Lucy wrote: >One of my favourite tv skits ever was on French and Saunders where Ralph >McTell was in court, being prosecuted for his impossibly complicated book >"101 songs for easy guitar" and was being tried by Dawn French. Ranged as >expert witnesses were such guitar luminaries as Lemmy, Mark >King,..(?)Gilmore... Oh loads of people (please remind me someone). They >came on, played exerpts from their songs and then were invited to play >the same song from the book...."and now WITH the book" became the >mantra..and were unable to do so.It was hilarious. All the time this was >going on Ralph stood in the dock looking smug until asked to do "Streets >of London" he played it and then was asked "and now WITH the book" and >failed miserably. It was the funniest thing and if you have never seen it >try and find someone who has it on tape........
I have to chime in here, since this is also one of my favourite skits - and French and Saunders are my heroes! The other important point that the prosecution was making against McTell was that the book didn't have the chord diagrams - "the little pictures that show you where to put your fingers" - "no little pictures" was another phrase repeated numerous times! The witnesses included Lemmy (Motorhead), Mark King (Flock of Seagulls), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits). I can still picture Mark Knopfler saying he can't play Sultans of Swing because "there are no little pictures". Hilarious! Hell
