Here's a question for alternative universe ponderers.  Ringo quits during the White Album.  Only in this universe he never comes back.  Pauls does the drumming until a replacement is found.  Who is it?  I don't know--haven't figure that out yet.

George also quits, feeling slighted by the lack of input of his songs.  

John talks a distracted Eric Clapton into subbing for a band now called the Lennon & McCartney Experience.  Or the Lenna-Macca-Expa, for short.

John and Paul are able to pursue side projects: John does his Heavy Breathing released in 1969 and Paul offers the public Granny Pinched Me on My Arse the following year.

Meanwhile, Ringo starts a two-drummer band with erstwhile Beatle Pete Best.  While their recording success is limited, they becomes an opening act for Elvis in Vegas.  Ringo is reported to say, "El was always bigger than the Beatles."

George, meanwhile, takes up ostrich-farming as means to offer the world a low-fat white meat that tastes as good as chicken.  Although this endeavor fails, he does popularize the sport of ostrich-polo (particularly in South Africa).  He continues to dabble in music releasing a solo album every ten to fifteen years.

Lenna-Macca-Expa finally disbands in the late-70s as a disco album bombs.  Macca, however, has been saving all his money and buys the Beatles catalogue out from under an outraged Lennon.  McCartney then goes back and rerecords every album in the Beatles catalogue--with McCartney playing every instrument and singing every part.  This keeps him busy through the mid-90s--preventing him from recording a lot of crap.

Lennon finds happiness, not in the arms of Yoko Ono, but making and flying ultralight airplanes.  He designs his own fourteen-winged plane out of tissue paper and balsa wood and tries to regain fame in 1980 by making the first transatlantic solo flight in an ultralight aircraft.  He takes off from Long Island, but abruptly crashes on Montauk Point, putting an end to "the dream" forever.

But all that had happened for sure ... Haven't you see "Back To The Future Part V"?: when the written word inside that circle was "NO" instead of "YES" and John didn't met Yoko again! LOL!

Good exercise of imagination, adamzero!

Well thought out. Enjoyable read. Beatles AND side-projects. Wish they could have done that to stay together.

i say if we change the space-time continuim and go back and have MDC accidentally kill yoko instead of john, that should get him to come back and reunite w/ the beatles. and then george finds the cancer before it could cause any harm, so he dies 10 years later of a heart attack. john lives to his 78th b-day

Or that George gives up smoking. Better still.

Quoted from adamzero

Pauls does the drumming until a replacement is found.  Who is it?  I don't know--haven't figure that out yet.

Answer: nobody. The Beatles were by then a studio band and didn't need a regular drummer. They could've just hired someone like everyone else was doing back then.

Quoted from Biscuit_Power

Answer: nobody. The Beatles were by then a studio band and didn't need a regular drummer. They could've just hired someone like everyone else was doing back then.

I agree with this, but just for giggles, lets say they used Jim Keltner. I'd be happy with that.

I'm sure that Paul would have been the studio drummer



What do you think? And who didn't ... with such a funny kit?!!!  

No George, huh?

That's a pretty sick alternative universe, man. Send that one into Marvel.

Quoted from tkitna

I agree with this, but just for giggles, lets say they used Jim Keltner. I'd be happy with that.

Keith Moon would be interesting, but it wouldn't work. Too aggressive.

You would think in this alternate universe, JOhn would surrvive. How about they stayed together and just toured and toured making huge boat loads of money. Sort of like the Rolling Stones. Only better. And then in 2010, a life serum was invented allowing them to live forever and ever.

^Sounds like my kind of universe. Also, in this universe i would be six feet tall.

Six feet?? Mairi: the Amazon from Candada. I think 5'8'' would be good enough for me!

Heh heh. I guess I would settle for 5'8". I'm like, 5'3", so...

lol nice idea!! but come on, the beatles doing a disco album!!!!

Paul did a disco album....I'm sure if The Beatles were still together in 1980 that Paul would have tried to convince them to do a disco album.

Some of John's stuff from the mid-70s is proto-disco: "What You Got" "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"--chunka-chunka dance boogie machine music.

George laid down some funky grooves on "33 and 1/3."

(On the other hand, with the exception of a couple more orchestrated songs, John's POB is almost an early punk album.)  

Oh, I just thought of the title of their hypothetical disco album: "MacLennon Moves" with John and Paul on the cover with Beegees outfits, standing back to back doing the Travolta point.  

Sorry to put that image in your heads, folks.

Quoted from tkitna

I agree with this, but just for giggles, lets say they used Jim Keltner. I'd be happy with that.

That's a great point. There are alot of unsung heroes that played pivotal roles in the Beatles' lives, like Jim, the Jesse Ed Davis' of the world that could have been called in at any time. I read that when George walked out, John hardly gave a mess and said "Call Eric" (Clapton). At that point in their career, they weren't the Moptopped Fab Four anymore, they'd all sprouted by then.

If that really had happened, and whoever may have replaced George and Ringo, I think it's possible that the 1st album together would have sold well but future releases would have had drifting sales - like their solo work.