As I mentioned earlier in my blog, I don’t own any Beatles CDs. I sold them at some point and like most objects I held dear, I have no idea what I did with the money. I probably used the money to buy some Warren Ellis comics that I sold to get a burger and a beer at Shay’s in Harvard Square…. mmm. Commercialism can be delicious.
Recently, I got some bootlegs of Beatles albums and in-studio noodling (Memo, if you read this, just ask and I’ll send them to you) and was struck at what I found. What began as a commercially-polished quartet quickly turned into one of the most powerful tools in music.
In one song I could clearly hear Dylan’s ‘I Want You,’ Leonard Cohen and even Serge Gainsboro. It wasn’t that the Beatles, Dylan, Cohen or Gainsboro had ripped each other off, but that they were in tune with same thing. Listening to the Beatles’ songs evolve on the recordings, it’s stunning to hear the power and skill at their disposal.
The studio recordings for the White Album are full of strange moments that began as jokes to kill time and developed into full blown songs. And though these songs are great, they were ultimately rejected by the studio. And they just shrugged it off and produced more music like it was nothing, each one still being heard today in one form or another. The only difference is that whereas the songs originally moved their listeners to joy, they are now moved to buy things.
And man, does it work… I’m not saying anything new here, but the Beatles could sell water to a fish.
In 1978, a documentary was made of the Beatles-like group, the Rutles by Monty Python’s Eric Idle and co-songwriter Neil Innes. Featuring 21 songs, the documentary originally was shown in snippets on Saturday Night Live in 77/78 back when producer Lorne Michaels was more than happy to welcome funny men from over the pond in the UK.
The gags of the Beatles story are easy to spot (such as the Rutles being tea-totalers rather than experiment with pot as the Beatles had, the animated film is titled ‘Yellow Submarine Sandwich,‘ etc) and they are played well, but the songwriting is the real treat.
Innes and Idle tapped into the same something that fueled the Beatles back in the day… somehow… and rather than just through spoofy jokes on songs back, they developed fully formed jokes in song format. Look at the lyrics to an early Rutles tune, “Goose-Step Mama” when they were playing in Germany:
“Goose-step mama with your rock ‘n roll
Goose-step mama with your heart of gold
You don’t like to see men suffer
Love is tough but life is tougher”
The strength and influence of the Beatles can be felt even through the parody of their work. I missed the opportunity to see Innes and Idle play at the Middle East club years back, but it must have been something. The two song smiths found a way to just dip into the pool of ideas that the Beatles fished from and giddily pull out songs.
I’m not saying that the Rutles songs are anything more than jokes, but they easily take components from Beatles standards and twist them slightly into totally absurd creations. It’s fascinating to watch.
Here is a series of clips from the Rutles documentary
Like I said, I’m not saying anything new here. Writings on the influence of the Beatles have probably filled more books than the Internet could house. But I still wanted to share my experience.
For more, I recommend looking for The Rutles – All You Need Is Cash
