Neil's Heavy Concept Album

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Neil's Heavy Concept Album
Neil's Heavy Concept Album cover
Studio album by Neil
Released 1984
Genre Comedy
Label WEA International
Producer Dave Stewart
Professional reviews

Neil's Heavy Concept Album is a 1984 recording of songs and spoken comedy routines by British actor Nigel Planer, in character as the long-suffering hippie Neil from the BBC comedy series The Young Ones. Production, arrangements and keyboards are by famed Canterbury keyboardist Dave Stewart, who also debuts on guitar, bass and drums.

The album followed the success of the Neil single "Hole in My Shoe"—a cover version of Traffic's 1967 hit—which reached number 2 in the United Kingdom. Along with other hippie-era covers like Pink Floyd's "The Gnome", Donovan's "The Hurdy Gurdy Man", Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle", the Incredible String Band's "A Very Cellular Song" (titled "The Amoeba Song" here), and Caravan's "Golf Girl" (featuring Dawn French as a not-so-nice fairy godmother), there's a lounge singer version of the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" and original songs as well.

The album starts with a spoken apology ("Hello, Vegetables") in which Neil apologizes for the album's quality. Additional spoken tracks include Neil having a conversation with a potato in a sewer ("Heavy Potato Encounter"), reciting a poem to his rubber plant ("Wayne"), and experiencing a flashback ("Paranoid Remix"). Also included is a parody horror movie commercial, "Neil the Barbarian", which sees vegetarian Neil being turned into a monster by accidentally eating a hamburger.

Among the originals is the Planer composition "Lentil Nightmare", a dark metal number that quotes from King Crimson's "The Court of the Crimson King" and features Planer singing in an uncharacteristic loud, high falsetto. In "Bad Karma in the UK", Neil's mum (played by musician Barbara Gaskin) admonishes him to watch his I Ching, chew his food eleven times, and remember his expectorant.

The album was heavily promoted by MTV, who had embraced The Young Ones and served as the sole outlet for the original LP in the US. A television commercial for the album had Neil in character talking about his "really beautiful" album, displaying a hole in his shoe, and hitting his head on a table.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Hello Vegetables" – :26
  2. "Hole In My Shoe" – 3:40
  3. "Heavy Potato Encounter" – :42
  4. "My White Bicycle" – 3:31
  5. "Neil the Barbarian" – 1:12
  6. "Lentil Nightmare" – 5:47
  7. "Computer Alarm" – :36
  8. "Wayne" – 1:36
  9. "The Gnome" – 2:29
  10. "Cosmic Jam" – 2:26
  11. "Golf Girl" – 4:40
  12. "Bad Karma in the UK" – 2:17
  13. "Our Tune" – 1:13
  14. "Ken" – :41
  15. "The End of the World Cabaret" – 1:09
  16. "No Future (God Save the Queen)" – 2:12
  17. "Floating" – 1:39
  18. "Hurdy Gurdy Man" – 3:46
  19. "Paranoid Remix" – 1:59
  20. "The Amoeba Song (From 'A Very Cellular Song')" – 1:19

The cassette version of the album is very similar but features the track "Cassette Jam" following "Cosmic Jam" where Neil does an impression of the album being broken on tape like in "Cosmic Jam". After "The Amoeba Song" It also features a track called "Go Away" where Neil tries to explain the album has finished and after that another track "Brown Sugar" where Neil discovers some buskers performing the track by The Rolling Stones and joins in with them.

Note that there is an inconsistency on the listing of track 19. The LP has "Paranoid Remix" but the Cover has "Paranoia Remix"

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Horrible Electric Musicians

[edit] Beautiful Acoustic Musicians

[edit] External links

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[edit] Sources