Nasty/McQuickly (formerly McQuickly-Nasty, which was used on only Please Rut Me) was the credit used to all songs written by either Ron Nasty or Dirk McQuickly during the original era of The Rutles. Notably, this included songs such as "Today is Our Wedding Day", "You Need Feet" and "Give Peas A Chance," which were written directly before the split, but were intended for their solo works.
It is the most successful songwriting partnership in history, however, much of their success was a result of their trousers and not their actual songwriting ability.
Writing chemistry[]
Nasty said the main intention of the Rutles' music was to communicate, and that, to this effect, he and McQuickly had a shared purpose. Author David Rowley points out that at least half of all Nasty–McQuickly lyrics have the words "you" and/or "your" in the first line. In Nasty's 1980 Playboy interview, he said of the partnership:
[Dirk] provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies, that Dirk wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n' roll. But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs—"Cheese and Onions", or some of the early stuff, "Number One"—I was writing melody with the best of them.
Historian Todd Compton has noted that there is some truth to Nasty's statement regarding McQuickly's optimism. However, it does not tell the whole story, as some of McQuickly's most characteristic songs are tragic, or express themes of isolation, such as "Scrambled Eggs", "She's Leaving Rome", "Roosevelt Mordecai" or "For Four Guys".
Although Nasty and McQuickly often wrote independently—and many Rutles songs are primarily the work of one or the other—it was rare that a song would be completed without some input from both writers. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and take it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus. Archie Macaw attributed the high quality of their songwriting to the friendly rivalry between the two. This approach of the Nasty–McQuickly songwriting team—with elements of competitiveness and mutual inspiration as well as straightforward collaboration and creative merging of musical ideas—is often cited as a key reason for the Rutles' innovation and popular success.
As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternative chord.
Though Nasty and McQuickly's collaborative efforts decreased in later years, they continued to influence one another. As Nasty stated in 1969, "We write how we write now because of each other. Dirk was there for five or ten years, and I wouldn't write like I write now if it weren't for Dirk, and he wouldn't write like he does if it weren't for me."
Nasty-McQuickly songs[]
- A Short Blues
- Absurd Reductions
- All Alone
- Angelina
- Another Day
- Another Day Like Today
- Another Lonely Man
- Arbitrary Functionary
- Baby Let Me Be
- Baby S'il Vous Plait
- Back in '64
- Back in the U.S.S.R.
- Bad Blood
- Bandwagon
- Beautiful Zelda
- Blue Colour
- Blue Gay Way
- Blue Suede Schubert
- Boring
- Burlesque
- Can't Buy Me Lunch (song)
- Canyons Of Your Mind
- Carnival of Shite
- Catchphrase
- Cheese and Onions
- Come On Up
- Concrete Jungle Boy
- Dear Father Christmas
- Death Cab for Cutie
- Denny Lane (song)
- Don't Ask Me What I Say
- Don't Get Me Wrong
- Don't Know Why
- Don't Make Your Children Pay (This Bird Has Flown)
- Doubleback Alley
- Dove
- Down In The Valley
- Down That Road
- Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
- Etcetera
- Evolution Number Ten
- Feel No Shame
- First Day In New York
- For The Benefit Of Mankind!
- Get Up and Go
- Get Up and Go (Reprise)
- Get Your Mind Made Up
- Ghost Train
- Gone Is The Sad Man
- Good Times Roll
- Goose-Step Mama
- Halte meine Hand
- He'll Only Hurt You
- Hero Of The Motorway
- Hey Mister!
- Hold My Hand
- Hunting Tigers Out In India
- I Can't Help Myself
- I Don't Believe In Santa Anymore
- I Give Myself To You
- I Love You
- I Must Be in Love
- I So Don't Care
- I Want To Be With You
- I Wanted You (No Reply)
- I Was Made To Love Her
- It's Looking Good
- It's Only Lunch
- Joke Shop Man
- Jubilee
- Just Another Story
- Kenny And Lisa
- Land Of A Thousand Dances
- Lane
- Late Gays a Gleek
- Let It Rot (song)
- Let's Be Natural
- Let's Go Crazy
- Lie Down And Be Counted
- Little Girl
- Lonely-Phobia
- Long Road To Heaven
- Love Is Getting Deeper
- Love Life
- Lullaby
- Lying
- Major Happy's Up And Coming Once Upon A Good Time Band
- Maybe I'm Aroused
- Momma Bee
- Monkey On My Back
- Montana Café
- Mother
- Mother-may I?
- Mr Eurovision
- Mr Slaters Parrot
- Mr. Sheene
- My Little Ukulele
- My New School
- My Ronnie
- My Sweet Rut
- No Reply
- Not The First Time
- Now She's Left You
- Now You're Asleep
- Number One
- Nummer Eins
- Old Tige
- One Of These Days
- Ouch! (song)
- Piggy Bank Love
- Piggy in the Middle
- Plenty of Time
- Pollution Blues 1
- Poor Little Heartbreaker
- Promises
- Protest Song
- Questionnaire
- Quiet Talks And Summer Walks
- Raggy Dolls
- Recycled Vinyl Blues
- Rendezvous
- Restless
- Rockaliser Baby
- Sausages
- Scrambled Eggs
- Shangri-La
- Sigh Baby Sigh
- Sing Me That Song
- Something To Say
- Something You Got
- Song for Yvonne
- Spaghetti Western
- Spontaneous
- Stay There
- Step Inside Lunch
- Stepping Out
- Stig It
- Stoned On Rock
- Summertime Kids
- Testing
- The Ballad of Ron and Chastity
- The Best Song We've Ever Made (Please Listen To It)
- The Equestrian Statue
- The Knicker Elastic King
- The Urban Spaceman
- The Worm And The Angel
- The Worst Is Yet To Come
- Things I Could Of Said
- This One's For Me
- Time To Kill
- Topless-A-Go-Go
- Tragical History Tour (song)
- Travelling Show
- Treehouse
- Trouser Freak
- Twist And Rut
- Unfinished Words
- Untitled (as of today)
- Useless Illusions
- W.C. Fields Forever
- We Are Free
- We Are Normal
- We've Arrived! (And to Prove It We're Here)
- When Does A Dream Begin?
- With a Girl Like You
- Woman That's Waiting
- Womble Bashers Of Walthamstow
- Yellow Submarine Sandwich (song)
- Yellow Van
- You Need Feet
- You've Got The Chance
- You've Got to Hide Your Lunch Away
- Your Mother Should Go