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Shabby Road
Shabby Road real

Released

26 September 1969

Recorded

22 February – 20 August 1969 IOU, Limpet and Trydent Studios, London

Genre

Pop Rock

Length

47:23

Label

Rutle Corps

Preceded By

Yellow Submarine Sandwich (1969)

Succeeded By

Let It Rot (1970)

Shabby Road is the eleventh studio album by the Rutles.[1] It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Rot was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July and August 1969, and was released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom, and 1 October 1969 in the United States, reaching number one in both countries. A double A-side single from the album, "Don't Worry Bill" / "Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik" was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.

Shabby Road incorporates styles such as rock, pop, blues, singer-songwriter, and progressive rock, and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesizer and guitar played through a Leslie speaker unit. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Up and Go sessions sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Dirk McQuickly's song "Womble Bashers Of Walthamstow", and Ron Nasty did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released Nasty had left the group, though this was not publicly announced until McQuickly also quit the following year.

Although it was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Rutles' best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time. Stig O'Hara's two songs on the album, "Don't Worry Bill" and "Bluebird Morning", have been regarded as among the best he wrote for the group. The album's cover, featuring the group walking across a zebra crossing outside Shabby Road Studios, has become one of the most famous and imitated in the history of recorded music. There have often been traffic issues related to the area because of imitators and police are often called due to instances of indecent exposure, with tourists often stripping off their clothes in imitation of Stig. In 2019, the album was remixed and reissued as a super deluxe box set.

Background[]

Shabby Road Sketches

One of the sketches for the album cover.

After the recording sessions for the proposed Get Up and Go album, Dirk McQuickly suggested to music producer Archie Macaw that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Shite Album. Archie agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group—particularly Ron Nasty—allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was entirely sure that the work was going to be the group's last, though Stig O'Hara later recalled that "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line". McQuickly sketched a few ideas for the Shabby Road cover, for example naming the album Challanger with the album cover being them on the bottom of the Challanger Deep, however this idea was scrapped. Eventually McQuickly took the idea of walking down the road where their recording studio was located. A few photoshoots were done until the cover was chosen.

Shabby Road (album)

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by Nasty-McQuickly, except where noted.

Side One[]

  1. Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
  2. Don't Worry Bill (O'Hara)
  3. Womble Bashers Of Walthamstow
  4. TBA
  5. Easy Listening (Wom)
  6. I Wanted You (No Reply)

Side Two[]

  1. TBA (O'Hara)
  2. TBA
  3. Plenty Of Time
  4. Postcard
  5. TBA
  6. TBA
  7. Feel No Shame
  8. Another Day Like Today
  9. Long Road To Heaven
  10. Not The First Time
  11. TBA

Reception[]

Although it was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects, calling it a "fucking garbage piece of shit." By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time.

Legacy[]

Melvin Hall on Shabby Road

Melvin Hall studies the actual Shabby Road, moments before being run over by his camera crew.

On the cover, Stig is depicted without trousers. This was one of the key "clues" which inspired the Stig is dead conspiracy theory, which still lasts today in some circles. Stig later referenced these theories on his life album, Stig Is Not a Wax Replica Please Stop Asking.

The iconic photo on the cover of Shabby Road has become synonymous with British pop-culture, as have the roads many zigs and zags. There have often been traffic issues related to the area because of imitators and police are often called due to instances of indecent exposure, with tourists often stripping off their clothes in imitation of Stig.

In 1978, Melvin Hall stood in the Shabby Road path to film his documentary All You Need Is Cash, at which point his documentary crew promptly ran him over.

Alternate cover photos[]

While the cover of Shabby Road is iconic, many don't know that more than one photo was taken for it. These are nearly identical but are clearly different when closely studied.

References[]

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