It's the Pre-Fab Four! The Rutles are easy to dismiss as a glorified Beatles parody-tribute band for those who only watched the TV movie or just read the liner notes. However, the "soundtrack" album is a display of the pure genius of Neil Innes (a.k.a. the Seventh Python) and his ability to not merely mimic, but mashup and rearrange the Beatles sound.
For the uninitiated, the Rutles were the brainchild of Monty Python alum Eric Idle and largely bankrolled through Saturday Night Live cash, resulting in a fairly tepid mockumentary (many years later followed by an even worse "sequel"). The movie Rutles had a discography that was a fairly straight parody of Beatles albums (e.g. A Hard Day's Rut, Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, and so forth). A little ho-hum to say the least. However the soundtrack Rutles (which omit Eric Idle and include veteran Ollie Halsall, though the mock credits of Nasty/McQuickly/O'Hara/Wom remained) deliver a series of songs that often cannot be pinned to one single Beatles song.
The strength of the album lies mainly in the beginning tracks. In fact, "Goose Step Mama", a ridiculous send-up of the Hamburg/Liverpool era Beatles frequently ended up on Beatles bootlegs. The best track of the entire album, "Hold My Hand" soon follows. Long before Love mashed up the original Beatles tracks, Neil Innes somehow managed to mash/parody the following in one track: "All My Loving" "She Love You" "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Eight Days a Week".
Many of the early tracks spin at least three different songs together. More direct parodies like "Get Up and Go" (for "Get Back") appear toward the end. A much later Rutles album, Archaeology, would more effectively tinker with the later Beatles sound and is a strongly recommended companion to this album. In fact, I got the two albums at the same time and it worked out pretty well!
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