After appearing alongside future Monty Python members on the British children’s TV series Do Not Adjust Your Set (playing with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band), Innes contributed music to several early Monty Python records, like 1973’s The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief. Innes then wrote and performed songs for their seminal sketch series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, in its truncated final season. Here’s five more facts about the late Python collaborator.
- He wrote unforgettable songs for “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
Innes wrote two of the most memorable tunes from 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “Knight of the Round Table” and “Brave Sir Robin.” He also played multiple minor characters throughout the Arthurian comedy, including one of the self-abusing monks and a servant crushed by a giant wooden rabbit. He also lead Robin’s minstrels, strumming and singing:
He was not in the least bit scared To be mashed into a pulp. Or to have his eyes gouged out, And his elbows broken. To have his kneecaps split And his body burned away, And his limbs all hacked and mangled Brave Sir Robin.
- Alongside a sci-fi legend, Innes was the only non-Python Python writer
Alongside Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy science fiction series, Innes was one of just two non-Python members to ever receive a writing credit on Flying Circus.
- Innes traveled the world with Monty Python
Innes became a key component of the Monty Python live show, appearing on-stage with the troupe throughout the 1970s, where he was often introduced as Raymond Scum. Innes performed songs at the troupe’s famous 1980 Los Angeles live show, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, including his solo ode “How Sweet to Be an Idiot.”
- Several Innes songs are legally credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney
After Monty Python, Innes and Python Eric Idle created the sketch series Rutland Weekend Television and its most famous offshoot, The Rutles. The so-called “prefab four” parodied The Beatles with TV movies like All You Need is Cash, which lead to a self-titled 1978 album. Innes played the John Lennon analog in the band, a character named Ron Nasty.
As parody songs, The Rutles oeuvre was so successful it attracted a lawsuit from the owners of The Beatles’ musical catalogue, ATV Music Publishing. Unable to finance a fight back against the lawsuit’s claim that The Rutles’ parody music was too close to the real thing, Innes settled with the rightsholder, resulting in an interesting legal quirk: his songs were now technically co-written by Lennon and Paul McCartney.
“Did you know there are 14 songs hidden away in the vaults of International Copyright that are credited to ‘Innes, Lennon and McCartney’? It’s all there in black and white! However, under no circumstances am I to be credited for writing any ‘part’ of these compositions. What’s more, I am forbidden to tell anyone this!” Innes told Dangerous Minds in 2013. “According to the legal eagles of the music industry I must have collaborated with them in order to write those first 14 Rutle songs.”
“Now, working with THOSE guys was a blast! I’ll never forget it,” Innes joked.
- Modern comedy legends cite his “Book of Records”
Even beyond his work with Monty Python, Innes has had a major influence on comedy and pop culture in the United Kingdom, particularly his beloved 1979 solo album, “The Innes Book of Records.” Both Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss and Veep producer Simon Blackwell cited the album in their tributes to Innes.
A spokesman for the Innes family confirmed to the BBC that Innes died unexpectedly on the night of the December 29 and had not been suffering from illness at the time of his death.
“It is with deep sorrow and great sadness that we have to announce the death of Neil James Innes on 29 December 2019,” they said in a statement. “We have lost a beautiful, kind, gentle soul whose music and songs touched the heart of everyone and whose intellect and search for truth inspired us all.”
