John Philip Sousa -- The Liberty Bell (aka The theme from "Monty Python's Flying Circus")

 

And now for something completely different...

This is indeed true because the last couple of Reminiscings of Youth articles dealt with Canadian music, so I figured that it was time to take things back to the other side of the Atlantic in Great Britain. First off, I have memories of the old BBC "Monty Python's Flying Circus" series which was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday nights at 6:30 after the news. Considering some of the raunchier material that got onto the show, I was surprised by the early time but I guess that the CBC may have excised those parts. 

The series had its run between 1969 and 1974, and being a not-so-little tyke at the time, I didn't really get a lot of the jokes and segments. However, my brother and I had our huge laughs at Terry Gilliam's brilliant animation including the above segment with the homicidal baby carriages.

But over time and reruns, I got to appreciate the wackadoodle humour by Gilliam, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Carol Cleveland. For me, I will always cherish The Bishop, Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, The Upper Class Twit of the Year and the much beloved Lumberjack Song.

Getting back to Gilliam's animation, though, there were those famous opening credits which utilized it against the backdrop of a triumphant march. Of course, the music ended dramatically with that foot and raspberry.

I would like to then formally welcome John Philip Sousa, the American March King, to "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I should have known that it was him who was behind "The Liberty Bell" whose title will be less remembered than the fact that it will always be known as the "Monty Python" theme. "The Liberty Bell" will go down as the oldest song in the ROY category (and one of the oldest songs on the blog proper) since it was first brought to the masses in 1893 with the show using it in 1969. According to Wikipedia, Gilliam himself convinced the producers to use the song as the theme, and since then it's been pretty much immortalized as one of the most famous songs in world comedy although I'm sure that Sousa never thought that it would be used to herald sketches involving a dead parrot, obscene Hungarian-English phrasebooks and the world's deadliest joke.

Since I don't think that I will find any Japanese pop song hits from 1893, I'll go with the premiere year of "Monty Python". There were some award-winning tunes at the 11th Japan Record Awards back then.

Grand Prize: Naomi Sagara -- Ii Janai no Shiawase Naraba（いいじゃないの幸せならば）

Best Vocal Performance: Shinichi Mori -- Minato Machi Blues （港町ブルース）

Popularity Award: Kiyoko Suizenji -- Sanbyaku Rokujuu Go Ho no March (三百六十五歩のマーチ）