So you're saying about 8 years of not being in a band(Not Paul, He still had the mentality of being in a band as he saw Wings as a real band and so do I) they would just magically put their differences aside and produce something as great as the White album? Again you have to look at the years, 1968 and 1978 two different years and ten years apart,. Music changes, it would not have been music like the late 60s, it would have been music of late 70s which only Paul was coming out with good stuff around that time. George would not want to take a backseat to Paul and John again after being solo for 8 years. I think Paul and Ringo would be alright with the idea. John would have most likely hated it. You seem to think that magic would fix all the problems and they would have made great music. If they got back together, tension would have been their preventing them from coming out with anything great. It would have been more like the Get back sessions than anything else.
If I can't compare their late 60s stuff, than what am I suppose to compare it to in order to get some idea of what a Beatles album would sound like in the late 70s? It certainly wouldn't sound like Abbey Road because that has a sound of early 70s stuff and by 1978 almost everything started to take shape of the sound of the 80s. Again you're thinking some sort of magic would have made The Beatles friends again like in the early 60s so that they could have made a brilliant album in 1979. In reality they pretty much despised each other in the late 70s and the sessions would have fell apart because of tension.
Well, what I've said was simple (and it's not exactly what you're explaining): I think that the way they would have recorded by 1979 -having learnt from the Get Back sessions and being older- would have been very similar to the one used in the White Album: different studios (or the same but not too much time together and playing their own parts) ... I never said that they would have released an album as good as the White album or whatever, get it now? ...
... and forget about being playing in a band (they left that in 1966 but they continued recording albums till 1969) and that's what I was talking about in that post: about recording an album ... but, anyway, they had played live during the 70s (John even seemed to want to be touring around the world in 1981 playing some songs from The Guys too ) ...
Magic? I'm only saying that, as a group, they would have given the best of themselves ... and I think it'd be understandable ... and because of that, I think it's not fair to compare their stuff by late 70s with the one they could have produced together ... 'cos they would have used only the best tracks of George, John and Paul ...
I hope this makes it clearer
P.S. John was interested in reggae, for example, and Paul was trying new things, so they were not so "60s" ...
The main problem is that the pressure to reunite was never going to end. If John and George were still alive today and the Beatles had still not reunited, the demand would be greater than ever. People would say that they were up in years now and should really hurry up and reunite while they still have a chance. The Beatles may have responded to that idea and, who knows, maybe they'd have been feeling somewhat nostalgic at this period of their lives about their famous past glory. You know, a lot of old fogies get misty-eyed when reminiscing about their lost youth. For that matter, we may have had a very touchy-feely Beatles reunion. Not that I wanted that, believe you me!!! I just wanted them to play music together again.
But here's the thing, even if they entered the recording studio in wheelchairs, there'd have been an awful lot of people there to enable and assist them with the project. Heck, lots of people, including myself, just wanted to see the 4 of them together in a photograph!!! The Beatles inspired a cult-like status. That's what set them apart from all other bands in the world, no matter how talented or good they were. Why the Beatles acquired this God-like status on a global level is something scholars will analzye and debate about for a long time to come.
So I'm saying that whatever these tired old, out-of-practice, off-pitch, hoarse voiced, whispery, trembling old geezers had done together would have been appreciated by not just me but probably you and you and you and you ....
I think they'd have sounded good a cappella. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe I'm just too cultish to see it. Damn those blimey Beatles. I just can't or won't see them as ordinary mortals with all the attendant foibles, flaws and f-ups!! I guess I'd buy a reunion record even if it were "certified rubbish" as determined by the experts of the world. I think, in fact, I'd buy a reunion record of them just coughing together.
Oh well. Maybe they ought to assemble a hodgepodge concoction of Beatles sounds, voices, music and then mix it all together and call it "Revolution 9, the final movement." All together now: "BEATLES FOREVER!!" Now, Ghost John, Paul, Ghost George, and Ringo would make quite the Magical Mystery Tour, would'nt they? Ringo, George, Paul and Giles - care to produce a LOVE album, Part II?
But seriously, I think Paul and Ringo should produce a video featuring the images of John and George. Paul could probably write something that sort of captured their respective styles. Quite interesting, that'd be! Sort of an Anthology of Mind and Memory - a Pepperland in a strange universe where they can once again sing: "All together now..."
Personally I don't think magic or tension would have much to do with it. By 1979, they - like the Stones, Dylan, Clapton - had lost any relevance as recording acts. They had passed their sell by dates and in no way could have recaptured the creativity of their youth. They would have appealed only to other forty and overs. Look at the Anthology singles - most people I know (who aren't Beatle people) found them boring and overhyped (I remember the radio DJ saying after the first play "is that it?) Reunions rarely do well. Their best bet would have been a tour knocking out old Beatle songs, but no way George would have agreed to that (and would Ringo have needed a shadow drummer?)
[...]Look at the Anthology singles - most people I know (who aren't Beatle people) found them boring and overhyped (I remember the radio DJ saying after the first play "is that it?) [...]
They were from John demos done almost twenty years before, so they were "old" songs ...
They were from John demos done almost twenty years before, so they were "old" songs ...
I know, but they give an indication of what sort of material John was knocking out circa '79. And also to illustate that in the mid 90's - what with Brit Pop etc - I think a reunion was much more relevant in 95 than 79, and it was still a pretty lame effort. I can't really think of any songs they were putting out as individuals being really worthy of The Beatle name. Mind - I'm looking at this totally from a UK perspective. Maybe markets like USA and Japan would have been more receptive. I just fear that in the UK they would have been meet with a sneer as worn out irrelevant oldies trying to make a quick buck. The time wasn't right (if indeed it ever would be). And why ruin a beautiful dream. Breaking up in 70 means their music is forever locked in nicely with a sixties, and was never ruined by 70's excess or dimming lights.
I know, but they give an indication of what sort of material John was knocking out circa '79. And also to illustate that in the mid 90's - what with Brit Pop etc - I think a reunion was much more relevant in 95 than 79, and it was still a pretty lame effort.
Of course they were more relevant and seemed more important in the 90s than by late 70s ... but as singles of the Anthology they released what they could: "finished" (more or less) songs recorded as home demos by one John ... and it seems that he didn't think that they were good enough to release by his own (they were not outtakes from his Double Fantasy or Milk And Honey sessions) so I think it's somewhat unfair to think that they would have recorded songs like those in an hypothetical reunion ...
... anyway, in case of a reunion, I think they would have released 12-14 songs from the best ones of George, John and Paul ... and they had some good stuff acchording to the albums and bootlegs of that time ... not as great as they used to be? We'll never know what they would have produced exactly (surely no mere fillers), but I'm sure that they would have sounded different than their albums of that time, being the four playing on it ...
I've been reading John's 1980 Playboy interview again and these pass-ages are interesting ... (let's remember that he neededn't to say the following)
PLAYBOY: "It seems as if you're trying to say to the world, 'We were just a good band making some good music,' while a lot of the rest of the world is saying, 'It wasn't just some good music, it was the best.'"
LENNON: "Well, if it was the best, so what?"
PLAYBOY: "So..."
LENNON: "It can never be again! Everyone always talks about a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John, Bob Dylan... we're all relatively young people. The game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last record or the last Beatle concert... but, God willing, there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not judging whether 'I am the Walrus' is better or worse than 'Imagine.' It is for others to judge. I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge... I do."
PLAYBOY: "You keep saying you don't want to go back ten years, that too much has changed. Don't you ever feel it would be interesting... never mind cosmic, just interesting... to get together, with all your new experiences, and cross your talents?"
LENNON: "Wouldn't it be interesting to take Elvis back to his Sun Records period? I don't know. But I'm content to listen to his Sun Records. I don't want to dig him up out of the grave. The Beatles don't exist and can never exist again. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey could put on a concert... but it can never be the Beatles singing 'Strawberry Fields' or 'I Am The Walrus' again, because we are not in our 20s. We cannot be that again, nor can the people who are listening."
... and a while later he said:
PLAYBOY: "Aside from the millions you've been offered for a reunion concert, how did you feel about producer Lorne Michaels' generous offer of $3200 for appearing together on 'Saturday Night Live' a few years ago?"
LENNON: "Oh, yeah. Paul and I were together watching that show. He was visiting us at our place in the Dakota. We were watching it and almost went down to the studio, just as a gag. We nearly got into a cab, but we were actually too tired."
PLAYBOY: "How did you and Paul happen to be watching TV together?"
LENNON: "That was a period when Paul just kept turning up at our door with a guitar. I would let him in, but finally I said to him, 'Please call before you come over. It's not 1956 and turning up at the door isn't the same anymore. You know, just give me a ring.' He was upset by that, but I didn't mean it badly. I just meant that I was taking care of a baby all day and some guy turns up at the door... But, anyway, back on that night, he and Linda walked in and he and I were just sitting there, watching the show, and we went, 'Ha-ha, wouldn't it be funny if we went down?' but we didn't."
PLAYBOY: "Was that the last time you saw Paul?"
LENNON: "Yes, but I didn't mean it like that."
PLAYBOY: "We're asking because there's always a lot of speculation about whether the Fab Four are dreaded enemies or the best of friends."
LENNON: "We're neither. I haven't seen any of the Beatles for I don't know how much time. Somebody asked me what I thought of Paul's last album and I made some remark like, I thought he was depressed and sad. But then I realized I hadn't listened to the whole damn thing. I heard one track... the hit 'Coming Up,' which I thought was a good piece of work. Then I heard something else that sounded like he was depressed. But I don't follow their work. I don't follow Wings, you know. I don't give a mess what Wings is doing, or what George's new album is doing, or what Ringo is doing. I'm not interested, no more than I am in what Elton John or Bob Dylan is doing. It's not callousness, it's just that I'm too busy living my own life to be following what other people are doing, whether they're the Beatles or guys I went to college with or people I had intense relationships with before I met the Beatles."
I don't think there would be so much tension ... maybe between George and John but they could have talked and solved that quite easilly (Paul and John did) ... but who knows?
I think that the worst time for them were early 70s (Paul sued them in December 1970, insults and things through songs and interviews, spice-alley between Paul and John and all that) but in August 1971 George invited all of them to play in the Bangladesh Concert
BTW Rax, why all the speculation of what might have been if, as that article clearly points out, Lennon would never have gone for it?
Does the article say that? ...
... and it was fom 1980, the hipothetical reunion for the Kampuchea concert should have been the year before ... the doors were not closed but he said that they could never been the guys people knew, they were older then ... curiously, some close people to John say that he was playing with the idea of doing She Loves You and another old songs from the group in his 1981 tour ...
But only Ringo turned up. And George had to invite them. In the good old days, they would all have joined in spontaneously.
You're right, only Ringo, but I can't see why he had to invite them: it was two years (more or less) since the last time they all were together ... but, knowing what was happening by that time, it's very strange ... you know, being George the one who was inviting Paul!!! ... and, looking back at 1979 again and, after meeting -and playing together- at Eric's wedding, things seemed less horrible than most people used to tell ...
... hey, but I'm not saying that it would have been easy for them to be together again (I've mentioned The White Album sessions as a guideline), but that it would't have been necaesareany a miracle or whatever ... and, after all, they seemed to be playing with the idea (didn't Ringo answer once on TV -to one question about this hipothetical reunion- that by mid 70s all of them were talking to each other about a posible reunion? I know I've read that somewhere) ...
... the way I see all this is that it could have been more a matter of needing an "excuse" (and the original Anthology project was that excuse by that time) to do it more than having arguments or whatever between them (after all, they weren't meeting so much to have them ) ...
LENNON: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey could put on a concert... but it can never be the Beatles singing 'Strawberry Fields' or 'I Am The Walrus' again, because we are not in our 20s. We cannot be that again, nor can the people who are listening
And we're talking about a reunion, aren't we? ... and it's obvious that he didn't close the doors 'cos he agreed (the others too) to produce the autobiographical documentary ... they could be much closer than most people used to think ...
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I'm only saying that, as a group, they would have given the best of themselves ... and I think it'd be understandable ... and because of that, I think it's not fair to compare their stuff by late 70s with the one they could have produced together ... 'cos they would have used only the best tracks of George, John and Paul ... 
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