Both covers were photographed by Karl Ferris in the moat at the 14th century Bodiam Castle, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, 10 miles north of Hastings and roughly 53 miles southeast of London. 

Mick Taylor (no relation to the Rolling Stones/John Mayall guitarist) and Sheena McCall are jointly credited with the artwork for these three albums as well as other Donovan releases Sunshine Superman (US and UK versions), Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man, plus the 1975 Maggie Bell album Suicide Sal.

Trivia fans will delight in the knowledge that Sheena McCall is the aunt of UK TV personality Davina McCall, who presented the British version of the Big Brother reality show for several years. 

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND - Wee Tam & the Big Huge (Elektra 1968)

No one expected it to set the charts alight, so it was a surprise when the Incredible String Band’s Wee Tam and the Big Huge received the same treatment. Elektra was part of the UK Polydor stable until 1971, so the ISB’s 1968 fourth album was sold (in mono and stereo) as both a double album and two single LPs in Britain but not in America where it was available only as the individual titles Wee Tam OR The Big Huge. 

This decision killed the album’s sales in the US where both LPs barely scraped into the Billboard top 200. Although, having said that, neither the double album nor the two single LPs enjoyed any chart action whatsoever in Britain. Confusingly, the single LPs appeared with several different sleeve designs in both the UK and US, some of which are pictured here.

The UK double LPs retailed at 79s/10d (2d under £4) and contained a sleeve insert featuring "The Head", a poem by Robin Williamson.

We are assured that the cover photos were taken in Frank Zappa's Los Angeles garden, probably at the house known as the "Log Cabin" at 2401 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. I asked producer Joe Boyd about this (he said, casually name-dropping) and, while he confirmed the Zappa connection, Joe couldn’t remember which house was involved, as Frank moved to a different property a mile or so up the Canyon in mid-1968, around the time the ISB visited America.

John Mayall also spent time at the Zappa house where he wrote the song "2401". This track appeared on Mayall's 1968 LP Blues From Laurel Canyon.

The florid shirts worn by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in the various cover photos were made by Jeannie "The Tailor" Franklyn, then-girlfriend of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and seamstress to the rock world in general. Sadly, she was killed in the same May 1969 motorway accident which also claimed Fairport's drummer, Martin Lamble. Jack Bruce titled his debut solo album Songs for a Tailor in Jeannie's memory.

CREAM - Wheels of Fire (Polydor 1968)

One release which seemed to fit the format better than most was Cream’s Wheels of Fire which was split neatly into In The Studio and Live At The Fillmore. Martin Sharp's wonderful artwork from the front of the double album was retained for the UK studio LP, while a black on silver version with a negative effect was adapted for the live album sleeve.

In other countries the artwork varied with most territories getting the silver (or sometimes a faint gold tint) cover for both albums. The USA just had the double album set while Australia only got the two individual LPs.

Australian single LPs

The double Wheels of Fire set was released in Britain on August 9, 1968, in mono and stereo. It retailed at 72s/2d (£3.60), while the studio single album (released the same day also in mono and stereo) sold for exactly half price at 36s/1d (£1.80).

For reasons unknown the Live At The Fillmore half of the package didn’t appear until four months later in December 1968, also in mono and stereo. These single LPs stayed on catalogue for quite some time and were still available well into the 70s. In fact, most of the live album was recorded at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Only "Toad" originated from the Fillmore.

Live At The Fillmore was re-issued as an extended 3/LP set for Record Store Day 2026 with the same “negative” front cover as the 1968 version. And as I write (March 2026) we learned that Wheels of Fire is to be reissued as a 5/CD Super Deluxe Edition featuring dozens of unreleased recordings including lost mixes sourced from producer Felix Pappalardi’s personal tapes.

THE WHO - Tommy (Track 1969)

However disjointed, Pete Townshend’s rock opera Tommy was always intended to be listened to in its entirety. Which makes the decision to split it into two volumes quite baffling. The double LP set was first released in May 1969 in an elaborate multi-fold sleeve with numbered booklet. Oddly, it was three years before the individual LPs arrived in May 1972 as Tommy Part 1 and Tommy Revisited Part 2, seemingly as a stopgap measure between Who’s Next (1971) and Quadrophenia (1973).

Both parts had lyric sheet inserts and new sleeve designs adapted from Mike McInnerney’s artwork seen inside the double album gatefold. Tommy appears to have been offered this way only in the UK and almost nowhere else.

Mike McInnerney is also credited with artwork on albums by the Faces (The First Step and the giant poster which came with A Nod Is As Good As A Wink), Pete Townshend (Who Came First), The London Symphony Orchestra’s 1972 recording of Tommy and many others.

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - Electric Ladyland (Track 1968)

Electric Ladyland had several different sleeves over the years, but the one which caused the biggest brouhaha was the original November 1968 UK pressing with the saucy nude ladies on the cover. It’s been reported that Hendrix himself didn’t much care for this sleeve, but I suspect it was not so much the content which upset him, more the lighting and wide-angle lens photography which didn’t present the girls in the most flattering light. 

November 1968 turned out to be quite a popular month for nude record sleeves, with John and Yoko's controversial Two Virgins LP causing an even bigger stir around the same time. You probably wouldn't get away with a cover like this today, but although it was something of a cause célèbre back in the day Electric Ladyland was displayed quite openly in UK record stores. The double set appeared in America with a totally different sleeve. 

The controversial Blind Faith "nude" LP sleeve of August 1969 would also ruffle feathers and while not exactly banned in the US, it was offered with an alternative "safe" sleeve in many stores. 

The two parts of Electric Ladyland are possibly the most interesting of all the records discussed here, artistically at least. Part 1 boasts a lurid cut and paste yellow sleeve montage showing Jimi and the boys in a post-apocalyptic landscape with 50s spaceships, aliens and multiple images of New York’s Chrysler building. On the front and back are colourised images of Mae West dressed as the Statue of Liberty in a promotional photo for her 1934 film, Belle of the Nineties.

The artwork is credited to David King who worked on several iconic sleeves for the Track label, including The Who Sell Out, Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland (that notorious UK “nude” cover discussed above) and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. He also created the sleeve for the rare sampler LP The House That Track Built. 

In the 70s King designed posters and logos for the Anti-Nazi League, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Rock Against Racism. An art historian with a special interest in Leon Trotsky, part of his huge collection of 250,000 Soviet graphics and photographs is housed in the Tate Modern, London.

David King is also credited with the artwork for the Part 2 sleeve. This is just an adaptation of the inside gatefold sleeve of the UK double LP featuring a tightly cropped head shot of Jimi on the front taken from the original photo by David Montgomery. On the back are Donald Silverstein’s pictures of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. These are tinted blue, unlike the smaller sepia tint versions on the double LP.

Silverstein is credited with countless jazz LP sleeves for the Riverside label during the 50s and 60s, but he photographed only a handful of important rock albums. They included Axis: Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland and the self-titled debut Fairport Convention album. He also shot some iconic posters of Hendrix which adorned countless bed-sit walls in the late 60s. He died in 1975, aged just 41.

If the published release dates are to be believed, these two single LPs appeared a month before the Electric Ladyland double set arrived. That’s unusual in itself and very different to The Who’s Tommy which turned up three years after the double LP as Parts 1&2.

THE BEATLES - Rock 'N' Roll Music (Parlophone 1976)

Things reached a pretty pass in 1980 when Rock 'n' Roll Music, the 1976 Beatles double compilation LP nobody asked for (and very few wanted), was bizarrely reissued as two individual volumes on EMI’s budget Music For Pleasure label. It was probably the first time we'd seen the Fab Four on a cut-price release.

The double LP artwork - designed in-house by Capitol records in the US - was widely criticised on release, not least by the band themselves. Interviewed in Rolling Stone magazine, Ringo said this about the (inside) sleeve "It made us look cheap and we never were cheap. All that Coca-Cola and cars with big fins was the Fifties!" Lennon was also critical and wrote an angry letter to Capitol Records complaining it "looks like a Monkees reject". John offered to design the sleeve himself, but his offer was rejected.

On original pressings those life-sized thumbs on the front and back were embossed, obviously to give the impression of someone holding the record. The two MFP sleeves weren't much better. The US release showed a 1964 image of the group set against a crowd background. The UK version (above) eliminated the crowd and used a white background. 

There was also some controversy over the mixes used for the album. George Martin was unhappy with the chosen mixes and remixed the tracks for the US Capitol release. EMI in the UK refused the new mixes and issued the Parlophone double LP with the original mixes which Martin had considered inferior. These included five stereo mixes of songs that had not yet been issued in stereo in the UK: the Long Tall Sally EP and "I'm Down". The 1980 UK MFP reissues finally used George Martin's corrected mixes taken from the US double album.

So, with the UK and US double sets featuring different mixes, that makes Rock 'n' Roll Music worth owning, kind of, for completists, at least. Apart from that, the album has since been virtually disowned by all concerned and, significantly, has never officially appeared on CD, except maybe in Japan, where anything is possible.

Wrestle Poodles and Win! The Bonzo Dog Band - All Their Albums

by Stuart Penney

Despite an almost 60-year fascination with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band I saw them in concert only once. The date was October 29, 1967, barely a week after their debut album Gorilla was released. The venue was Brian Epstein's Saville Theatre down at the unfashionable end of Shaftesbury Avenue. 

Together with soul / mod cult favourites The Action, the Bonzos were part of an oddly mismatched bill supporting Cream, who were then possibly the world's biggest live band. The compere was, as ever, John Peel and the tickets cost between 7s/6d (37½p) and one whole pound. Did I also mention it was a rainy Sunday night in Soho?

With no fewer than five (count 'em!) military grade 100w double Marshall stacks dominating their backline, Cream delivered a punishingly loud set of magnificent heavy blues rock. They had recently returned from a triumphant US tour, Clapton's Hendrix-inspired perm was as huge as it would ever get, Disraeli Gears was just weeks away from release, and the trio was firing on all cylinders. To paraphrase the great George Clinton and Parliament, Eric, Jack and Ginger absolutely tore the roof off the sucker. 

As for the Bonzos. Although not a huge venue, the 1400-seat Saville was perhaps a little too large to present their wild and crazy antics to best advantage. Their anarchic stage act, involving miscellaneous props, life-size dolls, explosions, hand-held speech bubbles and musical instruments of every description was probably best experienced close-up and personal in an intimate club setting or student union hall. Nevertheless, it was a captivating show, the like of which I'd never seen. There was musical order amid the Bonzos' comedic chaos and I'm proud (if not a little smug) to say I witnessed this early performance by one of the most beloved and legendary British bands of the late 60s. 

A glowing Melody Maker review (credited to Nick Jones and Chris Welch) said this: "The Bonzos proved a wild success before a predominately Cream audience. From an uncertain start as the fans got to grips with the heady mixture of satire, vaudeville and musical anarchy, they concluded a superb performance to cheers, applause and three curtain calls. 

"Legs Larry Smith caused a sensation by picking up a member of the audience who shouted "Rubbish! - Get off!" from a box and hurling him onto the stage. The crowd gasped, then roared as the "heckler" broke into pieces and proved to be a clever fake.

"The jokes were endless, exhausting and impossible to describe. All hail to Vivian Stanshall, Sam Spoons, Rodney Slater, Roger Ruskin Spear, Neil Innes and Vernon Dudley Bowhay-Nowell. Gentlemen, you are the toast of all London."

Just a few days later I went out and bought a mono copy of Gorilla and was gratified to find the entire album was just as joyous as the Saville concert had been. From that moment I was hooked and anticipated each new Bonzos' release with an eagerness previously reserved only for the likes of Dylan, the Stones or the Beatles. Yes, they were that good.

They were arguably the closest thing we had to Frank Zappa and the Mothers at that time. But while Zappa was unfailingly cynical, sneering and often downright nasty (in the most entertaining way possible, of course), the Bonzos were quintessentially English - loveable, eccentric and foppish, yet always hilarious with a satirical edge. Although existing gloriously outside the orthodoxy of mainstream rock, they were all fine musicians and while the line-up frequently changed, the heart and soul of the band was always Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes who appeared on every album and between them wrote most of the original songs.

They gave us five good-to-brilliant albums, plus a few worthwhile compilations and oddball singles before breaking up (for the second time) and going their separate ways in 1974. There was a brief reunion in 1988, and we’ve seen solo projects galore, mostly from Neil and Viv, some of which were wildly successful (The Rutles and Tubular Bells), others not so much (Teddy Boys Don't Knit). But, big sellers or not, all the post-split records contained something of interest. 

In 2006 there was another reunion with assorted big-name celebs from the comedy world such as Stephen Fry, Phill Jupitus and Adrian Edmondson standing in for Viv (who died in 1995). But there could only ever be one Vivian Stanshall and, great fun though the reunifications were, they just didn't have the same magic. 

After decades of CD reissues and repackages, late 2024 saw the career defining 20-disc / 350-track box set Still Barking. Containing all the albums (mono and stereo where applicable), singles, demos, BBC sessions and much more, it was surely the ultimate collection of their work and the last word on all things Bonzo Dog Band related. 

Here, in vague release order, is an overview of those original albums, including some essential compilations from the early 70s.

The Alberts, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Temperance Seven 

Starline SRS 5151 (1973)

Yes, that really was the somewhat unimaginative title of this album issued on EMI's budget Starline label. There are only four Bonzos tracks here – the A & B sides of their long-deleted 1966 Parlophone singles – but for many years this was the only place they could be found.

Recorded at Abbey Road studios at the same time as the Beatles were working on Revolver just along the corridor, this close encounter with the Fabs galvanised the group (and Neil Innes in particular) into moving away from the vintage 20s and 30s novelty jazz oldies which had been the cornerstone of their repertoire and start writing their own more contemporary material.

The cover photo shows the Bonzos as a nine-piece outfit (a nonet?) but before long this would be trimmed back to a more manageable five or six members.

My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies / I’m Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Gal Tonight (Parlophone R5430)

Alley Oop / Button Up Your Overcoat (Parlophone R5499)

In 1973 after the Bonzos had split, EMI reissued the four songs on this mid-price compilation, together with tracks by The Alberts and The Temperance Seven. 

“My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies” is perhaps the strongest of the four cuts here. There are many versions of this song, but the 1931 recording by Albert Whelan is closest to the Bonzos’ record, sound effects and all. This is typical of the pre-war jazz / music hall / vaudeville material they were playing in the early years, much of it unearthed on old 78rpm singles bought for pennies at flea markets.

Loaded with low key innuendo, “I’m Gonna Bring a Watermelon to My Gal Tonight” was somewhat risqué when it first appeared in 1924. The original by US novelty duo Billy Jones and Ernest Hare contained an introduction plus some verses not heard on the Bonzos’ recording, who seemingly based their version on a record (also from 1924) by UK outfit the Savoy Havana Band. It was here they heard the immortal line “Tonight I’m gonna bring a rope and she can hang herself.”

“Alley Oop” had been a 1960 US #1 novelty hit for the Hollywood Argyles (#24 in the UK) and was later covered by the Beach Boys and others. The song was written in 1957 by Dallas Frazier whose name was misspelled "Fozier" on the Parlophone label credit (right). White label promos showed the song title spelled French style as "Allez Oop" while stock copies corrected this. In his 1971 Hunky Dory track “Life on Mars?” David Bowie quoted from the original song with the line “Look at those cavemen go.”

Written by the formidable songwriting team of Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva & Lew Brown, “Button Up Your Overcoat” dates from the prohibition era when it was recorded by Ruth Etting in 1928. The following year it was a huge hit for Helen Kane, who was thought to be the inspiration for the cartoon character Betty Boop with her “Boop boop a doop” catchphrase.

In later years these four recordings turned up on the Bonzos' 1992 Cornology 3 CD box set collection (along with solo cuts from Viv, Neil and Roger) and were later added to the 2007 Gorilla CD reissue as bonus tracks.

Also in 2007 came the 27-track CD Songs the Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us - A Pre-History of the Bonzos (Lightning Tree LIGHT FLASH CD 007). It contained original 1920s and 30s versions of songs recorded (or covered live) by the Bonzos, including some tackled by Roger Ruskin Spear on his solo albums. Here are early recordings of "Jollity Farm," "Mickey's Son and Daughter," "I'm Gonna Bring a Watermelon to My Gal Tonight," "Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah (Yah)" and many more pre-war gems.

As for the other bands on the Starline album: the Temperance Seven were a successful singles act with "You're Driving Me Crazy" (George Martin's first #1 hit as a producer) and "Pasadena" (#4) charting during the trad-jazz revival era of the early 60s. Their early records featured "Whispering" Paul McDowell on vocals while Ted Wood (elder brother of Ronnie) took over for later incarnations of the band. 

The Alberts included among their number a certain Bruce Lacey, inventor and performance artist. Fairport Convention incorporated his robots as sound effects on their 1968 album What We Did On Our Holidays, specifically on the track "Mr. Lacey." He also appeared as George Harrison's flute playing gardener in the Beatles' film Help! 

Gorilla

Liberty LBL 83056 (mono) / Liberty LBS 83056 (stereo), (October 1967)

Arriving two months before their career-boosting appearance in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film, where they performed “Death Cab for Cutie,” Gorilla immediately established the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band as the critics’ darlings and a much-loved draw on the underground club and college circuit.

Their profile was further increased in 1968 when they became the resident band on Thames TV’s Do Not Adjust Your Set (a teatime kids' show also watched by adults in the know) alongside future Monty Python members Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gillian.

There are delights aplenty here, including “Equestrian Statue” (their first Liberty single), “I’m Bored,” “Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold” (in which the band members played each other's instruments) and “Jollity Farm.”

It’s all tremendous stuff, but the chucklesome “The Intro and the Outro,” surely the most quoted song in the entire Bonzos’ catalogue, outshines all else.

Producer Gerry Bron (who also managed the Bonzos) was the elder brother of actress and satirist Eleanor Bron who appeared alongside the Beatles in Help! Gerry was part of the famous Bron’s music publishing dynasty, and he went on to launch the Bronze record label, signing Uriah Heep, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Colosseum etc.

In the late 1990s “Death Cab For Cutie” was adopted as the name of a US band fronted by Ben Gibbard. 

The title (if not the song) “Cool Britannia” was picked up again to reflect all that was good about Britain and Britpop during the Blair era of the 90s. 

Record Collecting Notes:

Original LPs came with a 12-page booklet insert.

Gorilla was reissued in November 1970 on Liberty’s budget Sunset label with a yellow sleeve (showing the now shorter band name, minus the "Doo-Dah"), then again in 1980 on United Artists’ Pop File series, this time with a black sleeve.

The US version omitted the track “Big Shot.”

The 2007 CD contained seven bonus tracks

Obscure Reference: the line “This is boredom you can afford from Cyril Bored” in “I’m Bored” references a popular 60s TV ad theme song for the Lancashire carpet manufacturer Cyril Lord.

Most quotable lyric: “And, looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on Vibes. Niiice!” (from “The Intro and the Outro.”) or “Hey, you have the same trouble with your trousers as I do” (from “Narcissus”)

Highlights: “The Intro and the Outro” and “Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold” 

The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse

Liberty LBL 83158E (mono) / Liberty LBS 83158E (stereo) (December 1968)

The name now shortened to the Bonzo Dog Band (on the sleeve, if not the labels), the second album saw a departure from their vaudeville and jazz roots into full blown rock and psychedelia, albeit with plenty of darkly surreal comedy. 

All tracks were written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall this time and the “Granny’s Greenhouse” title sprang from a Michael Palin joke referring to an outside privy. I’ll leave the "doughnut" part to your imagination. The Rutles may have been some years in the future, but “Hello Mabel” sounded like it could have come directly from the pen of Paul McCartney around the time of “Your Mother Should Know.”

This and the follow-up album Tadpoles were produced by the esteemed Gus Dudgeon who worked with virtually every British artist of note in the late 60s and 70s including Elton John and David Bowie. Gus also engineered everyone’s favourite electric blues record, the 1966 Mayall / Clapton “Beano Album” so he’s forever OK in my book.

Speaking of which, the British Blues Boom was in full flower during 1968 and the Bonzos lampooned it in fine style with “Can Blue Men Sing the Whites.” Other highlights include “We Are Normal,” “Rhinocratic Oaths,” “The Trouser Press” and the brilliant ode to suburbia “My Pink Half of the Drainpipe.”

Under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth, Paul McCartney produced “I’m the Urban Spaceman” which became the Bonzos' only hit single in October 1968. It was left off the UK album but was the opening track on the US version, which was re-titled Urban Spaceman, released in June 1969 (it was also issued on CD under that title in America).

Record Collecting Notes:

Original LPs came with a 12-page booklet insert.

It was reissued in March 1971 on Liberty’s budget Sunset label with a new sleeve (textured or glossy) and again in 1987 on the Edsel label.

Some US copies have a label misprint showing “Humanoid Boogie” as “Humanoid Googie.” 

Doughnut scraped into the UK album charts at #40 in January 1969.

The 2007 UK CD contained five bonus tracks

Obscure Reference: A few bars of “Just an Ordinary Copper” aka the Dixon of Dock Green TV theme can be heard at the start of “Rockaliser Baby.”

Most quotable lyric: “We are normal and we dig Bert Weedon.”

Highlight: “My Pink Half of the Drainpipe.”

Tadpoles

Liberty LBS 83257 (August 1969)

Tackle the toons you tapped your tootsies to on Thames TV’s “Do Not Adjust Your Set” reads the alliterative sub-heading on the front cover. And, sure enough, the third album is largely a compilation of the Bonzos’ work from said TV show on which they were the house band between December 1967 and May 1969.

While their previous album, Doughnut, consisted of entirely self-penned material, no fewer than five tracks on Tadpoles were remakes of 20s and 30s jazz / vaudeville tunes, plus an undistinguished cover of Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s 1962 hit “Monster Mash.” The older songs -- “Hunting Tigers Out In Indiah,” “By A Waterfall,” “Ali Baba’s Camel,” “Dr. Jazz” -- were uniformly excellent, however. The original material was also top notch, of course, especially the doo wop spoof “Canyons of Your Mind” (with its spectacularly egregious guitar solo) and Roger Ruskin Spear’s “Shirt” complete with chucklesome (and genuine) street interviews conducted by Viv in Willesden Green.

Record Collecting Notes:

Tadpoles reached #36 in the UK album charts in August 1969 to become the Bonzos' highest placing. 

For the first time no mono option was offered, this was released in stereo only.

The UK and US versions had slightly different track listings. Their hit single “I’m the Urban Spaceman” was included on UK pressings, but since it had already appeared on the second US album (conveniently retitled Urban Spaceman), it was replaced with “Readymades” the B-side of their follow-up single “Mr. Apollo.”

In September 1973 the UK version of Tadpoles was reissued on the budget Sunset label with a new sleeve, re-titled I’m the Urban Spaceman.

In 2007 the album appeared on CD with five bonus tracks.

The original LP sleeve had seven holes cut in the front cover located on Viv’s glasses, Larry’s eyes and Neil’s forehead. The insert card (or inner sleeve of the US version) featured multiple random images and this could be moved in and out to change the trio’s appearance.

Most quotable lyrics: “The sweet essence of giraffe” (from “Canyons of Your Mind”) and “A man's not dressed unless he's got a nice shirt on guv'nor, is he?” (from “Shirt”)

Highlights: “Canyons of Your Mind” and “Dr. Jazz” 

Keynsham

Liberty LBS 83290 (December 1969)

“Horace Batchelor, Department One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Keynsham, Bristol.”

Listeners to Radio Luxembourg in the late 50s and 60s were all too familiar with a certain Horace Batchelor and his "Famous Infra-Draw Method for the Treble Chance" advertisements. Punters were invited to write in for this supposedly sure-fire method of how to win big money on the football pools. Horace himself would painstakingly read out the address in his oh-so-doleful voice. 

Those ads (and Horace himself) became something of a running joke, much impersonated among younger pop fans and, with perfect timing, the Bonzos named their fourth album Keynsham in honour of the Bristol suburb where Batchelor’s company was based. Believe me, in the late 60s this was hilarious, and we were all in on the joke.

Fittingly, the first voice we hear on the album is Horace himself intoning “I have personally won over…” at the start of the opening track “You Done My Brain In.” Then, at 0:46 secs on the same track a snatch of “In Party Mood” (aka the jaunty theme from BBC radio's “Housewives Choice”) appears. Incidentally, Horace was also name-checked on the Gorilla track “The Intro and the Outro” with the line “What a team, Zebra Kid and Horace Batchelor on percussion.”

Record Collecting Notes:

Original LPs arrived in an elaborate textured gatefold sleeve with a silver foil panel glued on the front. Designed by Viv Stanshall, of course.

It was reissued in November 1975 on Liberty’s budget Sunset label and again in 1987 on the Edsel label in a quite bizarre and very different gatefold sleeve (see left).

2007 CDs contained five bonus tracks taken from solo recordings by Viv Stanshall, Neil Innes and Roger Ruskin Spear.

Most quotable lyric: “That boozy English day at the Brighton Racecourses (The wind blew my skirt up and it frightened the horses”) (from “We Were Wrong”).

Obscure Reference: Johnny Morris (1916 – 1999) the presenter of 60s / 70s anthropomorphically inclined BBC TV programmes Animal Magic and Tales of the Riverbank is namechecked in the track “Mr Slaters’ Parrot”

Highlight: "Sport (The Odd Boy)"

Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly

United Artists UAS 29288, March 1972

They may have disbanded in 1970, but the Bonzos found themselves back together in late 1971 to record this somewhat patchy contractual obligation album. It was a case of close, but no (exploding) cigar for what proved to be their swan song.

Of the original line-up, only Viv and Neil were present, plus Denis Cowan on bass and Rodney Slater (“in spirit”). The redoubtable Bubs White played lead guitar, while big names from the rock world - Andy Roberts (fiddle, mandolin, guitar), Tony Kaye (keys), Hughie Flint (drums) and Dick Parry (sax) – comprised the main band. Veterans Roger Ruskin Spear and “Legs” Larry Smith were featured here and there, but mostly on the older bonus CD tracks.

Showcasing a more contemporary rock sound than the earlier albums, there’s still plenty of Bonzos’ humour on offer here, notably the scatological opener “The Strain,” plus “King of Scurf” and the first appearance on record of Viv’s brilliant and timeless monologue “Rawlinson End.”

“Legs” Larry co-wrote “Rusty (Champion Thrust)” with ex-Yes keyboard man Tony Kaye.

The Bonzo dog cartoon puppy, from where the band took their name, was created around 1922 by George E. Studdy (1878-1948). Early pressings of Let's Make Up and Be Friendly featured a reproduction of a 1927 Studdy postcard attached to the front cover. On later pressings the Bonzo postcard was printed on the sleeve, not stuck on.

Record Collecting Notes:

It was reissued in May 1978 on the budget Sunset label with a new black sleeve.

The 2007 CD reissue featured six bonus tracks.

Most quotable lyric: “Randy has turned in on himself – no mean feat for a 40-stone man” (from “Rawlinson End”)

Highlight: “Rawlinson End”

The Best of the Bonzos

Liberty LBS 83332, August 1970

The first Bonzos’ compilation. Containing 16 tracks drawn from their first four albums, this is arguably the best overview of their early work. OK, the sleeve design wasn’t great; the label and sleeve disagreed over the album title (The Best of the Bonzo’s versus The Best of Bonzo) and let’s not even mention that glaring rogue apostrophe on the front cover (Bonzo’s).

Apart from a 1980 reissue of Gorilla, this was the final Bonzo Dog LP released on the Liberty label. Liberty was folded into parent company United Artists in 1971, after which the label disappeared completely until 1980 when UA was taken over by EMI. Liberty then re-appeared as a mainly budget reissue label.

Highlight: All of it, but “I’m The Urban Spaceman” rules supreme.

Beast Of the Bonzos

United Artists UAS-5517, July 1971

"Bonzoes"?

Despite a decent enough track listing (15 tracks drawn from the first four LPs), this US-only compilation fell at the first hurdle, misspelling the band name as "Bonzoes" on both labels. Then there’s the rather strange gatefold cover design by esteemed artist John Van Hamersveld. 

Even if you don’t know the name, I guarantee you’ve seen his work on sleeves by Jefferson Airplane, Blue Cheer, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Beatles (Magical Mystery Tour US version) and countless others. The significance of a cartoon fire hydrant was not explained, however. Somewhere for the Bonzo Dog to cock its leg, perhaps?

Highlights: All of it, but especially “Canyons of Your Mind” and "The Intro and the Outro."

The History of the Bonzos

United Artists UAD-60071, April 1974

30 tracks taken from all five original albums, plus a quintet of solo oddities by Viv, Neil and Roger (but mostly Viv) make this by far the most comprehensive and desirable Bonzos’ collection of the pre-digital age.

The magnificent double set arrived in a beautiful, textured sleeve, designed to look like an ancient leather covered hardback tome, with a six-page insert of photos and press cuttings taken from Viv and Roger’s personal collections.

For reasons unknown, the US version of this album (UA LA321—H2) swapped out “Shirt” (from Tadpoles) for “Straight from My Heart” (from Let’s Make Up & Be Friendly.) Perhaps the arcane shirt references and/or the local accents didn't translate in America, who knows?

One of the most interesting, rare cuts was “Labio Dental Fricative" by Viv’s Sean Head Showband. Recorded in 1970 and featuring a sterling performance by Eric Clapton on guitar (not ukelele) it's one of the great lost Bonzos' solo tracks.

Record Collecting Notes:

This reached #41 in the UK charts in June 1974.

Highlights: Every damn track, but especially “Labio Dental Fricative"

Cornology 3-CD Box Set 1992