After seeing this great promo image from Capitol in 1974
https://twitter.com/Doctor_J_/status/1104807129007951878 I decided to work it into a 70s Beatles album cover. And so...
The Beatles - Communications (1976)
View attachment 446696
SIDE ONE
You Can't Catch Me
Rock Show
Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
This Song
(It's All Da-Da-Down To) Goodnight Vienna
SIDE TWO
Ya Ya
Steel And Glass
Crackerbox Palace
I'll Still Love You
Night Out
“Every time The Beatles are lucky, people assume we're clever. When we did Communications, we didn't know about The Damned or what was happening in London or any of that[1]. We were a bunch of old rockers who'd gone completely Hollywood and were too off our faces to think about whether we were speaking to the world's youth…but we owed EMI a record! I’d been sued by Morris Levy - Apple's lawyers had managed to talk him into settling as long as two of his songs appeared on a Beatles album [2]. Paul had used up all his big ballad ideas on his own release [so] we had to rock hard, it was all we had left in the tank.”
John Lennon, The Late Show, BBC2 1989
“I was upset that they didn't ask me to produce it. They'd tried that before, recording an "honest" album with no overdubs; that dissolved into bickering and recrimination, so Brian Epstein sent them all home to cool off [3]. I thought that's what was happening this time. No sooner was there talk of a new Beatles album, the next thing I heard it was going to come out with the credit, "Produced by The Beatles". I felt a little betrayed, until Paul told me why.”
George Martin, Arena, BBC1 2011
“Somehow, we recorded a good album when we didn't really want to work together, but I think the difference between Communications and stuff like The White Album and the Get Back sessions was that in the last two, we resented each other. On Communications we were all on good terms…we just resented...working, really. We decided to be good boys and get some stuff demoed in LA…halfway through, we thought, "this is good enough as it is". So, we recorded everything at Brother Studios [4] and just sent that to EMI. People say "The Beatles invented New Wave". No, they didn't. The Beatles just released their demos!”
Paul McCartney, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time, VH1 1997
“It wasn't sloppy by any means. We did overdubs and everything, but not of outside musicians, just ourselves. We'd get a basic track down with guitar, bass and drums and then we'd go back and add my guitar and John or Paul would add an extra bit of guitar, so it was four musicians doing the work of five. It came out sounding a bit like Revolver really [5]. Except, we didn't bother with any reverb, so that gave the whole thing a really nice punch. Best of all, it was a laugh to record. We hadn't been that close for a long time; close enough that John sang one of mine and I sang one of his[6]. Paul was all written out, [it was] his own fault for doing a solo album. We felt sorry for him and let him have one of the covers, so apart from Ringo's one, we all got three vocals each.”
George Harrison, Anthology, 1995 [7]
“I loved that one, even though I only got one song on it. I was heartbroken when the reviews came in. The critics hated it. I think because it was only half an hour long. You weren't a serious musician in those days if you didn't release the longest album you could. Didn't matter to us in the end…it sold and sold and sold.”
Ringo Starr, Wogan, BBC1 1983
[1] I've avoided using the word "punk". The Beatles accidentally releasing a starkly stripped-down rock album will have bent the timeline somewhat. I'm not saying punk wouldn't happen, but I tried to sidestep answering the question.
[2] Confession, I just didn't want to clutter this album with three covers, so I used the change in timeline as an excuse. I know John Lennon still didn't manage to get all three agreed upon songs released IOTL, but I just thought I'd tidy it up completely.
[3] So the sessions never get as far as being turned into an album.
[4] This is in the same timeline as the one where Paul and Brian Wilson have worked on some songs together. It seems to have resulted in an invitaiton to take advantage of Brother Studios if Paul or his friends were in the neighbourhood. I know Brother Studios was in Santa Monica, not LA. Paul is either misremembering or just using the name of the city people are more likely to have heard of.
[5] So while I've used Beatles solo numbers from OTL, the recordings sound very different ITTL.
[6] I just love the idea of John singing Crackerbox Palace in a more acidic tone. George takes Steel And Glass in return. Paul sings Ya Ya.
[7] The Anthology still happens in 1995, even though the still together Beatles being happy to be interviewed together should bring it forward, their being together also means there's more history for the show to cover, so it takes until 1995 to get it done.
With thanks to my friend Gary for editing this for me.