... now it's your turn.What a lovely line. Think I'll steal it, to introduce any stint with a guitar any future family occasion/open-mic night/drunken party singalong/wedding, funeral or barmitzvah Fate might fling my always-willing way...
Though it comes courtesy of the frustratingly phenomenally-gifted Neil Innes, on the criminally-underexposed Rutland Weekend Television, which I've been belatedly enjoying recently, both screen and sound...
And which spawned the Rutles, the 'Pre-Fab Four', and their Spinal Tap-rivalling movie, All You Need Is Cash. And Innes' 1996 update, the Anthology-competing Archaeology, whose final song features the near-perfect lyric:
"Back in '64 before you were born,
People had no time for pouring scorn (or scoring porn),
On dreams of love and peace,
No one was obese,
Only tight trousers were worn..."
Of course, Eric Idle and his structured surrealism were the perfect verbal fit for Neil Innes at the time. I'll be intrigued to see how Spamelot fares and compares when it opens over here soonish. Hopefully, a damn sight funnier than Splitting Heirs, anyway...
Incidentally (very, very incidentally), I met Eric Idle, about 12 years ago. We were both browsing in the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street, and after a hesitant double-take, I realised it was him - clad in a rather shoddy green Parka - and said 'Hello'. And how much I admired his work.
He smiled back, thanked me, said that made him glad, and signed an autograph, on a scrap of paper I fished out of my inside pocket.
True story.
