Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       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...

       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 ...

           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)....

       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...

       In 1971 John Lennon released the album Imagine . I used the title track for the album opener, also from that album I pulled "Oh My Love", "It's So Hard" and "Jealous Guy". Paul McCartney put out Ram  the same year and his "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" opens side two on this "what if" album. Ram also supplied "Backseat of My Car" and "Eat at Home". I pulled the single "Another Day" to round things out. George Harrison's album from 1971 was the live concert recording of The Concert for Bangladesh  which didn't fit for this project.  However the B-side to his "Bangla Desh" single was the studio song "Deep Blue" and I gladly grabbed it for this. Ringo Starr did not put out and album that year, to be fair, he did release two albums in 1970. His international radio hit "It Don't Come Easy" was released in 1971 so that had to be included especially with Harrison...

        Many a person on the internet has come up with "what if The Beatles stayed together" so I was going to avoid this. Years ago, a co-worker and I talked about this idea and, dog gone it, it keeps going through my head, so here we are. Everest was what Abbey Road was going to be called. Since they didn't use it then I figured they could use it on their next album. John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band  from 1970 has Ringo on drums. I chose two songs from the record, "Working Class Hero" and "God" (which has Billy Preston ((from the Get Back sessions)) on grand piano. I also included the single "Instant Karma!" which has Billy Preston and George Harrison. From Paul's album McCartney  I grabbed "Junk" (which he wrote in Marrakesh when he was with the Beatles), "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Every Night". George Harrison's All Things Must Pass  supplied three songs, "My Sweet Lord", "What Is Li...

  I started this blog on the 20th of May 2023 so here is a bonus post. Years ago, my co-worker Stefan and I were talking about "what if the Beatles stayed together". One thing led to another and when we went home, we each started going through our albums deciding which songs from the lad's solo albums we would choose. We met up again at work and compared notes. We made copies of the "albums" but I had to take it one step further so I designed covers for all of them. My computer has crashed since then and I lost all of my work. I still have the physical copies of the two make-believe albums shown above. I wasn't going to use them on this blog since there are many talented people already sharing their versions on the web but for my anniversary I thought I would share some of the first "what if" album covers I designed.