Fake Beatles No. 1: A Blotto Bee Gee and His Pals "Fut" Around With the Fab Four

The Bee Gees have received a lot of guff, and rightfully so, for their early-career Beatles soundalike songs. In response, the Anglo-Australian threesome have invariably held up their early childhood in Manchester to explain away the suspicious similarity they share with their fab and gear neighbors from the North of England. That doesn't really answer why certain tunes by the Brothers Gibb sound like specific Beatles numbers, even in some instances like a stitch-up of several different Fab Four faves. Take, for example, "In My Own Time" [listen to it here on Three Chord Monte (RealAudio archive)], which could be the musical result of Dr. Robert meeting the Taxman in the Rain.

Yet the most remarkable Beatles impersonation related to the Bee Gees involved a pisstake (better described as a pissed-take, in the British alcoholic sense of the term) involving Maurice Gibb, his friends Steve Groves and Steve Kipner, and an in-law, Billie Lawrie, the brother of Gibb's then-wife, Lulu. (The two Steves, who comprised the Aussie musical duo Tin Tin  — not the '80s Stephen Duffy group, natch — had a Top 20 U.S. hit with "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" in 1971.) In 1969, the pair had convened in a London studio, with Gibb as producer, to record tracks for a proper Tin Tin session. However, thanks to some uncredited production assistance from John Barleycorn, the assembled musicians began futzing around with a song called "Have You Heard the Word," written by Groves and Kipner. With the stewed Steves playing all the instruments and, along with the liquored-up Lawrie, contributing the backup chorus, the gassed Gibb delivered his lead vocals in the most uncanny Lennon impersonation this side of Ron Nasty. The boozily Beatlesque result somehow found release, evidently without the permission of the principals, in 1970 as a single on the tiny U.K. label Beacon Records, with this one-off congregation identified as The Fut.

Did they do a good job? Just ask the bootleggers, who have placed the track on countless Beatles boots, hoodwinking many a rabid Fab Four obsessive.

Again, did they do a good job? Just ask Yoko Ono, who in 1985 attempted to register "Have You Heard the Word" as a John Lennon composition.

Have You Heard the Word (MP3)

Comments

[spongeboy]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that an early advertising effort by the Bee Gees was to send out a record to radio station, with no band information, just the riddle that the bands name started with B and ended with S. Apparently, a lot of people assumed "Beatles" and so they got a lot of airplay.

[Bob]

There is another view, which is that from 1967 to 1969, from Bees Gees First to Odessa, the Bee Gees were more fun to listen to than the Beatles. I'm not saying it's my view. But I sure love "Please Read Me" & "Down To Earth."

[johnozed]

wasn't In My Own Time covered by the Velvet Monkeys or the Insect Surfers in the paisley underground 80's?

[Krys O.]

As Neil Innes has said, to rutle is a verb. The BeeGees are top form Rutlers and their tune, "Coalman" is a fine Beatlesque effort as well.

[adam infanticide]

i always wondered what the b-side to this sounded like.

[mpjoyn]

@johnozed: It was the Three O'Clock who covered it back in the 80's, although others may have done it, too...
http://www.amazon.com/In-My-Own-Time/dp/B0010B4N6A

[johnozed]

@ mpjoyn: Thanks. Lost quite a few brain cells since then myself.

[Vic]

Back in the day, I would have strongly suspected this as a Beatle jam, in the vein of Wild Honey Pie. I have never heard this before and although I can make out Barry's voice in a few lines in the beginning of the song, that is with having the benifit of knowing the facts first. I hear very good imitations of Lennon and McCartney.

The Beatles are by far my favorite band, period, but I must say that I also enjoyed the pre-dico Bee Gees very much. I never mistook them for the Beatles and thought some of their work during that period was great and stood on it's own. Their harmonies were very Beatlesque, but their individual voices didn't sound like any individual Beatle to me. Having said that, I must say that I did prefer Barry's vocal to Maurice's.In my opinion songs like To Love Somebody, Words, Massachusetts (spelling?), Holiday, Got To Get A message To You, and Lonely Days are among the best from that period.

I do a Beatle tribute myself with "The About" and do original material. I have a somewhat Lennonish vocal style and would love to find a McCartney singer like the previous track by Guess Who? Something about kisses? I live in the southern VA area and if there are any such McCartney voalists in my area please contact me as my McCartney lead vocal attempts are pretty poor. Check out some of my material at cdbaby.com/TheAbout

This CD is a Christian Beatles style album with a strong influence from the Beatles'post pop era, but I can write from different Beatle era standpoints. Tracks 2,4, and 5 of the free sound bits are my Lennon attempts, the others are supposed to be McCartney though they come out more like Badfinger/Lennon. "Help"!

[Doug Cash]

I bought the Beatle Bootleg "Bye Bye Super tracks"( basically Let it be before Spector ) circa 74 and this track was on it along with the brilliant Dudley Moore / Peter Cooke Beatle spoof LS Bumble Bee.I once heard a Elliot Mintz / John Lennon interview
where Elliot played The Fut for John and he commented: they got me.

DC

[Joseph Brennan]

The bass guitar sounds like Maurice. He played on some of the Tin Tin songs. He arrived that day with his arm in a cast after falling down stairs that morning, and shot full of painkillers, so it's amazing he could play. I spoke with Steve Kipner about this in 1999 while researching a book and he told he and Steve Groves thought the song was not finished and was not going anywhere, and they eventually left Maurice there with it. Steve K was amused to be able to say he was on a Beatles record, even if it was a bootleg.

Maurice didn't sing many leads but he could do a fine John Lennon, both singing and speaking. See another very obscure item, the Bee Gees cover of "Sun King" on the soundtrack album of "All This and World War II", for a startling solo on the lines "everybody's laughing, everybody's happy".

Recording date is August 6, 1969, according to a list of tapes in the RSO archive. And it's a multitrack master, so a stereo mix could be made someday. Of course it would not make the song any better! The best mono release I've heard is on the 2004 compilation CD "Maybe Someone Is Digging Underground" (UK, Sanctuary).

[Keith Drury]

I'm currently reading about this song in the Bee Gees biography. John Lennon and Paul McCartney both were at the studio and joined in. Barry was not at this recording!