| "Eric the Half-a-Bee" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byMonty Python | ||||
| from the albumMonty Python's Previous Record | ||||
| B-side | "Yangtse Song" | |||
| Released | 17 November 1972 | |||
| Genre | Comedy | |||
| Label | Charisma | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producers | Andre Jacquemin Michael Palin Terry Jones Alan Bailey | |||
| Monty Python singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Eric the Half-a-Bee" is a song by the British comedy troupeMonty Python that was composed byEric Idle with lyrics co-written withJohn Cleese.[1] It first appeared as the A-side of the group's second 7" single, released in a mono mix on 17 November 1972, with a stereo mix appearing three weeks later on the group's third LPMonty Python's Previous Record. On this album, the song followed the routine called "Fish Licence" in whichMr Eric Praline, played by Cleese, tried to obtain a pet licence for anhalibut and numerous other pets all named Eric, much to the chagrin of the licence office worker (Michael Palin). One such pet is half abee. The song relates the tale of the half-a-bee, having been "bisected accidentally" by his owner one summer's afternoon.
The lyrics raisephilosophical questions as to the existence or not of half a bee: "Half a bee, philosophically, mustipso facto halfnot be. But half the bee has got to be,vis-à-vis its entity – d'you see? But can a bee be said to be or not to be an entire bee when half the bee is not a bee, due to some ancient injury?"
The song ends with Cleese saying he loves his pet half-a-bee "semi-carnally", which Palin mishears asCyril Connolly, a British writer and literary critic.
It is one of Cleese's personal favourite sketches.[2] On more than one occasion, Cleese has expressed his regret in not having the song follow "Fish Licence" in the sketch's airing onMonty Python's Flying Circus (Episode 23, "Scott of the Antarctic" 1970) as he describes himself as "most unmusical."
More than half a century later, Cleese returned to the song, when he performed a version of it on his TV showThe Dinosaur Hour.[3]
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