ABSTRACT
As an early example of the mockumentary, All You Need Is Cash depicts the Rutles as a British Invasion-era beat band in the style of the Beatles. In this way, Eric Idle and Neil Innes satirize the Beatles’ music and history as a means for highlighting the vacuous nature of celebrity narratives, as well as the high-cultural pretensions of rock music. To this end, the Rutles’ music reimagines the early Beatles’ sounds of “Love Me Do” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” respectively, as comic confections in the form of “I Must Be in Love” and “Hold My Hand.” In addition to mocking the Beatles’ legend via the Rutles, All You Need Is Cash takes particular issue with the nature of nostalgia, especially in terms of music fans’ appropriation of the bands of their youth as a means for reconnecting with the past.
