Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       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)....

      Cleopatra was the movie 20th Century banked everything on and nearly went bankrupt in the process. It was to have Joan Collins in the titular role, Stephen Boyd as Mark Antony and Peter Finch as Julius Caesar. That however is not the movie that was made. Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Cleopatra and negotiated an extraordinary $1 million salary. Richard Burton was cast as Mark Antony. There was an immediate spark between them, so since they were already married to other people, the movie also led to two divorces. How different things might have turned out with the original cast.

       Continuing with the Beatles imaginary albums, here is 1973. All four had an album out and they all had hits on the radio. From Lennon's Mind Games  I used the title track, "Out of the Blue" and "I Know (I Know). McCartney's Red Rose Speedway provided "Big Barn Red", "When the Night" and the hugely popular "My Love." From Harrison's record Living in the Material   World,  I grabbed not only the title track but the title for this album. I also used his "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and close the album with "That Is All", which has George singing harmony with himself half way through that I like to imagine is Paul and John with him. Starr's 1973 album was called Ringo , and John, Paul and George all appear on it. I pulled "I'm the Greatest" which Lennon wrote and both he and George play on. I also gave Ringo a rare second song, "Photograph", which he wrote with Harriso...

       It is well known that Paul McCartney was influenced to make the Sgt. Pepper album after hearing the Beach Boys'  Pet Sounds. What if the influence carried over to the cover design? This cheeky post is in honour of Brian Wilson.