Happy 70th, John

nah, "Wild Honey PIe" was the clunker. WTWDIITR is fun.

 

"Germans?"
"Forget it. He's on a roll."

 

If I'm not mistaken, that was Lennon's protest submission because of some of the songs that would be included on the album. Specifically, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, which he thought was ridiculous. He also had a fixiation with No. 9. And let's not forget most of all he was bat-shit crazy over Yoko, so who knows what his motivation might have been.

 

If Lennon is still alive--or even if he lived to 64--do The Beatles reunite? And if so, are they viewed as iconically as they are today? Of course they would still be on the short list of most beloved bands of all-time, but does watching them age, live on stage sponsored by Visa, make them less mythical and more vulnerable and leave everyone pining for the good ol' days?

 

That's a good question. The thing to take into consideration is how drastically music has changed in the last 20-30 years. How many truly iconic songs were written by the Beatles and others in the 1960s and 70s? Now, how many have been written since then? It's a fraction. There were some great songs in the 80s and even 90s, but in the last 10 years songs have been written to have catchy hooks for ring tones.

So the question is, is Lennon-McCartney had started writing again later in the life would music be different now or would they have fallen into today's swill?

 

I could see Lennon and McCartney doing the Amnesty International tour in the '80s, participating in "Do they Know its Christmas" and maybe Live Aid, Sun City. Lennon would have said no to the Travelling Wilburys.
I don't think the Beatles would have reunited simply because the band they were at their heyday was vastly different from who the band members became. I don't see them singing Help or I Wanna Hold Your Hand in their 50s and 60s.
Which is why they were such an interesting band. They were big just before the 60s got crazy and their music reflected the changing society.

 

I think they would have reunited eventually: in Lennon's last interviews the days before he was killed, he leaves the door open to possibly working with McCartney again (although making it clear it was not going to happen real soon). Lennon fully intended on going on a full-scale tour to support "Double Fantasy."

I don't think they would have reunited as a "working band" -- I think the four members would have continued to do their solo things, and every five years or so (basically, whenever John felt like it) they would have dropped down from the heavens to do something -- a surprise concert, an album or single dropped without warning, etc etc. (I think they definitely would have taken the lead on Live Aid.)

I think they definitely would have adopted Paul's idea of showing up unannounced at some dive bar or club and just playing sets. Instead of the massive hype and hysteria a BEATLES TOUR would have produced, just show up somewhere and play for a couple hours.

And yeah, I DO see them playing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" at these bar-band shows. If you're just showing up in a van with three guitars and a drum set, it's a hell of a lot easier to play that than "I Am The Walrus."

John was very cognizant, discusses it at some length in the interviews, that the Beatles' legendary status was partially due to their early breakup. He (and Paul) would have carefully rationed the number of times the Beatles appeared, to keep them rare and anticipated events.

It wouldn't have turned out like the Who or the Eagles: reunion tour after reunion tour after tour after tour after tour.

 

That never ever gets old.

 

Nah, Lennon was absolutely serious about "Revolution 9" -- he had been working in audio pastiche formats ever since "Tomorrow Never Knows" in 1966, all the way through "Walrus," and "R9" is simply breaking out of the boundaries of music altogether and just going for an abstract sound collage. The solo albums he did with Yoko in 1968-69 are full of the same stuff.

Lennon's "protest" against McCartney's sugary-sweet pop numbers (of which there were only a couple, anyway) on White was "Good Night," the album closer, the syrupy lullaby he wrote for Ringo to croon in his best Bing Crosby voice.

 

I think George once said that John would have jumped at the chance to be a Wilbury.

Think about it - he'd have gotten to record with Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, two of his biggest influences.

 

Never heard that before.

FWIW - Local news hack introduces the capper at the end of the Saturday newscast saying people gathered in New York to remember John LEGEND who would have been 70....thankfully he corrected himself before the signoff.

 

Well, I suspect it would have taken Dylan a while to get over "Serve Yourself."

And if Lennon had lived and the Beatles were an intermittently-active group (as I suggest above), I would guess Roy Orbison would have come running any time they wanted to talk to him.