Farewell to a member of the Fab Two
Overnight came the sad news of the death of Neil Innes – a talented musician, humourist, former stalwart of the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band, Monty Python collaborator and all round good egg – at the age of 75.
One way or another, had the cards fallen his way, he could easily have become one of the giants of the British music scene of the 1960s to 1990s but as it happened he ‘did a bit of this and a bit of that’, never took himself too seriously and – respected and admired by many who achieved greater success – ploughed his own furrow and in the process contributed a great deal to making British popular music the force it has been ever since.
Simply because of my age and personal leanings, for me (and I suspect not a few others) his greatest achievement will always remain his partnership with Eric Idle on All You Need Is Cash (1976) – the ‘mockumentary’ television film about the fictitious band The Rutles – parodying the career of The Beatles – in which George Harrison himself appeared and for which Innes wrote 20 brilliant pastiches of the Beatles’ output at different stages of their – with hindsight – all-too-brief (1962-1970) stellar career together.
In it – parodying Paul McCartney – Idle played the part of Dirk McQuickly and – doing the same for John Lennon – Innes took centre stage as Ron Nasty.
Arguably, without Innes’ musical contribution the project would never have made it to first base, never mind enjoyed the enduring success it did.
Today in tribute I am doing no more that posting a couple of links of extracts from the film – courtesy of YouTube:
Firstly, those around at the time – especially we who watched it ‘live’ – one of the great moments of 1960s British television was the Beatles’ appearance, not long after the era of Beatlemania began, in front of the Queen on the Royal Variety Performance on 4th November 1963.
Here is the Rutles’ version – WITH A GIRL LIKE YOU
Secondly, again a fond memory for those of us old enough to have seen it relatively soon afterwards, towards the end of their career (1969/1970) – as the Beatles were disintegrating as a band during the making of the albums Let It Be and Abbey Road – which for reasons too complicated to mention here were actually released in reverse chronological order – on 30th January 1969 they played a now legendary impromptu last-ever ‘live’ concert.
Filmed and then featured in the documentary that that accompanied the release of the Let It Be album, it took place on the roof of their company Apple Corps’ offices at 3 Saville Row in London to the bemusement of the passers-by (and then growing crowd) below, most of whom were on their lunch breaks from work. Supported by American musician Billy Preston on keyboards, they performed takes of five songs – the most well-known being Get Back – before police intervention halted proceedings after 42 minutes.
Here is the Rutles’ version – GET UP AND GO
