While I’d known about Eric Idle’s pseudo-Rutles song, “Ging Gang Goolie,” for years, I’d never heard it until last night.
It’s an old Boy Scouts nonsense song, performed by “Dick & Stig” — ie., Eric Idle and Ricky Fataar, as Idle played Dirk McQuickly and Fataar played Stig O’Hara in Idle’s The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash. But while Fataar performed musically as Stig for the comedy special and the soundtrack album, Ollie Halsall performed musically as Dirk, with Idle miming to Halsall’s musical performance on screen.
Hence, my terming the song “pseudo-Rutles.” Idle sounds like Idle, not like Dirk, and it’s novelty song, not a pastiche. Even the video feels more Monty Python sketch than Beatles promo film. I feel like Neil Innes would have had notes.
Still, it’s catchy and fun, and I like the steel drum sound. The video was apparently shot at Tittenhurst Park, which was owned by Ringo Starr at the time.
Paul McCartney’s brother, Mike McGear, recorded his own version of the song a decade earlier with his comedy band, The Scaffold, with the verse lyrics.
It’s fun in a different way. I like both, though my preference is for the Dirk & Stig version.
And I find myself wondering what a Bonzo Dog version would have sounded like. Viv Stanshall would have been madder than a box of hatters!