What do you think would have happened had Lennon lived?
Would he have consented to a Beatles reunion for the “Anthology” television project a few years ago?
Would the notably anti-establishment, cop-hating (but New York-loving) Lennon be partaking in the celebration of police officers via a benefit concert for the September 11 victims? Or would he sit it out?
I think that Lennon would be vocal with his support of police and firemen, but I think he would be equally as vocal about not supporting Bush. You know, give peace a chacne, and all that.
He’d probably do some bed-ins for charity or something.
I would like to believe that he and Paul would have mended their long-running feud and, perhaps, worked together again. John’s caustic comments on Paul’s style of music would likely have saved us from such horrors as “Say, Say, Say”, the hellish “Ebony and Ivory”, and the abysmal Give My Regards To Broad Street. I strongly believe that the Beatles, yes The Beatles, and NOT the semi-Led Zeppelin would have closed “Live Aid”. There would probably have been a Beatles Unplugged and a VH1’s Storytellers: The Beatles, too. As for 9/11, John would have been the first to offer help, either financially or musically.
Also, there wouldn’t have been an Anthology series.
No, I don’t think the Beatles would have got back together. They did that scene. I’m 48 now, no way am I still doing what I did in my 20’s, with the people from my 20’s. Things change, you get married, have kids, try new jobs and hobbies. You don’t go back to please other people, you do things to please yourself.
rande…
No, I don’t think that John Lennon would have reunited with the Beatles. He always said that he had moved on from the Beatles and that he would never go back.
As for police hating, Lennon and Ono donated a lot of money to the NYPD in the late 1970’s.
I would have to say that I agree that John Lennon would have been one of the first to offer help to the 9/11, by donating money and blood. He and Ono would have been at the benefit concert.
I had a dream, maybe a year or two ago, that a balding, gray haired John Lennon was on the Charlie Rose Show talking about his new album. (I probably fell asleep with Channel 12 running). He was dressed in a jersey type shirt, and wore a “NY” baseball cap. Shortly into the show he cracked a joke about being 60 soon, and gingerly lifted his cap, revealing a bald spot.
As I remember his new album was mostly acoustic guitar work and soft piano based-rock with Eric Clapton on guitar on a few tracks. It was a lot like “Flaming Pie”, very Beatles’ Anthology influenced. But, I remember he had one song that he did with Fatboy Slim. Sort of a slow trippy with a chanted vocal…like a techno “Tomorrow Never Knows”. He liked to have that one song that really stood apart on the album.
I know this because they played some snippets of the album during the interview. When asked about what he thought of his “radical” days - he said something like “well it’s easy to poke fun at ideas like bagism, and bed ins, and going naked on the “Two Virgins” cover - but you have to admit that a hell of a lot of change happened then, positive change…”
And Yoko was there too, essentially saying what she says now.
Ok I’m starting to sound like John Edward here (ugh). Anyway it was a pleasant dream I had…I’m not a wierdo!
Really!!
Lovely dream** saudade**; sure you weren’t channeling? 
I thought about that last night, watching a somewhat chunky wattled McCartney on stage. My WAG would be that those two might have gotten back together for a song or a project, but probably not as the Beatles. First off, Harrison wouldn’t want to be part of it. He had all the Beatles he could stand, thankyouverymuch, and he wouldn’t see the need. Ringo would go along with it, since he’s appeared with Paul on some things (“Take It Away” for example, with George Martin in the video playing keyboards).
There’s a lovely story Paul tells about the time on Saturday Night Live when they offered the Beatles something like $1,500 to appear on their stage. Paul and John were in New York watching that night, and they thought it would be a lark going down there and collecting. They went down to catch a taxi, and by that time the joke wore off and they ditched it.
I remember the huge fuss that erupted over just the rumor that “The Beatles would reunite!” which probably did the most to ensure that they never would. Why let themselves in for that kind of shit: going up there, rehearsing for a concert, giving it, and being told “awww, you’re not as good as you used to be!” Who needs it?
What also helped kill the Beatles was a limitation of imagination, in that it always appeared that they either had to be in the band, or not. Nowadays, you’d have artists going off, releasing their own work, then coming back into the group (Mick Jaggar, Phil Collins, KISS come to mind immediately). The Beatles didn’t seem to have that option, and made the splintering all the more permanent when it came.
So the Beatles wouldn’t have been reformed, but it would have been possible for Lennon/McCartney to show up again, either for an album or just a song or two. Their friendship would have survived.
I believe it was George who opined that even if they did reunite they wouldn’t be The Beatles; they’d be The Ex-Beatles.
If John Lennon were still alive, he would have been the first Beatle to make an appearance on The Simpsons - he probably would have beat Ringo to it.
In fact, I would go as far as hypothesizing that The Beatles would have re-united as a one-off event. And their only performance would have been in an episode of The Simpsons.
I think John and George took/take themselves much too seriously to ever do more than sing a song together at Ringo’s wedding (shortly after John died they did this.) Paul and Ringo like to sing and play and I think they would do so with just about any one of their friends. John and George were/are very much concerned with the artistic pressure this would put on them immediately and for the future.
I’d love to see how you follow up Abbey Road, but I don’t think you do. Their music progressed for eight years and came to its natural conclusion. As John said, put the records on anytime you want and there you have it. Their later work particularly wasn’t suitable to live performance, and they probably all agreed that they didn’t want to be stuck in the studio fishbowl with each other anymore.
There’s a time-travel card game by Looney Labs called Chrononauts, which I highly recommend if you like silly card games.
One of the “lynchpins” in history is John Lennon’s assasination, which the intrepid chrononaut can prevent. If you do so, the effects ripple forward in time, and inexplicably causes a paradox in the year 1986. This paradox is patched, and the integrity of the space-time continuum restored, when marijuana is legalized. Seems Senator Lennon staged a sucessful protest against in favor of legalizing marijuana on the Space Shuttle launch pad, and the Challenger couldn’t take off until later in the day when it was warmer. IIRC, Senator Lennon also bans guns, preventing the Columbine massacre as well.
'Tis a silly game.
~~If John was alive
The Beatles wouldn’t unite
George would abstain
…would have reunited, (I agree with the previous poster who stated that George had had enough), but I believe John and Paul would have mended their fences and written and performed together again.
Goddamn! John and Paul doing a live accoustic set of new material! If there’s a parallel universe where this could happen, then give me the drug that sends me there!
Nice thread!
Quasi
In this alternate universe where John Lennon was not shot there is no such thing as terrorism because there is world peace.