Celebrity Jukebox #41: John Cleese

Basil Fawlty remains, for me at least, one of the greatest comedy creations ever. I think it’s fair to say there’s quite a lot of John Cleese in Basil, seeing as every other role he plays is a variation on that theme. With all due respect to Michael Palin, Cleese will always be my favourite Python… and my favourite Python sketch will always be The Argument Clinic. I’ve used it throughout my teaching career to teaching Writing To Argue, and it never fails to raise a smile with students of all ages.

John Cleese crops up in a surprising amount of rap lyrics, either due to an innuendo based on pythons or a reference to walking funny… sometimes they even manage to link those two ideas together. Isn’t that clever?

The final track on Alan Parsons’ 2004 album, A Valid Path, is called Chomolungma, which is the original Tibetan name of Mount Everest, meaning “Goddess Mother of Mountains”. The bloody British changed its name to Everest after George Everest, Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, a man who never actually set eyes on Everest and apparently objected to the name change because he thought the locals would struggle to pronounce it. Don't mention the Empire!

Parson’s Chomolungma is a 6 minute plus instrumental which closes with a monologue from John Cleese in which he berates the musician for “these strange... rambling expirations of your own conscious...” It’s an amusingly self-deprecating way to close a record.

Alan Parsons – Chomolungma 

On the titles front, John Cleese pops up here…

John Tabacco & Peter Kearns – Look Out For John Cleese

…and here…

I Set My Friends On Fire – Reese’s Pieces, I Don’t Know WhoJohn Cleese Is?

…but neither of them really do much for me. Then again, what was I expecting from a song with John Cleese in the title? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeests sweeping majestically across the plains?

Lets go lyrical instead. Here’s one of Norway’s most successful musicians…

Morten Abel – Dude Of All Dudes

Look at the bright stars and the full moon
A yellow cheese
Look at the gentleman in the saloon
Looks like John Cleese
Chris Martin is eating his hat right now.

From Norway to Leeds, where we find Basil Fawlty name-dropped by the Eureka Machines. Lead machine Chris Catalyst has played guitar with the Sisters of Mercy (albeit not in their heyday, as he was only born in 1980), Terrorvision and Those God Damn Whores (you’ve probably heard them on Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs), among others.

Eureka Machines – Champion The Underdog

Here’s the heroes that we’re used to: Basil Fawlty and Monty Brewster.
John Peel, Jilted John, Joan Jett and John Lennon.
M.E.S. and Easy-E, and Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy.
Ken The Red and Edwards, Ed and Dibnah, Fred.

We’re sure to return to that when the Celebrity Jukebox celebrates my dad’s old steeplejack mate, Fred Dibnah.

Meanwhile, in Nottingham… it’s time to get sincere.

Lux Lisbon – Show Me The Money

I say this with sincerity
Because it's what I believe
The greatest man who ever lived was John Cleese
Cos everyone needs therapy
For believing in solemnity
And now this is a call: reality is too full
And I can’t really argue with any of that. Sincerely.

Cuddle that, and you'd never play the guitar again!

Finally, we arrive in Hull, for one of the Beautiful South’s lowest charting singles. Ironically, it was the follow-up to their biggest hit, A Little Time, which went to the top of the charts in 1990 (32 years ago, just sayin’). I think the lyrics were just a little too out there for radio to embrace, but I always loved it… maybe because it’s a song about relishing being a failure.

This is my life and this is how it reads
A documentary that nobody believes
Albert Steptoe in Gone With The Breeze
Mother played by Peter Beardsley, father by John Cleese

The Beautiful South were also sued by Soul II Soul for parodying their "Back to life, back to reality" chorus as "Back to bed, back to reality" in this song. Incredibly, Soul II Soul won. Which made me hate them a little more. Because it was a joke. I thought parody was exempt from copyright. I mean, Weird Al would have been in Alcatraz by now. I'm sure Basil would have something to say about that...