Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Rutles

The Rutles on the original Rutland Weekend Television



The Rutles - All you need is cash





The Rutles CD


1. Goose-Step Mama

2. Number Two
3. Baby Let Me Be
4. Hold My Hand
5. Blue Suede Schubert
6. I Must Be In Love
7. With A Girl Like You
8. Between Us
9. Living In Hope
10. Ouch!
11. It's Looking Good
12. Doubleback Alley
13. Good Times Roll
14. Nevertheless
15. Love Life
16. Piggy In The Middle
17. Another Day
18. Cheese And Onions
19. Get Up And Go
20. Let's Be Natural



The Rutles 2 - Can't Buy Me Lunch




The Pre-Fab Four are back, and severely earnest television journalist S.J. Krammerhead (Eric Idle) is hot on their story once again in The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch. A welcome sequel to Monty Python star Idle's 1978 mockumentary The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, Can't Buy Me Lunch looks back on the mythical Liverpool quartet's long and winding road. Meet anew the group's caustic leader Ron Nasty (Neil Innes), cute bassist Dirk McQuickley (Idle), quiet guitarist Stig O'Hara (Rikki Fataar), and lovable drummer Barry Womble (John Halsey) as they sprint from the Cavern Club through "A Hard Day's Rut," "Tragical History Tour" and beyond. Krammerhead combines new celebrity interviews (Conan O'Brien, Tom Hanks, Bonnie Raitt) with re-edited footage and outtakes from the first film, and while the result isn't as sharp or urgent as Idle's original parody, Can't Buy Me Lunch has many funny moments and good inside jokes for Beatles enthusiasts. --Tom Keogh

Archaeology




From a postmodern perspective, it's entirely fitting for the Rutles, the Beatles spoof band started by Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Neil Innes (Bonzo Dog Band) in 1978, to come back in the mid-'90s. After all, the Beatles did with Anthology, the albums and the documentary. Hence the new Rutles release, Archaeology. But as Spinal Tap proved with its 1992 comeback album, the joke is never as funny the second time around. In any event, the 16 songs on Archaeology are smartly written, deftly recorded, spot-on parodies of the Beatles tunes we hear daily in elevators and dentists' offices. You knew they would be. "Major Happy's Up and Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band" takes on "Sgt. Pepper's," of course, and segues neatly into "Rendezvous," in which the Rutles' drummer is none too happy to get a little help from his friends. "Joe Public" lovingly skewers "Tomorrow Never Knows," as well as the concept of mass-market merchandising, while the single and video "Shangri-La" mix "Magical Mystery Tour" and "All You Need Is Love." But towards the end, the Rutles are running so short on material that they're parodying solo Ringo ("Easy Listening") and Wings ("Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik"). The question is: Why bother? The original did all this the first time. The Beatles satirize themselves whenever they attempt anything new. (Don't forget the Traveling Wilburys, or McCartney's foray into ambient house with Youth as the fireman. And let's not even start with Richard Starkey.) And you can hear the ultimate Beatles goof just about any time you turn on modern-rock radio. It's name is Oasis, and if there's a better argument that it's time for phony Beatlemania to bite the dust, I have yet to hear it. Jim Derogatis

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