what if? the beatles

who cares?

If the Beatles had never existed then neither would the Rutles, and that would be very tragic to me.




P.S. I happen to like the Beatles.

Catcher10 wrote: what if? the beatles....Never existed! (We all have our dreams and wishes)

Gezz, Catch, did one of the Beatles steal your lunch money when you were a kid?  

Edited by SteveG - August 05 2016 at 10:49

Given their penchant for experimentation, I'm going to say that they would have become hardcore prog, had they stayed together.

The key to continuity was concert performance. The invention of the PA got the Stones rolling again. Once The Beatles had a few gigs under their belt then their sense of collective identity would have been reinforced.

Still times had moved on and the 1970s heralded instrumental firepower and spectacle. Slavish audience devotion would have permeated but where would they have stood with acts both as sonically varied and visually spectacular as The Who and Pink Floyd, not to mention audio content involving. Rock bands, including The Beatles all knew how to record albums by then and there were many good ones too. Chances are The Beatles would have become closer, in time, to The Hollies.

Being a target for the punk new wave would have been unappealing. Musically I'd say they would have been very firmly pop rock MOR. Nice songs but no bite.

zravkapt wrote: The next album would sound like a cross between Plastic Ono Band, Macca's debut and George's All Things Must Pass.

AZF wrote: And George Harrison was quoted saying he didn't like Disco, so that would be at least John's enthusiasm. Wasn't it the band broke up during the Get Back sessions but decided on the once again for the final time and produced Abbey Road? P.A. systems improving could of even seen them return to touring.

George hates disco, so John then likes it - just like that. Those two Fabs were probably the most like minded musically among all of them. In fact, George wanted himself and Lennon to carry on with a new band after the disbanding, a notion the latter rejected from the onset. What interested Lennon was oldies, protest songs, and plastic. As for touring, no, they were done with it forever by August 1966 (good-bye Candlestick Park, 2015). The January '69 rooftop concert was merely a wild hair that brought the lads some degree of good will amongst what had been a generally dismal group of recording sessions (the "Get Back" ones).

Guldbamsen wrote: I think George gets far too much credit for his early electronic experiments. He basically stole Bernie Krause's mojo...doing so in very bad form imo: http://astronautapinguim.blogspot.dk/2012/12/five-questions-to-bernie-krause.html Casts an altogether different light on a supposedly flower power dude with nothing but peace in his heart. Sure this is to be taken with a grain of salt; no other evidence than Bernie's words, but I happen to believe him.

Well, I've personally never heard any accolades towards Harrison's ill-fated Moog album, other than he was the one of first musical superstars to buy one and record his album "Electronic Sound."

Edited by SteveG - July 09 2016 at 08:06

And George Harrison was quoted saying he didn't like Disco, so that would be at least John's enthusiasm.
Wasn't it the band broke up during the Get Back sessions but decided on the once again for the final time and produced Abbey Road? And then the Get Back sessions come out later as Let It Be.
I reckon there could of been three more albums after Abbey Road, but I couldn't no matter how out of it on imagination, I just can't see The Beatles existing after 1975 at the earliest if they carried on making albums. P.A. systems improving could of even seen them return to touring.
I can picture what songs would be used. As long as "Remember" was in the running order!

The way I see it is that it is a moment in time lost forever. The four went off in their own direction. Lennon went minimalist. McCartney rejected George Martin (who I think wanted to keep working with him) and went more pop. George Harrison went a bit more bluesy. And Ringo just kept having fun. The experimentation you see in the White Album is a result of four individuals doing their own thing and George Martin trying to cobble the whole thing together like a jigsaw puzzle. By Abby Road the jig was up and McCartney and Martin gave the Beatles fans a parting gift of a couple of brilliant Harrison songs combined with a couple of brilliant Lennon songs and McCartney and Martin tying the thing together in the studio. At that point Lennon and Harrison had lost interest in the band.