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Above, The Roots and Eric Idle collaborate on the Monty Python hit “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” on last night’s all-Python edition of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. If you’re one of those people whose ears burst into flames when people whistle simultaneously but off-pitch consider yourself warned (hey, I know a few people who have that affliction), but otherwise, this is pretty charming, and had me bopping along in my seat. I’m actually shocked that the Internet didn’t explode the minute this clip was put online—it has so much to offer the geek niche! What is wrong with you, information worker bees? [Late Night With Jimmy Fallon]
?uestlove Gets Dragged To The Bright Side Of Life
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However much Idle has proven to be the most inconsistent (shall we say) when it comes to achievements outside Python itself, he’s had a good record with performances of this over the years. I’m trying to find a legendary TV performance from 1992 or so when the song hit the UK charts as part of an MP song album but no luck on YouTube yet — saw the clip once; IIRC he appears in a dirty-old-man raincoat, spends his time destroying various parts of the stage while singing, then leaves the studio, camera in tow, gets in a limo and goes away. There should be more of that.
This song has apparently become popular with morning-show DJs. It’s been sort of ruined for me by WCBS-FM here in New York, where morning DJ Dan Taylor closes his shift at 10 a.m. with a schmaltzy version sung by the cast of Spamalot; as part of an apparent co-promotion between the station and the musical, the cast recorded a version that commands you to “turn on your radio/To Dan Taylor on CBS-FM.” Ecch.
The fact that Spamalot’s been off Broadway for months now hasn’t prevented Taylor from continuing to close his show with it. It just wrings out the very last drops of delicious irony from the song.
I saw Bruce Cockburn do a pretty great cover of this in the late-80s (this was around the time of “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”) – introducing it as “the only party song I know”