The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
| The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Bonzo Dog Band | ||||
| Released | November, 1968 | |||
| Genre | Comedy rock, psychedelic pop, avant-garde | |||
| Length | 38:30 | |||
| Label |
Liberty (UK) Imperial (US) | |||
| Producer |
Gus Dudgeon Gerry Bron | |||
| Bonzo Dog Band chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Robert Christgau | B[2] |
| Rolling Stone | positive[3] |
The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse is the second album by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. By this time the band had changed their name to "The Bonzo Dog Band", dropping out the "Doo-Dah". The group's sound had also expanded beyond their music hall and jazz roots, drawing inspiration from the blues and psychedelic rock movements that had grown in popularity at the time. The American version of this album was retitled Urban Spaceman and added their U.K. hit single "I'm the Urban Spaceman". The phrase "the doughnut in granny's greenhouse" is obscure British slang for the lavatory. The band first heard it when Michael Palin told them a joke featuring it.
The chorus of "We Are Normal" features the lyric "We are normal and we want our freedom", a reference to a line from the 1963 play "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade," or "Marat/Sade" a line also quoted in "The Red Telephone", a song by the American band Love from their 1967 album "Forever Changes".
In 2007 the U.K. version was re-issued by EMI on CD with 5 bonus tracks.
Sleeve notes
The instruction that "The noises of your bodies are a part of this record." can be found on the booklet that came with the gatefold edition.
Track listing
| Side 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "We Are Normal" | Innes, Stanshall | 4:49 |
| 2. | "Postcard" | Innes, Stanshall | 4:23 |
| 3. | "Beautiful Zelda" | Innes | 2:25 |
| 4. | "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites" | Stanshall | 2:49 |
| 5. | "Hello Mabel" | Innes | 2:46 |
| 6. | "Kama Sutra" | Innes, Stanshall | 0:40 |
| Side 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 7. | "Humanoid Boogie" | Innes | 3:03 |
| 8. | "Trouser Press" | Spear | 2:18 |
| 9. | "My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe" | Stanshall | 3:34 |
| 10. | "Rockaliser Baby" | Innes, Stanshall | 3:32 |
| 11. | "Rhinocratic Oaths" | Innes, Stanshall | 3:22 |
| 12. | "11 Moustachioed Daughters" | Stanshall | 4:49 |
| Bonus tracks on 2007 re-issue CD | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 13. | "Blue Suede Shoes" (previously unreleased) | Carl Perkins | 1:38 |
| 14. | "Bang Bang" (previously unreleased) | Sonny Bono | 2:40 |
| 15. | "Alley Oop" (Girls version) | Dallas Frazier | 2:32 |
| 16. | "Canyons Of Your Mind" (Single version) | Vivian Stanshall | 3:02 |
| 17. | "Mr. Apollo" (German version) | Neil Innes, Vivian Stanshall | 4:10 |
References
- ↑ The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse at AllMusic
- ↑ Christgau, Robert. "The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse". Robert Christgau.
- ↑ Winner, Langdon (26 July 1969). "Urban Spaceman". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (38): 34–35.