The Rutles
Encyclopedia
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles
. Originally created by Eric Idle
and Neil Innes
as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group (remaining a parody of The Beatles) recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in reality.
Initially created for a short sketch in Idle's UK television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television
, The Rutles gained international fame after being the focus of the 1978 mockumentary
television film, All You Need Is Cash
(often referred to as just The Rutles). Having been encouraged by the reaction to the sketch, featuring Beatles' music pastiches by Neil Innes, the film was written by Idle, who co-directed it with Gary Weis. It featured 20 songs written by Innes, which he performed with three musicians as "The Rutles". A successful soundtrack album in 1978 was, much later, followed in 1996 by Archaeology, which spoofed the Beatles' Anthology series which had recently been released. The Rutles pre-date the American parody Spinal Tap
by about a year.
A second film, The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
— modelled on the 2000 TV special The Beatles Revolution — was made in 2002 and released in the US on DVD in 2003, but it did not prove as popular as the original film.
, which subsequently aired on Saturday Night Live
, were:
In the original skit "Stig" is the Paul McCartney character and was portrayed by Battley, with Idle portraying the George Harrison character as "Dirk". The John Lennon character is named "Nasty". The Ringo Starr character was originally named Barry, although in the series spin-off book "The Rutland Weekend Songbook", this character is mistakenly identified as "Kevin" -- the only appearance of this name in the entire Rutles canon. In the original sketch, the characters are given only the singular names Stig, Dirk, Barry, and Nasty.
However, as would happen frequently during the Rutles existence, some of the actors lip-synching The Rutles music on-screen were not musicians, and did not participate in the recording process. Rutles music for Rutland Weekend Television and the spin-off album The Rutland Weekend Songbook was recorded by Neil's Innes' own band Fatso, which consisted of:
, and Stig became the George Harrison-inspired character. Additionally, the characters now all had first and last names.
The Rutles members in All You Need Is Cash were:
Also, in tracing the fictional history of the band, one other member was mentioned:
Once again, the band that recorded the actual music was slightly different to the band that appeared on camera, as Idle did not take part in the recording process. On the soundtrack release of the music from All You Need Is Cash, The Rutles were officially:
While the Rutles are often thought of as a four-piece band, the credits of the original LP release of their first album makes it quite clear they were a five piece band. Brown, however, did not appear in any role in All You Need Is Cash, and was not part of any Rutles reunion.
" and "Real Love").
On record the band was augmented by keyboardist Mickey Simmonds
, who would go on to play with the band live. Also appearing on the record was bassist Malcolm Foster, (ex-Pretenders), as The Rutles had no bass player. Guitarists Dougie Boyle and Bernie Holland were also featured.
The touring version:
Fataar played with this touring version of The Rutles on certain dates.
on Idle's BBC television series Rutland Weekend Television
. The sketch presented Neil Innes
(ex-Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) fronting The Rutles singing "I Must Be In Love", a pastiche
of a 1964 Lennon-McCartney tune. The band name was a continuation of the regional premise of the TV show.
The show was presented as a programme by a fictional TV network in Rutland
, the smallest county in England. One running joke was that it was run on a shoestring. If the show parodied a topic, it would use names derivative of "Rutland". When Idle and Innes created a parody of the Beatles, Idle suggested "Rutles".
Innes was the musician/composer for the series and created songs with ideas on how they could be presented.
Innes came up with parodying A Hard Day's Night
. He had written "I Must Be In Love" which he realised sounded very "Beatley" and thought of the Rutles skit. He passed the idea to Idle, who had a separate idea about a boring TV documentary maker. They merged the ideas into one extended film shot for the TV show.
The Rutles had connections with The Beatles, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
and Monty Python
. The Beatles were fans of the Bonzos: they featured them in the 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour
and Paul McCartney (working with Gus Dudgeon
under the alias Apollo C. Vermouth) had produced their 1968 hit single "I'm the Urban Spaceman
". The Bonzos and members of the Python team worked together in the late 1960s on the TV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set
. George Harrison was a Python fan as well as being involved in The Rutles film (see below), his company Handmade Films
later took over production of Python film Life Of Brian
after the original backers pulled out, fearing its subject was too controversial, as well as financing the two first solo films of ex-Python Terry Gilliam
, Jabberwocky
and Time Bandits
.
In merchandising for the TV series, references were made to a Rutles album (Finchley Road) and a single ("Ticket To Rut"). In 1976, BBC Records produced The Rutland Weekend Songbook, an album containing 23 tracks including the Rutles songs "I Must Be In Love" and "The Children Of Rock And Roll" (later reworked as "Good Times Roll").
), he took videotape extracts from Rutland Weekend Television — including the Rutles clip. That led to a suggestion by SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels
to extend the skit into a one-hour mock documentary. This proposal led to the 1978 mockumentary
All You Need Is Cash
, directed by SNL film director Gary Weis (responsible for the programme's short films), though Idle was credited as co-director.
as a musical guest. A running theme for this episode is the "Save Great Britain Telethon," and at one point there is an appearance by "The Rutle who lives in New York, Nasty". Innes appeared as Nasty with a lone white piano, singing a short version of "Cheese & Onions". Later in the episode, as Neil Innes, he performed a pre-Rutles version of "Shangri-La
".
Innes wrote and produced the music. He relied on his memory of Beatles music, without listening, to create soundalike songs. Innes assembled a band (himself, Halsey, Ollie Halsall
, Andy Brown, and Ricky Fataar
) and the group played in a London pub to gel. During Rutles performances and studio recordings, Innes took lead on the songs that resembled Lennon's; Halsall sang on most McCartney-esque tunes; Fataar sang the Harrison songs; and Halsey sang a Ringo Starr-type song. Idle mimed to Halsall's singing and Brown's bass playing in the completed film. Halsall appeared in the film as "Leppo", the fifth Rutle who in the earliest years "mainly stood in the back". Brown did not appear in the film.
All You Need Is Cash was one of the first of its kind, inspiration for the Rob Reiner
comedy film This Is Spinal Tap
in 1984.
All You Need Is Cash is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the Rutles story, following the chronology of The Beatles. The glue of the film is the soundtrack by Innes, who created 19 more songs for the film, each a pastiche of a Beatles song or genre. Fourteen songs were on a soundtrack album. The CD version added the six songs omitted from the original vinyl
album. The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Comedy Recording of the year. The orchestrations and arrangements were by film composer John Altman
.
All You Need Is Cash was not a success on American television and finished bottom of all programmes that week. The programme fared better on BBC television.
A 66-minute version edited for TV was released on video and DVD but it has been superseded by the restored 72-minute version.
was involved in the project from the beginning. Producer Gary Weis
said "We were sitting around in Eric's kitchen one day, planning a sequence that really ripped into the mythology and George looked up and said, 'We were the Beatles, you know!' Then he shook his head and said 'Aw, never mind.' I think he was the only one of the Beatles who really could see the irony of it all.
Harrison later said "...the Rutles sort of liberated me from the Beatles in a way. It was the only thing I saw of those Beatles television shows they made. It was actually the best, funniest and most scathing. But at the same time, it was done with the most love." Harrison showed Innes and Idle the Beatles unreleased official documentary The Long and Winding Road, made by Neil Aspinall
. (Aspinall's documentary would be resurrected as The Beatles Anthology
.)
All the group and Apple
consented to use of the Beatles' Shea Stadium
concert footage, along with other “real” footage cut in with Rutle footage.
Idle claims on the All You Need Is Cash DVD commentary track that Harrison and Starr at one point discussed starting a band with Innes and Idle, based on the Beatles' and Rutles' shared and imaginary histories. This never came to pass.
Innes, with session musicians, performed as "Ron Nasty and The New Rutles" at a convention honouring the 25th anniversary of Monty Python in 1994. This led to a Rutles reunion album in 1996, featuring Innes, Fataar and Halsey. Halsall died in 1992, but the reunion album, entitled Archaeology (a play on the Beatles' Anthology series), featured several tracks recorded in 1978 that included his contributions.
In 2002, Idle made The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
, but it remained unreleased for a year. The film features an even bigger number of celebrity interviewees discussing the band's influence. This was met with mixed reactions from fans, especially since it used material culled from the original. The DVD has yet to be released in the UK.
McQuickly and Nasty had cameos in the 2004 graphic novel
, Superman: True Brit
, co-written by John Cleese
. In the graphic novel, the Rutles are saved by Superman
after their car nearly plummets from the top of a car park.
In 2007, a reissue of Archaeology included a new Rutles track called "Rut-a-lot", which was simply a live medley of songs from the first Rutles album.
On 17 March 2008, all four Rutles reunited for the first time at a 30th anniversary screening of All You Need Is Cash at the Egyptian Theatre
in Hollywood. The event included a question and answer session and performance by members of the tribute show "Rutlemania" which ran for a week at the Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood before doing a week in NYC at The Blender Grammery Theater. The "Rutlemania" live show was conceived and written by Eric Idle which starred The Beatles tribute group "The Fab Four
" as "The Pre-fab Four" Rutles.
In February 2009 on his website "InnesBookOfRecords.Com", Neil Innes released what he refers to as "Ron Nasty's Final Song", titled "Imitation Song" - a parody of "Imagine". This was also Innes' first and only entry in the Masters of Song-Fu competition run by Quick Stop Entertainment
.
. Having joined up with Stig O'Hara (a guitarist of no fixed hairstyle), they started playing as a trio. After 18 months, they discovered drummer Barrington Womble (whom they persuaded to change his name to Barry Wom to save time, and his hairstyle to save Brylcreem
) hiding in their van, and the classic line-up of the Rutles was completed.
In 1960, at the suggestion of then-manager Arthur Scouse, the group went to Hamburg
where, with fifth member Leppo
, who mainly stood at the back, they played all the clubs on the Reeperbahn
, particularly The Rat Keller. It was there that Leppo crawled inside a trunk with a small German
fräulein
and was never heard from again. Luckily, he had no talent for playing anyway.
In October 1961, fate intervened in the shape and other attributes of one-legged retail chemist from Bolton
, Leggy Mountbatten (a parody of Brian Epstein
), who, after falling into "The Cavern
" one night, decided he hated the boys' music, but liked the cut of their jib (and especially the cut of their trousers). He became their manager, cleaned up their image, and touted them around the major record companies. Eventually, they signed to Parlourphone, and their debut album, which was recorded in 20 minutes (their second took even longer), became an enormous success. By December 1963, they were the biggest thing ever to hit the music business, with 19 out of the top 20 singles
in the UK.
In 1964, Rutlemania went worldwide, and then some. The group swiftly conquered
the US thanks to the promotion of Bill Murray
the K
, while Nasty's book of comic prose, Out Of Me Head
, dominated the best-seller lists. In July of that year, the group's first film, A Hard Day's Rut
, was released. This was followed in 1965 by Ouch!
By this time, Rutlemania had reached such a fever pitch that crowd control was a serious problem. In August 1965, the Prefab
Four played a sell-out concert at New York's
Ché Stadium (a pun on Argentinian-born guerrilla leader Ché Guevara
and the New York Mets
's Shea Stadium
), arriving a day early in order to get away before the audience arrived.
In 1966, controversy hit the Rutles when Nasty was quoted as saying that the group were 'bigger than God'. Nasty, however, insisted that he had been misquoted by a slightly deaf journalist, and had actually said they were bigger than Rod, referring to Rod Stewart
, then a relative unknown. The band bounced back with their 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, though this too was misted over in controversy when the group claimed they wrote it under the influence of tea, to which they had been introduced by Bob Dylan
. When Nasty was arrested for possession of tea, there was a national outcry and a full-page advertisement in The Times
calling for it to be legalised. All five members of The Rolling Stones
had been arrested already, and an MP
had been caught nude with a teapot
. Shortly afterwards, Nasty visited an art exhibit at The Pretentious Gallery in Soho
, and it was here that he met an German-born Nazi artist named Chastity whose father had invented World War II
. After spending a whole night together, Nasty and Chastity announced their engagement the next day at a press conference, during which they sat in a shower to promote world peace.
More bad news followed for the group. While staying with the mystic Arthur Sultan
at his retreat in Bognor Regis
, the band heard that Mountbatten had tragically emigrated to Australia, where he had accepted a teaching post. Some critics argue that the band lost their direction at this point. Tragical History Tour
, their self-indulgent TV movie about four Oxford
history professors on a tour around Rutland tea-shops
, was regarded as a failure, despite the success of the soundtrack, which included the classic songs "W.C. Fields Forever" and "I Am the Waitress".
In April 1968, the group launched their new record company, Rutle Corps
. Despite signing up some promising talent (notably Arthur Hodgson and the Kneecaps and the 'French Beach Boys,' Les Garçons de la Plage), poor financial management (mainly on the part of Stig O'Hara's financial planner, Ron Decline
) finally led to the label's ultimate failure. Around this time, a 'Stig is Dead
' rumour, prompted by both many obscure clues within the band's songs and album covers (including a track which, when played backwards, reportedly said 'Stig has been dead for ages, honestly') and the fact that Stig had not spoken publicly in five years began to circulate, prompting Barry to stay in bed for a year. Whether this was intended as a tax dodge
or as an attempt to start his own 'Barry is Also Dead' rumour never became clear.
It was in this atmosphere that the group's final release, Let It Rut
was recorded. Soon afterwards, the band fell apart amid much legal wrangling; McQuickly sued Nasty and O'Hara, Wom sued McQuickly, Nasty sued O'Hara and Wom and - in all the confusion - O'Hara ended up accidentally suing himself. Wom had some success with his solo LP, When You Find The Girl Of Your Dreams In The Arms Of Some Scotsmen From Hull, but like the other members, soon drifted into obscurity, punctuated only by the making of a 1978 retrospective documentary, All You Need Is Cash. McQuickly formed the punk rock
group Punk Floyd with his French wife, Martini (he sang; she did not); Nasty turned his back on the world; Wom became two hairdressers, as per a joke once made to the press; and O'Hara found work for Air India
as an air hostess.
It is rumoured that The Rutles acquired all their music from others. Many people said that they stole it from New Orleans blues
legend Blind Lemon Pye, but he said that the Rutles music came from his next-door neighbour Ruttling Orange Peel. Ruttling claimed that he did write the music, but his wife claims that he is always lying. She said that he also claimed to have started the Everly Brothers, Frank Sinatra
and Lawrence Welk
. There is a small-time group named The Beatles
who patterned their career after the legendary Rutles.
(Note: These titles may not all be official.)
BBC Records (UK) / Passport Records (US)
Saturday: (Side 1 )
Sunday: (Side 2)
Rutles Notes:
The cover art of the album suggested the existence of a number of other Rutles albums including Tragical History Tour and Let It Rut.
The album contains some obvious send-ups of Beatles numbers such as "Ouch!" ("Help!"), "Love Life" ("All You Need is Love"), "Piggy in the Middle" ("I Am the Walrus"), "Doubleback Alley" ("Penny Lane") and "Get Up And Go" (CD reissue only — "Get Back"). However, its real tribute is in its subtly layered blending of elements from many classic Lennon-McCartney tunes.
WEA Records / UK only release / 1978 / K17125
Side 1: "I Must Be In Love"
Side 2: "Cheese And Onions" / "A Girl Like You"
"Let's Be Natural" b/w "Piggy In the Middle"
WEA Records / UK only release / 1978 / K17180
Side 1: "Let's Be Natural"
Side 2: "Piggy In the Middle"
"I Must Be In Love" b/w "Doubleback Alley"
WEA Records / Japan / 1978 / P-200-W
Warner Bros. Records / US / 1978 / WBS 8560
Side 1: "I Must Be In Love"
Side 2: "Doubleback Alley"
" b/w "I Saw Her Standing There
" (Capitol 5112). The unnamed Rutle Corps Records label (peeled banana in the centre) boasted five tracks and was pressed in translucent yellow vinyl:
Side 1
Side 2
Three of the four musicians who had created the soundtrack for the 1978 film — Innes, Halsey and Fataar — reunited in 1996 and recorded a second album, Archaeology, a send-up of The Beatles Anthology
albums. The fourth 'real' Rutle, Ollie Halsall, died in Spain in 1992. Eric Idle was invited to participate, but he declined. Accordingly, photos of the three 'surviving' Rutles parodied those of the then three surviving Beatles in the Anthology series.
Like the Anthology project that it lampooned, it featured tracks ostensibly from all periods of the Rutles career, sequenced to reflect the fictional band's chronology. (Several of the songs were actually old Innes standards that were dusted off and given the 'Rutles' treatment.) The reunion was blessed by George Harrison, who encouraged The Pre-Fab Four to proceed. (When approached, he told Innes, 'Sure. It's all part of the "soup"...' Innes related that encounter in interviews he gave in 1996.)
Restless Records / C.D. only release / 01877-73730-2
Europe on 1 January 1990 (SDE 9028/CD), liner notes include interview with Ron Nasty. (Written by Neil Innes.)
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Originally created by Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
and Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group (remaining a parody of The Beatles) recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in reality.
Initially created for a short sketch in Idle's UK television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television
Rutland Weekend Television
Rutland Weekend Television was a television sketch show on BBC2, written by Eric Idle with music by Neil Innes. Two series, the first consisting of six episodes, the second of seven, were broadcast, in 1975 and 1976. A Christmas special also aired on Boxing Day 1975.It was Idle's first television...
, The Rutles gained international fame after being the focus of the 1978 mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
television film, All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious British rock group called The Rutles...
(often referred to as just The Rutles). Having been encouraged by the reaction to the sketch, featuring Beatles' music pastiches by Neil Innes, the film was written by Idle, who co-directed it with Gary Weis. It featured 20 songs written by Innes, which he performed with three musicians as "The Rutles". A successful soundtrack album in 1978 was, much later, followed in 1996 by Archaeology, which spoofed the Beatles' Anthology series which had recently been released. The Rutles pre-date the American parody Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap (band)
Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
by about a year.
A second film, The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch is a 2002 re-telling of the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, in a modern setting.- Plot :Twenty three years after the original, documentarist Melvin Hall interviews mainstream artists, actors, and musicians about the days of the popular band The Rutles,...
— modelled on the 2000 TV special The Beatles Revolution — was made in 2002 and released in the US on DVD in 2003, but it did not prove as popular as the original film.
Rutland Weekend Television version (1975-76)
The Rutles members in the original 1975 skit on Rutland Weekend TelevisionRutland Weekend Television
Rutland Weekend Television was a television sketch show on BBC2, written by Eric Idle with music by Neil Innes. Two series, the first consisting of six episodes, the second of seven, were broadcast, in 1975 and 1976. A Christmas special also aired on Boxing Day 1975.It was Idle's first television...
, which subsequently aired on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, were:
- "Nasty" — Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
; - "Stig" — David Battley;
- "Dirk" — Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
; - "Barry" — John HalseyJohn Halsey (musician)John Halsey is a rock drummer, best known for his appearance as "Barry" in The Rutles, leading to his playing with Neil Innes's band Fatso and appearing in the film All You Need is Cash ....
.
In the original skit "Stig" is the Paul McCartney character and was portrayed by Battley, with Idle portraying the George Harrison character as "Dirk". The John Lennon character is named "Nasty". The Ringo Starr character was originally named Barry, although in the series spin-off book "The Rutland Weekend Songbook", this character is mistakenly identified as "Kevin" -- the only appearance of this name in the entire Rutles canon. In the original sketch, the characters are given only the singular names Stig, Dirk, Barry, and Nasty.
However, as would happen frequently during the Rutles existence, some of the actors lip-synching The Rutles music on-screen were not musicians, and did not participate in the recording process. Rutles music for Rutland Weekend Television and the spin-off album The Rutland Weekend Songbook was recorded by Neil's Innes' own band Fatso, which consisted of:
- Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
- piano, vocal - John HalseyJohn Halsey (musician)John Halsey is a rock drummer, best known for his appearance as "Barry" in The Rutles, leading to his playing with Neil Innes's band Fatso and appearing in the film All You Need is Cash ....
- drums - Roger Rettig - guitar
- Billy BremnerBilly Bremner (musician)William "Billy" Bremner is a guitarist best known for his work in the band Rockpile and on many of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds' albums...
(later of RockpileRockpileRockpile were a British rock and roll group of the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for their strong rockabilly and power pop influences, and as a foundational influence on new wave...
fame) - guitar - Brian Hodgson - bass
All You Need Is Cash version (1978)
In adapting the characters for a full-length TV feature, several changes were made. Idle continued to play "Dirk", but Dirk was now modelled after Paul McCartney, not George Harrison. Battley was replaced as Stig by Ricky FataarRicky Fataar
Ricky Fataar is a South African multi-instrumentalist of Malay descent, who has performed as both a drummer, and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in the comedic television movie, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a spoof on the actual history of The Beatles, and for his performance as a...
, and Stig became the George Harrison-inspired character. Additionally, the characters now all had first and last names.
The Rutles members in All You Need Is Cash were:
- Ron Nasty (styled after John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
) — played by Neil Innes - Dirk McQuickly (styled after Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
) — played by Eric Idle - Stig O'Hara (styled after George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
) — played by Ricky Fataar - Barry Wom, ne Barrington Womble (styled after Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
) — played by John Halsey. The character's truncated name was a play on how Ringo had changed his name from 'Richard Starkey' to 'Ringo Starr'.
Also, in tracing the fictional history of the band, one other member was mentioned:
- Leppo, The Fifth Rutle (styled after Stuart SutcliffeStuart SutcliffeStuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a Scottish artist and musician, best known as the original bass player of The Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue a career as an artist, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art...
) — seen only in a still photograph. The photo showed Ollie HalsallOllie HalsallPeter John 'Ollie' Halsall was a left-handed guitarist and is best known for his role in The Rutles, the bands Patto, Timebox and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music...
, who played and sang on the soundtrack. This name parodies that of the fifth Marx BrothersMarx BrothersThe Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
' member, Gummo MarxGummo MarxMilton "Gummo" Marx was an American vaudeville performer and theatrical agent. He was the fourth-born of the Marx Brothers. Born in New York City, he worked with his brothers on the vaudeville circuit, but left acting when he was drafted into the U.S...
as well as Zeppo's.
Once again, the band that recorded the actual music was slightly different to the band that appeared on camera, as Idle did not take part in the recording process. On the soundtrack release of the music from All You Need Is Cash, The Rutles were officially:
- Neil Innes: guitar, keyboards, vocals. Innes sang the John Lennon-inspired songs.
- Ollie Halsall: guitar, keyboards, vocals. Halsall sang the Paul McCartney-inspired songs.
- Ricky Fataar: guitar, bass, sitar, tabla, vocals. Fataar sang the George Harrison-inspired songs.
- John Halsey: percussion, vocals. Halsey sang the Ringo Starr- inspired songs.
- Andy Brown: bass
While the Rutles are often thought of as a four-piece band, the credits of the original LP release of their first album makes it quite clear they were a five piece band. Brown, however, did not appear in any role in All You Need Is Cash, and was not part of any Rutles reunion.
Archaeology version (1996)
After an 18-year hiatus, The Rutles (Innes, Halsey and Fataar) reconvened to record the 1996 album Archaeology (parody of the Beatles Anthology). Halsall had died in 1992, but appears on several tracks that were outtakes from the original 1978 album, and is credited as a band member (similar to the Beatles' "Free as a BirdFree as a Bird
"Free as a Bird" is a song originally composed and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon. In 1995 a studio version of the recording incorporating contributions from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was released as a single by The Beatles.The single was released as part of...
" and "Real Love").
On record the band was augmented by keyboardist Mickey Simmonds
Mickey Simmonds
Mickey Simmonds is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish...
, who would go on to play with the band live. Also appearing on the record was bassist Malcolm Foster, (ex-Pretenders), as The Rutles had no bass player. Guitarists Dougie Boyle and Bernie Holland were also featured.
Subsequent touring versions (1997–present)
Innes and Halsey toured as The Rutles in the UK, augmented by other musicians. The touring group performs songs from the Rutles repertoire and from Innes's own solo career.The touring version:
- Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
— piano, guitar and vocals; - John HalseyJohn Halsey (musician)John Halsey is a rock drummer, best known for his appearance as "Barry" in The Rutles, leading to his playing with Neil Innes's band Fatso and appearing in the film All You Need is Cash ....
— drums; - Mark GriffithsMark GriffithsMark Griffiths is a British musician famous for touring with Neil Innes in his touring ensemble of the fictional Beatles parody The Rutles where he performs Rutles songs and other songs from his career such as his songs from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He also plays with Cliff Richard's backing...
— bass guitar and vocals; - Mickey SimmondsMickey SimmondsMickey Simmonds is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish...
— keyboardsKeyboardistA keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
and vocals; - Ken Thornton — lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
;(nicknamed "Rutling" by Neil Innes) - J.J. Jones — percussion.
Fataar played with this touring version of The Rutles on certain dates.
Rutland Weekend Television (1975-76)
The Rutles began in 1975 as a sketchSketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
on Idle's BBC television series Rutland Weekend Television
Rutland Weekend Television
Rutland Weekend Television was a television sketch show on BBC2, written by Eric Idle with music by Neil Innes. Two series, the first consisting of six episodes, the second of seven, were broadcast, in 1975 and 1976. A Christmas special also aired on Boxing Day 1975.It was Idle's first television...
. The sketch presented Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
(ex-Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) fronting The Rutles singing "I Must Be In Love", a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of a 1964 Lennon-McCartney tune. The band name was a continuation of the regional premise of the TV show.
The show was presented as a programme by a fictional TV network in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, the smallest county in England. One running joke was that it was run on a shoestring. If the show parodied a topic, it would use names derivative of "Rutland". When Idle and Innes created a parody of the Beatles, Idle suggested "Rutles".
Innes was the musician/composer for the series and created songs with ideas on how they could be presented.
Innes came up with parodying A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
. He had written "I Must Be In Love" which he realised sounded very "Beatley" and thought of the Rutles skit. He passed the idea to Idle, who had a separate idea about a boring TV documentary maker. They merged the ideas into one extended film shot for the TV show.
The Rutles had connections with The Beatles, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band are a band created by a group of British art-school denizens of the 1960s...
and Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
. The Beatles were fans of the Bonzos: they featured them in the 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour
Magical Mystery Tour (film)
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long British television film starring The Beatles that originally aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967...
and Paul McCartney (working with Gus Dudgeon
Gus Dudgeon
Angus Boyd Dudgeon , most commonly known as Gus Dudgeon was an English record producer, most notable for production of many of Elton John's recordings.-Early career:...
under the alias Apollo C. Vermouth) had produced their 1968 hit single "I'm the Urban Spaceman
I'm the Urban Spaceman
"I'm the Urban Spaceman" was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's most successful single, released in 1968. It reached #5 in the UK charts. The song was written by Neil Innes and produced by Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth". The B-side was written by Viv Stanshall...
". The Bonzos and members of the Python team worked together in the late 1960s on the TV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set
Do Not Adjust Your Set
Do Not Adjust Your Set was a children's television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, then by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969....
. George Harrison was a Python fan as well as being involved in The Rutles film (see below), his company Handmade Films
Handmade Films
HandMade Films is a British film production and distribution company. Through a series of sales, and acquisitions, the company now known as Handmade Plc owns all the rights and assets of the original HandMade Films Ltd...
later took over production of Python film Life Of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team...
after the original backers pulled out, fearing its subject was too controversial, as well as financing the two first solo films of ex-Python Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
, Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky (film)
Jabberwocky is a 1977 British fantasy black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It stars Michael Palin as a young cooper who is forced through clumsy, often slapstick misfortunes to hunt a terrible dragon after the death of his father...
and Time Bandits
Time Bandits
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam.Terry Gilliam wrote the screenplay with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin, who appears with Shelley Duvall in the small, recurring roles of Vincent and Pansy. The film is one of the most famous of more than...
.
In merchandising for the TV series, references were made to a Rutles album (Finchley Road) and a single ("Ticket To Rut"). In 1976, BBC Records produced The Rutland Weekend Songbook, an album containing 23 tracks including the Rutles songs "I Must Be In Love" and "The Children Of Rock And Roll" (later reworked as "Good Times Roll").
Saturday Night Live (1976)
Two years later, on 2 October 1976 , when Idle appeared on the American NBC show Saturday Night (later Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
), he took videotape extracts from Rutland Weekend Television — including the Rutles clip. That led to a suggestion by SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
to extend the skit into a one-hour mock documentary. This proposal led to the 1978 mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash
All You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious British rock group called The Rutles...
, directed by SNL film director Gary Weis (responsible for the programme's short films), though Idle was credited as co-director.
Saturday Night Live (1977)
On 23 April 1977, Idle made another appearance on Saturday Night Live, bringing along Neil InnesNeil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
as a musical guest. A running theme for this episode is the "Save Great Britain Telethon," and at one point there is an appearance by "The Rutle who lives in New York, Nasty". Innes appeared as Nasty with a lone white piano, singing a short version of "Cheese & Onions". Later in the episode, as Neil Innes, he performed a pre-Rutles version of "Shangri-La
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
".
"All You Need Is Cash" (1978)
All You Need Is Cash documented the rise and fall of The Rutles, paralleling much of the history of The Beatles.Innes wrote and produced the music. He relied on his memory of Beatles music, without listening, to create soundalike songs. Innes assembled a band (himself, Halsey, Ollie Halsall
Ollie Halsall
Peter John 'Ollie' Halsall was a left-handed guitarist and is best known for his role in The Rutles, the bands Patto, Timebox and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music...
, Andy Brown, and Ricky Fataar
Ricky Fataar
Ricky Fataar is a South African multi-instrumentalist of Malay descent, who has performed as both a drummer, and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in the comedic television movie, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a spoof on the actual history of The Beatles, and for his performance as a...
) and the group played in a London pub to gel. During Rutles performances and studio recordings, Innes took lead on the songs that resembled Lennon's; Halsall sang on most McCartney-esque tunes; Fataar sang the Harrison songs; and Halsey sang a Ringo Starr-type song. Idle mimed to Halsall's singing and Brown's bass playing in the completed film. Halsall appeared in the film as "Leppo", the fifth Rutle who in the earliest years "mainly stood in the back". Brown did not appear in the film.
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
comedy film This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...
in 1984.
All You Need Is Cash is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the Rutles story, following the chronology of The Beatles. The glue of the film is the soundtrack by Innes, who created 19 more songs for the film, each a pastiche of a Beatles song or genre. Fourteen songs were on a soundtrack album. The CD version added the six songs omitted from the original vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
album. The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Comedy Recording of the year. The orchestrations and arrangements were by film composer John Altman
John Altman (composer)
John Altman is a British film composer, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.-Biography:Altman was introduced to the music of the 1930s and 1940s at an early age by an uncle who arranged and composed music for big bands and conducted for Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy,...
.
All You Need Is Cash was not a success on American television and finished bottom of all programmes that week. The programme fared better on BBC television.
A 66-minute version edited for TV was released on video and DVD but it has been superseded by the restored 72-minute version.
The Beatles' reaction
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
was involved in the project from the beginning. Producer Gary Weis
Gary Weis
Gary Weis is a movie and television director. He was the second creator of short films for Saturday Night Live .-Selected Filmography:*Jimi Hendrix *Saturday Night Live...
said "We were sitting around in Eric's kitchen one day, planning a sequence that really ripped into the mythology and George looked up and said, 'We were the Beatles, you know!' Then he shook his head and said 'Aw, never mind.' I think he was the only one of the Beatles who really could see the irony of it all.
Harrison later said "...the Rutles sort of liberated me from the Beatles in a way. It was the only thing I saw of those Beatles television shows they made. It was actually the best, funniest and most scathing. But at the same time, it was done with the most love." Harrison showed Innes and Idle the Beatles unreleased official documentary The Long and Winding Road, made by Neil Aspinall
Neil Aspinall
Neil Stanley Aspinall was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head The Beatles' company Apple Corps....
. (Aspinall's documentary would be resurrected as The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology (film)
The Beatles Anthology is a documentary series on the career of The Beatles. It was broadcast on television in six abridged parts between November and December 1995. An eight volume VHS set and an 8 disc Laserdisc set were released on 5 September 1996...
.)
- Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
liked the happier scenes in the film, but felt the scenes that mimicked sadder times hit too close. - John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
loved the film so much that he refused to return the videotape and soundtrack he was given for approval. He told Innes, however, that ‘Get Up and Go’ was too close to The Beatles' "Get BackGet Back"Get Back" is a song by The Beatles, composed by Paul McCartney and frequently attributed to Lennon–McCartney. The song was originally released as a single on 11 April 1969, and credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." A different mix of the song later became the closing track of Let It Be ,...
" and to be careful not to be sued by Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
. The song was subsequently omitted from the 1978 vinyl LP soundtrack. In an interview with 'BeatlesandBeyond' Radio Show presenter Pete Dicks, Innes remembered that Lennon said...' you're going to have trouble with THAT one! - How right he was, the dear man...'
- McCartney, who had just released his own album, London Town, always answered, “No comment.” According to Innes: “He had a dinner at some awards thing at the same table as Eric one night and Eric said it was a little frosty.” Idle claimed McCartney changed his mind because his wife LindaLinda McCartneyLinda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
thought it was funny.
All the group and Apple
Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
consented to use of the Beatles' Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
concert footage, along with other “real” footage cut in with Rutle footage.
Idle claims on the All You Need Is Cash DVD commentary track that Harrison and Starr at one point discussed starting a band with Innes and Idle, based on the Beatles' and Rutles' shared and imaginary histories. This never came to pass.
Later history
Idle and Fataar issued one single as 'Dirk and Stig' in 1979 (Idle's only appearance on a Rutles-related disc), but throughout the 1980s The Rutles did not exist.Innes, with session musicians, performed as "Ron Nasty and The New Rutles" at a convention honouring the 25th anniversary of Monty Python in 1994. This led to a Rutles reunion album in 1996, featuring Innes, Fataar and Halsey. Halsall died in 1992, but the reunion album, entitled Archaeology (a play on the Beatles' Anthology series), featured several tracks recorded in 1978 that included his contributions.
In 2002, Idle made The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch is a 2002 re-telling of the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, in a modern setting.- Plot :Twenty three years after the original, documentarist Melvin Hall interviews mainstream artists, actors, and musicians about the days of the popular band The Rutles,...
, but it remained unreleased for a year. The film features an even bigger number of celebrity interviewees discussing the band's influence. This was met with mixed reactions from fans, especially since it used material culled from the original. The DVD has yet to be released in the UK.
McQuickly and Nasty had cameos in the 2004 graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
, Superman: True Brit
Superman: True Brit
Superman: True Brit is a DC Comics Elseworlds first published in 2004 in the US, and by Titan Books in the UK. Written by John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by John Byrne and Mark Farmer, it reimagines the origin of Superman, by considering how Clark Kent's upbringing would be different if his...
, co-written by John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
. In the graphic novel, the Rutles are saved by Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
after their car nearly plummets from the top of a car park.
In 2007, a reissue of Archaeology included a new Rutles track called "Rut-a-lot", which was simply a live medley of songs from the first Rutles album.
On 17 March 2008, all four Rutles reunited for the first time at a 30th anniversary screening of All You Need Is Cash at the Egyptian Theatre
Egyptian Theatre
Egyptian-style theaters are based on the traditional and historic design elements of Ancient Egypt.The first Egyptian Theatre to be constructed in the US - which inspired many of the identically-named theaters that followed it - was Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. For several...
in Hollywood. The event included a question and answer session and performance by members of the tribute show "Rutlemania" which ran for a week at the Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood before doing a week in NYC at The Blender Grammery Theater. The "Rutlemania" live show was conceived and written by Eric Idle which starred The Beatles tribute group "The Fab Four
The Fab Four (tribute)
The Fab Four is a California-based tribute band paying homage to The Beatles. Founded in 1997 by Ron McNeil, John Lennon impersonator and President of The Fab Four Corp., the group began performing Beatles music throughout Southern California...
" as "The Pre-fab Four" Rutles.
In February 2009 on his website "InnesBookOfRecords.Com", Neil Innes released what he refers to as "Ron Nasty's Final Song", titled "Imitation Song" - a parody of "Imagine". This was also Innes' first and only entry in the Masters of Song-Fu competition run by Quick Stop Entertainment
Quick Stop Entertainment
FRED Entertainment is a pop-culture website. The site was originally founded as Movie Poop Shoot by director Kevin Smith to promote the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The site served as the launching pad for SModcast, Smith's popular comedy podcast...
.
Fictional history
Ron Nasty first met Dirk McQuickly in January 1959, at the now-historical address of 43 Egg Lane, LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. Having joined up with Stig O'Hara (a guitarist of no fixed hairstyle), they started playing as a trio. After 18 months, they discovered drummer Barrington Womble (whom they persuaded to change his name to Barry Wom to save time, and his hairstyle to save Brylcreem
Brylcreem
Brylcreem is a brand of hair styling products for men. The first Brylcreem product was a pomade created in 1928 by County Chemicals at the Chemico Works in Bradford Street, Birmingham, England. The pomade is an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilised with beeswax.Beecham was the longtime...
) hiding in their van, and the classic line-up of the Rutles was completed.
In 1960, at the suggestion of then-manager Arthur Scouse, the group went to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
where, with fifth member Leppo
Stuart Sutcliffe
Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a Scottish artist and musician, best known as the original bass player of The Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue a career as an artist, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art...
, who mainly stood at the back, they played all the clubs on the Reeperbahn
Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's red-light district...
, particularly The Rat Keller. It was there that Leppo crawled inside a trunk with a small German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
fräulein
Fräulein
Fräulein is the German language honorific previously in common use for unmarried women, comparable to Miss in English. Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Since the 1970s, Fräulein has come to be used less often, and was banned from...
and was never heard from again. Luckily, he had no talent for playing anyway.
In October 1961, fate intervened in the shape and other attributes of one-legged retail chemist from Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Leggy Mountbatten (a parody of Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
), who, after falling into "The Cavern
The Cavern Club
The Cavern Club is a rock and roll club in Liverpool, England. Opened on Wednesday 16 January 1957, the club had their first performance by The Beatles on 9 February 1961, and where Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles performing on 9 November 1961....
" one night, decided he hated the boys' music, but liked the cut of their jib (and especially the cut of their trousers). He became their manager, cleaned up their image, and touted them around the major record companies. Eventually, they signed to Parlourphone, and their debut album, which was recorded in 20 minutes (their second took even longer), became an enormous success. By December 1963, they were the biggest thing ever to hit the music business, with 19 out of the top 20 singles
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in the UK.
In 1964, Rutlemania went worldwide, and then some. The group swiftly conquered
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
the US thanks to the promotion of Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
the K
Murray the K
Murray Kaufman , professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
, while Nasty's book of comic prose, Out Of Me Head
In His Own Write
In His Own Write is a book from 1964 by John Lennon. The book consists of short stories and line drawings, often surreal and always nonsensical. It is notable in that it was the first solo Beatle project in any form...
, dominated the best-seller lists. In July of that year, the group's first film, A Hard Day's Rut
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
, was released. This was followed in 1965 by Ouch!
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
By this time, Rutlemania had reached such a fever pitch that crowd control was a serious problem. In August 1965, the Prefab
Prefabricated buildings
Prefabricated building is a type of building that consists of several factory-built components or units that are assembled on-site to complete the unit.- Prefabricated Housing :"Prefabricated" may refer to buildings built in components Prefabricated building is a type of building that consists of...
Four played a sell-out concert at New York's
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Ché Stadium (a pun on Argentinian-born guerrilla leader Ché Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
and the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
's Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
), arriving a day early in order to get away before the audience arrived.
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, then a relative unknown. The band bounced back with their 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, though this too was misted over in controversy when the group claimed they wrote it under the influence of tea, to which they had been introduced by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. When Nasty was arrested for possession of tea, there was a national outcry and a full-page advertisement in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
calling for it to be legalised. All five members of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
had been arrested already, and an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
had been caught nude with a teapot
Teapot
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in near-boiling water. Tea may be either in a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured...
. Shortly afterwards, Nasty visited an art exhibit at The Pretentious Gallery in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, and it was here that he met an German-born Nazi artist named Chastity whose father had invented World War II
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. After spending a whole night together, Nasty and Chastity announced their engagement the next day at a press conference, during which they sat in a shower to promote world peace.
More bad news followed for the group. While staying with the mystic Arthur Sultan
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
at his retreat in Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, on the south coast of England. It is south-south-west of London, west of Brighton, and south-east of the city of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Littlehampton east-north-east and Selsey to the...
, the band heard that Mountbatten had tragically emigrated to Australia, where he had accepted a teaching post. Some critics argue that the band lost their direction at this point. Tragical History Tour
Magical Mystery Tour (film)
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long British television film starring The Beatles that originally aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967...
, their self-indulgent TV movie about four Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
history professors on a tour around Rutland tea-shops
Tea house
A tea house or tearoom is a venue centered on drinking tea. Its function varies widely depending on the culture, and some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses or parlors that all qualify under the English language term "tea house" or "tea room."-Asia:In Central Asia this term...
, was regarded as a failure, despite the success of the soundtrack, which included the classic songs "W.C. Fields Forever" and "I Am the Waitress".
In April 1968, the group launched their new record company, Rutle Corps
Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
. Despite signing up some promising talent (notably Arthur Hodgson and the Kneecaps and the 'French Beach Boys,' Les Garçons de la Plage), poor financial management (mainly on the part of Stig O'Hara's financial planner, Ron Decline
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
) finally led to the label's ultimate failure. Around this time, a 'Stig is Dead
Paul Is Dead
"Paul is dead" is an urban legend suggesting that Paul McCartney of the English rock band The Beatles died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike....
' rumour, prompted by both many obscure clues within the band's songs and album covers (including a track which, when played backwards, reportedly said 'Stig has been dead for ages, honestly') and the fact that Stig had not spoken publicly in five years began to circulate, prompting Barry to stay in bed for a year. Whether this was intended as a tax dodge
Tax avoidance and tax evasion
Tax noncompliance describes a range of activities that are unfavorable to a state's tax system. These include tax avoidance, which refers to reducing taxes by legal means, and tax evasion which refers to the criminal non-payment of tax liabilities....
or as an attempt to start his own 'Barry is Also Dead' rumour never became clear.
It was in this atmosphere that the group's final release, Let It Rut
Let It Be (album)
Let It Be is the 12th and final studio album released by the English rock band The Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970 by the band's Apple Records label shortly after the group announced their break-up....
was recorded. Soon afterwards, the band fell apart amid much legal wrangling; McQuickly sued Nasty and O'Hara, Wom sued McQuickly, Nasty sued O'Hara and Wom and - in all the confusion - O'Hara ended up accidentally suing himself. Wom had some success with his solo LP, When You Find The Girl Of Your Dreams In The Arms Of Some Scotsmen From Hull, but like the other members, soon drifted into obscurity, punctuated only by the making of a 1978 retrospective documentary, All You Need Is Cash. McQuickly formed the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
group Punk Floyd with his French wife, Martini (he sang; she did not); Nasty turned his back on the world; Wom became two hairdressers, as per a joke once made to the press; and O'Hara found work for Air India
Air India
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India. It is part of the government of India owned Air India Limited . The airline operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Its corporate office is located at the Air India Building at Nariman...
as an air hostess.
It is rumoured that The Rutles acquired all their music from others. Many people said that they stole it from New Orleans blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
legend Blind Lemon Pye, but he said that the Rutles music came from his next-door neighbour Ruttling Orange Peel. Ruttling claimed that he did write the music, but his wife claims that he is always lying. She said that he also claimed to have started the Everly Brothers, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
. There is a small-time group named The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
who patterned their career after the legendary Rutles.
Rutles albums (fictional)
- Please Rut Me (1963)
- With The Rutles (1963)
- A Hard Day's Rut (1964)
- Rutles for Sale (1964)
- Ouch! (1965)
- Rutle Soul (1965)
- Semiautomatic (1966)
- Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band (1967)
- Tragical History Tour (1967)
- The Triangular Album (1968)
- Yellow Submarine Sandwich (1969)
- Shabby Road (1969)
- Let It Rot (1970)
(Note: These titles may not all be official.)
The Rutland Weekend Songbook (1976)
"The Rutland Weekend Songbook" / Eric Idle & Neil InnesBBC Records (UK) / Passport Records (US)
Saturday: (Side 1 )
- "L'Amour Perdu"
- Gibberish
- Wash With Mother ( "Front LoaderFront loaderA front loader can be a* Loader - a form of tractor.* Washing machine - front loading type...
" ) - "Say Sorry Again"
- The Rutles in "Rutles For Sale". ("I Must Be In Love")
- 24 Hours In Tunbridge Wells ( "Tunbridge Wells Medley" )
- The Fabulous Bingo Brothers ( "Once We Had A Donkey" )
- In Concrete ( "Concrete Jungle Boy")
- "The Children of Rock-N-Roll"
- Startime ("Stoop Solo" )
- "Song O'The Insurance Salesmen"
- Closedown
Sunday: (Side 2)
- "Testing"
- "I Give Myself To You"
- "Communist Cooking"
- Johnny Cash Live At Mrs.Fletchers ( "Stuck In Mrs.Fletchers" )
- The Old Gay Whistle Test ("Protest Song")
- "Accountancy Shanty"
- "Football"
- "Boring"
- Goodafternoon ("L'Amour Perdu Cha-Cha-Cha")
- Disco ("Hard To Get")
- Closedown ("The Song O'The Continuity Announcers")
Rutles Notes:
- Side 1, Track 5: The first released Rutles recording. (This version has slightly different lyrics from the 1978 version.)
- Liner notes mis-credit "Kevin" as a Rutle instead of "Barry." (This marks the only appearance of "Kevin" in the Rutles canon!)
- The original "Rutles" Musicians are: Roger Rettig and Billy BremnerBilly Bremner (musician)William "Billy" Bremner is a guitarist best known for his work in the band Rockpile and on many of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds' albums...
on guitars, Brian HodgsonBrian HodgsonBrian Hodgson is a British television composer and sound technician. Born in Liverpool in 1938, Hodgson joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for the science fiction programme Doctor Who...
on bass, Neil InnesNeil InnesNeil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
on piano, and John HalseyJohn HalseyJohn Halsey was a colonial American privateer and a later pirate who was active in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the early 18th century. Although much of his life and career is unknown, he is recorded in A General History of the Pyrates which states "He was brave in his Person, courteous...
on drums. (This group was also known as "Fatso.") - Side 1, Track 9: This song is credited as "Ron Lennon," and it is the nucleus of what will later become The Rutles song "Good Times Roll".
- Album reissued on C.D. in the 1990s with two bonus tracks: "Protest SongProtest songA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
" (Uncensored) & "I Must Be In Love" (Minus screaming fans.)
The Rutles (1978)
A soundtrack album entitled The Rutles containing 14 tongue-in-cheek pastiches of Beatles songs was also released.The cover art of the album suggested the existence of a number of other Rutles albums including Tragical History Tour and Let It Rut.
The album contains some obvious send-ups of Beatles numbers such as "Ouch!" ("Help!"), "Love Life" ("All You Need is Love"), "Piggy in the Middle" ("I Am the Walrus"), "Doubleback Alley" ("Penny Lane") and "Get Up And Go" (CD reissue only — "Get Back"). However, its real tribute is in its subtly layered blending of elements from many classic Lennon-McCartney tunes.
The Rutles 7" Singles (1978)
"I Must Be In Love" + "Cheese And Onions " / "A Girl Like You"WEA Records / UK only release / 1978 / K17125
Side 1: "I Must Be In Love"
Side 2: "Cheese And Onions" / "A Girl Like You"
- Released with picture sleeve.
- Sleeve misprints "With A Girl Like You" on both sides ( Dropping "With" ), Label is correct.
- All three songs same as album versions.
"Let's Be Natural" b/w "Piggy In the Middle"
WEA Records / UK only release / 1978 / K17180
Side 1: "Let's Be Natural"
Side 2: "Piggy In the Middle"
- Issued in a standard paper sleeve.
- Both songs same as album versions.
"I Must Be In Love" b/w "Doubleback Alley"
WEA Records / Japan / 1978 / P-200-W
Warner Bros. Records / US / 1978 / WBS 8560
Side 1: "I Must Be In Love"
Side 2: "Doubleback Alley"
- Japanese release issued in picture sleeve featuring rare colour photo from "I Must Be In Love" video.
- Both songs same as album versions
The Rutles 12" EP (1978)
Promotional Warner Bros. faux-Beatles Rutles five-song 33 RPM 12-inch (PRO-E-723) complete with recreated Lads-in-Nehru-suits portrait in the same fashion and pose as the real Beatles' portrait released on the sleeve of the Capitol 45 rpm release "I Want to Hold Your HandI Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment....
" b/w "I Saw Her Standing There
I Saw Her Standing There
"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and is the opening track on The Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone on 22 March 1963....
" (Capitol 5112). The unnamed Rutle Corps Records label (peeled banana in the centre) boasted five tracks and was pressed in translucent yellow vinyl:
Side 1
- "I Must Be In Love" - 2:04 ("A Hard Day's Night"/ "Can't Buy Me Love")
- "Doubleback Alley" - 2:54 ("Penny Lane")
- "With A Girl Like You" - 1:50 ("If I Fell")
Side 2
- "Another Day" - 2:09 ("Martha My Dear")
- "Let's Be Natural" - 3:23 ("Dear Prudence")
The Rutles Archaeology (1996)
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the...
albums. The fourth 'real' Rutle, Ollie Halsall, died in Spain in 1992. Eric Idle was invited to participate, but he declined. Accordingly, photos of the three 'surviving' Rutles parodied those of the then three surviving Beatles in the Anthology series.
Like the Anthology project that it lampooned, it featured tracks ostensibly from all periods of the Rutles career, sequenced to reflect the fictional band's chronology. (Several of the songs were actually old Innes standards that were dusted off and given the 'Rutles' treatment.) The reunion was blessed by George Harrison, who encouraged The Pre-Fab Four to proceed. (When approached, he told Innes, 'Sure. It's all part of the "soup"...' Innes related that encounter in interviews he gave in 1996.)
"Eric Idle Sings Monty Python" (2000)
"Eric Idle Sings Monty Python" (Live) / Eric IdleRestless Records / C.D. only release / 01877-73730-2
- Track 16 is the only track with Rutles content, Idle sings "I Must Be In Love" (First recording of Idle vocalising a Rutles song.)
- Eric is introduced as "Sir Dirk McQuickly" with a "History of The Rutles" introduction by Peter Crabbe
- In the C.D. booklet , the lyric page for this song is torn out.
- This C.D. is the sole release featuring the notorious " Lennon / McCartney / Innes " song credit!
Rutles Highway Revisited (A tribute to The Rutles)
A 20-track album of Rutles covers released by Shimmy DiscShimmy Disc
Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, it was responsible for providing a mass audience for acts including Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween,...
Europe on 1 January 1990 (SDE 9028/CD), liner notes include interview with Ron Nasty. (Written by Neil Innes.)
- "Cheese & Onions" - Galaxie 500Galaxie 500Galaxie 500 was an American alternative rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums.-History:Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang had met at the Dalton School in New York City in 1981, but began playing together during their time...
- "Hold My Hand" - The Pussywillows
- "Number One" - Bongos, Bass & Bob
- "Good Times Roll" - Lida HusikLida HusikLida Husik is a Washington D.C./ New York City artist who was very prominent in the 90's. She released three albums for New York based label Shimmy Disc. She later signed a deal with Caroline Records/Astralwerks releasing a psychadelic record for Astralwerks and a more folky record for Caroline...
- "Another Day" - DogbowlDogbowlDogbowl is an American artist and musician. He was a founding member of the avant-garde band King Missile and has recorded many albums as a solo act....
- "Piggy In The Middle" - Das DamenDas DamenDas Damen was an alternative rock band from New York City, United States, formed in 1984. The band released several albums before splitting up in 1991. The band name is German for "the ladies", although grammatically correct it would be spelled "Die Damen"...
- "I Must Be In Love" - Syd StrawSyd StrawSyd Straw is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw , she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joined the Golden Palominos...
and Marc RibotMarc RibotMarc Ribot born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.-Biography:Ribot was... - "Nevertheless" - Joey AriasJoey AriasJoey Arias is a New York City based performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artist.Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he was six when he moved with his family to Los Angeles. After singing with the rock band "Purlie" on Capitol Records and a stint with famed improvisational group the...
- "Let's Be Natural" - When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the WaterWhen People Were Shorter and Lived Near the WaterWhen People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water was an American experimental psychedelic rock band from New York City active from 1986–1996...
- "Between Us" - UnrestUnrest (band)Unrest is an indie rock band from the Washington, D.C. area. It was one of Mark Robinson's projects for what would eventually become the TeenBeat label, also created by Mark while in high school. Developing from an experimental approach of never playing the same song twice, earlier material seemed...
- "Ouch!" - Peter Stampfel and The Bottlecaps
- "Blue Suede Schubert" - The TinklersThe TinklersThe Tinklers are a band from Baltimore who have been together since 1979. The group consists of Charles Brohawn and Chris Mason, both of whom sing, play guitar, and percussion instruments of varying degrees of quality . Both members are also actively engaged in creating art in other mediums...
- "Living In Hope" - Tuli KupferbergTuli KupferbergNaphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:...
- "Baby Let Me Be" - Daniel JohnstonDaniel JohnstonDaniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
- "It's Looking Good" - Uncle WigglyUncle WigglyUncle Wiggly was a band formed in New York City circa 1988.-Members:The band was formed by WFMU radio personality Wm. Berger with two members of the New York band Fly Ashtray, James Kavoussi and Michael Anzalone....
- "Goose Step Mama" - Shonen KnifeShonen KnifeShonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife," is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981...
- "Get Up And Go" - Jellyfish KissJellyfish KissJellyfish Kiss were an alternative rock band from Leeds, England.The band was formed in late 85/early 86 by guitarist Mark Stein and drummer Mark Drew, who recruited other members, Geoff Bell , Barry and Cosmo Nasty...
- "Doubleback Alley" - King MissileKing MissileKing Missile is an American avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by poet/singer John S. Hall since 1986. Currently, Hall performs with a new version of the first incarnation, King Missile ....
- "With A Girl Like You" - Paleface
- "Love Life" - BongwaterBongwater (band)Bongwater was a psych rock band formed in 1985 and dissolved in 1992. The group was founded by Ann Magnuson and Mark Kramer , who had worked together previously in Pulsallama. The group also featured drummer Dave Licht and guitarists [Dave Rick] and later Randolph A. Hudson III...
- The album title is a parody of Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's album, "Highway 61 RevisitedHighway 61 RevisitedHighway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
".
- The album cover image is a parody of The Rolling StonesThe Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
album "Their Satanic Majesties RequestTheir Satanic Majesties RequestTheir Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records...
"
Bootlegs
Bootlegs include Hard Days Rut, Rehearsal, Sweet Rutle Tracks, Rutles To Let, Sgt. Rutters Only Darts Club Band, and Rutland's Rare Rutles Revisited. Much of the material on these releases comes from 1978 rehearsal tapes, or from the Rutland Weekend Television soundtrack LP.- Also of note: "Cheese & Onions" - the version heard on Saturday Night Live - made its way onto several Beatles bootleg albums, as an unreleased John Lennon demo. See: "Indian Rope Trick. The Echoes of a Dream" (side 2, track 5), for one.
- "Get Up & Go" also appeared on a bootleg as an "Unreleased Beatles Track" on the album , "Tanks For the Mammaries".
Lawsuits
Following the release of the 1978 The Rutles album, ATV Music, the then-owner of the publishing rights to the Beatles catalog, sued Innes for copyright infringement. Though Innes hired a musicologist to defend the originality of his songs, he settled with ATV out of court for 50% of the royalties and shared songwriting credit on the 14 songs included on the album. As of early 2006, these six songs from the first Rutles CD (which were not on the original LP release) are credited solely to Neil Innes: "Baby Let Me Be", "Between Us", "Blue Suede Schubert", "Get Up And Go", "Goose Step Mama", and "It's Looking Good". The other 14 songs from the CD (that is, all of the songs from the original LP release) have all had John Lennon and Paul McCartney added to the songwriting credits along with Neil Innes. However, the booklet accompanying a 2007 reissue of the album on Rhino/Warner Brothers credits all 20 songs solely to Innes.See also
- All You Need Is CashAll You Need Is CashAll You Need Is Cash is a 1978 television film that traces the career of a fictitious British rock group called The Rutles...
- The Rutles Soundtrack
- The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me LunchThe Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me LunchThe Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch is a 2002 re-telling of the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, in a modern setting.- Plot :Twenty three years after the original, documentarist Melvin Hall interviews mainstream artists, actors, and musicians about the days of the popular band The Rutles,...
- The Rutles ArchaeologyThe Rutles ArchaeologyThe Rutles Archaeology is an album by the comedy band The Rutles. Like their previous release, the album contains pastiches of Beatles' songs....
- Deface the MusicDeface the MusicDeface the Music is a 1980 album by the band Utopia featuring Todd Rundgren, Roger Powell, Kasim Sulton, and Willie Wilcox. The concept of the album was to pay homage to The Beatles and create songs which sounded very similar to the Fab Four's tunes throughout the various stages of their career...
, a similar Beatles parody by the group Utopia
External links
- Tragical History Tour - the official Rutles web page
- Rutlemania - the real-life history of the Rutles
- Doo Dah Diaries - Project to compile the complete history of the Bonzos including Neil Innes and The Rutles
- Article by music theorist John R. Covach: The Rutles and The Use of Specific Models in Musical Satire. Indiana Theory Review, 1991.
- The Rutles section of Neil Innes' website
- skyjude - movie legends
- The Rutles-The Full True Story An anonymous article detailing the real-life battles between Idle and Innes over control and credit for The Rutles
- The Rutles' first TV appearance on RWT - on YouTube