Making Of
Song By Song Details
Between Us
playLUNCH opens with Between Us, used as the analogue to The Beatles' Because for its rich harmonies.
I built a neighborhood of barking dogs, from The Rutles' Now She's Left You (actually the lead in to The Knicker Elastic King), in lieu of the bird sounds on Because (taken from the wildlife mix of Across The Universe).
Get Up And Go
playIn LOVE, Get Back is preceded by layering of the ending piano chord of A Day In The Life (played in reverse) and some of the backing vocalists from I Am The Walrus...a growing swell, interrupted by the opening chord from A Hard Day's Night. The guitar chord reverses upon itself and decays away as Ringo's The End drum carries through crowd noise and the orchestral freak-out of A Day In The Life, until the opening chords of Get Back begin. The frenzy is joined by guitar solos, also from The End, until everything crescendos on the beat as Paul McCartney starts to sing.
For LUNCH, I reversed and slowed down the strings at the end of Another Day, plus reversed harmonies from Now She's Left You. The ringing chord is from the end of Goose Step Mama. Then, in comes repeat chords from the end of The Knicker Elastic King, and isolated drums from the same song. These drums fill down onto the first beat of Get Up And Go and continue as they're joined by crowd noise (sourced from a recording of the Beatles live at the Hollywood Bowl) and the orchestral freak-out from the end of Cheese And Onions. The crescendo falls just as the vocals come in.
In LOVE, the orchestral freak-out returns just before Billy Preston's keyboard solo, and after that solo is an edit to remove Get Back's second verse and guitar solo. For LUNCH Get Up And Go has been edited to match and, where the orchestra rising in The Beatles' Get Back crescendos into Glass Onion, the orchestra crescendos into Unfinished Words
Unfinished Words
playUnfinished Words appears as a simpler, shorter piece than its LOVE counterpart.
In LOVE, Glass Onion is subtly enhanced with more swirls of orchestral chaos from A Day In The Life and backing vocalists from I Am The Walrus, plus fragments of vocal from Hello Goodbye, horns from Magical Mystery Tour and the piccolo trumpet solo in Penny Lane.
Here, Unfinished Words is enhanced with chunks of guitar from the end of Hey Mister, screams from Baby Let Me Be, backwards calliope from the instrumental bridge of Shangri-La, and the piccolo trumpet solo in Doubleback Alley.
When Glass Onion ends, on LOVE, its ending funeral march of strings is enhanced by spacey sound effects from Only A Northern Song.
For LUNCH, the strings are sourced from the bridge of The Knicker Elastic King and the ending of Don't Know Why, layered with the sound of the orchestra tuning up before Major Happy's Up-And-Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band. The spacey sound effects are heavily modified bits of intro guitar from With A Girl Like You.
Lonely Phobia
playThe strings and effects continue, joined by snippets of Lonely Phobia's chorus. Slowly a swell builds - a reversed version of the song's ending.
Eleanor Rigby, in LOVE, has a restructured opening that jumps through instrumental sections verse, chorus and ending refrain, before a vocal line leads into the first verse.
Lonely Phobia, likewise, is restructured so that we step through the song's solo section and a chorus before seamlessly rejoining the song at its first verse.
Now She's Left You (transition)
playAfter the end of Eleanor Rigby, some of the song's harmony vocals cascade away as some of the fingerpicked guitar from Julia is heard. The guitar continues over the sound of an ambulance and heavily effected sounds; slowly beneath this, ominous strings from A Day In The Life begin to swell.
For LUNCH, as snippets of Lonely Phobia fade away, a modified version of the fingerpicked intro to Let's Be Natural comes in. The guitar continues under the returning dog barking of Now She's Left You. After the dog is whipped, ominous strings from Cheese And Onions begin to swell.
Piggy In The Middle
playJust as LOVE's ominous strings give way to the intro of I Am The Walrus, with a chuckle from George Harrison and George Martin's count-in for the string section, LUNCH's strings lead into the intro for Piggy In The Middle, accompanied by laughter and count in taken from We've Arrived.
Hold My Hand
playI Am The Walrus and Piggy In The Middle both fade out into a sea of screaming fans.
On LOVE, I Want To Hold Your Hand is preceded by an introduction by DJs Bob Eubanks and Reb Foster (taken from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl on August 23, 1964).
For LUNCH, Hold My Hand's introduction comes from Eric Idle (sourced from the Eric Idle/Neil Innes album "The Rutland Weekend Songbook").
Just as I Want To Hold Your Hand is shortened, removing the second verse and chorus, Hold My Hand is condensed to remove its second verse, chorus and solo.
Goose Step Mama/It's Looking Good/Blue Suede Schubert
playFor LOVE, as the crowd decays, the opening riff of Drive My Car kicks off a mashup of that song, What You're Doing, and The Word. Drive My Car and What You're Doing are connected by the guitar solo from Taxman, which is enhanced with twinkles of Lucy In The Sky With Diamond's keyboard, and vocal harmonies lifted from Helter Skelter. The cowbell and tambourine from Drive My Car run consistently over the proceedings, accented by horns from Savoy Truffle.
LUNCH's mashup begins with the opening of Goose Step Mama, and merges that song with Blue Suede Schubert and It's Looking Good. Goose Step Mama and Blue Suede Schubert are joined by the guitar solo from Baby Let Me Be, with twinkles of keyboard from Good Times Roll, and vocal harmonies from Ouch!. The tambourine and shakers from It's Looking Good run consistently over the whole thing, accented by horns from Another Day.
LUNCH, just like LOVE, also features a transposed order for the last 2 song titles.
Ouch!
playOuch!, like Help! on the LOVE album, receives a straightforward presentation.
Another Day
playAnother Day is used as an analogue for Yesterday - a foundation of solo vocal and instrument, joined with strings (and horns on Another Day).
Nevertheless/Joe Public
playThe tracks where both projects began...
The LOVE version begins with the drone of a tambura taken from the "Yellow Submarine" score's Sea of Time. The drone is quickly joined by tape loop elements from Tomorrow Never Knows, along with that song's opening vocal verse (with added reverse echo) and tambourine. As soon as the verse lyric ends, Tomorrow Never Knows's distinctive drum pattern begins, and after 3½ measures, George Harrison's Within You Without You seamlessly slides in beneath it.
For LUNCH, the drone comes from Joe Public, joined by backward sped-up calliope sounds from Shangri-La and a line of Joe Public's lyric. As soon as the lyric ends, Joe Public's drum pattern begins, followed 4 measures later by Nevertheless.
Both songs feature a hard stop on the drum pattern, leaving the sung vocals accompanied by backward cymbals - LOVE's taken from Strawberry Fields Forever, LUNCH's are reversed shakers from Shangri-La.
At the close of both songs, the drones fade away under a sea of additional tape effects. LOVE also utilizes snippets of backward vocal from Rain, and backwards effects from the end of the "Yellow Submarine" score's Sea of Monsters; LUNCH uses more of Shangri-La's calliope, and snippets of orchestra from Joe Public. These continue into the opening of the next track...
Good Times Roll
playGood Times Roll is a perfect analog for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, and for both LUNCH and LOVE, the tracks begin with heavily effect-treated notes of keyboard from the songs' intros, taken out of time and out of sequence, sliding from side to side; first so distantly spaced that it's difficult to detect the melody, then closer and closer together until the pattern emerges.
As the intros take shape, they are joined sequentially by bass drum, bass, and vocal.
For LOVE, the song's chorus is overlaid by clavoline keyboard from Baby You're A Rich Man and horns from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. LUNCH uses pitched-up calliope and horns from Shangri-La.
At Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds's end on LOVE, a harmony vocal from Your Mother Should Know eases the switch as Lucy In The Sky's keyboard intro begins playing in reverse - the backward intro loops until a final piece of harmony vocal, taken from the end of Magical Mystery Tour's bridge, takes us into the next song.
When Good Times Roll ends on LUNCH, the keyboard intro also begins playing in reverse, until the closing harmony vocal of Ouch! takes us into the next song...
I Love You (transition)
playLUNCH's I Love You transition acts as an analogue to 2 LOVE tracks - Gnik Nus and The Inner Light transition - taking I Love You's solo, played back in reverse, and sandwiching it between a reversed and standard copies of the song's final chord.
Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik/Let's Be Natural
playCome Together/The Inner Light sees its equivalent on LUNCH with a fusion of Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Music and Let's Be Natural.
Questionnaire (transition)
playFor LUNCH, Questionnaire seemed the perfect transition into Hey Mister!, though it's a stylistic departure from LOVE's use of Cry Baby Cry.
Hey Mister!
playJust as Revolution graces LOVE with barely more than an enhanced mix, Hey Mister is presented without much modification other than enhanced distortion during the choruses.
We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)
playOn LOVE, on the same beat that Revolution ends, the drums for Back In The U.S.S.R. begin, joined shortly by the song's airplane sound effect, chugging guitar and bass.
When Hey Mister! ends, on LUNCH, We've Arrived begins on the same beat and chugs in under its airplane sound effect.
We've Arrived was a short rehearsal take when it appeared on "The Rutles Archaeology. For LUNCH it's been restructured through editing, giving it a more fleshed out and complete structure. Instead of trailing off as it does on "Archaeology", in a coda that parodies The Beatles' Flying, here the song uses the final harmony of Now She's Left You to end cleanly.
Cheese and Onions
playLOVE's A Day In The Life begins with a chunk of studio dialogue, instrument preparation, and John Lennon saying "sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy", all from take 1 of the song.
This is recreated on LUNCH using Neil Innes dialogue from an interview sequence in The Rutles' "All You Need Is Cash" film, piano played by Eric Idle (also from the film), footsteps from Now She's Left You, and Neil Innes saying "Barry's Mum" in the film.
From there, both A Day In The Life and Cheese And Onions play straight through in enhanced mixes.
Shangri-La
playOn LUNCH, Shangri-La functions as the equivalent of Hey Jude, and is treated in the same way, greatly shortened.
Shangri-La's opening musically quotes Neil Innes' earlier song How Sweet To Be An Idiot - on LUNCH, that is preceded by the actual piano introduction to How Sweet To Be An Idiot, and timed so its first line falls in time and in tune with Shangri-La's quotation.
The significant shortening of Shangri-La freed a later chunk of the song, which is used on LUNCH to replicate the singalong breakdown created for LOVE's version of Hey Jude.
Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band (reprise)
playTo best function as an analogue to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise), Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band is sped up and heavily edited to create its "reprise" version.
Where LOVE's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise) ends in a round chord, strengthened by a quick slice of crowd sound and orchestra from Hey Jude, Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band (reprise) uses its ending sequence of descending horns as a direct link into...
Love Life
playBoth LOVE's All You Need Is Love and LUNCH's Love Life play straight until the codas.
On LOVE, All You Need Is Love's "love is all you need" fadeout is augmented by a collage of samples from other songs: Ticket To Ride's riff, Baby You're A Rich Man, Rain and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
For LUNCH, Love Life's collage is composed of samples from: I Must Be In Love's riff, Joe Public, Living In Hope, Ouch!,Goose Step Mama, Baby Let Me Be, and Doubleback Alley.
LOVE closes with All You Need Is Love fading into strings from Good Night and dialogue from The Beatles' 1965 and 1966 fan club Christmas albums.
LUNCH concludes with Love Life fading into the final verse of Back In '64. Back In '64 is augmented by strings from Questionnaire, and Neil Innes and Eric Idle dialogue from The Rutles film.