Watched a doco about Pink Floyd last night and it got me a thinking.
In late 66 you had The Beatles doing stadiums, Pink Floyd doing their special effect sonic adventures (and Zappa in the US) and Dylan doing his accoustic/electric extended song sets. All of them pointing ahead to the future (though I can't help but think that it was Dylan who was nearer to the future.)
By now The Beatles 20 minute pop sets were out of date with anyone over fifteen, and one way or another they had to change or bottle it. So they chose the bottle option.
But could they have moved on. If they'd done some discreet gigs at the Roundhouse maybe. Could they have kept  the screaming girls away? I think yes. Sadly though, I'm not sure they could have performed adequately in front of a discerning audience that actually listened.
If they were as poor as Paul said, then all that fabulous drumming, bass and chomping rhythm guitar on Rubber Soul and Revolver has to be put down to George Martin’s wizardry, not the talents of the band. I have trouble accepting that.
This might be a bit of a non-post, but I want to talk about something Beatley for a change.