The Rutles Archaeology
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| The Rutles Archaeology | |||||||||||
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| Studio album by The Rutles | |||||||||||
| Released | 1996 | ||||||||||
| Genre | Comedy | ||||||||||
| Label | EMI | ||||||||||
| Professional reviews | |||||||||||
| The Rutles chronology | |||||||||||
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The Rutles Archaeology is an album by the comedy band The Rutles. Like their previous release, the album contains pastiches of Beatles' songs.
Three of the four musicians who had created the soundtrack for the 1978 film — Innes, Halsey and Fataar — reunited in 1996 and recorded a second album, Archaeology, an affectionate send-up of The Beatles Anthology albums. The fourth 'real' Rutle, Ollie Halsall, died in Spain in 1992. Eric Idle was invited to participate, but declined.
Like the Anthology project that it lampooned, it featured tracks ostensibly from all periods of the Rutles career, sequenced to reflect the fictional band's chronology. (Several of the songs were actually old Innes standards that were dusted off and masterfully given the 'Rutle' treatment.) The reunion was blessed by George Harrison who encouraged The Pre-Fab Four to proceed. (When approached, he told Innes, 'Sure. It's all part of the "soup"...', an encounter that Innes related in interviews in 1996.)
The reunion was triggered by Innes' appearance at the Los Angeles festival "Monty Python: Lust For Glory!", celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Monty Python troupe produced by Martin Lewis for the American Cinematheque. Innes performed two sold-out gigs at L.A.'s Troubadour Club under the name "Ron Nasty & The New Rutles", using a local tribute Beatles band as the notional backing band that a sole member of a defunct vintage band hires in such circumstance. (A previous example is "Eric Burdon & The New Animals", a band name used by Burdon in 1968 to take advantage of the public's familiarity with the brand name of The Animals, even though there were no other members of the original Animals in the line-up.)
Following the success of the shows, Lewis and Innes collaborated on the project that became Archaeology.
Contents |
[edit] Tracklisting
- "Major Happy's Up-And-Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band" - 2:19
- Parody based on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
- "Rendezvous" - 2:06
- Parody based on "With a Little Help from My Friends"
- "Questionnaire" - 2:41
- Parody based on "The Fool on the Hill"
- "We've Arrived! (And To Prove It We're Here)" - 2:09 (recorded in 1978 with Halsall)
- Parody based on "Back in the U.S.S.R."
- "Lonely-Phobia" - 2:35
- Parody based on "Things We've Said Today"
- "Unfinished Words" - 2:08 (backing track was recorded in 1978 with Halsall; new vocals)
- Parody based on "While my guitar gently weeps"
- "Hey Mister!" - 3:18
- Parody based on "Helter Skelter"
- "Easy Listening" - 2:09
- Parody based on "Don't pass me by"
- "Now She's Left You" - 2:03 (recorded in 1978 with Halsall)
- Parody based on "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" and "I don't want to spoil the party"
- "The Knicker Elastic King" - 2:39
- Parody based on "Getting Better"
- "I Love You" - 2:18
- Parody based on "'Til There Was You"
- "Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik" - 4:24
- Parody based on "Come together"
- "Joe Public" - 4:03
- Parody based on "Tomorrow Never Knows"
- "Shangri-La" - 7:43
- Parody based on "A day in the life", "Penny Lane", "Being for the benefiet of Mr.Kite!", and "Hey Jude"
- "Don't Know Why" - 3:44
- Parody based on "Across the Universe"
- "Back In '64" - 3:14
- Parody based on "When I'm Sixty-four"
All songs were credited solely to Neil Innes.
The Japanese release of Archaeology includes 4 bonus tracks: "Lullaby", "Baby S'il Vous Plait", "It's Looking Good" (rehearsal), and "My Little Ukulele". "Baby S'il Vous Plait" and "It's Looking Good" were also issued (along with the LP version of "Joe Public") on a UK CD single and 10" of "Shangri-La."
"Baby S'il Vous Plait" was a crude French-language version of an earlier Rutles song "Baby Let Me Be", from the 1978 soundtrack. The song was recorded as a pastiche of the Beatles' two German-language recordings of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - with suitably poor translation and even poorer foreign accents.
On February 19, 2007, EMI Gold (UK) released a budget reissue of Archaeology with new cover artwork and five bonus tracks: The aforementioned "Lullaby," "My Little Ukelele," and "Baby S'il Vous Plait" surfaced again, and two previously unreleased numbers - "Under My Skin" and "Rut-A-Lot" (the latter rumored to be a jab at Idle's recently successful "Spamalot") - made their first appearances.
[edit] "ARCHAEOLOGY" - Alternate Versions & Re-Issues
"Archaeology" / Virgin Records America / Vinyl L.P. / U.K. only release / 7243-8-42200-1-3-VUSLP 119
(Same material as: "Archaeology"/ Virgin Records America/ C.D. / U.K./U.S.Release / 7243-8-42200-2-0)
Side 1: "Major Happy's Up & Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band","Rendezvous","Questionnaire","We've Arrived ( And To Prove It We're Here!)","Lonely-phobia", "Unfinished Words","Hey Mister!","Easy Listening","Now She's Left You","The Knicker Elastic King"
Side 2: "I Love You","Eine Kliene Middle Klasse Music","Joe Public","Shangri-La","Don't Know Why","Back In 64"
- Vinyl album contains same 16 tracks as the C.D. release.
- Vinyl contains inner sleeve with 2 Rutles photos and album credits,but no lyrics.
- C.D. contains booklet with photos and lyrics.
- Label photo of The Rutles asleep is a parody of the Elton John album "Sleeping With The Past"
- "We've Arrived","Now She's Left You","The Knicker Elastic King","Joe Public" & "Shangri-La" are all re-workings of older material by Neil Innes
- "We've Arrived" is the last Rutles track to contain performances by Ollie Halsall.
"Archaeology"/ Virgin Records / C.D. / Japanese Version / VJCP-25277
- Contains same 16 tracks as U.K. / U.S. release
- Contains four bonus tracks: "Lullaby","Baby S'il Vous Plait","It's Looking Good (Demo)","My Little Ukelele"
- Contains same booklet as U.K./U.S. release
- Contains supplemental lyric sheets in English & Japanese for all 20 tracks.( Only appearance.)
"Archaeology" / EMI Gold / 2007 / C.D. / U.K. only release / 0946-3-85349-2-1
- Contains original 16 tracks + "Lullaby","Baby S'il Vous Plait","My Little Ukelele" and the previously un-released "Under My Skin" & "Rut-A-Lot".
- Contains different booklet and artwork,with a condensed history of the Rutles.
- Contains no lyrics.
- "Under My Skin" is a cover version of Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin",sung with some questionably re-tooled lyrics!
( This song is accidentally credited to Neil Innes as sole writer! )
- "Rut-A-Lot"'s title is a parody of "Spamalot",where as the track is a "live" Rutles Medley.
[edit] "SHANGRI-LA" Single Releases ( 1996 )
10" Vinyl Single: "Shangri-La" /Virgin Records America / 7243-8-93929-0-6 VUSA117
Side A. "Shangri-La"
Side B. "Joe Public","Baby S'il Vous Plait","It's Looking Good ( Demo )"
- Neil Innes provides silly liner notes for "Baby S'il Vous Plait" & "It's Looking Good ( Demo )"
- Same material also released as a C.D. Single ( 7243-8-93929-2-0-VUSCD117 )
- "Shangri-La" was also released as a single song promotional C.D. ( 70876-11582-29-DPRO-11582 ) This version is titled "Shangri-La (Edit)" and runs at 4 minutes & 20 seconds.
