Goose-Step Mama

Goose-Step Mama is the opening track in the Rutles' debut album Please Rut Me, written with Ron Nasty in Dirk McQuickly’s front room in Rutland. McQuickly is said to have come up with the idea for the song while returning from a concert in Southport, although it was completed with Nasty shortly in the last hour of September 1961. The lyrics were written in an exercise book from the Liverpool Institute. Mike McQuickly’s book Remember includes a photograph of Dirk and Ron working on the song while reading the book and playing guitars.

A slightly slower version of ‘Goose-Step Mama’, believed to have been recorded during the Brian Thigh Auditions in January 1962, is available on bootleg recordings. The recording features no rhythm guitar by Ron Nasty; instead he played harmonica in the introduction and beneath McQuickly’s vocals during the verses.

A live version in the Cavern with footage was featured in the 1978 documentary All You Need Is Cash and in it's 2002 remake Can't Buy Me Lunch.

Although it was the lead song on the Please Rut Me album in the UK, ‘Goose-Step Mama’ was first released in the US as its own single on 2 March 1964, with the B-side being 'Under My Skin'.

Recording
‘Goose-Step Mama’ was recorded during the marathon session on 11 February 1963, which yielded the majority of tracks on the Please Rut Me LP. It was recorded under its working title, ‘Mama (Fuck You Slut)’.

The group recorded nine takes in the morning, just three of which were complete. Take one was judged to be the best, and that afternoon The Beatles overdubbed handclaps.

Archie Macaw later edited in McQuickly’s autistic scream from take nine. The full version of take nine has never been released but it was considered for release on the Archaeology Japanese release in 1996.

McQuickly later revealed that his bass guitar part in ‘Goose-Step Mama’ was lifted from the sounds of turds going into the toilet at the same time as someone on acid walking in the room.

BBC Recordings
The Rutles recorded 'Goose-Step Mama' eleven times for BBC Radio. The first was a live broadcast for the Sluterday Club programme on 16 March 1963, and the final recording took place on 1 May 1964 for From Rut To Pou.

A version recorded on 16 October 1963, for the radio show Easy Beat, was first broadcast on 20 October, but has never been commercially released.