Tuesday, December 23, 2008

THE RUTLES (I MUST BE IN LOVE)

Joke or not , I must be in love and with a girl like you are great pop tunes .The Rutles was a fictional band created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a pastiche of The Beatles. The group is known because of the 1978 mockumentary television film, All You Need Is Cash (often referred to as just The Rutles). The film was written by Idle, who directed it with Gary Weis. It featured 20 songs written by Innes, which he performed with three musicians. The Rutles began in 1975 as a sketch 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 premise of the TV show on which the skit originated.
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 spoofing 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").
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1. I MUST BE IN LOVE
2. CHEESE AND ONIONS
3. WITH A GIRL LIKE YOU
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WARNER BROS RECORDING 1978
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10 comments:

zach said...

ha! i thought i was the only "punk" who liked The Rutles. yeah "i must be in love" is a great pop tune. All You Need Is Cash has a lot of great tunes in it. and i just like the film itself. check out the Knickerbockers "lies" if you haven't already. underrated 7". great Beatles-type pop tunes.

zach said...

oh and do you have the Poppees 7"? sounds exactly like the Beatles but with a little twist.

Frank Miller said...

Hi Zach, The Knickerbockers were a great band,from my area. Glad to see you have an open mind,in my opinion the most punk thing you can do is be yourself! Don't let anyone tell you what to think or like.Fuck all the uniforms, and narrow minded people with elitist attitude's that think Punk should only sound a certain way.To me Punk is a state of mind,not a sound.I have to warn you though, the deeper you start to dig, the more consumed you will become.If your tastes are broad like mine, there's literaly no end to the great music out there to discover. Are you refering to the If She Cries single from the popees?? I have it, but you should click on over to the Ratboy 69 blog, He has a Popees anthology you can download.Thanks for all the comments, and I'll check out the School Jerks, and let you know what I think.

zach said...

oh they were from you area, sweet.

yes exactly true. we think alike. yeah fuck all the uniforms and stuff like that. "the broader your music tastes the more great music to discover," couldn't say it better myself. i just posted some really poppy stuff myself.

yeah check SJ out. on their myspace page you can download everything they've done.

yeah that Poppees. but i actually was referring to their second 7", i don't know why i didn't say "second" in the first place but anyway. yeah their second 7" with "Jealousy/She's Got It" on it. "Jealousy" is so great. i've never heard that first 7". i was going to buy that Pop Goes the Anthology LP as soon as i get more money.

oh and i forget to mention that my favourite Rutles track is "Hold My Hand," then "I Must Be In Love," then third "Let's Be Natural."

Frank Miller said...

Your right, Jealousy is a great track,you should check out Ratboys post of the anthology. I't has both singles, demos, and live tracks.Do you like The Last?? I think you'll like them. Maybe I'll post some Popees stuff some time, Thanks Zach!

zach said...

i can't find the Ratboy post.
never heard of The Last. do you have any links? when i try to google them, about a billion other things pop up. thanks!

Frank Miller said...

Here you go Zach http://ratb0y69.blogspot.com/2010/05/poppees-pop-goes-anthology.html , he has a great site for garage/mod type stuff.

zach said...

thank you! oh it's great! do you know if the If She Cries 7" had a picture sleeve?

Frank Miller said...

I'll have to look, but if I remember right,I don't think my copy has a picture sleeve. That doesn't mean it didn't have one though.But I'm thinking it didn't

zach said...

ok. thanks for the info.