Features
Jagger On Python
Mick Jagger comments on Monty Python’s 10 sold-out nights at London’s O2 arena beginning July 1. The video is worth watching if only to hear the Rolling Stones frontman observe that the funny guys are “a bunch of wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth and make a load of money.”
In November the surviving members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus – John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle – announced they would perform one show on July 1 at the O2. When tickets for the gig sold out faster than you can sing the chorus to “The Lumberjack Song,” more shows were quickly added with each one selling out as well.
Scheduled for July 20, Monty Python’s last O2 show will broadcast live in movie theaters around the world and air on television.
Now Jagger has a few things to say about Monty Python’s 10-night engagement. In a sketch depicting the Mickster along with drummer Charlie Watts watching a World Cup match, Jagger chats with an assistant about the comedy troupe, at one point observing, “Who wants to see that gang, really? It was really funny in the ’60s.”
Jagger also gives a shout-out to Graham Chapman who passed away in 1989, saying “the best one died years ago.”
Of course, any similarities between the senior citizen members of Monty Python and the aging musicians known collectively as The Rolling Stones are strictly in the minds of the viewers. But you got to admit that Jagger and his assistant have put together a killer opening for the next Stones concert, starting with “Let’s Spend The Night Together,” “Get Off Of My Cloud,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and … “Dead Parrot Sketch.”