Let's Make Up and Be Friendly

About Let's Make Up and Be Friendly

Let's Make Up And Be Friendly was the fifth and, until 2007, final original album by the Bonzo Dog Band. The group had already disbanded when United Artists Records (which absorbed the Bonzos' label Liberty Records) informed band members that the group owed the label one more album. This 1972 farewell album was the result. In 2007 the album was re-issued on CD by EMI with six bonus tracks, some of which were solo recordings by the members of the group. "Rawlinson End", the longest track (at 9:07) on any Bonzos album, features the first official appearance of Vivian Stanshall's character Sir Henry Rawlinson, whose exploits would later be expanded as a series of BBC Radio 1 sessions for the John Peel show as Rawlinson End; a Sir Henry at Rawlinson End LP in 1978; and in 1984 a semi-sequel, Sir Henry at N'didi’s Kraal; a film, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980), and accompanying book; and a final cameo appearance in a 1994 commercial for Ruddles Real Ale with Dawn French. "The Strain", Stanshall's ode to lavatorial distress, was inspired by "Constipation Blues" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, suitably filtered through Stanshall's own unique vision. Stanshall was a committed admirer of Hawkins, and had previously paid homage in similar fashion with "11 Moustachioed Daughters" (inspired by Hawkins' original 1963 recording of "Feast Of The Mau Mau") on The Bonzos' 1968 LP The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse. more »