If John Lennon had lived?

Bryan91

I imagine that his career would have taken a downfall during the 80s and 90s. His 1980 album Double Fantasy was a failure when it came out. It originally sold poorly and had bad reviews. After his death, the album topped the charts and went 3x multi platinum in the US. I imagine that if Lennon had lived, his double fantasy album wouldn't even have gone gold, let alone 3x multi platinum and would had never topped the charts. I imagine his career declining throughout the 1980s.

The Beatles might have done Live Aid in 1985, especially at a time when Lennon career is going down but would it had receive positively? It could had been like Led zeppelin live 1985 performance, a performance that is not look back on fondly.

Would The beatles have done the anthology albums of the 1990s? If they do the anthology albums, would it topped the charts and become massive sellers? To be honest, I doubt that this would happen. The anthology albums could probably had been released in the 1990s but maybe it would had sold poorly.

Another question is The Beatles 1? I think The Beatles 1 would still had come out in the 2000s since The beatles greatest hits album needed to be release in the 2000s but would it have had the same success?
 

Bryan91

The beatles could reunite for a couple of performances but there is a chance that it might not had been received well.

I also think that if John Lennon had lived, there is a chance that he may developed a feud or a grudge against Paul Mccartney's success, maybe even call him a sellout and a fake.

To be honest, this is ironic but I don't see a happy ending if John Lennon had lived. His career was kind of gone by the time he returned back to music around 1980 and the album Double Fantasy was a flop when it originally came out. I don't think Lennon would have done well in the 80s at all. As long as he is with Yoko Ono, his career would be in shambles and there probably would had been no comeback for him to be honest.

Also, I think he could become reclusive like Axl Rose did for the later 1990s. There is a chance that Lennon might escape the media and if his career does poorly, I think this is probably what he would had done. He most likely would had been bitter at Paul Mccartney, I could definitely imagine this happening.
 

overoceans

Bryan91 said:
His career was kind of gone by the time he returned back to music around 1980 and the album Double Fantasy was a flop when it originally came out. I don't think Lennon would have done well in the 80s at all.
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FWIW, I remember the song Nobody Told Me being fairly popular, after it was finally released in 1984. Not sure what the critics said about it, but it seemed to be getting a lot of radio play. And it really fit the mood of the era, despite having been entirely written, and mostly recorded, four years earlier.
 

Bryan91

overoceans said:
FWIW, I remember the song Nobody Told Me being fairly popular, after it was finally released in 1984. Not sure what the critics said about it, but it seemed to be getting a lot of radio play. And it really fit the mood of the era, despite having been entirely written, and mostly recorded, four years earlier.
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He was already dead in 1984. What did you thought of him in 1980, before his death? What did you thought of him as a solo career artist in 1980 before death?
 

Bryan91

I read somewhere that John Lennon was a drug addict and I could see him struggling with drugs in the 1980s. I'll be honest but I don't think there would had been a comeback for him at all in the 1980s.

If you look at the 80s in popular music, things were so different compared to the mid-1960s-early 1970s that I don't know where Lennon would had fit in?

There would had been new wave, synthpop, hair metal, heavy metal, dance-pop, r&b, electronic music and other stuff that I honestly don't know where Lennon would had fit in all of that. I'll have to say it but Lennon was finished musically and that his assassination kind of saved his career at that time where it was definitely declining before his death.
 

Bryan91

There is a chance that the anthology albums could had been butterflied away if John Lennon had lived. I do think that The beatles 1 would still had come out in 2000 since The beatles had greatest hits albums before Lennon died but there is also a good chance that The beatles 1 would not had been that successful.

I think that Lennon's death saved his career and it saved The beatles's career in the 1990s into the 21st century. If The beatles reunite for Live aid in 1985 or even for a later 1980s concert, it would had been seen as a concert for older people by the younger folks at that time. The younger folks were into hair metal, heavy metal, new wave, dance-pop and other stuff in the 80s that a Beatles reunion would not have done anything impressive to them in the 1980s.
 
Mad Bad Rabbit

Mad Bad Rabbit

A weird dream I once had: "Late Night With John Lennon" (theme song "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", bandleader Harry Nilssen as his sidekick).

Apparently a crazed fan had attacked him with a knife and damaged his hands too badly to ever play again, forcing him to reinvent himself as a talk host (in OTL he and Yoko had guest hosted the Mike Douglas Show for a week)
 

SuperWanton&85

Banned
John Lennon would have a premiered Grammy Award and the documentary TV shows sometimes in the 1990s to develop the musical enthusiastic and the storyline of frighten scenario almost assassinate.
 
ordinarylittleme

ordinarylittleme

Mad Bad Rabbit said:
A weird dream I once had: "Late Night With John Lennon" (theme song "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", bandleader Harry Nilssen as his sidekick).

Apparently a crazed fan had attacked him with a knife and damaged his hands too badly to ever play again, forcing him to reinvent himself as a talk host (in OTL he and Yoko had guest hosted the Mike Douglas Show for a week)
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That could I suppose happen ITTL. Yoko would be GREAT as a talk show host
 
ordinarylittleme

ordinarylittleme

Bryan91 said:
There is a chance that the anthology albums could had been butterflied away if John Lennon had lived. I do think that The beatles 1 would still had come out in 2000 since The beatles had greatest hits albums before Lennon died but there is also a good chance that The beatles 1 would not had been that successful.

I think that Lennon's death saved his career and it saved The beatles's career in the 1990s into the 21st century. If The beatles reunite for Live aid in 1985 or even for a later 1980s concert, it would had been seen as a concert for older people by the younger folks at that time. The younger folks were into hair metal, heavy metal, new wave, dance-pop and other stuff in the 80s that a Beatles reunion would not have done anything impressive to them in the 1980s.
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Explain the bit about his death being good for his career?
 

Bryan91

ordinarylittleme said:
Explain the bit about his death being good for his career?
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Before John Lennon died, his Double Fantasy album flopped on the charts and got critically panned. It wasn't until he died that the album would topped the charts and that he would win the grammy award for album of the year.

All of that was because the man died. Butterflied his death and none of that success happens. Instead, you will see a struggling Lennon in the 80s as the music world passed him by.
 
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Bryan91

For the people that are doing this about what if he survives the assissination, that is not what my question is about. In fact, lets butterfly away the assissination attempt by Chapman, I definitely see Lennon's career in shambles if there was no assissination attempt/was murdered. He would have most likely decline in success and be bitter at Paul Mccartney.
 

Bryan91

There is also a chance that The beatles would had been heavily affected if John lennon had lived. I think that the massive success that The beatles got around the 1990s-2000s would had been butterflied away.

The beatles can reunite in the 1980s and even 1990s for live performances but the magic would had been gone. You would have seen a bunch of older men without the mop tops singing old songs and the critics disliking it.

The problem with The beatles performing live together in the 1980s and even 1990s is that they would have no charisma on stage with the exception of Paul Mccartney and that people would have been quickly to compare that against their 1964 live performances and would have said that they look terrible now. They look old is probably what the people of that time would have said.

Without good looks, charisma and other things, your reunion performances are not going anywhere.
 
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Bryan91

By the way, I don't dislike The beatles or John lennon, in fact they are one of my favorite bands/artists but lets be realistic here, if The beatles did reunion concerts in the 80s-90s, those concerts would had been critically panned because The beatles would had look and sound different compared to 1964. In order to have a successful Beatles reunion concert, you will need to bring the moptop back and make sure that they sound like a updated version of themselves from 1964. By the 80s, The beatles would had been completely different from their 1964 days that doing reunion concerts with a different image and being about 20-25 years older than their 1964 days would had been something for critics to hate/dislike on. They also would had sounded very different as well.

Lennon was done musically in 1980 and his death made him a martyr figure but before that he was a had been. I'm being realistic here. The magic of the 60s was gone by the 1980s.
 
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Bryan91

ordinarylittleme said:
Why is everyone saying John, if he lived, would be bitter towards Paul ??
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I think that is jealousy on Lennon's part. Lennon formed The beatles but Paul was actually the more successful singer/musician/artist than Lennon. Paul had a much more successful career in the 70s and also 80s than Lennon.
 
ordinarylittleme

ordinarylittleme

Bryan91 said:
I think that is jealousy on Lennon's part. Lennon formed The beatles but Paul was actually the more successful singer/musician/artist than Lennon. Paul had a much more successful career in the 70s and also 80s than Lennon.
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OK, true. Well if he lived, Yoko would not be a widow and perhaps they could even have a second child, though Yoko was in her forties by then.
 

SuperWanton&85

Banned
My thought is the Beatles could played musical tribute with John Lennon in various concerts somewhere in London to celebrate the 30th anniversary in long musical song tunes
 

Bryan91

ordinarylittleme said:
OK, true. Well if he lived, Yoko would not be a widow and perhaps they could even have a second child, though Yoko was in her forties by then.
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Yes, I think that they would had been together for the rest of the 1980s.

Lennon's career would had massively decline in the 80s. There was so much new music in the 80s that Lennon's music would had been largely passe by that point. What does he has to offer at that time? He has no sex appeal for the 1980s young females, he is married to Yoko Ono for many years by that point, he is not making loud bombastic hard rock/heavy metal music for young boys to listen to, he is not making catchy 80s Wham pop music for girls, what exactly does Lennon has to offer to the 1980s audience? I'll say it bluntly, nothing. Nothing at all. His musical career in my opinion was over by 1980.
 
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