The obituaries mostly said “Neil Innes of Monty Python” died Dec. 29, age 75, but that shortchanges one of the best comedy-music composers since Spike Jones. Before he worked with the Pythons, Innes was a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a British comedic outfit that was a favorite of the Beatles. Though never a formal member of the Pythons, Innes was responsible for writing all the musical numbers in “Holy Grail” and a number of songs on their comedy albums as well. He and Eric Idle were the driving force behind the Rutles, the spoof Beatles band (he played Ron Nasty, the John Lennon character). And all that just skims the surface. I picked this Bob Dylan parody because this is a tie for protest songs.
Here he is performing a Rutles tune, “Blue Suede Schubert.”
This is Innes as Ron Nasty doing his “final solo song.”
Here’s one of his most famous Bonzo numbers, “How Sweet to Be an Idiot,” which later spawned an Innes lawsuit against Oasis for using the melody for its single “Whatever.”
And here’s the Oasis song, which Innes was awarded co-writing credit for.
