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PAISTEJAM View Drop Down
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Points: 29 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: what if? the beatles
    Posted: July 06 2016 at 18:45
was listening to abbey road today. they started using flangers and synths, so I wondered what they would
sound like if they recorded another album or two? any ideas?
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Points: 6446 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2016 at 19:07
The next album would sound like a cross between Plastic Ono Band, Macca's debut and George's All Things Must Pass.
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Points: 4807 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2016 at 19:11
^That's deep. And stop calling him Macca!

Edited by Rednight - July 06 2016 at 19:12
"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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Points: 8642 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2016 at 20:54
John himself reckoned that if the Fab Four managed to work it out, they'd end up sounding like early ELO, who of course were big on picking up the the specific pop stylings of the Beatles and running with them.

Alternatively, they may have continued on the path set by Get Back/Let It Be, with room for some of George's backlog like "My Sweet Lord", and it's interesting to imagine what would've happened if the other three had involvement in the instrumentation of that classic.
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Points: 65268 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2016 at 21:03
^ Another possibility is the ELO-type direction (entirely plausible as John liked Disco's orchestral sound and Paul was taking an increasingly mainstream path) combined with solo projects that would've allowed a more creative outlet.   Producers too--  whether George Martin would've stayed with them or moved on for a spell.   If he'd stayed, the wonderful, quirky experimentation on stuff like the White Album and Let it Be would've probably been abandoned.




Edited by Atavachron - July 06 2016 at 21:04
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Points: 1063 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2016 at 21:29
Something like Supertramp or Alan Parsons Project.
I shook my head and smiled a whisper knowing all about the place
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Points: 2195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 07 2016 at 11:55
I think they were all secretly populists with a streak of devotion to the crown and all things England (except the tax system, of course).  I bet each lived in luxury in the US but never were "American" and were never without their HP sauce, copies of the Guardian, Werther's toffees, and McVities digestive biscuits.  An LP after Abbey Road?  Probably would've leaned strongly on tunes from albums like Ringo's Rotogravure or Goodnight Vienna.  Or, taking the lad's love of early rock 'n roll, they would've ended up like Sha Na Na doing retro shows at amusement parks.     
I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 07 2016 at 12:07
<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">
Originally posted by Intruder Intruder wrote:

 An LP after Abbey Road?  Probably would've leaned strongly on tunes from albums like Ringo's Rotogravure or Goodnight Vienna.  Or, taking the lad's love of early rock 'n roll, they would've ended up like Sha Na Na doing retro shows at amusement parks.     
</span>
the LP after Abbey Road was Let It Be was it not? ... /edit ... No, I get it, Recording order =/= Release order As you where squire.

Any post-Lettuce Bee album would have been a dreadful Yoko & Linda appeasing pile of horse manure (IHMO of course). 

Edited by Dean - July 07 2016 at 14:20
What?
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Points: 20624 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 07 2016 at 14:22
^ Let It Be was actually started as a project and songs were written before Abbey Road....it was abandoned for a while ...they then did Abbey Road with Martin and went back to finish Let It Be and release it after the fact.
At least that's what I have read.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Points: 2195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 07 2016 at 17:27
Either way, they ended on a high note.....some Sl*g off Let It Be, but I thought it was a great return to a more "rock 'n roll" approach.....and that's probably where they would've headed if they'd have continued.  The music of the 50s was the lads' first love....and they had that Brit sense of humor of the same era that favored music hall revue tunes and shuffles/ballads with cheeky lyrics....kisses on the bottom.  And all of them, even John, wanted to make music that their mums would be proud of. 
I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there.....
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Points: 3242 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2016 at 01:36
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.
It's a mistake to think that the Beatles could keep on going forever producing one great album after another. Creativity doesn't work that way. Take the Beach Boys album, Smile. The album was abandoned in 1967. Capitol brought out their own version of the 1966 recorded Smile Sessions around 2008. Brian Wilson recorded his own version of Smile around the same time. The work is largely the creativity of Brian Wilson. However when you listen to the Brian Wilson version of Smile there is no noticeable improvement in the originality or even progression in the music. It's like listening to a suspension in time in the music. The music of the Beatles I think would have been much like that. The music of the Beatles needed people like Bob Fripp, Peter Hammill, David Bowie and many others to progress it further down the path of time.
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Points: 20609 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2016 at 04:25

^I agree with you, but would like to elaborate for our young friend who posted the question. Aside from consciously, or subconsciously, knowing that the time to end the Beatles was neigh, the group was also in dire financial straits with their Apple Records venture. And a hit record like Abbey Road was the remedy.

But the crux of this answer depends on where the Beatles were both musically and personally. Lennon went along with McCartney and George Martin's plan to produce another slick studio album and Lennon had little love for Abby Road, aside from his own songs. He rejected the use of the mellotron that he used earlier and  the music he produced using it. George Harrison rejected the Moog synth after being one of he first musicians in he UK to actually buy one and record an album prior to Abby Road titled Electronic Sound.
 
He felt that he failed to make anything of musical value on that album and was annoyed that McCartney did when using the same Moog on songs like Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
 
So, only McCartney remained somewhat open to synths as is evidenced on his 1973 Wings album Band On The Run. I think that if the Beatles had stayed together for a few more albums, their music (or McCartney's songs at least) would have been no more progressive than that. 
 
 


Edited by SteveG - July 08 2016 at 04:39
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Points: 1079 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2016 at 08:00
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!
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2016 at 08:04
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.


Edited by Guldbamsen - July 08 2016 at 08:05
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Points: 20609 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2016 at 10:03
Originally posted by Guldbamsen 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."
 
Harrison was not impressed with own efforts and when told that the album was avant-garde by critics, Harrison cheekily replied that it's more like "I avant-garde a clue."
 
And as the album sold so poorly, I'm sure Krause never got his "few quid."
 
Btw, Harrison was one of the first to put down the Flower Power scene when he visited San Francisco in 1968 and found nothing but homeless hippies offering him drugs. He was well beyond LSD at that time, having gone spiritual with Hinduism.
 
Edit: Btw.


Edited by SteveG - July 09 2016 at 08:06
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Points: 166 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2016 at 10:51
Would not have the same authenticity.Its unique as an album end of.
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Points: 4807 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2016 at 11:26
Originally posted by AZF 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).
"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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Points: 30 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2016 at 14:16
Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

[QUOTE=AZF]Those two Fabs [Lennon and Harrison] 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...

It would have been interesting to see what Lennon and Harrison would've come up with in the era of, say, Meddle or DSotM Floyd. While unlikely, I can imagine a scenario in which the Lennon of Imagine and the Harrison of All Things Must Pass create a politically-charged concept album with folk-prog/psych/space rock elements. 
https://projectnightscape.bandcamp.com/releases

www.nightscapeseries.com

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Points: 46833 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 16 2016 at 06:53
Originally posted by zravkapt zravkapt wrote:

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


LOL
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Points: 20609 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 16 2016 at 08:46
Originally posted by micky micky wrote:

Originally posted by zravkapt zravkapt wrote:

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


LOL
Now, that wasn't hard! LOL
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