The Rutles - Past Masters - Volume Two (1969)

For this second volume of 'Past Masters' from The Rutles, we've once again raided the back catalogues of The Flames, Neil Innes, GRIMMS, Timebox and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band for 'singles and b-sides' that didn't appear on their albums. The Flames contributed some tracks that actually were from 1965 and 1966, and Neil Innes filled in the gaps from the later years. I'd already used every contemporary song from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but in a recent post of theirs I unearthed a recording that they'd made for a radio session which actually fitted on here quite well, and so by adding that, plus the one suitable unused song from GRIMMS and two from Timebox, we now have a second volume of rarities from the Pre-fab Four, which finally completes their discography.

Track listing

01 Blue Colour (b-side of 'Hold My Hand' 1963) 

02 Bring Back The Time (single 1963) 

03 Stop, Look And Listen (b-side of 'Ouch!' 1964) 

04 Tell It Like It Is (b-side of 'Between Us' 1965)  

05 Busy Day (b-side of 'Nevertheless' 1966)  

06 Lost (single 1966)  
07 You've Got The Chance (b-side of 'Piggy In The Middle' 1967) 
08 Stoned On Rock (single 1967) 
09 We're Gonna Bring It On Home (b-side of 'Good Times Roll' 1967)
10 Feel No Shame (b-side of 'Hey Mister!' 1968)  
11 Black Dog (b-side of 'Get Up And Go' 1969) 
12 City Of The Angels (b-side of 'Easy Listening' 1969)    
13 Oo-Chuck-A-Mao-Mao (b-side of '9-5 Pollution Blues' 1969) 
14 Rock Of Ages (single 1969) 
 
PERFORMERS
 
*The Flames - 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 
*Neil Innes - 5, 8, 10, 12, 14
*The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - 9
*Timebox - 7, 11
*GRIMMS - 13

The Rutles - Past Masters - Volume One (1969)

I thought I'd finished my series of Rutles albums, but I kept getting requests for more of them, with a 'Past Masters' set being mentioned more than once. I couldn't really see how that would be possible, as the original 'Past Masters' albums were a mopping-up exercise of all the non-album singles, b-sides and rarities from the Beatles catalogue, and we've never really considered The Rutles as a singles band, so there wouldn't be any 'non-album' songs to use. But bearing in mind that this is a fantasy project, we can ignore those rules, and so what we need to find are any songs from The Flames, Neil Innes, The World, GRIMMS, Timebox, or The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band that haven't already been used in the main discography. Obviously there can be no actual Rutles songs as we've already used every single thing they ever recorded, but after a bit of research I did manage to find just enough songs that sounded like they covered the period from 1963 to 1969, and could have been singles and b-sides for the band. The chronology is purely subjective, as I just listened to the song and tried to imagine when it could have been released in this alternative universe, so The Flames actual songs from 1965 and 1966 were easy, and the rest just slotted in as I felt fit, with Innes himself contributing four tracks, and there being just one each from Timebox and The World, as I'd already stripped their catalogue for suitable songs for the albums. So this, and you'll be pleased to know, a second volume later, will have to be the final Rutles albums that I will post.

Track listing 

01 A Place In The Sun (b-side of 'Number One' 1963)
02 Love's Made A Fool Of You (single 1964)
03 When Something's Wrong With My Baby (b-side 'Now She's Left You' 1964)
04 Nobody (single 1965)
05 Ummm Oh Yeah (b-side of 'I Must Be In Love' 1965)
06 Not Getting Any Younger (b-side of 'It's Looking Good' 1966)
07 Don't Make Your Children Pay (single 1966)
08 Another Day Like Heaven (b-side of 'Doubleback Alley' 1967)
09 Dreams Shine Through (b-side of 'Love Life' 1967)
10 Lead Us (b-side of 'Living In Hope' 1968)
11 Here We Go Again (b-side of 'Let's Be Natural' 1968)
12 Barnabus Swain (b-side of 'Another Day' 1968)
13 9-5 Pollution Blues (single 1969)
     

PERFORMERS

*The Flames - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
*Neil Innes - 6, 9, 11, 13
*The World - 10
*Timebox - 12

The Rutles - The Shite Album (2017)

Now that we've worked our way all the way back to the start of the band's career, I just need to mop up with a couple of albums from later on that should have appeared as the start of the series. At the time I didn't realise it was going to take off quite as well as it did, and so I was posting random albums in no particular order, so this is the classic 'The Shite Album' and being a double, it contains a wealth of great songs. I've had to make a few substitutions as usual, and so the track listing posted on the Rutles Wiki page is now missing 'Under My Skin', 'Protest Song', 'Monkey On My Back', 'The Blackest Of Blues', and 'Tubas In The Moonlight', as they've all appeared on previous posts, and I just didn't think 'Hard Times' was up to the quality of the other stuff on here, so I dropped that as well. I hope I've picked some suitable replacements, and I'm particularly pleased that I remembered Vivian Stansall's brilliant 'Labio Dental Fricative' / 'Paper-Round' single, arranged by Neil Innes, as it features guitar from Eric Clapton on both tracks, and so mirrors his contribution to 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' on the original album. 'Sugar Cube 1967' was suggested by TheLazenby, and I hadn't heard it before but it acts nicely as the 'Savoy Truffle' of this set. 'Evolution Number Ten' comes from the band's new 'The Wheat Album', but fits on here perfectly. There is a cover for this on the net, but I've made my own as I wanted to try to get the title to look as though it was embossed onto the sleeve.    

Track listing

Disc One

SIDE ONE
01 We've Arrived! (And To Prove It We're Here) 
02 Let's Be Natural 
03 Unfinished Words 
04 Mr. Eurovision Song Contest Man 
05 My Little Ukelele
06 Hey Mister!
07 Jollity Farm
08 Dream On
09 I Give Myself To You

SIDE TWO
10 Another Day
11 Bad Blood
12 Rutleution 2
13 Living In Hope
14 How's Your Father    
15 Labio Dental Fricative
16 Mother  


Disc Two

SIDE ONE
01 Sausages  
02 Short Blues  
03 Quiet Talks & Summer Walks 
04 Don't Know Why 
05 We Are Normal  
06 Highs And Lows 

SIDE TWO
07 Paper-Round
08 Tent
09 Sugar Cube 1967
10 11 Mustachioed Daughters
11 Godfrey Daniel
12 Evolution Number Ten
13 Scarlet Ribbons


PERFORMERS

Disc One

* The Rutles - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13
* Nel Innes - 4, 8, 9, 16
* Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 7, 11
* Patto - 14
* Vivian Stanshall/Neil Innes - 15

Disc Two

* The Rutles - 4, 12 
* The Flames - 6
* Neil Innes - 11
* Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 3, 5, 8, 10, 13 
* Patto - 1, 9
* Vivian Stanshall/Neil Innes - 7
* GRIMMS - 2

The Rutles - Please Rut Me (2017)

We've reached the beginning of the band's career now, with 'Please Rut Me'. A couple of substitutions of this one, as 'Recycled Vinyl Blues' and 'Now She's Left You' have both already appeared on 'Rutles For Sale'. I've also made a slight change to the cover to be more relevant to the track listing than the one to be found on the Rutles Wiki page.

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Goose-Step Mama 
02 Stay There
03 You Better Move On 
04 Is It You? 
05 Boys 
06 Another Lonely Man 
07 Please Rut Me

SIDE TWO
08 Monkey On My Back
09 Like Strangers 
10 Don't Play That Song  
11 Modern Casanova 
12 Gone  
13 Under My Skin 
14 Number One  

PERFORMERS

* The Rutles - 01, 07, 13, 14
* The Flame(s) - 03, 04, 05, 09, 10, 11, 12
* Neil Innes - 06
* Ollie Halsall - 08
* Timebox - 02

The Rutles - Rut Sounds (2017)

Not much to say about this one, other than the official press release from the band's press office. Glad to finally post this, as it includes some great songs like 'Immortal Invisible', 'Useless Illusion', and 'Down That Road'.
'Rut Sounds' is a 1966 album recorded by The Rutles. It was originally going to be an album by Les Garçons de la Plage (under the name "Pot Sounds"), but after their sudden breakup, Leggy Mountbatten decided to let the Rutles record it instead. This album has gone on to be considered one of the greatest albums of all time, second only to 'Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band'. Originally, the album was part of the US discography, but it was later added to the UK discography when The Rutles albums were first released on CD. 
There is an alternative cover around, but the picture of the band on donkeys was quite low-res, so I grabbed this screenshot from the 'All You Need Is Cash' film as I felt it fitted better with the vibe of the album, and I changed the font to resemble it's parent album.

Original cover

Track Listing

SIDE ONE

01 See The Light
02 Love Has Got Me 
03 Useless Illusions
04 Lie Down And Be Counted
05 Let's Go Away For Some Wine 
06 Etcetera

SIDE TWO 
07 Early Morning Train 
08 Immortal Invisible
09 Sometimes It Happens 
10 God Is Love 
11 Rut Sounds
12 Down That Road 

PERFORMERS

*The Flames - 01, 03, 08
*Neil Innes - 04, 06, 10, 12
*Timebox - 02
*Ollie Halsall - 05, 11
*Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 07
*Brian Patten - 09

The Rutles - Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band (2017)

I guess it's only logical to post this one next, as it's probably the one most fans would want to hear how it turned out. Pretty well, as it happens, with another good selection of songs from the various member's careers, so without further ado, here it is.

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band
02 Rendezvous
03 Good Times Roll
04 The Knicker Elastic King
05 Equestrian Statue
06 She's Leaving Home
07 Being For The Benefit Of Mankind!

SIDE TWO
08 Solitude
09 Back In Sixty-Four
10 Rockaliser Baby
11 Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band (Reprise)
12 Cheese And Onions

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 01, 02, 03, 04, 09, 11, 12
* The Flame(s) - 08
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 05, 07, 10
* GRIMMS - 06

The Rutles - Tragical History Tour (2017)

It's time for your mid-week Rutles treat, and this time it's the 'Tragical History Tour' album, containing another great batch of psychedelic-style Beatles pastiches. This one has some of my favourite Rutles songs in 'Doubleback Alley', 'Piggy In The Middle' and 'Love Life'.

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Shangri La
02 Questionnaire
03 Lying
04 Purple Haze
05 Piggy Bank Love

SIDE TWO
06 Piggy In The Middle
07 Raggy Dolls
08 Montana Cafe
09 Doubleback Alley
10 What Do You Do
11 Love Life

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 01, 02, 03, 06, 09, 11
* The Flame(s) - 04
* Neil Innes - 07, 08
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 05, 10

And no, I don't know what 'Purple Haze' is doing on there!

The Rutles - Semi-Automatic (2017)

We stick with late 60's pop/psyche for the next Rutles album, with it's strange title (who on earth would name their album after a gun?!), and including the fab 'Nevertheless' - always a favourite.

Track listing

SIDE ONE

01 Promises

02 Time To Kill

03 My New School

04 Nevertheless

05 Now You're Asleep

06 Ging Gang Goolie

07 Get Your Mind Made Up

SIDE TWO

08 Gone Is The Sad Man

09 Make It Easy

10 Readymades

11 Poor Little Heartbreaker
12 Tree House
13 Knock On Wood
14 Joe Public

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 04, 14
* The Flame(s) - 07, 09, 13
* Neil Innes - 02, 03
* Timebox - 01, 08, 11, 12
* Dirk & Stig (Fataar/Idle) - 06
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 05, 10

The Rutles - Ouch! (2017)

This week's post was going to be the last one in the series, as I'd exhausted the ones that I'd found on Youtube, and had used the couple that I'd made up myself based on track listings by TheLazenby and Rutles' Vinyls, and so I thought that was enough. However, after seeing how well-received the series has been I decided to see it through to the end, and so have now completed the whole discography. Working backwards, the next album released by the Pre-Fab Four was 'Ouch!', and now that we are getting towards the end of the series I've noticed that a few duplications of songs were starting to creep in, so where the same song is on two albums quite close together I've made a substitution, and I hope the compilers don't mind. Just a couple on here, as 'Now She's Left You' is also on 'Rutles For Sale' (next week's post), and 'Time To Kill' was on 'Semi-Automatic'. As 'I Must Be In Love' will appear on 'A Hard Day's Rut' in a few weeks I've used a 'live' version for this album.
After I posted this, TheLazenby made a good point, that when he compiled 'Rutle Sole' he included 'I'm Looking Good' as the equivalent of 'I'm Looking Through You' from the actual 'Rubber Soul', and bearing in mind that by substituting all the duplicated songs on 'Rutle Sole' we actually ended up with a Rutles album without a single song from the band themselves, I'm more than happy to reinstate it into its rightful place. I've just moved 'Summertime Kids' from 'Rutle Sole' to 'Ouch!', and this is what the new track listing looks like for that one.

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Ouch!  
02 Summertime Kids 
03 I Want To Be With You 
04 If You Need Me 
05 Baby Let Me Be 
06 Things You Don't Forget
07 I Can't Help Myself

SIDE TWO  
08 Act Naturally 
09 Tubas In The Moonlight 
10 That's Enough 
11 I Must Be In Love (live)
12 Mr. Sheene  
13 L'amour Perdu  

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 01, 05, 08, 11
* The Flame(s) - 04, 06, 07, 10
* Neil Innes - 13
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 03, 09
* Dirk & Stig (Fataar/Idle) - 12
* Ollie Halsall 02

'Act Naturally' is a rehearsal take featuring Neil Innes and John Halsey.

The Rutles - Rutles For Sale (2017)

More great 60's-style pop from the inimitable Rutles. Just a couple of changes on this album, as I've replaced 'I'm Talking About You' as it's already on 'A Hard Day's Rut' (next week's post), as is 'Between Us'. I've actually run out of suitable songs to substitute, so as this album was already well over 40 minutes long then the best option was to just remove 'Between Us'.

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 No Reply  
02 Protest Song  
03 For Your Precious Love  
04 Pretty Woman 
05 Steppin' Out   
06 Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues  

SIDE TWO
07 Eight Days A Week 
08 Glory Of Love  
09 Don't Ask Me What I Say  
10 White Cliffs Of Dover 
11 Now She's Left You 
12 Travelling Show
13 Hey Hey, Little Girl 

PERFORMERS

* The Rutles - 11
* The Flame(s) - 01, 03, 04, 07, 08, 09, 10
* Neil Innes - 02, 06
* Ollie Halsall - 05, 12, 13

The Rutles - Rutle Sole (2017)

TheLazenby recently asked me if I was going to re-post some of the earlier albums and substitute songs which have already appeared on other albums, as I have done on recent posts, and I originally said that I wouldn't be doing that, as there weren't that many and I'd run out of suitable songs to use, so I'd just leave them as they were. But as I was finalising one last album I discovered that in fact all of the duplications were on just one post, so if I added a few substitutions to 'Rutle Sole' then every album would have a unique track listing, so that was definitely worth doing. It helped that I'd also discovered a new batch of Neil Innes and Ollie Halsall songs that I could use, and so here is 'Rutle Sole' with four substitutions, meaning that there should no longer be any albums with the same song on them. If there are then I've missed it, so please let me know.  

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Yellow Van
02 If You Think You're Groovy 
03 You Done My Brain In 
04 Singing A Song Is Easy
05 Restless
06 Love The Girl 
07 Randy Raquel

SIDE TWO
08 Boring 
09 Lady 
10 Song For Yvonne 
11 See Me Back
12 This Love Of Ours
13 Fresh Wound 
14 It's Looking Good

PERFORMERS

* The Rutles 14
* Timebox - 01
* The Flame(s) - 02, 05, 06, 09, 11
* Neil Innes - 04, 07, 08, 10, 12
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 03, 13

The Rutles - A Hard Day's Rut (2017)

This is the soundtrack album to The Rutles first foray onto the big screen in 'A Hard Day's Rut'. The original track listing included 'High School Hermit' by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but this was never properly recorded by the group, and is only available on a live TV broadcast, with the quality somewhat letting it down compared to the other tracks on the album, and so I was reluctant to include it. However, I have downloaded it and carried out a couple of (I hope) subtle edits to remove the comedy sketch in the middle, and it's included as a bonus if you want to add it back into your own copy. 'Fresh Wound' and 'I Want To Be With You', both by the Bonzos, are already on 'Rutle Sole' and 'Ouch!', so have been substituted. 

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 I Must Be In Love  
02 Lovers Leaping
03 With A Girl Like You  
04 Between Us  
05 I Love You 
06 I'm So Happy

SIDE TWO
07 I'm Talking About You 
08 Boring 
09 Lonely-Phobia 
10 See Me Back 
11 One Of These Days 
12 Nobody

Bonus track
13 High School Hermit

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 01, 03, 04, 05, 09,
* The Flame(s) - 06, 07, 10, 11, 12
* Neil Innes - 08
* Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 13
* Ollie Halsall - 02 

The Rutles - Shabby Road (2017)

I was in two minds whether to post this one, but I thought I would anyway and see what sort of reaction I got to it.
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled on some Youtube videos where fans of the Pre-Fab Four - Ron Nasty, Dirk McQuickly, Stig O'Hara, and Barry Wom - had pieced together actual 'records' of the ones mentioned in the classic 'All You Need Is Cash' film, such as 'Ouch', 'Sgt. Rutters Only Darts Club Band', 'Let It Rot', and 'Semi-Automatic' (work it out). I grabbed them to see what they were like, and they were all surprisingly good, so I managed to piece together the ones which weren't posted using track listings that I found on the Rutles Wiki page  http://rutlesriki.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rutles_ discography, and I can post them all if this one proves popular. As The Rutles didn't record that many songs themselves, these fans have taken music from any band in which the individual members were involved in real life, so there are contributions from Neil Innes solo, as well as with The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, GRIMMS, The World, and Brian Patten, Ricky Fataar with The Flames and The Beach Boys, John Halsey and Ollie Halsall with Timebox, Boxer, and Patto, and also one small piece from Eric Idle. They then looked for songs which resembled those from the actual Beatles albums and put them together, resulting in some intriguing combinations. I'm posting 'Shabby Road' first as it think it works really well, with the superb 'No Reply (She's Too Heavy)' on "side one" and the lovely medley of shorter songs on "side two", just like the album that it's parodying. 

Track listing

SIDE ONE
01 Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
02 Don't Worry, BIll
03 Say Sorry Again
04 If You Need Me
05 Easy Listening
06 No Reply (She's Too Heavy)

SIDE TWO
07 Here Comes The Sun (Live)
08 Dove
09 Sail Away
10 Postcard
11 Angelina
12 Hexachlorophene Sham
13 Not The First Time
14 Now You're Asleep
15 Plenty Of Time
16 Lullaby

PERFORMERS
* The Rutles - 01, 05, 16
* The Flame(s) - 02, 04, 08
* Neil Innes - 03
* Boxer - 06
* The Beatles [Moog hiss sample] - 06
* Eric Idle - 07
* The World - 09, 11, 13
* The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - 10, 12, 14
* GRIMMS - 15

The Man In The Magenta Wig, a.k.a. TheLazenby has put a lot of work into these, and inspired other to follow in his steps, and so thanks to them all. If this one proves popular then I can post more, although I think I'm going to anyway whether you like it or not!