[NOTE: The American edition is the one most usually repeated on Paramount Comedy but the Brit version is currently available on video.]

2. Having said that, there is also an alternate take of the 'Man Who Turned Down The Rutles' section featuring in some alternate prints.

IDLE Brian Thigh was a top recording manager in London in 1962.  Mr Thigh, you've been known for many years as 'the man who turned down the Rutles'.

THIGH (Coughs, wheezes and splutters for ages) Yeah, that's right.

IDLE You said that electric guitar groups were on their way out and would never make any money in the 60s.

THIGH (Coughs, wheezes and splutters for ages) Yes I did.

IDLE So you turned down all those millions of dollarsworth of sales, you turned down all those thousands upon thousands of singles, all those gold disks.

THIGH (Coughs, wheezes and splutters for ages) Yeah, that's right.

IDLE What's it like to be such a jerk?

THIGH (Coughs) What?

IDLE Does it bother you being such a nerd?

THIGH (Coughs) Come on, come on, you can't call me that.

IDLE Does it concern you that people say that you're a twat?

THIGH Hey, now c'mon.

IDLE A pillock, a berk, a man who has the brains of a duck, the business sense of a cretin and the ideas of an idiot of three.  (Brian Thigh gets up and walks out of shot)  Does it concern you that you have no business-sense whatsoever?  (To camera)  Brian Thigh, the man who... (FX: GUNSHOT AND THUD) ...who turned down the Rutles.

On the video and British TV edits the sketch simply ends with the first Idle-insult, in this case 'What's it like to be such an asshole?' (with emphasis on the American pronounciation).

[NOTE: Thanks many times over to Garrett Gilchrist for the aboveness.]

The original 'Rutles' sketch appeared in Rutland Weekend Television (Series 2, Show 1) where it segued from a mock documentary treating love as a disease. Described by the narrator as 'suffering from love songs', Innes (wearing a dressing gown and pyjamas in a hospital exercise-yard) as Ron Nasty, breaks into the song 'I Must Be In Love'. This cuts to a clip from 'A Hard Day's Rut', not dissimilar to the eventual scene in the 'All You Need Is Cash' film but with Rutland Weekend regular David Battley instead of Rikki Fatarr.

As with the later version, Idle's narrator appears, delivers his opening monologue and chases after the camera which speeds away on a truck. We return to the truck a few times throughout the show, the continuity announcer noting firstly that it's on its way to the seaside and later involved in a bit of rudeness in a bedroom with a lady.

The original version of 'I Must Be In Love' made it to the 'Rutland Weekend Songbook' LP of the series with a new spoken intro by Idle.

Some sources claim that the original clip billed the Rutles as 'The Rutland Stones' but there doesn't seem to be any proof to back this up.

Idle was invited to guest-host Saturday Night Live in the US (very funny as it happens – Idle’s rendition of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ in a Gumby voice is a classic) and, in answer to their running joke about getting the Beatles to reform on the show, took the Rutland Weekend ‘Rutles’ clip with him. The reaction from the home audience was enough to convince producer Gary Weis and Idle to film the full story. To that end, Innes was drafted in to quickly write another dozen Beatles parodies in a very short time.

Most of the songs from the film were released on a Warner Bros LP. It was this release (and a subsequent award for Best Comedy Album) that presumably allowed some middle-management cunt to sabotage proceedings by claiming that the parodies infringed copyright. Innes' record company was scared of taking on the majors (they may not have received costs) and he was left well and truly shafted. One might actually look on this event as the end of those glory days when music parody was overlooked by humourless publishers after a quick buck.

Neil Innes deserves at the very least a proper retrial. Any half-competent lawyer with an ear for music and a basic knowledge of the difference between plagiarism and parody could easily point out that The Rutles songs, with perhaps one exception, are songs in their own right.

The song in question is 'Get Up & Go', a parody of 'Get Back' which does mirror the original chord-structure and melody a bit more than parody allows. This can hardly be held against Innes who, as we've mentioned, had to write these songs in a very short period of time. The story goes that John Lennon got to hear the songs before the release of the original Rutles LP and suggested that 'Get Up & Go' be left off the album, which it was.

All the Rutles songs bear passing resemblances to Beatles equivalents (it is in the nature of parodies to do so) but, stripped of the George Martin-like production and vocal impressions, they could exist outside the Beatle canon as simply great Innes numbers. Legally speaking, a court-case for plagiarism in the late-70s would only have centred on melody (sampling laws certainly weren't yet considered and copying somebody else's musical style was hardly worth pursuing as the nature of the pop business thrives on it) so it's baffling that the court didn't appear to consider each individual song on its own merit and found in favour of the complainants who then assumed ownership of the whole catalogue.

As a good illustration of the stupidity, in 1996 Neil Innes reformed the Rutles (aside from Idle who couldn't be arsed and played no musical contribution to the original anyway). Many of the tracks on the new LP (Archaeology) were songs which Innes had been touring around for a while anyway. 'Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik' and 'Joe Public' were premiered acoustically on Nicky Campbell's radio one show about five years previously. 'Knicker Elastic King' dates back to '82 (and featured in The Innes Book Of Records). The single 'Shangri La' dates back even further to Innes' 1976 Taking Off LP. Yet, given a George Martin-esque gloss, the songs sounded as if they'd always been Beatles parodies - 'Come Together'-thumping bass on 'Eine Kleine…'; 'Tomorrow Never Knows' sitar samplerdelia on 'Joe Public'. 'Knicker Elastic King' simply sounded like a Blur out-take which further proves that emulating the sound of popular groups is hardly something one should be able to sue over.

Neil Innes is one of this country's most underrated songwriters and deserves a chance to redress the debacle. At the time of writing only one of his original LPs is available on CD (How Sweet To Be An Idiot repackaged with extra tracks as Recycled Vinyl Blues). Once asked who owns the rights to his songs, Innes simply replied ‘Bastards!’. He has refused to bargain with the various record companies that own the masters of his other LPs: the aforementioned 'Taking Off, and the two spin-offs from his BBC shows: The Innes Book Of Records and the amazing double LP Off The Record, declaring himself too jaded with the business.

But…but…there is apparently a new LP on the cards. Way to go, Neil. You show ‘em.

The Rutland Weekend Dirty Weekend Book features a Rolling Stone magazine parody which includes a full page ad for The Rutles. The photos show the Rutland Weekend line-up of the band. The ad mentions their forthcoming LP ‘Finchley Road’ (on NSU records). The current hit single is named as ‘A Ticket To Rut’ (on the Turnip label) and merchandise available includes Rutles Gumboots, Rutles Rattles, Rutles Split-Crotch Panti-hose, Rutles Matching Bidet and Handkerchief, Little Rutle Rude Things and Real Rutle Vasectomies.

Although Eric Idle was too far up his own arse to feature in the 1995 revival, he had extended the joke himself before, in collaboration with Rikki Fatarr, with a single release of ‘Ging Gang Goolie’, credited to ‘Dirk & Stig’. It wasn’t much good though. We much prefer The Scaffold’s version, given the choice. The B-side was an Idle original called ‘Mister Sheene’, precise details of which aren’t known to us but which was apparently a bit George Formby-like.

Neil Innes appeared on Saturday Night Live himself singing ‘Cheese & Onions’. The rendition of the song made it onto a Beatles bootleg called ‘Indian Rope Trick’ and Innes was forced to deny, rather bemusedly, that it was actually a Beatles song.

An early version of what became The Rutles’ ‘Good Times Roll’ had also featured in Rutland Weekend Television’s first series with Innes as ‘Ron Lennon’. The song also made it to the Songbook LP under the title ‘The Children Of Rock N’Roll’.

Rhino Records acquired the rights to release the Warner Bros Rutles LP in 1990. All the tracks from the original LP featured along with a further six songs. Some of these had appeared in the film, but a few were unfamiliar. These were newly remixed from the original masters by someone who didn’t quite capture the compressed 60s sound of the original parodies but had a near enough stab.

‘Blue Suede Schubert’ featured in Series 3 of The Innes Book Of Records (with Innes as Schubert discovering a great new sound). The same series had boasted a soul version of ‘Now She’s Left You’ which, with Rutles backing, came out on Archaeology. Nobody has yet confirmed whether the recording released was new or from the original late-70s sessions.

Another extension of the Rutles concept on Book Of Records was ‘In The Name Of Jesus Christ’, a pastiche of John Lennon’s ‘Happy Christmas (War Is Over)’. This song never made it to Innes’ Off The Record LP (probably a deliberate decision following all the legal arse he endured over the Rutles).

The Rutles – All You Need Is Cash had a parody of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film (‘Tragical History Tour’). Neil Innes, as a member of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, had appeared in the original film performing ‘Death Cab For Cutie’ at the Raymond Revue Bar, Soho. The real George Harrison returned the favour by appearing in All You Need Is Cash.

THE RUTLES (Warner Bros K 56459)
Hold My Hand
Number One
With A Girl Like You
I Must Be In Love
Ouch
Living In Hope
Love Life
Nevertheless
Good Times Roll
Doubleback Alley
Cheese & Onions
Another Day
Piggy In The Middle
Let’s Be Natural

Original LP came with a booklet which featured a rewritten version of the script of the film and plenty of photos/prints of the mock-up LPs and newspapers. Also featured were transcripts from the Jagger and Paul Simon interviews, the latter boasting much more than appeared in the film.

The lyrics to the songs were printed on the inner sleeve. Not all of them featured, suggesting that the LP’s packaging was completed before all the songs were written. Another fact that bears this out is the middle eight to ‘Piggy In The Middle’, the words of which don’t correspond to the actual song:

Civilising jungle bunnies
Guinea pigs including me and you
Talk about a knock-kneed frog
Second cousin to a nun living in the zoo.

Whereas the lyrics, as released, are:

One man’s civilisation
Is another man’s jungle, yeah
Mayfair revolutions in the air
I’m dancing in my underwear
But I don’t care

Incidentally, if you reverse the little backwards section in ‘Piggy In The Middle’, you get ‘This little piggy went to maaaaaarket…’. So now you know.

Other vague discrepancies between the film and the LPs packaging is the name of the man who claimed to have originated Rutles music. In the film he’s introduced as ‘Rutling Orange Peel’ whereas the LP cast list names him as ‘Rambling Orange Peel’. Also, the record logo on the ‘Meet The Rutles’ mock-up sleeve is no more than a rectangle with a star design on the front of the LP. In the film it features a proper ‘Parlophone’ parody. Unfortunately, the EP that was released to promote the LP (‘I Must Be In Love’, c/w ‘Cheese & Onion’/’A Girl Like You’ – Warner Bros K 17125) also used this temporary logo (as well as shortening the title of ‘With A Girl Like You’ for some reason).

THE RUTLES (Rhino R2 75760)

Goose Step Mama
Number One
Baby Let Me Be
Hold My Hand
Blue Suede Schubert
I Must Be In Love
With A Girl Like You
Between Us
Living In Hope
Ouch
It’s Looking Good
Doubleback Alley
Good Times Roll
Nevertheless
Love Life
Piggy In The Middle
Another Day
Cheese & Onions
Get Up And Go
Let’s Be Natural

Notes: The collection attempted to put everything in ‘chronological order’ (as per the fictitious story). As such, since ‘Hold My Hand’ no longer kicked off the LP, the opening Sgt Pepper/White Album type aeroplane FX and instrument tunings were edited off. ‘Get Up And Go’ finally featured, no longer shackled by the constraints of legality as the fucking publishers owned all the songs anyway.

Major Happy’s Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band
Rendezvous
Questionnaire
Now She’s Left You
Hey Mister
I Love You
We’ve Arrived (And To Prove It We’re Here)
Shangri La
Joe Public
The Knicker Elastic King
Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
I Don’t Know Why
Back In 64

Note: ‘I Don’t Know Why’ was first performed on Rory Bremner’s C4 show (Bremner apparently phoned Innes up personally to request a parody of The Beatles ‘Free As A Bird’) and this led to the reunion LP. Something to thank Rory Bremner for – there’s a novelty.

‘Shangri La’ was quite a famous Innes song before being given the Rutles gloss. The original can be found on ‘Taking Off’ and featured in The Innes Book Of Records (with Innes dressed as Superman serenading a load of Butlins holidaymakers – a contrast to his performance of the same song on The Frankie Howerd Show which he did dressed as a city gent). The new version boasted an introductory orchestral refrain of ‘How Sweet To Be An Idiot’, Innes attempting to claim the melody back from Oasis who’d nicked it for their ‘Whatever’*. The video for the single was a mock ‘All You Need Is Love’ setting and featured ‘celebrity’ guests (well, Patti Boulez and Al Jardine of the Beach Boys anyway) singing along. Oasis had agreed to attend the session too but didn’t make it.

*EMI Publishing actually negotiated a 25% cut of Oasis’ ‘Whatever’ royalties for Innes (from which they extracted a sizeable chunk for themselves). Innes had little knowledge of all this until all the NME ‘Neil Innes To Sue Oasis’ headlines came out.

‘The Knicker Elastic King’ comes from Innes Book Of Records and was originally released on Off The Record.

To promote Archaeology ‘Shangri La’ was released as a single, coupled with a kicking rough performance of ‘It’s Looking Good’ and ‘Baby S’il Vous Plait’, a ‘French’ version of ‘Baby Let Me Be’.

The Bonzos once did a radio session, ostensibly to advertise their 1967 debut LP ‘Gorilla’, which was presented as ‘The Craig Torso Show’, Vivian Stanshall playing a particularly unctuous radio DJ of that name. At one stage an impromptu parlour game of Yes/No (where one is gonged for answering yes or no) breaks out to the tune of The Beatles’ ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. The session was released on an LP called ‘Unpeeled’ with the Beatles section surprisingly unsnipped. It’s possible that nobody’s noticed yet.

Eric Idle played a John Lennon figure in an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, claiming he was ‘starting a war for peace’.

An early National Lampoon LP (Radio Dinner, 1974) featured a brilliant parody of Rolling Stone-interview-era Lennon called ‘Magical Misery Tour’ (credited as coming from the LP ‘Yoko Is A Concept By Which We Measure Our Pain’). Lennon was played by Tony Hendra (‘Ian Faith’ in the film This Is Spinal Tap). The LP also had running jokes about the Paul Is Dead rumours (‘Clue Number One’ announces a voice before a backwards Liverpudlian voice murmurs ‘I’m Dead’), and an escalating reference to McCartney’s ‘Give Ireland Back To The Irish’ (a singer attempts to sing the song on several occasions throughout the LP, getting shot each time – predating Python’s ‘Never Be Rude To An Arab’). The LP also features a pre-Rutles banana label.

Smith and Jones did a great sketch in their 1987 series parodying the Sgt Pepper ‘Twenty Years Ago Today’ anniversaries. Phil Pope contributed some fantastic Beatle pastiches, including a track called ‘Delta Roger Uncle God Sugar’ which sent up the ‘Lucy In The Sky…’/LSD acronym allusions.

Oh shit. Well, look, we’ll do a bit of research and get back to you on this one. There’s definitely a whole LP called Rutles Highway Revisited which features 20 Rutles covers from various underground bands (including Bongwater, Dogbowl, Syd Straw, Galaxie 500 and Das Damen – info filched from Record Collector). Another cover which may or may not feature is the Pussywillows’ lovely version of ‘Hold My Hand’. And what was that other one – a flexidisc EP with some other girly group doing ‘I Must Be In Love’ credited as ‘A Hard Day’s Rut’? The Melons, that was it. On transparent vinyl. Lovely.

The Rutles – All You Need Is Cash video has boasted a number of amusing cover changes over the years. The original release parodied the Beatles biopic The Compleat Beatles (and as such had to be withdrawn and replaced with a photo of the Rutles in ‘Life magazine’ mode). An early 90s release featured a great photo of The Rutles in Sgt Rutter mode. The current release displays a wonky screengrab of the ‘Hard Days Rut’ LP cover. Odd that they chose to do this rather than reprint the glorious (LP-sized) picture of the design which features in the original Warner Bros LP booklet. Still, what can you say?