The Beatles Thread

There was a moderately good-selling novel in 1979-80, "Paperback Writer,"
which used very nearly this storyline.

The Beatles reform in 77-78, go disco, flop, and end up on a tour opening for Peter Frampton in front of half -full disinterested houses. George Harrison has converted over to full preachy born again Christianity.

They finally decide to break up again, have to finish out the tour for contractual reasons. The final show, they decide to junk the new disco stuff and Christian gospel and redo their hits from 1963-64 (at the time, considered very un-hip).

The novel ends with the comatose crowd rousing to life into full fledged Beatlemania hysteria for the closers, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" /"She Loves You."

 

Going to plead the case that I have never knowingly heard of the novel, and went with a disco flip because most of their peers had tried disco with varying degrees of success.

 

Great, fun book. I believe the Sex Pistols were part of the bill for the last show

 

I've always believed the White album contained the Beatles' best music, although it was not their best album (that would be Rubber Soul). It might have been if they had trimmed the excess and made it a single LP. Almost all of Side 4 could have been dispensed with. Here's how I would have cut the White album from two records to one: Side 1 -- Back In the USSR, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Obladi-Oblada, Yer Blues, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Julia. Side 2 -- Revolution (the single version), Blackbird, Don't Pass Me By, Piggies, Rocky Raccoon, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, Helter Skelter, Long Long Long. That's 15 songs clocking in at 51 minutes, easily doable on a single LP.

 

One could argue the White Album was jointly the Beatles' first solo record.

 

Yeah, I think that was the ultimate indignity: the Beatles ended up third-billed on a tour with Frampton and the Sex Pistols.

 

I wouldn't change a thing about the White Album. The sprawl and range are part and parcel of what it is. It's not intended to be 30 straight hard hitting masterpieces. It's intended to have 6-8 high points and a lot of transitional/ change of pace songs.

OK, yeah, if I were Time Machine George Martin, I might make a push to sub out "Hey Jude" for "Revolution 9," but the audio sound collage stuff was the stuff John was into at the time, plus it does make a statement on the possible consequences of social revolution which seemed to sweeping the globe in mid-'68 -- a descent into chaos. So let it be.

And "Hey Jude" wouldn't have fit on Side 4 anyway -- certainly not the huge orchestral "classic" version. Maybe if they redid it as a stripped down "unplugged" acoustic version.

Side 4 was supposed to be a gradual winding down -- George takes us through a chewy box of candy, Paul takes us on yet another nostalgia trip to the Jazz Age, and John returns once more through the psychedelic looking glass for a final visit to Pepper/Walrus Land before a strange surreal nightmare ending. And then Uncle Ringo tells us sweet dreams.

Still there's nothing like a 3 am dorm party, everybody a little woozy for various reasons, and "Revolution 9" playing on the stereo, fading into the sweet dreamland of John/ Ringo's "Good Night."

Wowwwwwwwwww, man, faaaarr out.

 

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying this thread and appreciate the contributions from everyone.

 

I'm not so sure a hypothetical Beatles would have made a disco album. After all, they were all around to make one if they wanted to.

Paul came closest with Silly Love Songs, but when disco was really hot, the ex-Beatles stayed in their lanes for the most part. George did his usual thing, Paul turned back to power pop and whimsical (bad) weirdness, etc.

By the way, I unreservedly LOVE Silly Love Songs. The bass in that song is fantastic, befitting McCartney's status as perhaps the best rock bass player there has ever been.

People make fun of solo Paul and Wings, sometimes with good reason, but I turn to his solo work more than any other Beatle. And I'm total sucker for his solo rock songs. Power pop as redefined by one of its creators.

 

I always recall McCartney getting shit for going disco with "Goodnight Tonight".

BTW, "Coming Up" is a great McCartney song from that era.

 

I love the White Album. It is great.
But you're just being an apologist for sub-par work in some cases.
'... the stuff John was into at the time ..' and '... a lot of transitional/change of pace songs.'

 

Check out Ringo the Fourth. Aka Ringo goes to Disco. Between him and McCartney's forays into disco, I think a full blown album may have materialized especially since so many of their peers had put out disco tinged tracks with a lot of success.