Ollie Halsall & Neil Innes

[rcarlberg]

The Thunderclap Newman thread reminded me of these two great blokes, one still alive, both woefully underappreciated. Here are a couple samples, for no other reason than enjoyment.

[Steve F.]

"I've suffered for years for my art, and now it's your turn!" - Neil Innes

[Yodelgoat]

I wish Neil had produced more material. He was always very interesting and entertaining. The Bonzos were a total gem. are there other artists who did anything similar? I cant recall any.

[rcarlberg]

The Rutles

[StevegSr]

The Rutles

I believe Neil got a little banged up for plagiarizing from some obscure sixties band called the Beatles.

[happytheman]

I believe Neil got a little banged up for plagiarizing from some obscure sixties band called the Beatles.

George had no issue with it.. I believe Paul did.. Not sure I ever heard any comments from John or Ringo

[ThomasKDye]

George had no issue with it.. I believe Paul did.. Not sure I ever heard any comments from John or Ringo

John loved it so much he wouldn't let Eric Idle have the videotape back (it was sent to him for comments/approval).

Absolutely love this song:

[rcarlberg]

I believe Neil got a little banged up for plagiarizing from some obscure sixties band called the Beatles.

Apocryphal. There's some evidence the whole thing was made up as a publicity prank:

Following the release of the 1978 The Rutles album, ATV Music, the then-owner of the publishing rights to the Beatles catalogue, sued Innes for copyright infringement. Though Innes hired a musicologist to defend the originality of his songs,[11] he settled with ATV out of court for 50% of the royalties on the 14 songs included on the album.[12] As of early 2006, these six songs from the first Rutles CD (which were not on the original LP release, but some of which were included in the television film) are credited solely to Neil Innes: "Baby Let Me Be", "Between Us", "Blue Suede Schubert", "Get Up And Go", "Goose Step Mama", and "It's Looking Good".[13] The other 14 songs from the CD (all songs from the original LP release) have all had John Lennon and Paul McCartney added to the songwriting credits. However, the booklet accompanying a 2007 reissue of the album on Rhino/Warner Brothers credits all 20 songs solely to Innes, which is technically a violation of the settlement agreement.

Beatles fans however were not so savvy:

* Also of note: "Cheese & Onions"—the version heard on Saturday Night Live—made its way onto several Beatles bootleg albums, as an unreleased John Lennon demo. See: "Indian Rope Trick. The Echoes of a Dream" (side 2, track 5), for one.[10]
* "Get Up & Go" also appeared on a bootleg as an "Unreleased Beatles Track" on the album, "Tanks For the Mammaries".

[schlongasaurus]

George had a cameo in the All you need is cash mockumentary.

[StevegSr]

Apocryphal. There's some evidence the whole thing was made up as a publicity prank:Beatles fans however were not so savvy:

RC, a settlement out of court would not necessarily institute that authorship be amended to said songs, if I'm not mistaken.

[Mister Triscuits]

I'd never heard of Lennon and McCartney getting credit on those Rutles tracks and I didn't believe it, but the footnote in that Wiki article leads to Neil Innes's entry in the BMI database and it appears to be true. Pretty shocking, especially that McCartney presumably went along with it. Ironic, too, that "Get Up and Go" escaped the lawsuit thanks to Lennon's warning keeping it off the original soundtrack LP. Doubly ironic that Lennon noted a song that was too close to one of Paul's tunes but evidently didn't mind "Ouch!" being equally too close to one of his own.

[StevegSr]

I'd never heard of Lennon and McCartney getting credit on those Rutles tracks and I didn't believe it, but the footnote in that Wiki article leads to Neil Innes's entry in the BMI database and it appears to be true. Pretty shocking, especially that McCartney presumably went along with it. Ironic, too, that "Get Up and Go" escaped the lawsuit thanks to Lennon's warning keeping it off the original soundtrack LP. Doubly ironic that Lennon noted a song that was too close to one of Paul's tunes but evidently didn't mind "Ouch!" being equally too close to one of his own.

One must remember that it was the publishing company ATV, that supposedly took exception. Not the individual ex Beatles.

[rcarlberg]

"Supposedly" being the operant word. We have only Neil's word for it -- and by 2007 the shared writing credits were gone. Does anyone seriously think Paul would recant? Probably the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

[Progbear]

Probably my favourite Ollie Halsall guitar performance right here:



Let’s not forget the man’s facility for playing the vibes: