{"id":35521,"date":"2026-09-21T13:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35521"},"modified":"2026-09-21T13:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:43:41","slug":"a-rutles-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35521","title":{"rendered":"A Rutles Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eric Idle is working on a new Rutles project.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"353\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot_20260921-083513.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Idle on Twitter, saying that he will be announcing a new Rutles probject &quot;in due course&quot;\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35520\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My question is, <i>Why?<\/i>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/entertainment-arts-50948921\">Neil Innes died in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Eric, much as I enjoy <i>The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash<\/i> and seeing the trans-Atlantic collision of comedy talent of Python and <i>Saturday Night Live<\/i>, what has endured about the Rutles is <i>the music<\/i>. And the less said of the second Rutles film, <i>Can&#8217;t Buy Me Lunch<\/i>, the better; it was a creative misfire on every level.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"807\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot_20260920-124552.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35519\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Look, I know it&#8217;s important to you to claim the Rutles as your creation. But without Neil&#8217;s original song, &#8220;I Must Be in Love,&#8221; and the reaction the audience of <i>Saturday Night Live<\/i> had to it, there would be no Rutles. The Rutles did not spring <i>sui generis<\/i> from your mind. The names and the script may have come from you, but without with Neil there would be no Rutles.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"563\" src=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot_20260919-141202.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35518\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You have <i>far<\/i> more claim to the Rutles than Roy Thomas does to Wolverine, and I don&#8217;t think anyone would deny that the Rutles was a collaborative effort between yourself and Neil. Emphasis on the world &#8220;collaborative.&#8221; He wasn&#8217;t just an employee, and no one could have done what he did. You wrote a story. His music gave it <i>life<\/i>. Your own musical contribution, frankly, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=34626\">was more Python than Rutles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Neil is gone. Whatever Rutles revival you plan, without Neil, there is no point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eric Idle is working on a new Rutles project. My question is, Why? Neil Innes died in 2019. Eric, much as I enjoy The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash and seeing the trans-Atlantic collision of comedy talent of Python and Saturday Night Live, what has endured about the Rutles is the music. And the<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35521\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;A Rutles Revival&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[5477,4829,95,566],"class_list":["post-35521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-eric-idle-2","tag-monty-python-2","tag-neil-innes","tag-the-rutles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}