Innes, who wrote for Monty Python, coming to Las Vegas Country Saloon

Despite the title of a 2008 documentary made about him, Neil Innes says he's not the "Seventh Python." If he were a member of the popular British comedy troupe Monty Python, he'd have more money.

"I'm more the third Bob Dylan," the musician/comedian says, phoning from Santa Fe, N.M., in between gigs on a one-man tour he calls "A People's Guide to World Domination."

The show -- coming to the Las Vegas Country Saloon, 425 Fremont St., at 8 p.m. Thursday -- features Innes, 66, performing the many songs he wrote for Python's TV shows and films. These include "Brave Sir Robin" and "Knights of the Round Table," which appear in the musical "Spamalot" -- although Innes claims that money does not appear in his mailbox.

"I think my royalties are given to a little old man with a donkey who has to go through bandit country," he says.

Accompanying himself on piano, guitar and ukelele, Innes also will perform the songs he wrote for the Rutles, a fictional Beatles band assembled for a made-for-NBC mockumentary in 1978. Starring Innes as the John Lennon character and Python's Eric Idle as the Paul McCartney character (in addition to John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mick Jagger and Paul Simon in bit roles), "All You Need is Cash" featured a Grammy-nominated soundtrack of Innes tunes nearly as good as the targets they skewered.

"It was a fun way of telling the story and also pointing out how silly the music business is," Innes says.

Lennon and Ringo Starr reportedly dug the project (though Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, was portrayed as a Nazi soldier "whose father invented World War II"). George Harrison -- whose character uttered not a single peep and was Indian, spoofing his "quiet Beatle" persona and adopted religion -- was so gung-ho, he participated in it (in a cameo as a TV reporter).

McCartney, however, did not enjoy his portrayal as a dolt with perpetually arched eyebrows. Innes reports that Idle attended an awards dinner at the time, McCartney was there, "and it was a bit frosty."

Ultimately, the Beatles' music publishers sued. The result: more wealth that Innes doesn't have.

"It's been going to other people ever since," he says.

Innes' songs are good because, before he began mocking rock musicians, he was one. In fact, the Beatles were such big fans of his group, they had the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band perform one of its tunes in their "Magical Mystery Tour" movie ("Death Cab for Cutie," which gave the contemporary Bellingham, Wash., rock band its name).

McCartney then produced the closest approximation to a hit scored by the Bonzos (as Innes calls them): 1968's "I'm the Urban Spaceman."

"Paul came to the studio and immediately said, 'Hey, I've just written this,' " Innes remembers. "And he went over to the grand piano and started playing 'Hey Jude.'

"I don't think any of the other Beatles had heard it yet."

Next, the Bonzos became the house band for a BBC-TV comedy series, "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which starred future Pythons Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

"The Bonzos were really quite well-known and they weren't," Innes says.

When the tables turned and the Bonzos split up, Idle asked Innes to co-write songs for the first Python album, and their working relationship began.

"It didn't seem necessary to join them," Innes says. "It was always fun, and I did it as mates."

Innes says he never aspired to be famous, although getting a little more recognition and a lot more money would certainly be nice.

"There might come a day when people will realize what I've been doing," he says.

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan
@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.