I personally think that they would have been on the level of 3 Dog Night or Steppenwolf. Harder rock but still with that hit making potential.
John actually said in an interview somewhere that he thought that – had The Beatles remained together – they would have sounded a lot like ELO.
I think listening to their solo efforts you could gague what they would have sounded like together. Certainly George’s songs would have remained almost the same as they did on his solo albums. There would have been subtle changes on John or Paul’s songs – the sort of thing they always did where one would polish the other’s composition, or add something they were already working on to the other’s song.
‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ (the two John songs that the other Beatles added to back in the 1990s) shows that the complimentary magic they had during the 1960s was still there.
Going back to John’s comments about ELO, it’s interesting that former ELO front-man Jeff Lynn produced both ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ and he was also a part of The Travelling Wilburys, of which George Harrison was also a member. Some of the Wilburys’ songs are very Beatleish and the band included two performers who were big influences on The Beatles – Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. Maybe The Beatles would have developed a sound a lot more like The Travelling Wilburys?
I very much doubt The Beatles of the 1970s would have had any one particular sound like Steppenwolf, because each brought their own influences that have continued in their solo efforts. John would always return to his love of rock and roll and some doo wop as well as his protest songs. Paul was heavily influenced by classical and folk music and developed a love of reggae which cropped up from time to time. George was probably the one that remained closest to the Beatles style, but he still continued his love of Indian music. Finally, Ringo seemed to stick with a mix of rock and roll, skiffle, country and show tunes. These influences made up the whole Beatles sound and none of them ever abandoned these styles afterwards.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:37 am
i think a bit like pink floyd cause the beatles tried to keep up with changing styles in music and they definitely did enough drugs to go there.
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December 29th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Maybe they would have gone disco like the Bee Gees. That was always a possibility.
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December 29th, 2009 at 6:58 am
John actually said in an interview somewhere that he thought that – had The Beatles remained together – they would have sounded a lot like ELO.
I think listening to their solo efforts you could gague what they would have sounded like together. Certainly George’s songs would have remained almost the same as they did on his solo albums. There would have been subtle changes on John or Paul’s songs – the sort of thing they always did where one would polish the other’s composition, or add something they were already working on to the other’s song.
‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ (the two John songs that the other Beatles added to back in the 1990s) shows that the complimentary magic they had during the 1960s was still there.
Going back to John’s comments about ELO, it’s interesting that former ELO front-man Jeff Lynn produced both ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ and he was also a part of The Travelling Wilburys, of which George Harrison was also a member. Some of the Wilburys’ songs are very Beatleish and the band included two performers who were big influences on The Beatles – Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. Maybe The Beatles would have developed a sound a lot more like The Travelling Wilburys?
I very much doubt The Beatles of the 1970s would have had any one particular sound like Steppenwolf, because each brought their own influences that have continued in their solo efforts. John would always return to his love of rock and roll and some doo wop as well as his protest songs. Paul was heavily influenced by classical and folk music and developed a love of reggae which cropped up from time to time. George was probably the one that remained closest to the Beatles style, but he still continued his love of Indian music. Finally, Ringo seemed to stick with a mix of rock and roll, skiffle, country and show tunes. These influences made up the whole Beatles sound and none of them ever abandoned these styles afterwards.
References :