"George Harrison, who became friends with several members of the cast, said that he regarded Monty Python as 'continuing the spirit' of The Beatles.
[...]
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
[...]
The project was saved by George Harrison, who immediately set up Handmade Films to finance Brian - budgeted at that time at J5 million. He later quipped that he did so because having read the script he simply wanted to see the film. The Pythons have joked that it is the most anyone has ever paid for a cinema ticket.
Brian also featured brief cameos from George Harrison
A driving force behind Python in the late 1970s was George Harrison, who not only funded Life of Brian but guest-starred as Mr. Papadopolous (though his voice is dubbed by Palin), and also produced a number of their songs from that period, including "The Lumberjack Song" single. He also made a cameo appearance in Idle and Neil Innes' cult Beatles parody All You Need Is Cash (aka The Rutles), which also featured cameo appearances by three members of America's Saturday Night Live team - produced by Broadway Video, SNL's production company. Harrison even claimed in an interview that "Monty Python helped me get over the trauma of the breakup of the Beatles."
"The film would not have been made without George Harrison, who set up Handmade Films to help fund it, after the subject matter scared off the original backers, EMI Films. Terry Gilliam later said, "They pulled out on the Thursday. The crew was supposed to be leaving on the Saturday. Disastrous. It was because they read the script... finally." Harrison appears in a cameo role as Mr. Papadopoulos, owner of "The Mount", who shakes hands with Brian."
I've always thought of comparisons between the Beatles & Python, George said that the two groups were so alike in many ways, for instance:
the beatles broke up when Python started so that some-what beatle spirit passed on.
Beatles wrote classic songs while Python wrote classic sketches.
Both groups wrote their own material. (lennon-mcCartney, - Cleese-chapman, palin-jones) (or wrote on own Eric Idle - George harrison)
the first beatles single came out on 5th october 1962 while the first python episode transmitted on 5th october 1969! Neither the single or episode were huge successes at first.
Both groups either sang or spoke about important issues (life, love, death, etc)
Both the beatles & python were & still are very funny! & cheecky!
HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO THE WHITE ALBUM! you say its your birthday!
I've always thought that George liked MP so much because their humour is so similar to Hard Day's Night-type stuff. Whenever I see that movie, I think of Monty Python.
"While filming the last scene of Monty Python's Life of Brian, the cast were bored and hot sitting up on their crucifixes. So Eric Idle started singing a little ditty. Everyone (but Eric) liked it so much that they decided to use it. It has since become one of their most popular songs.
Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman) has been sentenced to death by crucifixion for his part in a kidnap plot. After a succession of apparent rescue opportunities all come to nothing, a character on a nearby cross (played by Eric Idle) attempts to cheer him up by singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" to him. As the song progresses, many of the other crucifixion victims (140 in all, according to the script, though fewer than that are actually seen on screen) begin to dance in a very limited way and join in with the song's whistled hook. The song continues as the scene changes to a long-shot of the crosses and the credits begin to roll. An instrumental version plays over the second half of the credits."
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was conceived as a parody of the style of song often featured in Disney films. It may be considered an 'answer song' to the entire genre, but particularly to songs such as "Give a Little Whistle" from Pinocchio. Its appearance at the end of the film, when the central character seems certain to die, is deliberately ironic.
Eric Idle singing at the end of Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
The song opens with an introductory verse (half-sung with an acoustic guitar backing on the soundtrack album and most subsequent versions, though simply spoken unaccompanied in the film itself):
'Some things in life are bad,' 'They can really make you mad,' 'Other things just make you swear and curse,' 'When you're chewing on life's gristle,' 'Don't grumble, give a whistle,' 'And this'll help things turn out for the best, and...'
This deviation from the standard rhyme scheme (with 'best' replacing the expected 'worse' to rhyme with 'curse') leads into the first appearance of the chorus, which consists of the title and a whistled tune. A second verse continues in a similar vein, and the third and fourth verses move on to discuss the situation (namely, imminent death) in which Brian now finds himself, and alludes to the Shakespearean cliche that 'all the world's a stage':
'You'll see it's all a show,' 'Keep 'em laughing as you go,' 'Just remember that the last laugh is on you.'
The whistled hook is an uncredited contribution from Idle's frequent collaborator Neil Innes. One occurrence in the final chorus was omitted at the insistence of the film's executive producer
George Harrison, so as not to obscure a pet phrase in John Altman's orchestral arrangement."
[i]"While filming the last scene of Monty Python's Life of Brian, the cast were bored and hot sitting up on their crucifixes. So Eric Idle started singing a little ditty. Everyone (but Eric) liked it so much that they decided to use it.
Hmm, the Wikipedia version differs from the one that Eric gave during the Monty Python anniversary special. In that special, which I have on tape, Eric explains that they needed a closer for the movie. He came up with the song, "Always look on the bright side of life", and everyone hated it. "I sang it very straight," said Eric. "They just didn't think it was funny."
Eric was also playing a character called Mr. Cheeky. He's the guy who gets saved at the end by being a wiseacre. Anyway, Mr. Cheeky used a Cockney accent. Eric came up with the idea of applying a Cockney accent to his song and, bingo, it suddenly worked. That's why this character pops out of nowhere at the end, and starts singing the lyrics with the accent that we all recognize.
Eric also told a very moving story about that song. During the Falklands Islands battles, one of the British ships was damaged and was sinking. The crew, awaiting rescue for a couple of hours at least, started to sing "Always look on the bright side of life". Eric said that was the most flattering tribute he ever had in his life.
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
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