The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief

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The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief
The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief cover
Studio album by Monty Python
Released 1973
Recorded September 1973
Genre Comedy
Length 41:11
Label Charisma Records / Arista Records
Professional reviews
Monty Python chronology
Monty Python's Previous Record
(1972)		 The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief
(1973)		 Monty Python Live at Drury Lane
(1974)

The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief is the fourth album by the comedy group Monty Python, released in 1973. The full title of the album is Free Record Given Away With The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief, and the initial pressings were allegedly packaged with a real tie and handkerchief and distributed to menswear stores, the concept being that the record was merely a 'free gift' in the manner of plastic dinosaurs with breakfast cereals. It is also notable for its inner sleeve art, which is visible through a cutaway hole in the album's outer sleeve. It appears to be a simple Terry Gilliam artwork of a tie and handkerchief, but when the inner sleeve is pulled out, it reveals that the tie and handkerchief are actually on a dead man hanging rather graphically from a gallows. Later releases of the album would just have the picture of the clothing on the front cover, and removed the inner sleeve and the unusual hidden artwork.

It is particularly notable for the fact that the original release on Charisma Records had two parallel grooves on side two, so that different material would be played depending on where the stylus was put down on the record's surface. For this reason it is sometimes referred to as a "three-sided" record. The cutting was carried out by George "Porky" Peckham. To further confuse the listener, both sides of the LP are labelled "Side 2" - only the matrix numbers (CAS1080A and CAS1080B) identify which are the first and second sides.

The album did not have a track listing, so that this feature would come as a complete surprise to the listener, who might on a second listening hear material he had never heard before, creating genuine confusion.

The following sketches are from the TV series: "Church Police", "Bruces/Philosopher's Song (minus The Philosophers Song)", "Cheese Shop", "Mrs. Niggerbaiter Explodes", "Oscar Wilde", and "Buying a Cat". The remainder are exclusive to this album.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side one

  1. "Church Police"
  2. "Elephantoplasty"
  3. "Novel Writing"
  4. "Word Association"
  5. "Bruces/Philosopher's Song"
  6. "The Adventures of Ralph Mellish"
  7. "Cheese Shop sketch"
  8. "Wasp Club/Tiger Talk"
  9. "Great Actors"

[edit] Side Two: Groove One

One or the other of these two series of tracks will play, depending on which groove the stylus is cued on.

  1. "The Background to History"
  2. "First World War Noises"
  3. "Boxing Tonight (Fight Of The Century)"

[edit] Side Two: Groove Two

The second series of tracks is referred to as "Side 3":

  1. "Minister for Overseas Development (aka Mrs. Niggerbaiter explodes)"
  2. "Oscar Wilde and Friends"
  3. "Buying A Cat"
  4. "Phone-In"

[edit] 2006 Bonus Tracks

  1. Psychopath
  2. TelePrompter Football Results
  3. Radio Tuning Radio 4: Announcer Graham Chapman / Radio Time Announcer Terry Jones
  4. Radio Shop
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