Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall (21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995), born Victor Anthony Stanshall, was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Sourced

• "... changing, yet changeless as canal water ..." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "... gauzes of filmy Fellini ..." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "The gutters leaked like secrets, and the rain rained rain like rain." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "I don't know what I want, but I want it NOW!" (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End) (prescient of the Sex Pistols: "I don't know what I want but I know how to get it.")
• "If you are normal, I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life" (My Pink Half of the Drainpipe)
• "Do have an unusual day, won't you?" (Essex Teenager to Renaissance man)
• "Do you know what a palmist once said to me? She said: WILL YOU LET GO!" (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.)
• "Gentlemen, I am a bulldog, and you will find my bark is worse!" (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "If I had all the money I've spent on drink — I'd spend it on drink." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "You got a light, mac? No...but I've got a dark brown overcoat." (Big Shot)
• "That was inedible muck, and there wasn't enough of it." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "Like the shock of fondling a raw sausage, blindfold, at a gay party ..." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "Why can't I be different and original, like everybody else?" (Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead)
• "Mercifully, Henry hit him with the soft end of the pistol." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "Frankly, once I've eaten a thing, I don't expect to see it again." (Sir Henry)
• "I've never met a man I didn't mutilate." (Sir Henry)
• "It was a great party until someone found the hammer." (Bonzo days)
• "A pale sun poked impudent marmalade fingers through the grizzled lattice glass, and sent the shadows scurrying, like convent girls menaced by a tramp." (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End)
• "Fear is the root of all courage" (Rev. Slodden, Rawlinson End)
• "And, looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes. Nice!" (The Intro and the Outro)
• "If you're going to say anything filthy, please speak clearly." (Message on his answering machine)
• "I've been looking for that particular son of a bitch for seven years. I could have been a doctor, or an architect." (Bad Blood)
• "Five years ago I was a four-stone apology — today I am two separate gorillas." (Mr. Apollo)
• "Wrestle poodles...and win!" (Mr. Apollo)
• "Viv Stanshall? I didn't know that." (Icy Gull on NSC)
• "Vivian Stanshall, about three o'clock in the morning, Oxfordshire, 1973, goodnight..." (Tubular Bells: The original version of the Sailor's Hornpipe)