If The Beatles Hadn’t Broken Up, Part 1 of 8

A little over two years ago, I wrote an entry about a “lost” Beatles album that was clearly a barely disguised album of mixes. It was creative and almost listenable, but the hokey story about inter-dimensional time travel destroyed a lot of its credibility. In that entry, I recalled a website that I frequented at the turn of the millennium, but assumed it had been lost forever to the vast repository that is the Internet – but thanks to some particularly industrious searching on my part, I finally found it, and was transported immediately back to 1998, when I wished that I had all of the albums the author was talking about.

Now that I’m older, and the availability of music has increased exponentially, I’m finally able to revisit this idea, and come up with some of my own albums, had the Beatles not broken up in 1970. Looking around on other WordPress sites, I see this was also addressed by Allyn Gibson, who offered up a fascinating account of what a fictional Beatles album would have looked like in 1970. But I wanted to give it a shot myself, and not only do what I thought would have been a good fictional Beatles album, but also continue on throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.

First, the assumptions: Get Back was released as intended in March/April 1969, and Abbey Road followed in October 1969. (The singles for these were ‘Get Back’ / ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ in March, ‘Let It Be’ / ‘You Know My Name’ in May, ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’ / ‘Old Brown Shoe’ in July, and ‘Something’ / ‘Come Together’ in September.) After working through their infamous differences, the Beatles took some time off, wrote a bunch of songs – Paul escaped to Scotland and later released ‘Another Day’ / ‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’, John released solo singles (‘Cold Turkey’ and ‘Instant Karma!’), Ringo released two covers albums, and George toured with Eric Clapton; all four got their creative juices out, bitched at each other in the press a bit, but ultimately realized the sum was greater than the parts, and got the band back together to work on some further albums.

I realize this is borderline musical fanfic, and for that I apologize, but it is fun to imagine what could have been. So, let’s get right to work!

When Four Knights Come To Town
side one:

1. Oo You (McCartney) – I liked Gibson’s suggestion that ‘Oo You’ sounds like an album opener, with Paul goofing around and mumbling, “More guitar”. It’s an inconsequential song, but its gritty production and throwaway lyric would balance some of the weightier stuff that was coming up.
2. It Don’t Come Easy (Starkey) – The first “real” song, and a deserving number two spot. Ringo’s songwriting had gotten better over the years, so much so that ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ (cowritten with George, but credited solely to Ringo) was released as Ringo’s first Beatles song, with ‘My Sweet Lord’ as a double A-side. (I’m aware this wasn’t released until 1971, but hey, it’s my fantasy, dammit!)
3. Remember (Lennon) – Lyrically this is a drastic comedown from the previous track, but its boogie shuffle keeps the tempo up, with some spirited piano from John and particularly propulsive drumming from Ringo.
4. Every Night (McCartney) – Paul admits his preference of a life of ease: slacking off during the day and getting shitfaced at night. This goes against his workmanlike attitude, of course, but any opportunity to blow off some steam is a good thing – until he alters his position with “Every night I want to stay home / And be with you”.
5. Look At Me (Lennon) – This stark confessional of John and Yoko’s relationship and how he views himself was performed entirely by John, much like ‘Julia’ on The Beatles (the same time period from which the song dates).
6. Isn’t It A Pity (Harrison) – George attempts an updated ‘Hey Jude’, with interesting results. An obvious side closer, with its drawn-out fade-out, ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ was written back in 1966 but rejected, and was tried out again during the Get Back sessions; turns out the third time was the charm.

side two:

1. Love (Lennon) – With John on acoustic guitar and Phil Spector on piano, ‘Love’ is the perfect introduction to side two, with its lengthy piano intro and simplistic take on the reality of romance.
2. My Sweet Lord (Harrison) – George gets religious, and the results are inspiring – but unfortunately he got into a bit of trouble with the songwriters of ‘He’s So Fine’. Despite that, it would have been an obvious candidate to not only be recorded by the Beatles, but also released as a single – as a double A-side with ‘It Don’t Come Easy’, perhaps.
3. Man We Was Lonely (McCartney) – Written following some inter-band bitching, this simplistic, homespun song assures listeners that, despite the Beatles’ differences, “now we’re fine all the while”.
4. I Found Out (Lennon) – Disenchanted with peace and love and Hare Krishna, John offers this simplistic blues riffer that was bound to piss off the other three Beatles.
5. All Things Must Pass (Harrison) – From the basic to the bombastic, ‘All Things Must Pass’ is one of George’s loveliest songs; bathed in echo and ringing acoustic guitars, the song leads perfectly into…
6. Maybe I’m Amazed (McCartney) – …a beautiful out-and-out love song written about Linda. I agree with Gibson that ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ is the best possible album closer, and serves as a wonderful double wallop with ‘All Things Must Pass’. Out of the ashes of despair comes love.

Singles:
‘It Don’t Come Easy’ / ‘My Sweet Lord’ (double A-side)
‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ / ‘Look At Me’

In conclusion: Not a perfect album, of course, given Paul’s homespun solo performances, John’s bare-bones primal therapy-inspired confessionals, and George’s Wall of Sound production numbers, but these contrasting sounds bounce off each other nicely. (The title, for anyone interested, was the working title of Ringo’s ‘Early 1970′.) Most importantly, I had a lot of fun doing this, and it’s a really interesting mix of songs – so keep an eye out for my next installment!

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