Paul MCartney was the first Beatle. to go solo suppose jOHN. Ringo. George and Kluas vorman who did the cover for rubber soul and did bass form manford man recorded one last Beatles album with the remaining Beatles sans Paul. would that album sell?
I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t sell. The magic, though, to me was John & Paul as a songwriting team, of course. But, yeah, I can’t see why the public wouldn’t eat up anything Beatles related, even if it’s just 3 of 4 original members.
Ringo made an album in 1973 — Ringo — with the other three Beatles on it. They just didn’t play on the same songs. It was, by far, Ringo’s best-selling post-Beatles album.
Shoot, I woulda bought it. I think you’re right about the Lennon/McCartney song writing thing. I don’t know how long they could of carried on. Live shows were not possible anymore. John did write some very nice songs alone, and he helped Ringo and George alot. So, yeah, it could of worked!
Debate point: wasn’t that collaboration essentially dead by 1966, anyway?
For me, the last song which seemed like a smooth team effort was “We Can Work It Out.”
By the April 1967 “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields” single release, it was REALLY clear which was a “John Song” or a “Paul Song.” “A Day in the Life” was just a John Song mooshed up with a Paul Song.
On the White Album (Nov., 1968) it was hard to find a track where all four of them were even playing together. Paul did his own drumming on “Martha, My Dear.”
I always thought they wrote “The two of us” on Let it Be, together. Might have been wishful thinking on my fan-girl addled brain
A lot of the stuff on Let it Be was REALLY old, like, their teenage stuff — that’s why it’s considered a crap album, especially for following up Abbey Road. Not sure about “Two of Us.”
You dont like Let it be, omg! Seriously I have very little music sense, I just like what I like. I bow to your knowledge on these points!
“Two of Us” was all Paul.
However, John and Paul split the songwriting on “I’ve Got a Feeling.”
I don’t think you were ever going to see a Beatles album without all four members. It was an ego thing. Suppose the other three had released an album after Paul left and the record buying public decided that Klaus Voormann was not an adequate substitute. So the album didn’t sell as well as previous Beatles albums. Do you really think John could have liked the idea that the Beatles weren’t as popular without Paul? And if the situation had reversed, Paul wouldn’t have liked finding out how popular the Beatles were without John. So the rivalry between the two of them would have prevented either from releasing a Beatles album without the other. And if John and Paul left the band, I don’t see George and Ringo keeping it going.
I did hear once that John casually suggested replacing George with Clapton-- sort of a “do you think Eric would go for it?” kind of thing.
I think I heard it on the George Harrison doc “Living in the Material World,” but I’m not sure.
Not sure how that would’ve gone over with the fans, but probably not as bad as replacing Paul (or John) would have.
Ringo played on John’s Plastic Ono Band album, and George played on Imagine (and Klaus Voorman on both).
They still had some input into each others songs, but it was that: input into each other’s songs, rather than songs they wrote together.
“One After 909” fits this description, but I’m not sure “a lot” does.
To the extent that it’s a “crap album,” it’s the production that often gets a big part of the blame.
I’m not a Beatles historian by any stretch, but that doesn’t sound wrong to me. It’s probably more accurate for me to say that the presence of both personalities in the band helped to keep each other in check. Plus their wonderful harmonies together–I just love the way John and Paul harmonize. But I don’t know–I’m not a Beatleologist. My favorite period of them is Rubber Soul/Revolver.
There is something significant about ‘Two of Us’ but I’m not sure I am remembering it correctly. I believe that was the last song John and Paul recorded together (which is a tiny bit ironic).
mmm
True — but not quite so ironic when you realize that the “two” (in the composer/lyricist’s mind) were probably Paul and Linda.