Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       Today is the second anniversary of my first Electric Light Orchestra post. I took Jeff Lynne's 2001 E.L.O. album and included tracks from previous members had released around that time. To honour this anniversary, I'm including an advertisement from that alternate earth that I based on the Out of the Blue  print ad from 1977. Electric Light Orchestra alternate ZOOM - YouTube

       After 1975 John Lennon wanted to spend more time with his son Sean and less time with The Beatles but that didn't mean there wasn't a new album in 1976. After recording Blast From Your Past , McCartney suggested a tour again. They settled on one live performance at the end of 1975 in New York City so John could go back to the Dakota afterwards. In this alternate reality a live album of the event would released in 1976.      In reality, John joined Elton John at Madison Square Garden for three songs on 28 November 1974. All three songs can be found on disc three of the Lennon  box set from 1990. Paul played the Garden with his band Wings in May of 1976. Selections from the tour were on the triple album Wings Over America . George Harrison played with Ravi Shankar at the Garden in December of 1974. Unfortunately, no album was put out of the concert.      For this fictional album I started of with "Be Bop A Lula" and the playlis...

       With talk of a new James Bond, I thought it was time to do another "man who would be Bond". Last time I talked about American James Brolin auditioning for the part, this time it is New Zealander Sam Neill. Roger Moore yet again did not want to return to the role. Producer Michael G. Wilson, director John Glen, Dana and Barbara Broccoli were impressed with Neill's screentest and wanted to cast him , however Albert "Cubby" Broccoli disagreed. Pierce Brosnan was also considered but didn't get the part until 1995's GoldenEye.       The theme song could have been different as well. Instead of a-ha, it was almost Pet Shop Boys. Sam Neill as James Bond - Screentest (1986) The Living Daylights 1987 - Alternative Title Sequence With The Pet Shops Boys Rejected Theme. - YouTube

       1975 saw the release of John Lennon's Rock n Roll , an album of cover versions of rock songs from the late fifties and early sixties. McCartney's Venus and Mars  hit the record shelves, Harrison had a new album called  Extra Texture  and a compilation album of Starr's music, called Blast From Your Past  was put out. The story behind Lennon's album involves lawsuits, stolen master tapes, re-recordings and an album released without John's approval. Look it up. It is an interesting story and could make an HBO movie.       For this what-if, I propose that the Beatles put out an old-time rock n roll album so I used tracks from different years from the other three. Since Paul put out an album in 1988 similar to John's I used four tracks from that. John and Paul both covered "Ain't That a Shame" and I chose Paul's version, also his "Twenty Flight Rock" (which he first played for John when they met), "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" and ...

  In July of 1987 ABC aired a movie based on Will Eisner's comic The Spirit. It starred Sam J. Jones as the title character and Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as love interest Ellen Dolan. Trivia: 28 years later the two actors appeared in Seth MacFarlane's  Ted 2 . The sidekick in the comics was a racial stereotype called Ebony, in this production he was renamed Eubie and played by Bumper Robinson. The movie leaned more towards camp, as was the way comic productions were handled then. It was meant to be a pilot, with more episodes already written, but was never picked up. Who knows, if the series was picked up it might have been a more accurate representation of Eisner's work than the Frank Miller movie. Preview Clip | The Spirit | Warner Archive

           We made it to the Beatles in 1974. John Lennon released Walls and Bridges, which I think is one of his best, George Harrison released Dark Horse and Ringo Starr had Goodnight Vienna. Since I used Red Rose Speedway (which was released early 1973) this uses Paul McCartney's Band on the Run (came out the end of 1973). There was so much good music from the four of them I decided to make this a double album. From Paul I pulled "Band on the Run", "Jet", "Bluebird", "Mrs. Vanderbilt", "Let Me Roll It", "No Words" (which ironically has words), and "Helen Wheels". John gives us "Going Down on Love", "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", "Old Dirt Road", "What You Got", "Scared", "#9 Dream" "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" (which references the Beatles song "Drive My Car") and "Beef Jerky" (which has no words)....