Rutolver

**Rutolver** is an unfinished album by the Rutles is an unfinished album by the Rutles that was planned to follow their 5th studio album, Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band. It was to be a twelve-track concept album assembled from short, interchangeable musical fragments similar to the group's 1967 single "Let's Be Natural". Instead, the group released the the Shite Album, containing stripped-down remakes of some Rutolver material along with the later 1967 singles such as "Love Live" and "Piggy in the Middle". Over the next four decades, few of the original Rutolver tracks were officially released, and the project came to be regarded as the most "legendary" unreleased album in the history of popular music.

In 2016, The Rutolver Sessions was released containing an approximation of what the original Rutolver might have sounded like. It received universal acclaim.

The Rutles' album Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band, issued on June 1967, was massively influential upon its release, containing lush and sophisticated orchestral arrangements that raised the band's prestige as rock innovators. Throughout the mid 1960s, Dirk and Ron were in the process of expanding his social circle to include a mix of worldly-minded friends, musicians, mystics, and business advisers from the developing Los Angeles "hip" scene. They also took an increasing interest in recreational food (particularly Tea).

Ron and Dirk prepared for the writing and recording of Rutolver by purchasing about two thousand dollars' worth of Tea. Between April and September 1967, Dirk and Ron spent many "all night sessions" co-writing a number of songs in the sandbox, including "Testing, One Two", "L'Amour Perdu", "Bad Blood", "Sausages" and "Godfrey Daniel". Stig O'Hara said that this was because the group was focusing on spirituality and "the concept of spreading goodwill, good thoughts and happiness".

Ron envisioned Rutolver as an outlet for all of his intellectual occupations. Music journalist Jules Siegel famously recalled that, during one evening in October, Ron announced to his wife and friends that he was "writing a teenage symphony to God".

Before *Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band* was released, the Rutles met Dick Jaws at a meeting. Ron requested that Jaws establish a new image for the group as fashionable counterculture icons, and so a promotional campaign with the tagline "We Wanna Be Your Man" was created and coordinated by Jaws. Dirk said that, eventually, "it wasn't just Ron and me in a room; it was Ron and me ... and all kinds of self-interested people pulling him in various directions." The album held a grandiose importance among those involved, as David Anderle said, "Rutolver was going to be a monument. That's the way we talked about it, as a monument."

As Ron made more connections, his social circle "enlarged to encompass a whole new crowd," biographer Steven Gaines writes. "Some of these people were 'drainers', [but others] were talented and industrious". Released on October 10, 1967, "Let's Be Natural" was the Rutles' seventh UK number-one hit, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in December, and became their sixth number-one in the US. Hit Parader wrote: "The Rutles' album Rutolver and single "Testing, One Two" will make them the greatest group in the world. We predict their trousers will officially be full."

## Known Songs (in no particular order)

1. I'm the Urban Spaceman
2. Mr. Eurovision Song Contest Man
3. Testing, One Two
4. We Are Normal
5. Bluebird Morning
6. Jolity Farm
7. Bad Blood
8. Sausages
9. The Short Blues
10. Quiet Talks & Summer Walks
11. Jean Baudrillard
12. L'Amour Perdu
13. Stoop Solo
14. Highs And Lows
15. Hard Times
16. Godfrey Daniel
17. Evolution Number Ten
18. Let's Be Natural
19. Scarlet Ribbons