One Of Lemmy’s Favourite Albums Was Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s ‘Tadpoles’

Paul Kilmister revealed at his dad’s funeral that one of Lemmy’s favourite albums was ‘Tadpoles’ by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

One of the members of Bonzo Dog Doodah Band was Neil Innes, who went on to become a main writer for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

On Saturday at Lemmy’s funeral service in Los Angeles Paul Kilmister told the gathering that “He loved the Bonza Dog Doodah Band’s ‘Tadpoles’ album and knew the words to every song”.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band released five albums between 1967 and 1972 with ‘Tadpoles’ midway in 1969. ‘Tadpoles’ featured the hit song ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’ with production credited to Apollo C. Vermouth who was actually Paul McCartney. The US release of the album did not include the song.

McCartney took his relationship with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band one step further by placing them in The Beatles movie ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ where they performed a song titled ‘Death Cab For Cutie’. The name would surface 30 years later when American singer and songwriter Ben Gibbard put his band together and called his group Death Cab For Cutie.

Innes wrote the ‘Death Cab For Cutie’ song with Bonzo Dog member Vivian Stanshall, who went to be the Master of Ceremonies (voice naming the list of instruments) for Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band reformed in 2007 for one more album ‘Pour l’Amour des Chiens’. The album featured a cover of Kaiser Chiefs ‘I Predict A Riot’, credited as Geezer Chiefs on the record.