Absurd Bonzos-esque meditation on the wonderfulness of knees
Label: Parlophone
Year of Release: 1967
Given the stunning number of Bonzos inspired singles I've managed to unearth over the years, anybody would think that they were the leading lights of the late sixties rather than something of a cult concern. This, though, is possibly a stupendously silly prince among them.
Backed with the typical jauntiness of a Roaring Twenties music hall ditty, the lyrics of "I Like Knees" are part fetishistic in a Victorian way ("Everybody likes to see a ladies' knees!"), part ridiculous ("Vote for knees on election day!") and delivered with the kind of prim enthusiasm usually only reserved for a major royal event. The combination of the lead singer's posh accent and the over-the-top delivery is both infectious and hilarious, and makes for a humdinger of a single, not entirely dissimilar in tone to the world of "The Ladies' Bras" but a lot less brief.
The B-side isn't bad either, focusing its attention instead on cups of tea, making this possibly the most stereotypically English 45 put out even in the late sixties when it had plenty of competition. Barring the questionable Indian accent towards the end which nobody would get away with now, it's another pearl - "Tea, tea, is utterly lovely/ it builds empires/ and puts out fires" we are informed, which I suppose is technically correct but water would do the job just as well.
