Collaborations have become commonplace in music, but there’s no denying that some of them are a bit more… unlikely than others. Some pairings seemed downright bizarre, which is easy to forget now that we’ve gotten used to them. Bing Crosby crooning with David Bowie, anyone? And who expected Richard Dawkins to appear on a Nightwish album? How about Billy Joel rocking out with Twisted Sister, or Elton John playing honky-tonk piano on a Saxon album?
Aerosmith managed to mount their mid-80s comeback solely on the back of their collaboration with Run-DMC. Elsewhere, Korn managed to snag Cheech Marin, Metallica worked with Marianne Faithfull, Big Country managed to entice the increasingly reclusive Kate Bush into their studio, while Cradle of Filth secured the services of the voluptuous Hammer actress Ingrid Pitt. I’m still trying to come to terms with Paul McCartney’s collaboration with Kanye West (why, Paul, why?!). And let’s not forget the time when Orson Welles recorded significant contributions on several songs with Manowar, who didn’t even have their first album out at the time.
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After listing all of these, it almost seems like nothing special that Monty Python’s very own Michael Palin ended up adding a spoken word segment to a Motörhead album. At the time, however, it was definitely seen as quite the crossover and a huge deal – not the least by Motörhead themselves. The whole band were huge Monty Python fans, with vocalist/bassist Lemmy in particular often quoting whole sketches verbatim.
How about Michael Palin? Was he a Motörhead fan? All of my money would be on “probably much less so,” but he got on fine with the band and was more than happy to do what they asked.
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It happened during the spring of 1987. Motörhead were recording their eighth studio album, suitably titled Rock’n’Roll. In addition to the iconic frontman Lemmy, the band currently consisted of Phil Campbell and Würzel on guitars, and the returning Phil “Animal” Taylor on drums. The band would split their sessions between Master Rock Studios and Redwood Studios, both based in London. The album was produced by Guy Bidmead alongside the band themselves.
Master Rock Studios was used to record several songs for the Peter Richardson film Eat the Rich where Motörhead had a small appearance. Lemmy had an additional part, alongside the regular cast of The Comic Strip show. Some of the songs used in the film would be reused on the coming album, but not all tracks were considered usable, and in any case, they needed more material. Once the movie-related duties were behind them, they moved base to Redwood to finish the album.
What they didn’t know was that Redwood Studios was co-owned by Michael Palin. When the studio manager dropped that particular nugget on the band they couldn’t believe it. That marked the start of an endless barrage of Python quotes.
One of the studio engineers picked up on the band’s obsession, and was able to fuel the fire even more when he shared that he had engineered all of the Monty Python records. He would pull out tapes and play the band outtakes from their album recording sessions that the Pythons never put out. The band couldn’t believe it. They were in heaven.
Given the studio’s link to Palin, they started wondering if he’d pop by, and if he did, whether they could ask him to record something – anything – that they could use on the album. After hearing that Palin rarely dropped by the studio unless there was a reason for it, they took more direct action. On the band’s behalf, the studio manager extended an invitation to Palin to come down to do a recitation for the album.
Palin was immediately happy to do it. He let them know that he could drop by on the following Sunday afternoon. That was not normally a studio day, but on this Sunday the full band and staff were present, even showing up early just in case. They were in full alert mode. Michael Palin was coming! Nobody wanted to miss out.
As it turned out, the reason Palin had suggested that particular day and general time was that he would pass by the studio on his way home from having played a cricket match. He was not planning a long visit. He was going to pop by, record the needed lines, and be on his way. The band were thrilled in any case.
In his 2002 autobiography White Line Fever, Lemmy recalls the moment when Palin showed up in full cricket regalia: “He showed up, dressed in this perfect 1940s-cricketer outfit – the striped blazer, the duck trousers, the fucking white pumps, a V-necked sweater, with his hair all brushed over to one side. A complete vision.”
Fortunately, Michael Palin was so revered that no amount of ridiculous clothing would have mattered. He would have gotten away with everything.
Palin turned out to be a very friendly and charming man, but he also got down to business very quickly. Lemmy recalled, “He walked in saying, ‘Hello, what sort of thing are we going to do now, then?’ I said, ‘Well, you know in The Meaning of Life, there was this speech that began “Oh Lord…’“
With that, Palin’s face lit up. This was definitely something he could deliver, with relative ease even. He simply said, “Ah. Give me some cathedral.” With that, he went into the recording booth, already assuming the character of the nonsensical priest from the movie. With the correct sound effect in place, and after a few short sound tests, he proceeded to deliver an amazing ad-libbed on-the-spur blessing to Motörhead, fully in character. He did not use a script. He had the initial brief from Lemmy, and the rest came from… somewhere within. One lone take later, the blessing had been captured for posterity.
“Oh Lord, who art on high, who hast made the blades of grass, and the little tiny things that creep therein, that hath made the cricket bats, who has made hankies, who has made… [long pause] …all things, bless thou these people from Motörhead, that they may so verily endow the people of this planet with pleasure and enjoyment that yea, they may verily increase fourfold their already large sums of loot and enable them here in this life to purchase maybe one other pair of trousers each. Oh Lord, thou who hast seen the trouserless and had compassion, look down upon them. Thank you.”
Afterwards, some final pleasantries were exchanged, and with that, Palin was on his merry way. The band listened back to the blessing in silence with big grins on their face. They loved it. And it was theirs to use!
The blessing clocked in at more or less an exact minute. They could have used that speech in a number of ways, but resisted the urge to make it part of a song. They decided it should stand on its own, becoming a more featured spoken word segment on the album.
The track was given the title Blessing, which we only know from looking at the copyright papers (Palin had to be credited and would earn royalties on the track). We’d never know it from looking at the album’s track listings, as the band decided to feature it as a hidden track. Consequently it has never been listed on the album sleeve.
This means that when Rock’n’Roll was released to the world in August 1987, Palin’s contribution was initially a surprise, albeit a very well-received one. People were going, “is that him?!” when Palin’s voice suddenly came on.
On the vinyl and cassette release, Blessing was placed at the end of side one, after the track Stone Deaf In the U.S.A., in effect making it track 5 on side A. Again, you would never know this from looking at the track listing.
On the original CD release the track was given its own track selection slot (making it a 10-track CD rather than the usual 9). Since then, it has been more common to add it as a secret bonus at the end of track 4, which could give the impression that the speech is part of the Stone Deaf In the U.S.A. song. This is what most people had assumed initially in any case.
Motörhead was not the only band showcasing a fondness for Monty Python. What follows are just some of many possible examples. In 1988, Iron Maiden hired Graham Chapman as an actor for their conceptual music video Can I Play With Madness. Eric Idle had already contributed on Harry Nilsson’s track Harry in 1980, as well as collaborated with George Harrison on songs for the Rutland TV show (look up The Pirate Song!). Terry Jones appears on the 2007 track Stuff by Maddy Prior & the Carnival Band. John Cleese appears as the master of ceremonies on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells 2003 album, and have performed spoken word intros for the Alan Parsons track Chomolungma in 2004 and on the Bryan Adams track Kick Ass in 2022.
The Palin collaboration happened quickly but remained a highlight for the band. Years later, Lemmy would recall that Palin was a delight to work with, underlining that he was very professional and thoroughly nice. “We thought our fans would enjoy the humour of having Michael Palin on the album,” Lemmy told Classic Rock Magazine. “And I think they loved it.”
Perhaps tellingly, he summarised the experience with what might have meant the most to him personally: “It was great to meet a hero who didn’t turn out to be a cunt.”
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