Alternative Timeline

Let’s carry on rewriting history. A few more years we can enjoy with The Beatles and maybe improve the past a bit using an alternative timeline. Although it can be questionable and it still is a subject open to debate. In the end, all four later admitted that they probably broke up at the right time anyway before they turned into Fat Elvis.

But that doesn’t stop us from thinking, does it? What if…? All we needed was a relatively decent dictator.. 

Fifty years and fans still don´t want to accept it. At least some of them. And me neither. I heard a call from John, who in one of his interviews suggested to fans who didn’t want to accept the band’s breakup just to pick their favourite songs from solo albums and create their own Beatles. 

I know there are hundreds, maybe thousands of similar efforts. Internet is full of different versions of the Beatles’ alternative history. Some of them are good, some not so much. But they all are interesting. And entertaining.

Unfortunately, most of fans just pick their favoured songs from each year and put them on the record. Almost just like the Beatles themselves did at the beginning of their careers.

But that’s not how it works. Or how it should be done. I try to make Beatles albums. They must have strong openers and suitable closing songs, the whole album should flow smoothly and songs follow each other effortlessly. It also means that sometimes there will be songs that you would not expect. Or would not want. Especially John’s devotees. Simply because Paul would force the others to do them. Or more precisely, they wouldn’t fight him, like they couldn’t when making Maxwell or Ob-La-Di. They would just give up. (We heard that before.. I´ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play.. or I won´t play at all if you don´t want me to play.. Whatever it is that will please you, I´ll do it) And that’s absolutely fine. Because it’s the diversity, the different styles, the variance or the depth or whatever we want to call it, that’s what makes the Beatles what they are.

Lots of other fans also try to use basically every song they’ve done each year. So they make double, sometimes triple albums. I don’t think that’s necessary. Many songs from the 70’s are just not the Beatles standard. That’s why I used only the best ones.

I always wanted to do it. To extend The Beatles’ career for at least another five years. So I’m fulfilling my childhood dream now, and maybe that inspires some of you to try to make your alternate universe. I wonder how much you will like or hate some of the songs I chose and how different your albums would be. 

I’ve made my job easier with album titles, I admit.  And the covers are nothing special either, but I’m not Klaus Voormann. And it was fun to make them.

So here are five more years and five more albums as they might have looked like in my universe. And then maybe some compilations when they run out of money. Perhaps even a surprising reunion in 1980, when John finally left Yoko and climbed out of the cave back to the Earth’s surface..