Add this guy to one of the greatest composers you never heard of.
Okay, that’s not exactly true, but Neil Innes was certainly the greatest satirical composer ever. Here’s just one example: Hold My Hand (The Rutles). Yes, that’s Monty Python’s Eric Idle on (McCartney-) bass, and Neil doing his John Lennon impersonation on vocals.
I’ve played song that to fanatical Beatle freaks, telling them that it was an undiscovered Beatles song which actually spawned Please Please Me, I Wanna Hold Your Hand and She Loves You — and not one ever called me on it. And then there’s Get Back Get Up And Go… and I Am The Walrus Piggy In The Middle. The list is endless.
Here’s Neil talking about The Rutles, and here’s the entire All You Need Is Cash TV show.
Let’s not even talk about Neil’s 1960s Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Urban Spaceman… which took aim at the drug culture before that became cool.
R.I.P. Neil Innes (1944-2019)
Yes, All You Need is Cash was brilliant. But it was almost such an on-the-nose “parody” that it seems to have crossed the line that separates parody from “tribute.”
I’ve never been a huge Beatles fan so I feel no shame in saying that IMHO “Ouch”, “Hold My Hand”, “Piggy in the Middle” and “Get Up And Go” are “parodies” that are better than the songs they are purportedly making fun of.