C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S Oh No!
by John J. Madonna
Forget John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I’ll take Ron, Dirk, Stig, and Barry any day of the week (even the eighth one.) The Rutles, scousers as well, made it just as big as those other four guys. Maybe even bigger. Maybe even smaller. They almost definitely “made it” a larger, smaller or equal amount as The Beatles. Unfortunately, like so many of those great bands from the sixties (e.g. The Turtles or The Beau Brummels,) problems with their label have doomed The Rutles’ back catalogue lost to history except for a greatest hits and Archeology, a collection of rare and unreleased songs. AADL fortunately has both records as well as a Rutles documentary.
That “Rutle Sound,” was punchy, driving, beautiful, and completely original. They invented rock and roll. Famed producer George Martin said, “Without The Rutles, there would have been no .” An understatement to be sure. A simple listen to The Rutles, and we easily hear how The Beatles callously copped almost each and every song The Rutles did. “Help!” a clear rewrite of the classic Rutle tune “Ouch!” gives no credit to original artists whatsoever. “Get Back” makes no attempt to hide its similarities to “Get Up and Go.” “All You Need Is Love?” No thank you, John Lennon. All I need is “Love Life,” Ron Nasty’s crown jewel. Do yourself a favour: listen to The Rutles, watch their movies. You’ll start to wonder if Lennon and McCartney had an original thought in their heads.
Now, I’ve openly lauded Paul and George, as well as mentioned Sgt. Pepper’s in two-thirds of my blogs, but when I found this out four days ago, I had no trouble with my change of heart regarding The Beatles. I will be undergoing a project over the next few minutes revising my past blogs, changing anything I’ve called “Beatlesesque” to “Rutlesesque.” So please, reread my old blogs for the updated versions.
Ringo Starr. That doesn’t even sound like a real name.
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