Always Look On the Bright Side of Life is a song by Monty Python, written to provide an end section on their third feature film Monty Python’s Life of Brian (also known just as Life of Brian).
The Monty Python comedy group consisted of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. They were in Tunisia in 1978/79, filming Life of Brian – the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish-Roman man who is born at the same time as Jesus and keeps getting mistaken for him and/or mixed up in familiar elements from his life.
While the movie was careful not to criticise or make fun of Jesus, it is full of religious satire and was as such seen as controversial, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from religious groups. This had been a concern from early on, leading EMI Films to withdraw their funding for the film just days before production was scheduled to begin. The movie was saved by George Harrison, former member of the Beatles and long-time Python fan, who ended up funding 100% of the movie through the formation of his HandMade Films company.
There was no business motive behind Harrison’s actions. He simply wanted to see the film, making Eric Idle quip “the most anybody’s ever paid for a cinema ticket in history.”
Prior to that, Harrison had also contributed toward (and had a short appearance in) the production of Idle’s Beatles-spoof film The Rutles, but his commitment to Life of Brian was next level.
The movie shoot was for the most part a harmonious time with some of the best camaraderie the group had ever experienced. Everybody contributed material and enjoyed what they collectively came up with, but even so, the process wasn’t completely problem free.
One of the looming issues was the ending. The movie ended with the film’s lead character Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman) being crucified for his part in a kidnap plot. How should they approach it, and how should it end? This was a comedy film. It wasn’t meant to end on a downbeat or sad note, but how to approach something like that? Was it even possible to make this section light or funny?
The Pythons talk about this problem in their coffee-table sized autobiography Python On Python, where Michael Palin says: “We hit a bit of a problem with the end of the story. How do you deal with the Crucifixion and all those sorts of areas? I’m quite proud of the fact that I think it was Terry and myself who cracked this bit and just wrote about twenty minutes or so of an ending, which involved things like Pontius Pilate, the earnest liberal Centurion sending people off to the crosses, and the cheeky chappy whom Eric plays giving this cross to Terry Jones – it seemed to have a life of its own once one started writing it and forgot about being overawed by the significance of the Crucifixion.”
Palin and Jones were no strangers to putting that sort of historical perspective on things, as they had already written the TV show The Complete And Utter History of Britain. They knew how to ascribe modern characteristics to historical characters. “We took them out of a stained-glass window and made them less wooden, bringing them to life,” Palin said. “It all seemed to have a sort of logic on its own and was a real pleasure to write.”
There was still the discussion on how to actually end the film. This was not cracked until Idle suggested that they needed a song.
Idle said, “We had no idea for an end. […] The film was stuck, and then we just had the idea, wouldn’t it be hilarious to have a song number on the cross. I said, ‘It would have to be a very cheery song,’ and I always had in my head that it should be a whistle song, like a Disney song, with a bit of whistling.”
Idle went straight home and wrote the song on a Gibson J-50 guitar. He only used jazz chords, which he had learnt from a course by Mickey Baker. He finished the song in time to pick up his kid from school and played it to him, which was the first time someone else heard it. Idle felt confident about bringing it in to play for the other Pythons the next day.
Idle: “I took it in the next day and everyone went, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ Even Jonesy eventually said that was it, although he held out – he always wants to write his own song, because he’s got a good musical brain, too, but he doesn’t do a lot of it. Then I recorded it and I did a very straight voice on it. They played it on the set in Tunisia and everybody liked it and they all applauded.”
However, contrary to Idle’s recollection, it wasn’t instant love between the Pythons and the song. Michael Palin noted in his diary for 16 June 1978 that during a script meeting, “Eric’s two songs – Otto and the Look On the Bright Side crucifixion song – are rather coolly received before lunch.”
Terry Jones has also confirmed that he was not at all sure about the song when he first heard it. “I didn’t like it at all, really,” he said in the liner notes of the Monty Python’s Total Rubbish boxed set. “Eric had written it as this Walt Disney kind of song. Lots of whistling and cheerful singalong bits. To be honest I had thought of writing a closing song myself. I don’t have a clue what that song might have been but, in the end, I warmed to Eric’s song.”
John Cleese agrees: “None of us thought much of it at first. We were not enthusiastic about it for the finale of the film at all. It’s in all the books. All the diaries. We changed our minds though. Thank God! I now think it’s as near a perfect end to a comedy film as you can get.”
Despite being initially underwhelmed, the group warmed to Idle’s efforts and eventually agreed it was a good way to end the film. A recording session was promptly booked at Chappell’s Studio. The song was arranged and conducted by John Altman with a full orchestra and the Fred Tomlinson Singers. The whistling was performed by Neil Innes. The track would be mixed by George Harrison and Phil MacDonald at Harrison’s Friar Park Studio.
A finished song was in the can, but it was still not the song as we know it. Shortly after, it would undergo a very important transformation.
While practising the song during a break in filming, Idle found that it worked a lot better if sung in the cheeky manner of one of his characters in the film, Mr. Cheeky, which in turn was based on the film’s Cockney lighting crew.
Idle recalls, “I thought, ‘There is something wrong with it. I don’t know what it is.’ I realised it was the vocal and I thought it should be Mr. Cheeky singing it. So we went into a hotel room, put mattresses up against the wall and re-did the vocal live in a hotel room in Tunisia. Now everybody sings it. I’ve had Art Garfunkel sing it, Jack Nicholson sings it. It’s a classic. It’s a standard.”
A new mix was produced using the new vocal overdub, which is the version that ended up being used.
The song appears at the end of the film. Brian has been crucified, which initiates a succession of apparent rescue opportunities which all come to nothing. As Brian ponders his fate, a character on a nearby cross (played by Eric Idle) attempts to cheer him up by cheekily singing Always Look On the Bright Side of Life. As the song progresses, many of the other crucifixion victims (140 in all, according to the script, though twenty-three crosses are actually seen on screen) begin to dance in a very restricted 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. Its appearance at the end of the film, when the central character seems certain to die, is deliberately ironic.
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 bestAlways look on the bright side of life
Always look on the light side of lifeIf life seems jolly rotten
There’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing
When you’re feeling in the dumps
Don’t be silly, chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle, that’s the thing
The song’s setting meant the segment could not be used on TV. Idle said, “[The song] was a hit, but you could not show it being sung from Life of Brian on the television at all. Crosses were not allowed. If we’d have used gallows, it would’ve been fine.”
Despite his initial misgivings, director Terry Jones could not have been happier with how it turned out: “It’s obvious to me now. How else could you possibly round off the crucifixion scene? It was as upbeat and positive about a decidedly downbeat and negative ending as one could possibly wish for. And we were making a comedy. If the audience file out of the screening whistling that song, then I’m pleased.”
The song appeared on the film soundtrack album, listed as Look On the Bright Side of Life (All Things Dull And Ugly). The subtitle does not appear in the actual song, and is only ever used on the soundtrack album. All Things Dull And Ugly was also the title of an unrelated track on Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album (released the following year) which is a parody of the popular hymn All Things Bright And Beautiful.
Always Look On the Bright Side of Life was released as a single in the UK on 16 November 1979, as a double A-side alongside the film’s opening theme Brian (sung by Sonia Jones). It did not chart. Nine years later when the film was released on VHS, the song was reissued as a single on 21 November 1988 . The track was edited to remove profanity, with the line “Life’s a piece of shit” being altered to “Life’s a piece of spit.” The track Brian was also relegated to full B-side status. Once again it failed to chart.
Just a few years later it did better. Around 1990/91, BBC Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo, whose breakfast show had a track record of reviving old novelty songs, began playing the original version on his show. This led Virgin to reissue the track as a single on 23 September 1991. It reached the Top 10 in October and prompted a deliberately chaotic performance by Idle on Top of the Pops. Despite some predictions, it did not manage to bring an end to Bryan Adams’s unprecedented run at the top of the UK Singles Chart with (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, instead peaking at number 3.
However, the single did get to Number 1 in Ireland on 13 October 1991, despite Life of Brian having been banned in Ireland, and its soundtrack withdrawn after protests. Sometimes this can have the opposite effect, and following the attention this drew the song became more popular than ever.
The song touched a chord with the British trait of stoicism and the “stiff upper lip” in the face of adversity, and has proven itself over time, having continually grown in stature to became immensely popular.
When Chapman died on 4 October 1989, the five remaining Pythons, as well as Chapman’s close friends and family, came together at his public memorial service to sing Always Look On the Bright Side of Life as part of Idle’s eulogy.
This would be far from the last time the song was used in such a setting. In fact, a survey by Music Choice in 2005 showed that it was the third most popular song Britons would like played at their funerals. By 2014, it was the most popular. The comic tune represents a generational shift in attitudes towards more personal and less traditional song choices.
The song has been very kind to its composer, who has been in high demand to perform it at several special events. On these occasions, Idle has often re-written one verse of the song to fit the particular theme (i.e. Idle’s performance of the song live to a global audience at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony during the one-hour symphony of British Music segment). On one occasion, he sung a parody of the song with entirely different lyrics (Prince Charles’ 60th birthday party in 2008, referred to as the We Are Most Amused version).
On 14 July 2014 another version of the song was issued, this time as a 12″ single where it was promoted as The Unofficial England Football Anthem. The track featured a new vocal from Eric Idle and some alternate lyrics about the World Cup.
The song has gone on to become Monty Python’s most famous composition, transcending not just the movie it is in, but the Monty Python group as well.
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