The Fingerprints Of Epstein - Yet Another Beatles TL
- Thread starter QTXAdsy
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Live and Let Die is still the main theme for the film much like with OTL, sorry if i didn'tmake that clear, just that poor George got the short end when his own song got barely heard, I based the latter in the other Bond film From Russia With Love in which the theme sung by Matt Munroe is heard for very briefly on a radio in the background despite being the main theme of the film.
Regarding cameos, by the time of filming of LALD in 1972, the band would have been busy recording Everest and unable to take part for any cameos, not to say we'll be seeing that later ITTL so keep an eye out on that...
A Band (On The Run) in Nigeria
Now then, we get into the next big part of the timeline in which if you've been following in which we go into 1973 with a major part in the band's history ITTL so let's begin as I'm sure you can see where this is going...
A Band (On The Run) In Nigeria
Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
While the song Live And Let Die had been a welcomed feel good story for the band to put them on the up, it was still only a single and to many The Beatles wouldn't be considered to be back until they released a hit album though after the lack of commercial success Everest had the previous year, some who had long been hoping for The Beatles' bubble to burst for many years might have been rubbing their hands in glee and that surely they couldn't come back from that again. Brian Epstein knew that 1973 was pretty much the make or break year for the band and the thought that this year marked the 10th anniversary when Beatlemania first started making itself heard, the thought that on Beatlemania's 10th anniversary it could be all killed on a whimper seemed like a sorry state of affairs and not he blaze of glory anyone would hope to go down with and Epstein knew that if their next album turned out to be another Everest then even he was aware that The Beatles would be finished. The idea of what songs or the theme of the album was unknown but one thing was certain that there would be some old faces joining the band once again to help.
After how well things had worked would with producer Live and Let Die, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion to have George Martin producer the next album, the first since Abbey Road, in which with Phil Spector not wanting to work with John Lennon again, meant that they needed an old set of hands to help them get through while also to help out was the band's long time engineer Geoff Emerick who had not worked with the band since the White Album and also would be Mal Evans adding some support in which from the start it did feel like a lot of the old guard were back which did make this feel like what some would say a traditional Beatles album from a few years ago though the location as it turned was far from a traditional spot. Epstein had been hoping to return to record the album at either the band's famous studio homes of Abbey Road or Savile Row as too were Martin and Emerick as they felt it was a more controlled environment that was familiar to them yet the band, mostly Paul McCartney, had other ideas...
After how lacklustre he felt the recording was in New York with Everest, McCartney had suspected that working in that environment hadn't helped them in which he felt was almost akin to that of the At Work sessions at Twickenham and that recording somewhere more foreign and more exotic that wasn't either in Britain or America was perhaps an idea to help spark creative juices to energise the songs and John Lennon would actually get behind the idea in which he stated that he just needed to get out the US after what he had been though so far. Ringo Starr was happy just to tag along as was Billy Preston but it was surprising that George Harrison got behind the idea to record in another country though perhaps for other reasons other than music. His own marriage with Pattie was falling apart and despite Epstein trying all he could to help the couple in which he had grown close to, he feared that it was a dead-end in which Harrison's infamous infidelities and the shadow of Eric Clapton looming large in the background being infatuated with Patti creating a rock n roll triangle all just seemed to make Epstein sadly aware that the Harrisons' marriage was doomed.
Harrison simply wanted to get away from his own personal life and in truth, they all needed time away from the media spotlight that came with being a Beatle and so it was decided that somewhere outside the UK or the US would be looked at and thus a list of possible EMI international recording studios were looked at either in Europe or South America with Monaco and Brazil being at one point likely choices to record [1], that was until the the name of Lagos in Nigeria appeared in which seemed so far off the beaten track and the last place one would record an album, never mind a Beatles album that simply needed to work, that the temptation to record somewhere that was so different was actually welcomed and so with much preparation, the band would fly out from the UK and head to Africa for the first time along with their entourage and into the unknown and a very different world from what they were expecting.
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Extract from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
When Lagos was picked, the idea that the band had in mind recording out there was that it would would be a glamorous location where the band along with their partners could sun on the beach during the day and record at night; the reality, however, was this was just three years after the end the brutal Nigerian Civil War in which the country was in the process of rebuilding itself and things still then were tense and the country was still being run by a corrupt military government and when the band arrived in August, it marked the tailed of West Africa's monsoon season when heat and humidity peaked and if that wasn't bad enough cholera was at near epidemic levels in which shockingly enough The Beatles and their entourage were unaware of until they were in the country.
Today, a quick internet search would have shown what the place was actually like for if the band had done, their vision of an exotic location would have been shattered but alas it was too late by the time they realised they had made a mistake in coming. However the plane journey over would actually be the starting block of what this new album was going to be and that compared to other Beatles album, this was going to something truly different in which there was a feeling that this could be the end in which given how things were with the band and how many of their personal lives were all in a precarious position from Lennon and Harrison own respective marriage problems, Billy Preston's struggles of keeping his homosexually secret from the world and even Ringo Starr's own drinking problems that had started to creep up in recent years, they all did look like a group that was going to break up but rather collapse under their own weight. With them all wanting to run away from their problems and the glare of the media on them, it was suggested by McCartney for the new album to reflect their feeling which would be Band On The Run which given the circumstances was actually a fitting title the rest of the band would say they were in but it would be more than that.
The feeling would be that if this possibly the last Beatles album to record then they might as well go all out on it and make the best possible album in which any problems they all had could be thrown to the side and focus on the music in which the idea of making it into a concept album came about. By this point, the idea of concept albums had started to gain traction from the late 60's onwards and the band themselves had even had this planned for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band back in the day to tell a themed story around a band but this was dropped in which it became a collection of songs thrown together [2]. Now a few years later, the concept album itself would be looked at again only this time followed through on and the fact the album itself would be about another band funnily enough didn't go unnoticed by some even then.
It was also here that if they were to go fully with it being a concept album then Epstein would tell them that they'd have to do it proper by making it a double album in which had its positives and negatives. The White Album had been the last time the band had done a double album and was of course well documented of being a difficult album to record due many of the many directions the band was in and the idea of going through that all again was something that made them shudder even if things were looking to be very different here. That being said, it did mean that more songs could be included and this was an idea that was tempting for The Beatles in which while the ten song rule for all future Beatles album that had been place for the last three years which give Lennon, McCartney and Harrison and equal shared number of songs, it did prove flawed in which while the likes of Harrison would get more songs on a Beatles album than what he would have would have gotten on any Beatles album pre-1968, there was still a backlot of songs that they all had still wanting to be recorded and the idea of changing up the system now looked like a good time to do it here.
In fact, one of the first songs Harrison would propose to the band on the flight over once the name of the album had been chosen would Not Guilty, a song he had written as far back as 1968 yet had never really gotten any luck until now in which it's title fitted the concept album idea so well that everything else all just started to fall into place in which the album would be, as the album title suggests, a band on the run who are criminals and the madcap escape they are on. It would be then decided that the double album would have a large number of twenty songs on it, six each for Lennon, McCartney and Harrison while Starr would gain two, in which the ten song rule would be followed through in somewhat and the band seemed keened to get started and couldn't wait to record in Lagos. That excited was then crushed it was fair to say when the band arrived at the recording studio and surrounding area and only then realised what they had landed themselves in.
To say the studio they were to record their ambitious album was to say it didn't look up for the task would be an understatement. Located in the Lagos suburb of Apapa, the building was really a ramshackle tin shed and an under-equipped one at that. George Martin, Mal Evans and Geoff Emerick would then discover that the control desk was faulty, the microphones second-rate and there was a single Studer 8-track on which to record the album on [3]; Martin would admit that when he saw what they had to record with in which he feared that recording of the album was doomed to fail but alas they were here and had to make the best out of bad situation. Nonetheless, they would all set up camp and would rent houses near the airport in Ikeja, a half hour's drive away from the studio and it would be that Paul, Linda and their three children would stay in one house; John and May Pang would stay in another; George and Ringo shared another; Brian Epstein and Billy Preston with another house and finally Mal Evans, Geoff Emerick and George Martin with another house.
They were out of their comfort zone though in truth The Beatles had all stayed in worse conditions during their early club and touring days and in some ways given all the trouble surrounding the band and being in what some would say was a hell hole, the sense of deprivation and danger in Nigeria would actually help bond a sense of camaraderie once more though perhaps this wasn't the same for May Pang who for someone in their early twenties, the whole experience in Nigeria she would later explain was a true fish out of water experience in which after a life for most of her life in New York was now suddenly in short space of time flung half way round the world first flown to England before now ending up in Nigeria and did wonder what on Earth had Yoko gotten her into when she told him to stick with John. That said though, the experience would actually help May form friendships with both the band and even Linda in which the two girls from New York could reflect with each other and how they were here.
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Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
Calling the album Band On The Run was actually an album title so perfect in perhaps the last way you'd think about as here we all were in some scary foreign country that the thought of being stabbed or shot at wasn't exactly something far fetched and you did feel like were all on the run. That said we had to wait until George and Geoff managed to get the studio set up into a usable condition but even that was the least of the problems as anyone will known that the Lagos sessions were plagued by many problems in which the scariest one was in the first week in which while the band were all smoking while laying down a vocal track, Paul suddenly turned white as a sheet and began gasping for air explaining to us in a croaking voice that he couldn't catch his breath. We decided to take him outside for some fresh air...this was a grave mistake as the blazing heat made him feel even worse and began keeling over, finally fainting dead away at our feet and it took about a few seconds for us to register what had happened not knowing what to think until Linda started screaming convincing that he was dying or actually already dead [4].
We all panicked and despite what you might think that the rest of the band had for Paul, he was still like a brother to them and they all scrambled around to get him help into a car and sent off to the nearest hospital and spent the rest of the afternoon there. No work was done for the rest of the day in which you couldn't when you had a band member down and we all didn't know what had happened or how he was though Billy stated that we should prey for Paul and honestly given how shaken we all were of the moment and just what being in Lagos was doing for us, we all did. As it turns out as you'll all know, the official diagnosis was Bronchospasm from all the smoking, both from McCartney and the second-hand type from his bandmates. That said though there was one touching moment in which John, along with May and myself, would show up at Paul's bedside in hospital in which John would make a clever remark saying "Now were even Macca, you did look like utter shit though."
I didn't know what John meant by them being even but then I realised that it was a reference to John and Yoko's car crash in Scotland back a few years ago in which Paul showed up to meet him in hospital there [5] so it was actually one of the most touching things I saw John do in a long time and it does show that under all that bluster is actually a witty yet kind man. Another incident that happened was the confrontation with local Afrobeat pioneer and political activist Fela Kuti, who publicly accused us of being in Africa to exploit and steal African music even without hearing any of the songs the band was writing [6]. This was a blatant false accusation in which the poor still view The Beatles and the rest of us as British colonialists; poor Billy Preston never got any sympathy from the locals him as what you might think with him being black as instead they would look on him a traitor siding with the colonialists. Then again facts, never seem to matter in a volatile political climate which is still something that happens to this day.
Kuti didn't seem to be going anyway and we didn't know what to do with him until John would make a deal with Kuti in which he would get to play on several of the songs and would be paid for his work which in truth was nothing more than bribe yet some of his work would end up being on the album. Of course, there were several problems that seemed to plague our time in Nigeria though those mentioned above were all nothing compared to the now infamous night in which Paul and John along with their partners were robbed at knifepoint.
As it turned out, this would turn out to be a terrible mistake. As John and Paul were walking with their respective partners and enjoying the evening air carrying a cassette recorder and cameras, a car pulled up alongside them in which a window was wound down and a guy asked them if they wanted a lift. Paul being rather naïve to it all would replying back saying 'we're all friends, we're all brothers!' before telling those in the car that they would walk and the car drove off and with that that seemed to be the end of the matter though May Pang would state that at that moment she felt that something didn't feel right and sure enough when the car had moved just twenty yards in front of them, the car stopped and to their shock, five guys and jumped out all with knifes and the gang only knew then what they had gotten themselves into here.
What followed was a narrowly avoided murder in which Paul and John pretty much handed everything to them including watches, cameras and the recorded cassettes, all of which had at least six demo tracks of songs on them in which Linda tried to save her husband screaming at the the muggers saying, 'Leave him alone, he's a musician!' [7] with May also adding with, 'Don't you see they're The Beatles?!' in which the muggers likely didn't believe the idea of two men from the most famous band in the world would be out here walking out here in the streets at night. With that, no stabbings took place and the muggers got back in the car and drove off leaving the four of them stunned and started to shake at what had just happened. With that they all took a run back to their rented homes in which so scared at what had happened that John and May would crash with Paul and Linda in their rented home so that they could be save in numbers.
However that night there was a immediate power cut in which paranoia gripped them fearing that the muggers had followed them back and had killed the power in which Paul and Linda would gather their children and into their bedroom along with a freaked out John and May would all huddled together until morning in which they hoped the coast was cleared. Either way for Paul and John, it was a moment that had all the fear of death that was almost akin to what happened in the Philippines many years ago during that infamous time there. The rest of the band as well as the entourage were all unaware of what had happened during the night and were shocked when the two couples told them what happened in which a local working at the studio would tell them that they were very lucky that they weren't killed as they were white suggesting if they were black then the muggers might have killed them.
With that though, the cassettes that Paul and John had which had been stolen had the demos on them and the band faced the task of having to re-record those lost tracks, thankfully though they remembered the basics of the songs and even gave them the time to make some changes to them to make them better. Nonetheless though despite all the difficulty suffered by the band, they all pulled through after six weeks in Nigeria they had recorded a monster set list and finished off with a barbecue to celebrate the end of recording and would fly back to England in September to complete the final overdubs and transfer many of the eight-track recordings to sixteen-track. This would all take place at George Martin's AIR Studios in which would finish up tidying up the album and Martin would once again work adding orchestral parts for the album though even when he was placing them together, not only did he realise what an exceptional album this was, even for Beatles standards, but of how much of a role he had with this album.
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Extract from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
When it comes down the secret success of the album, the real hero for the album is for what all The Beatles would say as well as many fans was George Martin and for good reason. Unlike previously when he was just the producer in which he was here too, he would also take a role as something of a director in which he would the unenviable task of trying to string together twenty songs together to create a one major body or worked that flowed through as one consistent body of work. In doing so, Martin would listen to many of the basic tracks the band members had given them in which he would work out where they would all go on the album and of any lyrical changes to make them fit together in which as daunting as they sounded, it all worked out amazingly well.
A a song like Behind That Locked Door by Harrison which had been in the latter's backlog for so long had finally found a use for it after all these years in which it was dusted off and tweaked and made perfect for the album's theme and story. The story of the album was one that Martin would write the basic plot as if he was setting up a musical in which he and Brian Epstein felt that this could be the band's version of Jesus Christ Superstar and was becoming the concept album in what Sergeant Pepper could have been and the one themed album in which the White Album could've been too. With that a plot of the album began to form and this big double album would have a theme as follows in which the title track for the album (Band On The Run) would start off with the band imprisoned before making their escape, next would the introduction of some of the band members in which the first would be the song Jet who is one of the criminals (incidentally was a name based on one of McCartney's children's ponies) in which following up would be Ringo's song I'm The Greatest in which the song reveals that the singer is Billy Shears and for many has been the inspiration for many to think that BOTR is considered the sequel to Sergeant Pepper in which the band on the run in question is the Lonely Hearts Club Band themselves.
Following this, other songs on the first side are Yer Blues, a song about one character in the band trying to sing the blues while the song Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) is about one of the band members who's hearts not really into and just wants love which ends side one. Side two would have it start with the thumping Mrs Vanderbilt about another character who is one the before moving into Gimmie Some Truth in which another character is wanting to know, as the song suggests, the truth about what they are doing and what they are framed for. Run Of the Mill follows before moving into the epic Hear Me Lord which has one of the gang wish for forgiveness before side two ends with Remember in which sirens at the end indicate that the band have been caught by the police.
The second half of the album starts in a courtroom in which Billy Preston plays a small speaking role as the judge who asks the band if they plead guilty in which rather fittingly the song to start off with is Not Guilty before then moves into Mind Games in which one of the band complains that the accusers are playing mind games with the jury in which ends with the judge declaring them guilty and thrown into prison in which then has the song Behind That Locked Door start things off. Next up is the second Ringo song Photograph in which the character of Billy Shears reflects sadly on a past on a lost love that he'll never see again before side three ends with Paul's ballad Let It Be (a song written four years ago) in which one of the band so down then hears a call from 'Mother Mary' to let it be which ends the side on a unknown note.
The final side of the album starts off with with what is visiting hours in which Mal Evans plays a rare uncredited speaking role as the warden telling the band they have visitors in which the band have to see them in which the first song to start off with is Aisumasen (I'm Sorry) in which is an apology from one of the band members to their wife in which actually was a true apology song from John Lennon to Yoko which made it's inclusion far more fitting than what anyone though possible before then moves onto the song Don't Let Me Wait Too Long in which one of them hoping that his visitor won't take too long next time before it ends with the powerful raw track of Isolation which has the band back in their cells feeling isolated.
The final two songs start with Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) in which it is found out one of their gang has passed on in prison before the grand finale track, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five is the band making their grand escape which the album ends with a brief reprise of Band on The Run and ends the album on a grand note and the recording would be finished in October and when the band and their closest associates listened to the album in full yet unfinished state, everyone could tell that this was going to be a special album in which the rumours of the end of The Beatles was everywhere yet if this was to the final swansong for the band then it was going to end of a high note to end all high notes.
Epstein had hoped that the trip to Nigeria and recording with the band might had helped cleared heads but when they would return after their time in Nigeria, George would start a brief affair with Ringo's wife Maureen [8] in which he would profess his love for Maureen in front of her husband and his long-time friend and bandmate Ringo Starr. Granted, Ringo himself would admit that he had not been anymore more faithful to his own wife than George had been to this as the thought of rockstars cheating of their partners was sadly not uncommon yet there was always an unspoken rule of not to have affairs with a fellow bandmate's partner and George had utterly broken that rule that had left everyone shocked. Ringo threatened divorce when Harrison's wife Pattie told him that she had found the pair in bed together though this wouldn't be for at least a few years yet while this would be the final straw for Patti to leave George not long after and when Brian Epstein heard the news, he apparently had a fit over how George could do something like this and it did see their relationship broken for a time.
Paul and Billy were left horrified at what had happened and John was furious too about this state of affairs in which despite his own marriage problems would call out George on what he had done sleeping with another band member's wife and called it "virtual incest". It was the last thing that was needed as the press tour began to promote the album in which the affair now looked to have sunk the album's chances of success before it had even started and if the album was to fail, they would all know who to point the finger at. It was a horrendous state of affairs in which only seem to confirm that The Beatles were doomed no matter if Band On The Run was to be the best album that The Beatles would ever make and Epstein would have to play more damage control than he had done in recent years and try and promote the album as best he could.
Martin and Epstein being included on the album seemed like no brainers considering how much the former had really been the main guy driving the album forward with the latter being there throughout Beatles history though the inclusion of the other two was that Aspinall's inclusion was almost a 'thank you' from the band for being their childhood friend from Liverpool after all these years and that he should be part of it while Voormann's inclusion may have been random but in fact was fitting as with this album they had gone all out to create a short comic on the inside like what they had done with Magical Mystery Tour with Voormann illustrating the panels that involved scenes based on the songs on the album [10].
The album cover itself also been speculated by many fans over the years as having a deeper meaning as what the other characters on the cover mean in which they represent a timeline of the band's history in which Aspinall represents the band's childhood days in Liverpool given his connection there, Voormann represents the band's time in Hamburg, Germany and where the band first met Billy Preston. Epstein's inclusion on the cover represents of his time throughout the rise of the band right their Cavern days right until now and finally Martin represents all the times the Beatles recorded together from then to now. It's been a theory that has lasted for many years among many Beatles fans as part of the curtain call theory and this idea would seem plausible if this had been the last Beatles album which with hindsight proved that it wasn't. Nonetheless, it is an album cover that is one of the most iconic album covers in history and one that is recognisable by many.
Band On The Run (1973)
Side 1
1) Band On The Run
2) Jet
3) I'm The Greatest
4) Yer Blues
5) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Side 2
6) Mrs Vanderbilt
7) Gimme Some Truth
8) Run Of The Mill
9) Here Me Lord
10) Remember
Side 3
1) Not Guilty
2) Mind Games
3) Behind That Locked Door
4) Photograph
5) Let It Be
Side 4
6) Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
7) Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
8) Isolation
9) Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
10) Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five
As it turned out, it wasn't good as Everest or even other Beatles albums...it surpassed everyone of them before by outselling both Everest and Imagine before it to which commercial wise was already a major success but it didn't stop there, critical reception was overwhelming positive with many calling it either the most ground-breaking or the best Beatles album album since Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or even better than it which was really saying much of what this album meant. When the news of its huge success reached Epstein and rest of the band, he would personally call each other, including George Martin who he felt deserved much of the praises too for his work on it, to congratulate them on a major triumph and Epstein would even put aside his current disdain for Harrison to give him his well wishes following the latter's affair. For all those who had said that The Beatles were over, Band On The Run utterly silence them for good and its legacy cannot be forgotten about.
The album itself would turn out not to be just a hugely successful selling album that would remain in the number one spots in many charts around the world for many weeks, but it was a watershed moment in not just The Beatles' but British history too in which some say that this was the album in which The Beatles became pretty much an iconic British symbol of culture and also its place in rock history. It would become the biggest selling album of all time in which it would sell a staggering 43 million copies worldwide which even for a Beatles album at the time was utterly unprecedented and would hold this title for many years until it was finally well and truly beaten by Michael Jackson's Thriller album in 1982 which would go on to sell 70 million copies [11], double the numbers of Band On The Run. Regardless though, Band On The Run stunned many in the band's inner circle at its success in which after all the drama behind the scenes and the many personal problems that the band were going through, this had made all those struggles worth it and if this had been the last ever Beatles album to ever be released then it would have been the high note that every band or artists wish to have.
However it had set off some side effects for better or for worse in demand in The Beatles was there once again likely not seen since the early days of Beatlemania in which as it turned out, many would state that the album would actually kickstart what was to be known as the second wave of Beatlemania that was to grip the world throughout the mid 70's and there was no way that The Beatles were going to simply walk off into the sunset as they might have hoped as not just long-time Beatles fans but the public and press alike were now all waiting for the next album or a big tour to really make their mark as the world's biggest band. The question was though with Band On The Run being a situation in which all the elements to make it worked was pretty much a lightning in the bottle moment, how on earth were they to do something like that again in which seemed like you could only do once as a band? 1974 was to bring up new challenges both for good and for bad...
[1] All of which were considered by McCartney and Wings IOTL.
[2] This was actually the original idea of Sergeant Pepper back in the day; BOTR pretty much follows through with the idea here.
[3] As what the Lagos studio was like as with OTL.
[4] Yes, this moment still happens much like with OTL.
[5] Look back on ITTL to see what I mean...
[6] Same as what happened with Wings IOTL.
[7] Yes, the infamous mugging incident still happens here though the changes here are that John and May are with Paul and Linda here.
[8] Yes, this sad event still happens because no TL is perfect and this was likely to happen no matter what given what George was going through then.
[9] The BOTR cover ITTL is still pretty much the same as OTL though with new faces on it as mentioned above and I'm sure you can guess where each would be on the cover.
[10] This is based on the Magical Mystery Tour album in which there was a small comic based on the events of the movie seen here. BOTR has its on version here though with a Voormann style to it which honestly is something I'd like to see TBH.
[11] Yes, Thriller remains top dog here much like OTL and we'll get to MJ soon enough ITTL...
At last, we made it to BOTR and wow, its fair to say ITTL's version of the album did somewhat better than the OTL for sure and talk about an epic comeback for the band. Now the idea of making it a concept album is actually based on how Macca had wanted to have the theme of prison and freedom though was more of a thread rather than concept. Here though the concept album idea is follow thorough here in which after Everest they knew they'd have to do something more grander and with George Martin back in the hotseat you can see its in safe hands. The idea of picking songs to fit each other was actually something thought about when I first came up with the idea in the song Not Guilty had been written long before the album and it got me thinking how that could have fitted in and the more you think about all the above songs on TTL's BOTR, you could honestly imagine with some slight tweaked lyrics then they could all fit alongside each other so picking the right songs was quite the challenge.
Some of you will remember the original version I did with the setlist before in which I've changed a few things round with mostly Lennon's songs in which as you can see why I picked it for and many of the future Beatles albums ITTL will have changes made too as I'll need to tweak their setlists and such. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this update and tell me if you think this is the greatest Beatles album that never was and what next for our boys? Find out next time and please comment!
A Band (On The Run) In Nigeria
Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
After how well things had worked would with producer Live and Let Die, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion to have George Martin producer the next album, the first since Abbey Road, in which with Phil Spector not wanting to work with John Lennon again, meant that they needed an old set of hands to help them get through while also to help out was the band's long time engineer Geoff Emerick who had not worked with the band since the White Album and also would be Mal Evans adding some support in which from the start it did feel like a lot of the old guard were back which did make this feel like what some would say a traditional Beatles album from a few years ago though the location as it turned was far from a traditional spot. Epstein had been hoping to return to record the album at either the band's famous studio homes of Abbey Road or Savile Row as too were Martin and Emerick as they felt it was a more controlled environment that was familiar to them yet the band, mostly Paul McCartney, had other ideas...
After how lacklustre he felt the recording was in New York with Everest, McCartney had suspected that working in that environment hadn't helped them in which he felt was almost akin to that of the At Work sessions at Twickenham and that recording somewhere more foreign and more exotic that wasn't either in Britain or America was perhaps an idea to help spark creative juices to energise the songs and John Lennon would actually get behind the idea in which he stated that he just needed to get out the US after what he had been though so far. Ringo Starr was happy just to tag along as was Billy Preston but it was surprising that George Harrison got behind the idea to record in another country though perhaps for other reasons other than music. His own marriage with Pattie was falling apart and despite Epstein trying all he could to help the couple in which he had grown close to, he feared that it was a dead-end in which Harrison's infamous infidelities and the shadow of Eric Clapton looming large in the background being infatuated with Patti creating a rock n roll triangle all just seemed to make Epstein sadly aware that the Harrisons' marriage was doomed.
Harrison simply wanted to get away from his own personal life and in truth, they all needed time away from the media spotlight that came with being a Beatle and so it was decided that somewhere outside the UK or the US would be looked at and thus a list of possible EMI international recording studios were looked at either in Europe or South America with Monaco and Brazil being at one point likely choices to record [1], that was until the the name of Lagos in Nigeria appeared in which seemed so far off the beaten track and the last place one would record an album, never mind a Beatles album that simply needed to work, that the temptation to record somewhere that was so different was actually welcomed and so with much preparation, the band would fly out from the UK and head to Africa for the first time along with their entourage and into the unknown and a very different world from what they were expecting.
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Extract from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
Today, a quick internet search would have shown what the place was actually like for if the band had done, their vision of an exotic location would have been shattered but alas it was too late by the time they realised they had made a mistake in coming. However the plane journey over would actually be the starting block of what this new album was going to be and that compared to other Beatles album, this was going to something truly different in which there was a feeling that this could be the end in which given how things were with the band and how many of their personal lives were all in a precarious position from Lennon and Harrison own respective marriage problems, Billy Preston's struggles of keeping his homosexually secret from the world and even Ringo Starr's own drinking problems that had started to creep up in recent years, they all did look like a group that was going to break up but rather collapse under their own weight. With them all wanting to run away from their problems and the glare of the media on them, it was suggested by McCartney for the new album to reflect their feeling which would be Band On The Run which given the circumstances was actually a fitting title the rest of the band would say they were in but it would be more than that.
The feeling would be that if this possibly the last Beatles album to record then they might as well go all out on it and make the best possible album in which any problems they all had could be thrown to the side and focus on the music in which the idea of making it into a concept album came about. By this point, the idea of concept albums had started to gain traction from the late 60's onwards and the band themselves had even had this planned for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band back in the day to tell a themed story around a band but this was dropped in which it became a collection of songs thrown together [2]. Now a few years later, the concept album itself would be looked at again only this time followed through on and the fact the album itself would be about another band funnily enough didn't go unnoticed by some even then.
It was also here that if they were to go fully with it being a concept album then Epstein would tell them that they'd have to do it proper by making it a double album in which had its positives and negatives. The White Album had been the last time the band had done a double album and was of course well documented of being a difficult album to record due many of the many directions the band was in and the idea of going through that all again was something that made them shudder even if things were looking to be very different here. That being said, it did mean that more songs could be included and this was an idea that was tempting for The Beatles in which while the ten song rule for all future Beatles album that had been place for the last three years which give Lennon, McCartney and Harrison and equal shared number of songs, it did prove flawed in which while the likes of Harrison would get more songs on a Beatles album than what he would have would have gotten on any Beatles album pre-1968, there was still a backlot of songs that they all had still wanting to be recorded and the idea of changing up the system now looked like a good time to do it here.
In fact, one of the first songs Harrison would propose to the band on the flight over once the name of the album had been chosen would Not Guilty, a song he had written as far back as 1968 yet had never really gotten any luck until now in which it's title fitted the concept album idea so well that everything else all just started to fall into place in which the album would be, as the album title suggests, a band on the run who are criminals and the madcap escape they are on. It would be then decided that the double album would have a large number of twenty songs on it, six each for Lennon, McCartney and Harrison while Starr would gain two, in which the ten song rule would be followed through in somewhat and the band seemed keened to get started and couldn't wait to record in Lagos. That excited was then crushed it was fair to say when the band arrived at the recording studio and surrounding area and only then realised what they had landed themselves in.
To say the studio they were to record their ambitious album was to say it didn't look up for the task would be an understatement. Located in the Lagos suburb of Apapa, the building was really a ramshackle tin shed and an under-equipped one at that. George Martin, Mal Evans and Geoff Emerick would then discover that the control desk was faulty, the microphones second-rate and there was a single Studer 8-track on which to record the album on [3]; Martin would admit that when he saw what they had to record with in which he feared that recording of the album was doomed to fail but alas they were here and had to make the best out of bad situation. Nonetheless, they would all set up camp and would rent houses near the airport in Ikeja, a half hour's drive away from the studio and it would be that Paul, Linda and their three children would stay in one house; John and May Pang would stay in another; George and Ringo shared another; Brian Epstein and Billy Preston with another house and finally Mal Evans, Geoff Emerick and George Martin with another house.
They were out of their comfort zone though in truth The Beatles had all stayed in worse conditions during their early club and touring days and in some ways given all the trouble surrounding the band and being in what some would say was a hell hole, the sense of deprivation and danger in Nigeria would actually help bond a sense of camaraderie once more though perhaps this wasn't the same for May Pang who for someone in their early twenties, the whole experience in Nigeria she would later explain was a true fish out of water experience in which after a life for most of her life in New York was now suddenly in short space of time flung half way round the world first flown to England before now ending up in Nigeria and did wonder what on Earth had Yoko gotten her into when she told him to stick with John. That said though, the experience would actually help May form friendships with both the band and even Linda in which the two girls from New York could reflect with each other and how they were here.
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Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
We all panicked and despite what you might think that the rest of the band had for Paul, he was still like a brother to them and they all scrambled around to get him help into a car and sent off to the nearest hospital and spent the rest of the afternoon there. No work was done for the rest of the day in which you couldn't when you had a band member down and we all didn't know what had happened or how he was though Billy stated that we should prey for Paul and honestly given how shaken we all were of the moment and just what being in Lagos was doing for us, we all did. As it turns out as you'll all know, the official diagnosis was Bronchospasm from all the smoking, both from McCartney and the second-hand type from his bandmates. That said though there was one touching moment in which John, along with May and myself, would show up at Paul's bedside in hospital in which John would make a clever remark saying "Now were even Macca, you did look like utter shit though."
I didn't know what John meant by them being even but then I realised that it was a reference to John and Yoko's car crash in Scotland back a few years ago in which Paul showed up to meet him in hospital there [5] so it was actually one of the most touching things I saw John do in a long time and it does show that under all that bluster is actually a witty yet kind man. Another incident that happened was the confrontation with local Afrobeat pioneer and political activist Fela Kuti, who publicly accused us of being in Africa to exploit and steal African music even without hearing any of the songs the band was writing [6]. This was a blatant false accusation in which the poor still view The Beatles and the rest of us as British colonialists; poor Billy Preston never got any sympathy from the locals him as what you might think with him being black as instead they would look on him a traitor siding with the colonialists. Then again facts, never seem to matter in a volatile political climate which is still something that happens to this day.
Kuti didn't seem to be going anyway and we didn't know what to do with him until John would make a deal with Kuti in which he would get to play on several of the songs and would be paid for his work which in truth was nothing more than bribe yet some of his work would end up being on the album. Of course, there were several problems that seemed to plague our time in Nigeria though those mentioned above were all nothing compared to the now infamous night in which Paul and John along with their partners were robbed at knifepoint.
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Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
No story about The Beatles' recording of Band On The Run in Nigeria cannot be complete without the infamous knifepoint robbery. When they first arrived in Nigeria the band had been warned that it would be too dangerous to go walking out at night as they were told under no circumstances that they must walk on their on and must take a car everywhere they as sudden knifepoint robberies and even murders were sadly all too common then yet while Harrison, Starr and Preston followed this rule, Lennon and McCartney didn't. It had started in which one night when the rest of the band had went to bed that night, only John and Paul would remain along with May and Linda to try and figure out how to sort out a musical bridge that seemed hard to sort out in which it went on for a long until Linda stated that they had to get back for the children in which both Beatles agreed to call it a night and head for home. The vehicles had all gone having taking the rest of the entourage to where they were staying and rather than make someone come round and collect them, the four of them decided to walk the half hour walk back to the place were the rest of the band were staying at. Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
As it turned out, this would turn out to be a terrible mistake. As John and Paul were walking with their respective partners and enjoying the evening air carrying a cassette recorder and cameras, a car pulled up alongside them in which a window was wound down and a guy asked them if they wanted a lift. Paul being rather naïve to it all would replying back saying 'we're all friends, we're all brothers!' before telling those in the car that they would walk and the car drove off and with that that seemed to be the end of the matter though May Pang would state that at that moment she felt that something didn't feel right and sure enough when the car had moved just twenty yards in front of them, the car stopped and to their shock, five guys and jumped out all with knifes and the gang only knew then what they had gotten themselves into here.
What followed was a narrowly avoided murder in which Paul and John pretty much handed everything to them including watches, cameras and the recorded cassettes, all of which had at least six demo tracks of songs on them in which Linda tried to save her husband screaming at the the muggers saying, 'Leave him alone, he's a musician!' [7] with May also adding with, 'Don't you see they're The Beatles?!' in which the muggers likely didn't believe the idea of two men from the most famous band in the world would be out here walking out here in the streets at night. With that, no stabbings took place and the muggers got back in the car and drove off leaving the four of them stunned and started to shake at what had just happened. With that they all took a run back to their rented homes in which so scared at what had happened that John and May would crash with Paul and Linda in their rented home so that they could be save in numbers.
However that night there was a immediate power cut in which paranoia gripped them fearing that the muggers had followed them back and had killed the power in which Paul and Linda would gather their children and into their bedroom along with a freaked out John and May would all huddled together until morning in which they hoped the coast was cleared. Either way for Paul and John, it was a moment that had all the fear of death that was almost akin to what happened in the Philippines many years ago during that infamous time there. The rest of the band as well as the entourage were all unaware of what had happened during the night and were shocked when the two couples told them what happened in which a local working at the studio would tell them that they were very lucky that they weren't killed as they were white suggesting if they were black then the muggers might have killed them.
With that though, the cassettes that Paul and John had which had been stolen had the demos on them and the band faced the task of having to re-record those lost tracks, thankfully though they remembered the basics of the songs and even gave them the time to make some changes to them to make them better. Nonetheless though despite all the difficulty suffered by the band, they all pulled through after six weeks in Nigeria they had recorded a monster set list and finished off with a barbecue to celebrate the end of recording and would fly back to England in September to complete the final overdubs and transfer many of the eight-track recordings to sixteen-track. This would all take place at George Martin's AIR Studios in which would finish up tidying up the album and Martin would once again work adding orchestral parts for the album though even when he was placing them together, not only did he realise what an exceptional album this was, even for Beatles standards, but of how much of a role he had with this album.
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Extract from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
A a song like Behind That Locked Door by Harrison which had been in the latter's backlog for so long had finally found a use for it after all these years in which it was dusted off and tweaked and made perfect for the album's theme and story. The story of the album was one that Martin would write the basic plot as if he was setting up a musical in which he and Brian Epstein felt that this could be the band's version of Jesus Christ Superstar and was becoming the concept album in what Sergeant Pepper could have been and the one themed album in which the White Album could've been too. With that a plot of the album began to form and this big double album would have a theme as follows in which the title track for the album (Band On The Run) would start off with the band imprisoned before making their escape, next would the introduction of some of the band members in which the first would be the song Jet who is one of the criminals (incidentally was a name based on one of McCartney's children's ponies) in which following up would be Ringo's song I'm The Greatest in which the song reveals that the singer is Billy Shears and for many has been the inspiration for many to think that BOTR is considered the sequel to Sergeant Pepper in which the band on the run in question is the Lonely Hearts Club Band themselves.
Following this, other songs on the first side are Yer Blues, a song about one character in the band trying to sing the blues while the song Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) is about one of the band members who's hearts not really into and just wants love which ends side one. Side two would have it start with the thumping Mrs Vanderbilt about another character who is one the before moving into Gimmie Some Truth in which another character is wanting to know, as the song suggests, the truth about what they are doing and what they are framed for. Run Of the Mill follows before moving into the epic Hear Me Lord which has one of the gang wish for forgiveness before side two ends with Remember in which sirens at the end indicate that the band have been caught by the police.
The second half of the album starts in a courtroom in which Billy Preston plays a small speaking role as the judge who asks the band if they plead guilty in which rather fittingly the song to start off with is Not Guilty before then moves into Mind Games in which one of the band complains that the accusers are playing mind games with the jury in which ends with the judge declaring them guilty and thrown into prison in which then has the song Behind That Locked Door start things off. Next up is the second Ringo song Photograph in which the character of Billy Shears reflects sadly on a past on a lost love that he'll never see again before side three ends with Paul's ballad Let It Be (a song written four years ago) in which one of the band so down then hears a call from 'Mother Mary' to let it be which ends the side on a unknown note.
The final side of the album starts off with with what is visiting hours in which Mal Evans plays a rare uncredited speaking role as the warden telling the band they have visitors in which the band have to see them in which the first song to start off with is Aisumasen (I'm Sorry) in which is an apology from one of the band members to their wife in which actually was a true apology song from John Lennon to Yoko which made it's inclusion far more fitting than what anyone though possible before then moves onto the song Don't Let Me Wait Too Long in which one of them hoping that his visitor won't take too long next time before it ends with the powerful raw track of Isolation which has the band back in their cells feeling isolated.
The final two songs start with Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me) in which it is found out one of their gang has passed on in prison before the grand finale track, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five is the band making their grand escape which the album ends with a brief reprise of Band on The Run and ends the album on a grand note and the recording would be finished in October and when the band and their closest associates listened to the album in full yet unfinished state, everyone could tell that this was going to be a special album in which the rumours of the end of The Beatles was everywhere yet if this was to the final swansong for the band then it was going to end of a high note to end all high notes.
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Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
While everyone was looking good with the album, the same could not be said for the personal lives for the band in which Epstein would note that the experience out in Nigeria had left John and May get rather close in which he couldn't tell if this was something strange affection that John had for what Epstein had considered May to be John's mistress but either way he felt the more this went on then it could mean doom for John and Yoko's marriage and he couldn't bare the thought of yet another divorce yet even without that, the Harrisons own marriage problems would finally hit rock bottom in perhaps on of the most infamous moments of Beatles history in which George Harrison's infamous infidelities would reach a new low.Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Epstein had hoped that the trip to Nigeria and recording with the band might had helped cleared heads but when they would return after their time in Nigeria, George would start a brief affair with Ringo's wife Maureen [8] in which he would profess his love for Maureen in front of her husband and his long-time friend and bandmate Ringo Starr. Granted, Ringo himself would admit that he had not been anymore more faithful to his own wife than George had been to this as the thought of rockstars cheating of their partners was sadly not uncommon yet there was always an unspoken rule of not to have affairs with a fellow bandmate's partner and George had utterly broken that rule that had left everyone shocked. Ringo threatened divorce when Harrison's wife Pattie told him that she had found the pair in bed together though this wouldn't be for at least a few years yet while this would be the final straw for Patti to leave George not long after and when Brian Epstein heard the news, he apparently had a fit over how George could do something like this and it did see their relationship broken for a time.
Paul and Billy were left horrified at what had happened and John was furious too about this state of affairs in which despite his own marriage problems would call out George on what he had done sleeping with another band member's wife and called it "virtual incest". It was the last thing that was needed as the press tour began to promote the album in which the affair now looked to have sunk the album's chances of success before it had even started and if the album was to fail, they would all know who to point the finger at. It was a horrendous state of affairs in which only seem to confirm that The Beatles were doomed no matter if Band On The Run was to be the best album that The Beatles would ever make and Epstein would have to play more damage control than he had done in recent years and try and promote the album as best he could.
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Extracts from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
Despite everything that followed with George and Ringo not exactly on speaking terms after what had happened, there was one final shot to complete in which would be the now iconic album cover of taken at Osterley Park, west London, on October 28th by photographer Clive Arrowsmith. The album cover itself would have John, Paul George, Ringo and Billy all dressed as convicts caught in the spotlight of a prison searchlight at night though they are joined by four other characters in which are none other than George Martin, Neil Aspinall, Klaus Voormann and last but not least Brian Epstein himself who had been dragged into standing along the band for an album cover for the first time [9]. The reason to include those four on the album cover along with The Beatles was considered something of a possible finale curtain call image if this was the final album in which those men all considered to a fifth Beatle at one point and the other and so the cover would be a rare time to see so many fifth Beatles in one place.Extracts from 'Band On The Run: The Beatles' Masterpiece' by Ken McNab
Martin and Epstein being included on the album seemed like no brainers considering how much the former had really been the main guy driving the album forward with the latter being there throughout Beatles history though the inclusion of the other two was that Aspinall's inclusion was almost a 'thank you' from the band for being their childhood friend from Liverpool after all these years and that he should be part of it while Voormann's inclusion may have been random but in fact was fitting as with this album they had gone all out to create a short comic on the inside like what they had done with Magical Mystery Tour with Voormann illustrating the panels that involved scenes based on the songs on the album [10].
The album cover itself also been speculated by many fans over the years as having a deeper meaning as what the other characters on the cover mean in which they represent a timeline of the band's history in which Aspinall represents the band's childhood days in Liverpool given his connection there, Voormann represents the band's time in Hamburg, Germany and where the band first met Billy Preston. Epstein's inclusion on the cover represents of his time throughout the rise of the band right their Cavern days right until now and finally Martin represents all the times the Beatles recorded together from then to now. It's been a theory that has lasted for many years among many Beatles fans as part of the curtain call theory and this idea would seem plausible if this had been the last Beatles album which with hindsight proved that it wasn't. Nonetheless, it is an album cover that is one of the most iconic album covers in history and one that is recognisable by many.
[...]
On the day before its American release in December, Epstein would tell the band to pray that all would be good as while the general feeling was that this was an album unlike anything done before by them, there was still that nagging doubt that it might all end in failure in which with all the effort that had gone into this album and the trials and tribulations they had all gone through been all for nothing...it was a dreadful thought that didn't bare worth thinking off though on December 4th 1973, Band On The Run would be released in the United States with a UK and worldwide release two days later and many held their breath.
Band On The Run (1973)
Side 1
1) Band On The Run
2) Jet
3) I'm The Greatest
4) Yer Blues
5) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Side 2
6) Mrs Vanderbilt
7) Gimme Some Truth
8) Run Of The Mill
9) Here Me Lord
10) Remember
Side 3
1) Not Guilty
2) Mind Games
3) Behind That Locked Door
4) Photograph
5) Let It Be
Side 4
6) Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
7) Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
8) Isolation
9) Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
10) Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five
As it turned out, it wasn't good as Everest or even other Beatles albums...it surpassed everyone of them before by outselling both Everest and Imagine before it to which commercial wise was already a major success but it didn't stop there, critical reception was overwhelming positive with many calling it either the most ground-breaking or the best Beatles album album since Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or even better than it which was really saying much of what this album meant. When the news of its huge success reached Epstein and rest of the band, he would personally call each other, including George Martin who he felt deserved much of the praises too for his work on it, to congratulate them on a major triumph and Epstein would even put aside his current disdain for Harrison to give him his well wishes following the latter's affair. For all those who had said that The Beatles were over, Band On The Run utterly silence them for good and its legacy cannot be forgotten about.
The album itself would turn out not to be just a hugely successful selling album that would remain in the number one spots in many charts around the world for many weeks, but it was a watershed moment in not just The Beatles' but British history too in which some say that this was the album in which The Beatles became pretty much an iconic British symbol of culture and also its place in rock history. It would become the biggest selling album of all time in which it would sell a staggering 43 million copies worldwide which even for a Beatles album at the time was utterly unprecedented and would hold this title for many years until it was finally well and truly beaten by Michael Jackson's Thriller album in 1982 which would go on to sell 70 million copies [11], double the numbers of Band On The Run. Regardless though, Band On The Run stunned many in the band's inner circle at its success in which after all the drama behind the scenes and the many personal problems that the band were going through, this had made all those struggles worth it and if this had been the last ever Beatles album to ever be released then it would have been the high note that every band or artists wish to have.
However it had set off some side effects for better or for worse in demand in The Beatles was there once again likely not seen since the early days of Beatlemania in which as it turned out, many would state that the album would actually kickstart what was to be known as the second wave of Beatlemania that was to grip the world throughout the mid 70's and there was no way that The Beatles were going to simply walk off into the sunset as they might have hoped as not just long-time Beatles fans but the public and press alike were now all waiting for the next album or a big tour to really make their mark as the world's biggest band. The question was though with Band On The Run being a situation in which all the elements to make it worked was pretty much a lightning in the bottle moment, how on earth were they to do something like that again in which seemed like you could only do once as a band? 1974 was to bring up new challenges both for good and for bad...
[1] All of which were considered by McCartney and Wings IOTL.
[2] This was actually the original idea of Sergeant Pepper back in the day; BOTR pretty much follows through with the idea here.
[3] As what the Lagos studio was like as with OTL.
[4] Yes, this moment still happens much like with OTL.
[5] Look back on ITTL to see what I mean...
[6] Same as what happened with Wings IOTL.
[7] Yes, the infamous mugging incident still happens here though the changes here are that John and May are with Paul and Linda here.
[8] Yes, this sad event still happens because no TL is perfect and this was likely to happen no matter what given what George was going through then.
[9] The BOTR cover ITTL is still pretty much the same as OTL though with new faces on it as mentioned above and I'm sure you can guess where each would be on the cover.
[10] This is based on the Magical Mystery Tour album in which there was a small comic based on the events of the movie seen here. BOTR has its on version here though with a Voormann style to it which honestly is something I'd like to see TBH.
[11] Yes, Thriller remains top dog here much like OTL and we'll get to MJ soon enough ITTL...
At last, we made it to BOTR and wow, its fair to say ITTL's version of the album did somewhat better than the OTL for sure and talk about an epic comeback for the band. Now the idea of making it a concept album is actually based on how Macca had wanted to have the theme of prison and freedom though was more of a thread rather than concept. Here though the concept album idea is follow thorough here in which after Everest they knew they'd have to do something more grander and with George Martin back in the hotseat you can see its in safe hands. The idea of picking songs to fit each other was actually something thought about when I first came up with the idea in the song Not Guilty had been written long before the album and it got me thinking how that could have fitted in and the more you think about all the above songs on TTL's BOTR, you could honestly imagine with some slight tweaked lyrics then they could all fit alongside each other so picking the right songs was quite the challenge.
Some of you will remember the original version I did with the setlist before in which I've changed a few things round with mostly Lennon's songs in which as you can see why I picked it for and many of the future Beatles albums ITTL will have changes made too as I'll need to tweak their setlists and such. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this update and tell me if you think this is the greatest Beatles album that never was and what next for our boys? Find out next time and please comment!
Hopefully Beatlemania II will be a successful ride, a breather and allow some respite for the band to heal
Do You Remember The Old Days Of Rock 'N' Roll?
Well then, think to say 1973 went rather well for the bands, so anyway, we now move into 1974 and for something different in which we deal with a certain lawsuit that Lennon had to deal with in which if you are a Lennon fan you'll know how this might end up going up but things are very different to what happened IOTL but for everyone else who doesn't know...I won't say more so lets get started...
Do You Remember The Old Days Of Rock 'N' Roll?
Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
For everyone living in America, February 1974 was a year to reflect on was what an anniversary year; had it really been ten years from when The Beatles arrived in America and changed the musical world as everyone knew it? That month would marks as the tenth anniversary of The Beatles' debut on the CBS stage of The Ed Sullivan Show which had since then gone down as a watershed moment in history and a true classic 'where were you?' moment for any American who lived through that time. Some would say argue that moment was the point in which Beatlemania really took off to new and crazier heights that made the Beatlemania movement in the UK seem tiny in comparison and that the band were living in the eye of a hurricane. Beatlemania would have said to have ended following a rather troubling World Tour in 1966 and from then on retreated to the studio for the next few years where arguably they improved as band but changed arguably both for and not for the best.
The studio years of 1967 to 1971 had seen the loveable moptop's image changed into four very different looking men who by 1974 would have been almost totally different people if you were to have time travelled from 1964 to ten years later to have seen what they were now and not to mention Beatlemania had cooled or rather totally died a death by that point. Given the lukewarm year the band had in 1972, few thought that Beatlemania would ever return throughout 1973 though the release of Band On The Run utterly changed everything in which the monster success of that double album shot the band straight to number one once more and it was the album that many credited to be not only the album that saved The Beatles but kicked started what would be known as the second wave of Beatlemania throughout the mid 70s.
The irony that February 1974 would not only mark the tenth anniversary of Beatlemania coming to America but also that year marked beginnings of the second wave of Beatlemania did not go unnoticed by many and throughout that month several US television stations would tap into the nostalgia market that the band now had at the point with a planned live TV special from Madison Square Garden that month with many live music acts of the day to play many Beatles songs with the band in attendance which would end with them performing a short setlist themselves but this idea was shot down due to timing and of other issues that the band was having in which while on the surface The Beatles were seeing huge success not seen in a decade, things with with all the band weren't going well relationship wise with their partners.
George Harrison's marriage to Patti was pretty much over as she would leave him in July that year though it wouldn't be for a few more years before they would divorce [1] which had left George in a pretty bad state in which Patti would state that despite having a huge success with Band On The Run, 'George was fuelled by alcohol and cocaine during that year that would freeze his emotions and hardened his heart'. Of course Ringo Starr was no better in which he like George he too would have a drinking problem and would sadly also share with infidelities with other woman yet it was George sleeping with Ringo's own wife that spelt the end of his relationship with Maureen and finally there was the tale of John Lennon's separation from Yoko in which he hadn't met since leaving New York to start work on Band On The Run the previous year in which in that time he was with his and Yoko's secretary May Pang in which Yoko had suggest have with John to keep an eye on them and since then John and May had been in a relationship in which what John Lennon would describe this part of his life as his 'Lost Weekend' [2].
The only Beatle that didn't have any marriage problems was Paul McCartney with his wife Linda who were raising their their children which was quite the exception compared to what his fellow bandmates were going through; Billy Preston on the other hand being the only one not in any relationship simply kept his head down on the matter. While Band On The Run had been more than the success The Beatles had wanted, it wasn't quite the Endgame album as they all might thought it could have been as with it kick starting the next wave of Beatlemania, there was only one question being asked throughout the early months of 1974 that was coming in letters from fans and constant barrage comments from the press that was those mailroom at Apple HQ in Savile Row shake with dread every time that had to reply and the question was always the same; 'When are The Beatles putting out the next album or touring again?'
Brian Epstein would state that those working the mailroom at Savile Row had probably the most thankless task anyone had at Apple as they were being asked the same question over and over again that would likely drive everyone mad. However, there was no escaping the huge demand to see more Beatles content and the band knew that though they weren't really wanting to go for it and for good reason. Band On The Run was such a major double album for them that had been a risk that had paid off, it did take a lot out of them and the thought of trying to put out another double album that could be better seemed like a fate that was doomed to fail yet releasing just another typical ten song Beatles album would be seen as a let down and they all knew that so what were they to do? As it would turn out, it would thanks to a copyright lawsuit from John Lennon that would be the unlikely answer they needed to record a new album.
However, it was when Brian Epstein would catch up with John about what to do, it was then that the two men came up with the idea of having the next Beatles album being something different in which would not be another Band On The Run but rather just an album that would go back to their roots as a cover band in their early days in which not only would be easier to record having not to write up songs for the album but that it would fulfil Lennon's lawsuit and get another Beatles album to feed the growing demand that was threatening to submerge Apple HQ at Savile Row. Funnily enough at that time in the 1970s, there was starting to be a more nostalgic view of the rock 'n' roll scene of the 1950's that The Beatles and many of their age had grown up with and having an album that would be of a more loving throwback to their childhood could be something unique.
Lennon and Epstein agreed with the idea and all they needed to do was to get the rest of the band on board. Ringo was happy with the idea of performing a cover song or two and Preston was happy to tag along to add his touch to it while Paul McCartney was a bit of a hold up at first knowing how just a cover album of classic rock tunes following on from Band On The Run would be considered a let down for many fans though after much reasoning would realise that trying to create another Band On The Run was going to impossible and so to do something easy for all of them that could not only a throw back to their early days from the Hamburg and Cavern days but almost act as a 'farewell' to the original cover group that they once were and as of a result, Paul came round to the idea.
Perhaps surprisingly was that George Harrison was very much happy to do such an album more so than just another Beatles album that needed new songs and the fact this one was just about picking songs that they all liked growing up and already had songs in mind he wanted to play with the first being to record a cover of the 1962 James Ray and Rudy Clark song Got My Mind Set On You which had been a song that George had wanted to recorded as a cover in the early days of the band yet never came to be but now he would finally get his chance to do that [4] for this album. Exactly why he would get behind doing an album of nothing but covers might have seem strange to many who knew how much George had wanted to get his song backlog cleared yet it seemed that the idea of performing rock classics from their young days with a touch of nostalgia would help distract him from his failing marriage.
----------
Extract from 'I Me Mine' by George Harrison
It really was just the timing of it all; I was undergoing a pretty bad time from 1973-74 which was pretty much my naughty period and really couldn't bring myself to write songs or record them yet to do a cover album when John told me the idea about what would become Rock 'N' Roll caught my attention as I wouldn't need to worry about how my songs would be but rather record songs that we all grew up with when we were younger and I think I would describe the album as something of a comfort blanket in which I didn't need to think about how awful my personal life was then but that I could look back on a more innocent time in mine and all our lives and so doing this album was a way of somewhat healing some damage wounds I had. So anyway, rather than what would normally do in which present a song that we had written to the band and see if we all liked it or not, it was a case of try and find a handful of songs we liked and then play them.
Simple process now that I think about but anyway the first song I wanted to record was Got My Mind Set On You which had always been a song that had been stuck in my head for so long and had never gotten the chance to do a cover version of it with The Beatles until now so that was quite satisfying to say the least; then I would present the Cole Porter song True Love which had always been a favourite of mine since I was a kid and finally there was the song Bye Bye Love which I did tweak the lyrics round to refer to Patti in which the rest of the band and others didn't like the idea of bringing in my personal life in which was supposed to be a fun throwback album so I did it again to be more closely related to the original song though I did sneak in some sneaky little bits talking about Patti and Eric Clapton in there [5].
Finally I always wanted to record the old Cab Calloway song Between the Devil And The Deep Blue Sea which while was a favourite of Brian Epstein's and a chance to play the uke once again, which Brian said was his favourite cover we ever did in all our career, it's more easy listening jazz sound made it a bit out of place from the more classic rock 'n' roll sound and sadly it wouldn't make the final cut on the album though it did get to be a B-Side for Stand By Me so no real loss there but it was such a tender song to record and something a little different to do. So it all came together in which John would bring the three songs he had to record as part of his lawsuit which were You Can't Catch Me, Angel Baby and Ya Ya but he would also bring in the song Stand By Me which actually despite not being a song he had to record for the sake of it was the one that turned out to be the biggest hit from the album and one of the best covers we all did.
Paul would then bring his selection of songs to record which were Brown Eyed Handsome Man, I Got Stung and Movie Magg before Ringo would get not one but two in which the first would be Hey! Baby and Only You (And You Alone) which the latter was a suggestion by John for play as the easy listening sound would actually suit Ringo [6] and it did and he was happy to get another song to sing on and how could you hate Ringo anyway? Plus, unlike the previous Beatles albums in which we had a ten song rule to follow, that wasn't the case here in which as all the songs were covers that none of us had written meant that we had more freedom with what we could do with the album.
If Band On The Run had been my idea then Rock 'N' Roll was undoubtedly John's idea albeit it was all over a lawsuit he had to do which I do wonder if we still would have done this sort of album if it wasn't for the lawsuit but then again there we are.
In the meantime, the album that was to named Rock 'N' Roll was to be recorded at The Beatles' fabled home of Abbey Road Studios, something that got much of the press excited that the band was supposedly 'coming home' in where they became the band they are today and where they had recorded many of their early records and fittingly where most were some of their first songs they recorded were just covers and now here they were to do the same once again. The album itself was also something of a family affair in which both Linda McCartney and May Pang would perform some backing vocals for songs which the idea of the band using their partners to sing on songs seemed strange to say the least but compared to what Yoko Ono might have been, Linda and May were much easier going though both woman would find it funny being used in which Linda would say it was 'nepotism at its finest' while May joked that 'for being the biggest band in the world, they were also the biggest cheapskates in not bringing professional backing singers'.
The album itself did have a heart-warming time in which May Pang had gotten in contact with John's ex-wife Cynthia and her and John's son Julian in which she would help by bring father and son together to visit John more following his return to the UK and the recording of Rock 'N' Roll would be a happy time for all in which Julian would play a drum part of Ya Ya which, unknown to him, was secretly recorded in which it appeared on the final album [7]. Under the watchful eye of their producer George Martin who pretty much was back on their side following how well things had been with their last album with him and in just a fairly uneventful week in August, the album was completed [8] and would soon hit record stores in October 1974 in which thanks to the second wave of Beatlemania, pre-orders had been major as many of the public all waited to see what kind of album the band would throw up next.
Rock 'N' Roll (1974)
Side 1
1) Got My Mind Set On You
2) Stand By Me
3) Brown Eyed Handsome Man
4) Hey! Baby
5) You Can't Catch Me
6) Bye Bye Love
Side 2
7) Movie Magg
8) Only You (And You Alone)
9) Ya Ya
10) Angel Baby
11) I Got Stung
12) True Love
While the album would hit number one without any trouble in both the US and UK, reaction to it was mixed to say the least. Some felt cheated that after all the waiting for what would be next after Band On The Run was nothing more than just a cover album, albeit one that was rather good all things considered. Some music critics though was sympathetic even then realising how difficult it was to do another Band On The Run so that doing some thing different in Rock 'N' Roll was actually a fairly sensible thing to do plus with Lennon's lawsuit fulfilled by performing covers of the songs as requested, it was another situation off his back and it would be an album that they'd all had great fun doing as it was just them playing songs that they all loved.
That said though, there was the question asked regarding Billy Preston in the group in having now been in the band for a few years now, he hadn't sung a single song on any Beatles album though Billy Preston would say that this wasn't a problem in which unlike the rest of the band had his own productive solo career, arguably better than the other four Beatles could do on their own, in which he had released early on in 1974 his ninth studio album called The Kids & Me [9] which gave him the freedom to do what he wanted without cramping that of the rest of the band and indeed during that time the other band members would often assist with him with his own work and Billy would mostly refer to being in The Beatles as his 'bit on the side'.
Despite some being left disappointed in the album, it was a big success though nowhere near the monster sales of Band On the Run though the single Stand By Me would be an unexpected hit for John. George Harrison's cover of True Love would have similar success in the charts with it's B-Side being Paul McCartney's cover of I Got Stung and feature a amusing music video promo shot at Friar Park featuring the band in a Victorian setting in which Ringo plays a guardian angle who smokes and gets the girl [10] while there also be another music video for Stand By Me which would be more a straight forward music video shot in the studio of Abbey Road. With that, there was nothing much else to do as they might have all thought but alas nothing remains still in The Beatles as before they knew it, plans were now in place for November to December to be the long awaited North American tour that many Beatles fans over there had been praying and hoping would happen since the last time the band stepped off the stage at Candlestick Park in 1966. Only minor situation was with George and his somewhat dodgy throat...
[1] Things still go bad for them much like with OTL so no change there.
[2] Lost Weekend still happens like OTL though here in perhaps a few different places as we shall soon see...
[3] Yes, Lennon's lawsuit still happens like OTL though now he has The Beatles to help him out here.
[4] This was the case too as with OTL though he wouldn't get to record until 1987 with Cloud Nine, here though he gets to have it recorded with the band as he long hoped for.
[5] The OTL version for the song featured many changed lyrics reflecting on his failing marriage though here the lyrics aren't so blatant unlike OTL.
[6] As was the case with OTL that John suggested for Ringo to sing for his album Goodnight Vienna then.
[7] This ofc happened with OTL too so only makes sense for it to happen here too.
[8] Totally different from OTL in which the OTL Rock 'N' Roll is one the most craziest stories in recording an album in which was was full of drugs and alcohol and Spector showing up dressed in a surgeon's outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio, hurting Lennon's ears that would see the album's release delayed by a year. So yeah, recording of the album is far more boring but more safer under George Martin's watch.
[9] In case you are wondering, Billy Preston still has a solo career alongside being with The Beatles in which his output is largely the same as OTL.
[10] Pretty much the same as the OTL video only with more Beatles seen such as Ringo as the angle who steal's George's woman (likely a hint of how George had an affair with Maureen with the video being something like Ringo getting revenge), Paul falling in the water with John and Billy doing something else you can can imagine.
So there we are, bit of a fun update to do and it looks as though The Beatles are about to tour North American once more but how will the tour go here and who is this person that Epstein has met in India do you think? If you know your history of who else was in India at the time, you will know but for others, well, find out next time and please comment if you want more and see what happens next!
Do You Remember The Old Days Of Rock 'N' Roll?
Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The studio years of 1967 to 1971 had seen the loveable moptop's image changed into four very different looking men who by 1974 would have been almost totally different people if you were to have time travelled from 1964 to ten years later to have seen what they were now and not to mention Beatlemania had cooled or rather totally died a death by that point. Given the lukewarm year the band had in 1972, few thought that Beatlemania would ever return throughout 1973 though the release of Band On The Run utterly changed everything in which the monster success of that double album shot the band straight to number one once more and it was the album that many credited to be not only the album that saved The Beatles but kicked started what would be known as the second wave of Beatlemania throughout the mid 70s.
The irony that February 1974 would not only mark the tenth anniversary of Beatlemania coming to America but also that year marked beginnings of the second wave of Beatlemania did not go unnoticed by many and throughout that month several US television stations would tap into the nostalgia market that the band now had at the point with a planned live TV special from Madison Square Garden that month with many live music acts of the day to play many Beatles songs with the band in attendance which would end with them performing a short setlist themselves but this idea was shot down due to timing and of other issues that the band was having in which while on the surface The Beatles were seeing huge success not seen in a decade, things with with all the band weren't going well relationship wise with their partners.
George Harrison's marriage to Patti was pretty much over as she would leave him in July that year though it wouldn't be for a few more years before they would divorce [1] which had left George in a pretty bad state in which Patti would state that despite having a huge success with Band On The Run, 'George was fuelled by alcohol and cocaine during that year that would freeze his emotions and hardened his heart'. Of course Ringo Starr was no better in which he like George he too would have a drinking problem and would sadly also share with infidelities with other woman yet it was George sleeping with Ringo's own wife that spelt the end of his relationship with Maureen and finally there was the tale of John Lennon's separation from Yoko in which he hadn't met since leaving New York to start work on Band On The Run the previous year in which in that time he was with his and Yoko's secretary May Pang in which Yoko had suggest have with John to keep an eye on them and since then John and May had been in a relationship in which what John Lennon would describe this part of his life as his 'Lost Weekend' [2].
The only Beatle that didn't have any marriage problems was Paul McCartney with his wife Linda who were raising their their children which was quite the exception compared to what his fellow bandmates were going through; Billy Preston on the other hand being the only one not in any relationship simply kept his head down on the matter. While Band On The Run had been more than the success The Beatles had wanted, it wasn't quite the Endgame album as they all might thought it could have been as with it kick starting the next wave of Beatlemania, there was only one question being asked throughout the early months of 1974 that was coming in letters from fans and constant barrage comments from the press that was those mailroom at Apple HQ in Savile Row shake with dread every time that had to reply and the question was always the same; 'When are The Beatles putting out the next album or touring again?'
Brian Epstein would state that those working the mailroom at Savile Row had probably the most thankless task anyone had at Apple as they were being asked the same question over and over again that would likely drive everyone mad. However, there was no escaping the huge demand to see more Beatles content and the band knew that though they weren't really wanting to go for it and for good reason. Band On The Run was such a major double album for them that had been a risk that had paid off, it did take a lot out of them and the thought of trying to put out another double album that could be better seemed like a fate that was doomed to fail yet releasing just another typical ten song Beatles album would be seen as a let down and they all knew that so what were they to do? As it would turn out, it would thanks to a copyright lawsuit from John Lennon that would be the unlikely answer they needed to record a new album.
---------
Extract From 'The Second Wave of Beatlemania: 1973 - 1976' by Richard Lawler
In 1969, Lennon composed the song Come Together for the album Abbey Road that would be inspired by the Chuck Berry tune You Can't Catch Me in which it bore a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the third line of the second verse ("Here come [old] flat-top") for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973, oddly just as the new wave of Beatlemania was starting to take place, but later it was settled out of court with the agreement that, according to an announcement by Levy, Lennon had to 'record three songs by Big Seven publishers on his next album' [3]. The songs that Lennon would agree to perform would be You Can't Catch Me, Angel Baby and Ya Ya and at first he did think about recording an album just of cover versions of rock classics as a solo album of his own but would get cold feet given his lack of solo success outside of The Beatles albeit the albums he had done was mostly experimental he had done with Yoko and the failure of Some Time In New York City did make him doubt his solo capabilities.Extract From 'The Second Wave of Beatlemania: 1973 - 1976' by Richard Lawler
However, it was when Brian Epstein would catch up with John about what to do, it was then that the two men came up with the idea of having the next Beatles album being something different in which would not be another Band On The Run but rather just an album that would go back to their roots as a cover band in their early days in which not only would be easier to record having not to write up songs for the album but that it would fulfil Lennon's lawsuit and get another Beatles album to feed the growing demand that was threatening to submerge Apple HQ at Savile Row. Funnily enough at that time in the 1970s, there was starting to be a more nostalgic view of the rock 'n' roll scene of the 1950's that The Beatles and many of their age had grown up with and having an album that would be of a more loving throwback to their childhood could be something unique.
Lennon and Epstein agreed with the idea and all they needed to do was to get the rest of the band on board. Ringo was happy with the idea of performing a cover song or two and Preston was happy to tag along to add his touch to it while Paul McCartney was a bit of a hold up at first knowing how just a cover album of classic rock tunes following on from Band On The Run would be considered a let down for many fans though after much reasoning would realise that trying to create another Band On The Run was going to impossible and so to do something easy for all of them that could not only a throw back to their early days from the Hamburg and Cavern days but almost act as a 'farewell' to the original cover group that they once were and as of a result, Paul came round to the idea.
Perhaps surprisingly was that George Harrison was very much happy to do such an album more so than just another Beatles album that needed new songs and the fact this one was just about picking songs that they all liked growing up and already had songs in mind he wanted to play with the first being to record a cover of the 1962 James Ray and Rudy Clark song Got My Mind Set On You which had been a song that George had wanted to recorded as a cover in the early days of the band yet never came to be but now he would finally get his chance to do that [4] for this album. Exactly why he would get behind doing an album of nothing but covers might have seem strange to many who knew how much George had wanted to get his song backlog cleared yet it seemed that the idea of performing rock classics from their young days with a touch of nostalgia would help distract him from his failing marriage.
----------
Extract from 'I Me Mine' by George Harrison
Simple process now that I think about but anyway the first song I wanted to record was Got My Mind Set On You which had always been a song that had been stuck in my head for so long and had never gotten the chance to do a cover version of it with The Beatles until now so that was quite satisfying to say the least; then I would present the Cole Porter song True Love which had always been a favourite of mine since I was a kid and finally there was the song Bye Bye Love which I did tweak the lyrics round to refer to Patti in which the rest of the band and others didn't like the idea of bringing in my personal life in which was supposed to be a fun throwback album so I did it again to be more closely related to the original song though I did sneak in some sneaky little bits talking about Patti and Eric Clapton in there [5].
Finally I always wanted to record the old Cab Calloway song Between the Devil And The Deep Blue Sea which while was a favourite of Brian Epstein's and a chance to play the uke once again, which Brian said was his favourite cover we ever did in all our career, it's more easy listening jazz sound made it a bit out of place from the more classic rock 'n' roll sound and sadly it wouldn't make the final cut on the album though it did get to be a B-Side for Stand By Me so no real loss there but it was such a tender song to record and something a little different to do. So it all came together in which John would bring the three songs he had to record as part of his lawsuit which were You Can't Catch Me, Angel Baby and Ya Ya but he would also bring in the song Stand By Me which actually despite not being a song he had to record for the sake of it was the one that turned out to be the biggest hit from the album and one of the best covers we all did.
Paul would then bring his selection of songs to record which were Brown Eyed Handsome Man, I Got Stung and Movie Magg before Ringo would get not one but two in which the first would be Hey! Baby and Only You (And You Alone) which the latter was a suggestion by John for play as the easy listening sound would actually suit Ringo [6] and it did and he was happy to get another song to sing on and how could you hate Ringo anyway? Plus, unlike the previous Beatles albums in which we had a ten song rule to follow, that wasn't the case here in which as all the songs were covers that none of us had written meant that we had more freedom with what we could do with the album.
----------
Interview of Paul McCartney (1995)
To be honest regarding when we did Rock N Roll, I don't really remember much from that album other than Brian Epstein telling us to find three songs or more that we liked and bring them in to record over a week at Abbey Road and that was that. I think the reason being that it was such a quick recording session in which nothing of note happen, pretty boring actually but not trying to say it in a bad way as it was fun to do in which we spent a lot of time just talking about our heroes from Carl Perkins, Chucky Berry and Elvis Pressley and how we all got here. It was quite a stripped back album in which while we brought in some guest musicians like Ray Cooper, Tom Scott and Jim Scott which all helped make the sound more fleshed out, it was something akin to what I had in mind when we did Beatles At Work at Twickenham only this time it all worked.Interview of Paul McCartney (1995)
If Band On The Run had been my idea then Rock 'N' Roll was undoubtedly John's idea albeit it was all over a lawsuit he had to do which I do wonder if we still would have done this sort of album if it wasn't for the lawsuit but then again there we are.
---------
Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
When Brian Epstein would announce to the public in July that the band was getting ready to record a new album, reaction was one of joy as many could hardly wait to see what the band would bring out following Band On The Run though the hype would be somewhat dampened when it was revealed that it was to be nothing more than a cover album of rock classics. Nonetheless, the promotion work would start off with the sub heading being 'Do you remember the old days of Rock 'N' Roll?' which seemed as though it was to play into a now growing nostalgic market. Epstein would leave the country in July to fly out to India where he hoped to encounter more of a spiritual side that he felt hadn't really been fully learnt from the last time he went with the band to India in 1968 though out there he was to meet a young American that was to transform Apple into the force it would be today but that is another story.Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
In the meantime, the album that was to named Rock 'N' Roll was to be recorded at The Beatles' fabled home of Abbey Road Studios, something that got much of the press excited that the band was supposedly 'coming home' in where they became the band they are today and where they had recorded many of their early records and fittingly where most were some of their first songs they recorded were just covers and now here they were to do the same once again. The album itself was also something of a family affair in which both Linda McCartney and May Pang would perform some backing vocals for songs which the idea of the band using their partners to sing on songs seemed strange to say the least but compared to what Yoko Ono might have been, Linda and May were much easier going though both woman would find it funny being used in which Linda would say it was 'nepotism at its finest' while May joked that 'for being the biggest band in the world, they were also the biggest cheapskates in not bringing professional backing singers'.
The album itself did have a heart-warming time in which May Pang had gotten in contact with John's ex-wife Cynthia and her and John's son Julian in which she would help by bring father and son together to visit John more following his return to the UK and the recording of Rock 'N' Roll would be a happy time for all in which Julian would play a drum part of Ya Ya which, unknown to him, was secretly recorded in which it appeared on the final album [7]. Under the watchful eye of their producer George Martin who pretty much was back on their side following how well things had been with their last album with him and in just a fairly uneventful week in August, the album was completed [8] and would soon hit record stores in October 1974 in which thanks to the second wave of Beatlemania, pre-orders had been major as many of the public all waited to see what kind of album the band would throw up next.
Rock 'N' Roll (1974)
Side 1
1) Got My Mind Set On You
2) Stand By Me
3) Brown Eyed Handsome Man
4) Hey! Baby
5) You Can't Catch Me
6) Bye Bye Love
Side 2
7) Movie Magg
8) Only You (And You Alone)
9) Ya Ya
10) Angel Baby
11) I Got Stung
12) True Love
While the album would hit number one without any trouble in both the US and UK, reaction to it was mixed to say the least. Some felt cheated that after all the waiting for what would be next after Band On The Run was nothing more than just a cover album, albeit one that was rather good all things considered. Some music critics though was sympathetic even then realising how difficult it was to do another Band On The Run so that doing some thing different in Rock 'N' Roll was actually a fairly sensible thing to do plus with Lennon's lawsuit fulfilled by performing covers of the songs as requested, it was another situation off his back and it would be an album that they'd all had great fun doing as it was just them playing songs that they all loved.
That said though, there was the question asked regarding Billy Preston in the group in having now been in the band for a few years now, he hadn't sung a single song on any Beatles album though Billy Preston would say that this wasn't a problem in which unlike the rest of the band had his own productive solo career, arguably better than the other four Beatles could do on their own, in which he had released early on in 1974 his ninth studio album called The Kids & Me [9] which gave him the freedom to do what he wanted without cramping that of the rest of the band and indeed during that time the other band members would often assist with him with his own work and Billy would mostly refer to being in The Beatles as his 'bit on the side'.
Despite some being left disappointed in the album, it was a big success though nowhere near the monster sales of Band On the Run though the single Stand By Me would be an unexpected hit for John. George Harrison's cover of True Love would have similar success in the charts with it's B-Side being Paul McCartney's cover of I Got Stung and feature a amusing music video promo shot at Friar Park featuring the band in a Victorian setting in which Ringo plays a guardian angle who smokes and gets the girl [10] while there also be another music video for Stand By Me which would be more a straight forward music video shot in the studio of Abbey Road. With that, there was nothing much else to do as they might have all thought but alas nothing remains still in The Beatles as before they knew it, plans were now in place for November to December to be the long awaited North American tour that many Beatles fans over there had been praying and hoping would happen since the last time the band stepped off the stage at Candlestick Park in 1966. Only minor situation was with George and his somewhat dodgy throat...
[1] Things still go bad for them much like with OTL so no change there.
[2] Lost Weekend still happens like OTL though here in perhaps a few different places as we shall soon see...
[3] Yes, Lennon's lawsuit still happens like OTL though now he has The Beatles to help him out here.
[4] This was the case too as with OTL though he wouldn't get to record until 1987 with Cloud Nine, here though he gets to have it recorded with the band as he long hoped for.
[5] The OTL version for the song featured many changed lyrics reflecting on his failing marriage though here the lyrics aren't so blatant unlike OTL.
[6] As was the case with OTL that John suggested for Ringo to sing for his album Goodnight Vienna then.
[7] This ofc happened with OTL too so only makes sense for it to happen here too.
[8] Totally different from OTL in which the OTL Rock 'N' Roll is one the most craziest stories in recording an album in which was was full of drugs and alcohol and Spector showing up dressed in a surgeon's outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio, hurting Lennon's ears that would see the album's release delayed by a year. So yeah, recording of the album is far more boring but more safer under George Martin's watch.
[9] In case you are wondering, Billy Preston still has a solo career alongside being with The Beatles in which his output is largely the same as OTL.
[10] Pretty much the same as the OTL video only with more Beatles seen such as Ringo as the angle who steal's George's woman (likely a hint of how George had an affair with Maureen with the video being something like Ringo getting revenge), Paul falling in the water with John and Billy doing something else you can can imagine.
So there we are, bit of a fun update to do and it looks as though The Beatles are about to tour North American once more but how will the tour go here and who is this person that Epstein has met in India do you think? If you know your history of who else was in India at the time, you will know but for others, well, find out next time and please comment if you want more and see what happens next!
Nice follow up to Band on the Run since that sort of Mega Album is not easy to follow.
Be cool if Billy had some of the Beatles join him for his own tours and on his albums. Plus he should sing on Beatles tracks imho!
Hope Brian had a better time in India than last visit.
Wonder if the Band can do some 'small scale' gigs in America- just turn up to someone's 'open-mic' night and jam like the Germany days? But leave before everyone and their mother turns up.
Be cool if Billy had some of the Beatles join him for his own tours and on his albums. Plus he should sing on Beatles tracks imho!
Hope Brian had a better time in India than last visit.
Wonder if the Band can do some 'small scale' gigs in America- just turn up to someone's 'open-mic' night and jam like the Germany days? But leave before everyone and their mother turns up.
The 1974 North American Tour And Apple's New Recruit
So now we head into something of a non-new album chapter which covers another tour but also brings in someone else to work for Apple who being here will have some major ramifications for Apple being that that now there is just one...I'll let you work that out once we get into the story so let's begin!
The anger Epstein still felt about George's affair with Ringo's wife (their relationship in turn pretty much not any better than that of the Harrisons) was still there as he still couldn't believe what he had done yet despite that, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him in a way seeing his marriage fall apart, even if some could argue that it was always doomed to fail no matter how hard Epstein tried to keep them together. Then of course there was the story of John Lennon's mistress in May Pang in which despite Epstein still finding the nature of the relationship utterly bizarre and telling Yoko that if she had wanted to someone to keep an eye on her husband then he could have ask him or any of the band but she insisted on May for the job. That said though, May Pang was in Epstein's mind an utter delight to be around as the trip to Nigeria had seen them get to know each other better in which while Epstein was hoping that John and Yoko would get back together again, he couldn't help but wonder if Yoko had accidently set her husband up with perhaps, dare he say it, a more suitable partner?
Of course, he didn't want to say that but without Yoko's presence, there was a different dynamic in which compared to Yoko often butting in to give out suggestions and causing some tension mostly during the recording of the White Album, May would be there in the recording studio like Yoko was before but unlike her was none of that and would help out if needed for something, in a similar vain of what Linda would bring sometimes, and her more grounded nature rubbed off with the rest of the band which all did help create a more harmonious environment that likely hadn't been there for years. He honestly had a lot on his mind and it was in the middle of recording of Rock 'N' Roll that the long awaited dream of a major North American tour to take place would finally see some traction as with the second wave of Beatlemania came the demand for it in which neither of them could avoid it.
Epstein would be very hands off with this tour as he would have Neil Aspinall act as the tour manager once again seeing how well the Imagine Tour had gone before so it was simply a case of tried and tested and when the tour was announced in August, just shortly after the band had finished recording Rock 'N' Roll, the announcement that The Beatles would be touring North America for the first time since 1966 starting in November and ending in December [1] which would be called the Band On The Run North American Tour (curiously not mention about Rock 'N' Roll with that being the latest album but then again considering how massive the previous album had been, it had been seen as a no brainer to follow this) and with that, the build up for the most anticipated tour at that time could begin. Epstein would though rather get away from it as he would fly out to India in the hope of clearing his mind yet as it would turn out, fate had another idea in mind for him as to who he was to meet out in India that was to have ramifications for Apple Corp.
"Wait, are you...Mr Brian Epstein? The Beatles manager?" The young man asked, his accent given away his American nationality.
"Yes, yes I am," Epstein replied with some caution knowing that if this was yet another young Beatles fan who was be wanting to ask him nothing more than about the band.
"What are you doing here?" The young man asked, "should you be with The Beatles or something?"
"Actually, I was taking a little holiday for myself," Epstein replied, "but I didn't expect to be helping you...actually, what is your name and why are you here?"
The man looked at him and smiled. "Steve Jobs." [2]
---------
Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
I don't think much needs to be said about me first meeting Steve Jobs, the man that was to take Apple to new heights that I didn't think was possible, that was to be a watershed moment when you think about it. At aged only nineteen then, Steve Jobs had quit his job at the Atari game company and had, like so many young men and woman at that time, come to India searching for enlightenment and a guru and had arrived in India several weeks before I had arrived but things hadn't gone well for him as pretty much the moment he arrived in New Delhi he had fallen sick with dysentery with a fever spiking for days at a time and had claimed that his weight had dropped from 160 pounds to 120 in just three weeks and had to get out of the city thus how I ended up finding him in Haridwar.
Seeing as he wasn't well and needing some proper medical attention, I bought ourselves a couple of train tickets and began a journey to get anywhere but where we were and yes, the song Two Of Us did cross my mind in that moment. As it turned out, Steve knew more about Apple Corp than what I could give him credit for in which I have said many times before that the idea was more John and Paul's brainchild - or rather their egos getting in the way - and that is was nothing more than a tax dodge that was the company could do more things than just make music and sign up and coming artists in which he had done for the past few years though the memories of the infamous calamities with with our original electrotonic department led by Yannis Alexis Mardas - or as you know him as either 'Magic Alex' or 'The Mad Greek' - which had crashed and burned badly and had been a black mark on the company even in the years since then and I could understand everyone's reluctance and the mere prospect of starting operations again.
Yet I was amazed by Steve Jobs, this young man barely out of high school, had other ideas of what Apple could do. Strangely, he seemed to know the players at Apple and the company's history like he had been with us right at the start. Of course, you could say that there are hardcore Beatles fans who seemed to know more about Beatles history than the band themselves with Steve looking like he was one of them yet he wasn't really thinking about any future albums that The Beatles would put out but actually opinions about Apple's past and future that he didn't seem to have any shame in sharing with me. It was on that journey on the train that we talked about everything about religion, social issues, music, spiritual awakenings, our own difficult childhoods and the future with his predictions about the future that we were going to have these little machines in our homes that would do much for us and wire us all together and possibly change the world as we all knew it.
Of course, as passionate as he was, I was still hesitant thinking that this was too good to be true as my mind went back to Magic Alex and the hell he put us all through.
"It is really something you have there," I admitted to him, "but you would be aware the last time we tried having a electronics department at Apple?"
Steve nodded at me. "That whole thing with the Greek guy? Yeah, you guys got screwed over and I know you might not believe me fully but honestly, you have to believe me on this, I can help out. I mean, I've worked with Atari if that helps, don't know where you got that Alex guy from."
"Honestly I have no clue myself about where Alexis came from," I admitted, "you'd have to ask John Lennon about that."
The whole train trip would see us talk more as the more I spoke to him, the more he didn't seem like another Alexis character but rather a young man who seemed to have something in him that could really make a difference for not just Apple, but likely have a major impact on the world. All I had to do was keep him close, have him come to England with me, hopefully get the approval of the band and maybe I could get this young man to join Apple and turn it into something bigger than what I and what everyone else might have thought about.
That being said despite what most of them would think about Epstein such as his bad handling of certain deals for the band back in the early days, he did still have a strewed eye for talent if his inclusion of the likes of Queen, David Bowie, Badfinger and Elton John were anything to go by so him putting his faith in this young man he had found in India had to mean something. Steve Jobs would admit that the sight of being there in the same room with the band that he had grown up with for much of his childhood was there was something never in his wildest dreams he'd ever do, never mind try and promote his new ideas that he felt Apple could be the place for though he did stumble his way his pitch likely at being starstruck at seeing The Beatles yet Epstein would have his back giving him gentle support until he explained what he had.
The Beatles, still very much wary following the utter farce that was some of Magic Alex's inventions that with hindsight they wish they hadn't met him in the first place and likely wondered how he had lasted long as he did before getting fired, did seem to like this young man yet didn't want to fall into another trap in which this young man was nothing more than another conman. Eventually after much reluctance after Jobs explained how he had experience working with Atari just to prove that he had done actually things before, the band would accept him and let him restart Apple's electronics department in which Jobs would bring in some of his guys he knew that could help with what he needed and admitted it might take another year to have something ready.
Epstein very much had faith with Steve Jobs yet none of the band seemed to be aware what they were getting themselves into though with hindsight, it would be a major watershed moment for what was to follow next but that is another story.
Regarding Harrison, it was technically true that he was taking some time to recover but actually it was that with just a month to go, Harrison happen to have the worst luck to have caught Laryngitis which meant his throat was in no condition to play in [3] and Epstein knew that if he was to go out on the road in that condition then he feared the worse and ordered him to rest up and allow him to take time needed to recover and pray that his vocals would be back into something of a passable condition while the rest of the band would handle the press [4]. With the tour starting in Vancouver, Canada on November 2nd, Harrison did managed to get his vocals into something of a decent condition though honestly he did not look like a man who was ready to hit the road again [5].
Band On The Run North American Tour Dates
1) Jet (Swapped with Get Back for the Arizona Shows)
2) Come Together (Swapped with New York City for the Madison Square Garden shows)
3) What Is Life
4) I'm The Greatest
5) Something
6) Maybe I'm Amazed
7) Live And Let Die
8) I Am The Walrus
9) Jealous Guy
10) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
11) Stand By Me
12) Photograph
13) Got To Get You Into My Life
14) Monkberry Moon Delight (Swapped with Michelle for the Montreal shows)
15) Here Comes The Sun
16) All Things Must Pass
17) In My Life
18) Imagine
19) While My Guitar Gently Weeps
20) Don't Let Me Down
21) Band On The Run
Encore
22) Yesterday
23) Strawberry Fields Forever
24) My Sweet Lord
In what was am ambitious tour, the long awaited North American tour would see the band head to some places they hadn't been before and others that were a long time coming though it was to a rather mixed bag return to say the least in which while many would welcome the return of the band on the live stage again and with most American audiences being finally able to hear them live compared to the mass hysteria of those early US tours, it wasn't all perfect as it seemed that much of the criticism was aimed at poor old George Harrison who despite his vocals being somewhat better than what had happened before the tour had started, he did have the impression of a man who wanted to be anywhere other than on this tour which only gave the rest of the band much regret with hindsight that they shouldn't have toured then despite the tour being commercial a huge success that did seem to meet the demands of a pent-up crowd wanting to riding on a tide of Beatlemania.
Perhaps what was treated as the biggest sin of that tour was George attempting to change some of his songs around in which the most damning to many was his infamous handling of the song Something in which he would change the lyrics around that reflected around his recent split from Patti which is more heart-breaking when one remembers it was a song written for Patti in mind [8]. In contrast to this though was that Paul, John and even Ringo all got great right ups with Paul being treated as the best performer of the bunch saying that with George being he weak link, Paul had to be the performer that had to drag the show forward with some critics dreading a show if this had been a George Harrison solo tour. To say it was a tour that the quiet Beatle would rather forget about would be an understatement in which the only silver lining from that tour was that during that time he would meet up with Olivia Trinidad Arias in which as the two would become romantically link.
While in New York, there was oddly no meeting between John and Yoko there though there was a phone call between the estranged husband and wife to which Yoko had been out of the picture for so long that Paul and Ringo would admit that they forgot John was still married to Yoko and that May had been his wife all along which did make some inside the band and in their inner circle wondering just what might happen for the Lennons. Then of course if that wasn't enough, there was to be a meeting of The Beatles with the president of the United States but not the one that had been the bane of John Lennon's time in America.
However if he was to be asked that he would be meeting the leader of the free world at the White House during a Beatles tour, he'd say even hell freezing over couldn't do it but alas, that would very much happy on this tour. On November 16th, the president's son Jack Ford would meet with the band backstage after the concert in Salt Lake City. Jack, who was studying forestry at Utah State University, befriended Harrison in particular and invited him and the rest of the band and several other guests to visit the White House [9]. It was an invite that drew a mixed response from the band and from Epstein who had been against the idea of meeting leaders from countries during those early years of the band if the entire infamous Philippines experience was all down simply for failing to meet the dictator leaders then yet the prospect of rubbing shoulders with the president of the United States and one that wasn't Nixon seemed like something that Epstein couldn't resist at the prospect of a meeting of that kind.
It would take some convincing on Epstein's part to get the band to visit the White House, mostly Lennon who was understandably wary given his history, but a meeting would take place on December 13th in which the band, along with their partners and several of their entourage which included Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans and George Martin would accommodate the band to the White House for that famous meeting with President Ford [10]. The group first dined with Jack in the Third Floor Solarium as they enjoyed beef, ham, and vegetable plates, the group conversed while listening to Band On The Run and Rock 'N' Roll with Jack and his sister Susan acted as tour guides as the entourage viewed the White House rooms. In the East Room, Harrison and Preston sampled a few bars on the 1938 Steinway piano situated in the historic room. Then finally they would meet President Ford though this big meeting was rather anti-climatic in some ways as it was all rather brief with them for about 15 minutes in the Oval Office.
Politics were avoided that day though apparently in private, Ford would apologise to Lennon for what he had to put up with when Nixon was in power which did soften Lennon's view on the man though oddly it was Epstein who Ford was more interested in meeting in which he wanted to thank him for bringing the Beatles to America in the first place with this being the 10th anniversary of their arrival in America which Epstein would admit felt floored when he heard that as he would describe it as something of personal vindication that all the years he had done with The Beatles had led to this moment. However, even better would be to follow in which just before Christmas when the tour ended, Brian Epstein was to gain something from royalty that the band had gained before he had just over ten years ago...he was to be awarded an MBE for his efforts for music and in all honesty, no one else deserved it more than himself [11].
The news itself among the Beatles and the rest of Apple and all the artists there was one of 'about time' when they heard in which which Epstein had always felt downhearted that he had never gotten an MBE when The Beatles did when some would argue he deserved it more than he did given how he had driven this band to where they were with Harrison famously saying that he had always thought that MBE stood for 'Mr. Brian Epstein'. Regardless though, it had been better late for never and despite some shaky moments on that tour, 1974 had ended on a good note though what was to happen in 1975? No one knew...
[1] So yes, this tour takes the place of OTL Dark Horse tour
[2] Big moment here ITTL, Steve Jobs will play a bigger role here and was actually in India at this time.
[3] Much like OTL, Harrison's throat it utterly kaput here.
[4] Slight change in which without having to do all the work like OTL's Dark Horse tour, Harrison gets the time to rest up to get his vocals somewhat better here.
[5] He is still in cranky state despite this though if OTL Harrison was anything to go by IOTL.
[6] Who were all part of that tour IOTL so they make up the backing musicians for The Beatles here.
[7] As they did with OTL tour.
[8] Yes, this sadly still happens like with OTL, only with less of a fucked up throat as seen here.
[9] This ofc happened with OTL with Harrison so the same happens here with The Beatles here.
[10] The meeting is roughly the same though with more Beatles ofc.
[11] This was always something that bothered Epstein until his death though thankfully he gets what he deserves here
Now then, there we are and some big butterfly effects are about to happen in which we have a less shambolic 1974 tour in without Harrison making it quite bad, you can count on Macca and Lenny making it a better experience for all there. Anyway, we now move into 1975 and what do you think might be happening next to our boys next? Please comment if you want to read more as though things ITTL seem to follow roughly the same as OTL things will go different so keep that mind...until then, catch you all later!
The 1974 Band On The Run North American Tour And Apple's New Recruit
Extracts from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
While The Beatles were busy recording Rock 'N' Roll, Brian Epstein would take the chance to have a holiday to India to take his mind of things and once again try and get in touch with his spiritual side once again which he had felt he had lost following the 1968 trip to India though in truth another reason was to get out of The Beatles' hair and let them get on with their work without hanging over them like some overprotected parent; they were all adults in their thirties and should have known better, right? Of course this being the biggest band in the world life is never simple as with the exception of Paul and Linda McCartney's stable marriage - John, George and Ringo's marriages were either on the brink or utterly in the gutter with the recent split with George and Patti in which had seen Eric Clapton's obsession for Patti reach its peak in which he had won her over and had left George in such a state even if most bizarrely George had actually quite literally handed over his wife to his best friend which Epstein could never understand why Harrison would do that.Extracts from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
The anger Epstein still felt about George's affair with Ringo's wife (their relationship in turn pretty much not any better than that of the Harrisons) was still there as he still couldn't believe what he had done yet despite that, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him in a way seeing his marriage fall apart, even if some could argue that it was always doomed to fail no matter how hard Epstein tried to keep them together. Then of course there was the story of John Lennon's mistress in May Pang in which despite Epstein still finding the nature of the relationship utterly bizarre and telling Yoko that if she had wanted to someone to keep an eye on her husband then he could have ask him or any of the band but she insisted on May for the job. That said though, May Pang was in Epstein's mind an utter delight to be around as the trip to Nigeria had seen them get to know each other better in which while Epstein was hoping that John and Yoko would get back together again, he couldn't help but wonder if Yoko had accidently set her husband up with perhaps, dare he say it, a more suitable partner?
Of course, he didn't want to say that but without Yoko's presence, there was a different dynamic in which compared to Yoko often butting in to give out suggestions and causing some tension mostly during the recording of the White Album, May would be there in the recording studio like Yoko was before but unlike her was none of that and would help out if needed for something, in a similar vain of what Linda would bring sometimes, and her more grounded nature rubbed off with the rest of the band which all did help create a more harmonious environment that likely hadn't been there for years. He honestly had a lot on his mind and it was in the middle of recording of Rock 'N' Roll that the long awaited dream of a major North American tour to take place would finally see some traction as with the second wave of Beatlemania came the demand for it in which neither of them could avoid it.
Epstein would be very hands off with this tour as he would have Neil Aspinall act as the tour manager once again seeing how well the Imagine Tour had gone before so it was simply a case of tried and tested and when the tour was announced in August, just shortly after the band had finished recording Rock 'N' Roll, the announcement that The Beatles would be touring North America for the first time since 1966 starting in November and ending in December [1] which would be called the Band On The Run North American Tour (curiously not mention about Rock 'N' Roll with that being the latest album but then again considering how massive the previous album had been, it had been seen as a no brainer to follow this) and with that, the build up for the most anticipated tour at that time could begin. Epstein would though rather get away from it as he would fly out to India in the hope of clearing his mind yet as it would turn out, fate had another idea in mind for him as to who he was to meet out in India that was to have ramifications for Apple Corp.
[...]
Following his arrival in New Delhi, Brian Epstein had made the trip to a festival near the Ganges River at Haridwar, a town in western India called the Kumbh Mela; a festival which was actually more of utter madness as more than ten million spiritual seekers descended upon a town of one hundred thousand and Epstein would have stuck out like a sore thumb there had he not noticed a skinny and sickly white young adult male within that throng sticking out like a sore thumb. Whoever the young man was, Epstein knew he had to act and get him some aid in which he would help bring him out and get him a giant water bottle of certified filtered water in which while Epstein had no clue who this man was and why he was here in India of all places, the young man once he managed to come to his senses and had a better look at the man who had helped him, his eyes widened as he only knew too well who Epstein was.
"Wait, are you...Mr Brian Epstein? The Beatles manager?" The young man asked, his accent given away his American nationality.
"Yes, yes I am," Epstein replied with some caution knowing that if this was yet another young Beatles fan who was be wanting to ask him nothing more than about the band.
"What are you doing here?" The young man asked, "should you be with The Beatles or something?"
"Actually, I was taking a little holiday for myself," Epstein replied, "but I didn't expect to be helping you...actually, what is your name and why are you here?"
The man looked at him and smiled. "Steve Jobs." [2]
---------
Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
Seeing as he wasn't well and needing some proper medical attention, I bought ourselves a couple of train tickets and began a journey to get anywhere but where we were and yes, the song Two Of Us did cross my mind in that moment. As it turned out, Steve knew more about Apple Corp than what I could give him credit for in which I have said many times before that the idea was more John and Paul's brainchild - or rather their egos getting in the way - and that is was nothing more than a tax dodge that was the company could do more things than just make music and sign up and coming artists in which he had done for the past few years though the memories of the infamous calamities with with our original electrotonic department led by Yannis Alexis Mardas - or as you know him as either 'Magic Alex' or 'The Mad Greek' - which had crashed and burned badly and had been a black mark on the company even in the years since then and I could understand everyone's reluctance and the mere prospect of starting operations again.
Yet I was amazed by Steve Jobs, this young man barely out of high school, had other ideas of what Apple could do. Strangely, he seemed to know the players at Apple and the company's history like he had been with us right at the start. Of course, you could say that there are hardcore Beatles fans who seemed to know more about Beatles history than the band themselves with Steve looking like he was one of them yet he wasn't really thinking about any future albums that The Beatles would put out but actually opinions about Apple's past and future that he didn't seem to have any shame in sharing with me. It was on that journey on the train that we talked about everything about religion, social issues, music, spiritual awakenings, our own difficult childhoods and the future with his predictions about the future that we were going to have these little machines in our homes that would do much for us and wire us all together and possibly change the world as we all knew it.
Of course, as passionate as he was, I was still hesitant thinking that this was too good to be true as my mind went back to Magic Alex and the hell he put us all through.
"It is really something you have there," I admitted to him, "but you would be aware the last time we tried having a electronics department at Apple?"
Steve nodded at me. "That whole thing with the Greek guy? Yeah, you guys got screwed over and I know you might not believe me fully but honestly, you have to believe me on this, I can help out. I mean, I've worked with Atari if that helps, don't know where you got that Alex guy from."
"Honestly I have no clue myself about where Alexis came from," I admitted, "you'd have to ask John Lennon about that."
The whole train trip would see us talk more as the more I spoke to him, the more he didn't seem like another Alexis character but rather a young man who seemed to have something in him that could really make a difference for not just Apple, but likely have a major impact on the world. All I had to do was keep him close, have him come to England with me, hopefully get the approval of the band and maybe I could get this young man to join Apple and turn it into something bigger than what I and what everyone else might have thought about.
-----------
Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
A month prior to the first of the press conferences for the tour, Brian Epstein would return to England in September with Steve Jobs in tow and it was fair to say that not many in the band hadn't a clue what their manager was thinking of when first saw this young American coming into Savile Row and more so when Epstein was announcing the idea of not only giving this unknown man who was barely out of high school a job at Apple, almost akin to how in the early days of Apple how almost every young hippy was trying to get a job and all seemed to have some big ambitious plan to change the world when in truth many of them were high on LSD so when this Steve Jobs showed up, they thought he'd be no different and might have wondered what Epstein was thinking about.Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
That being said despite what most of them would think about Epstein such as his bad handling of certain deals for the band back in the early days, he did still have a strewed eye for talent if his inclusion of the likes of Queen, David Bowie, Badfinger and Elton John were anything to go by so him putting his faith in this young man he had found in India had to mean something. Steve Jobs would admit that the sight of being there in the same room with the band that he had grown up with for much of his childhood was there was something never in his wildest dreams he'd ever do, never mind try and promote his new ideas that he felt Apple could be the place for though he did stumble his way his pitch likely at being starstruck at seeing The Beatles yet Epstein would have his back giving him gentle support until he explained what he had.
The Beatles, still very much wary following the utter farce that was some of Magic Alex's inventions that with hindsight they wish they hadn't met him in the first place and likely wondered how he had lasted long as he did before getting fired, did seem to like this young man yet didn't want to fall into another trap in which this young man was nothing more than another conman. Eventually after much reluctance after Jobs explained how he had experience working with Atari just to prove that he had done actually things before, the band would accept him and let him restart Apple's electronics department in which Jobs would bring in some of his guys he knew that could help with what he needed and admitted it might take another year to have something ready.
Epstein very much had faith with Steve Jobs yet none of the band seemed to be aware what they were getting themselves into though with hindsight, it would be a major watershed moment for what was to follow next but that is another story.
[...]
When the first of the press conferences prior to the Band On The Run North American Tour, there was a notable lack of George Harrison at the proceedings in which the reason being was that he was taking some time of getting over the recent breakup with his wife Patti with many of the press still asking why Harrison would simply let his friend Eric Clapton waltz in and take his wife away before then asking some similar questions to John about the current state of his relationship with Yoko and his mistress in May Pang; with hindsight some of the questions asked were more about how badly their relationships with their partners were rather than the actual tour itself as if they were all trying to find some shocking bit of news that would make headlines.
Regarding Harrison, it was technically true that he was taking some time to recover but actually it was that with just a month to go, Harrison happen to have the worst luck to have caught Laryngitis which meant his throat was in no condition to play in [3] and Epstein knew that if he was to go out on the road in that condition then he feared the worse and ordered him to rest up and allow him to take time needed to recover and pray that his vocals would be back into something of a passable condition while the rest of the band would handle the press [4]. With the tour starting in Vancouver, Canada on November 2nd, Harrison did managed to get his vocals into something of a decent condition though honestly he did not look like a man who was ready to hit the road again [5].
----------
Interview of Paul McCartney (2004)
With hindsight giving the state George was in at that time over with his voice and what had happened with Patti, we honestly shouldn't have toured then but so much effort had gone into getting everything ready that to cancel now would have been terrible and the demand to see us perform again in America was at an all time high that there was no one we could all avoid it so we had to hope and pray all went well...and then George just really fumbled his way through the tour.Interview of Paul McCartney (2004)
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Extract from 'The Complete Beatles Chronicle' by Mark Lewisohn
The arrival of the Beatles playing their first North American tour since 1966 was likely the most highly anticipated tour for any band at that time with many suspecting that it'll have all the glory much like The Concert For Bangladesh though John Lennon would jokingly try and play things down when deep down, he along with the rest of the band were worried if George would be in any fit shape to perform even when he had been given the near month long break to recover and eventually begin rehearsals in which the five man Beatles band would be joined by jazz percussionist Emil Richards, and horn players Jim Horn, Tom Scott and Chuck Findley [6] which all help give a more fleshed out sound for the tour with then new Apple signing Splinter acting as the support act for the tour [7]. With that, the tour would be as follows:Extract from 'The Complete Beatles Chronicle' by Mark Lewisohn
Band On The Run North American Tour Dates
- 2nd November - Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, Canada
- 4th November - Seattle Center Coliseum - Seattle, Washington USA
- 6th November - Cow Palace - Daly City, California USA
- 7th November - Cow Palace - Daly City, California USA
- 8th November - Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena - Oakland, California USA (Two Shows)
- 10th November - Long Beach Arena - Long Beach, California USA
- 11th November - The Forum - Inglewood, California USA
- 12th November - The Forum - Inglewood, California USA (Two Shows)
- 14th November - Tucson Community Center - Tucson, Arizona USA (Two Shows)
- 16th November - Salt Palace - Salt Lake City, Utah USA
- 18th November - Denver Coliseum - Denver, Colorado USA (Two Shows)
- 20th November - St. Louis Arena - St. Louis, Missouri USA
- 21st November - Tulsa Assembly Center - Tulsa, Oklahoma USA
- 22nd November - Tarrant County Convention Center - Forth Worth, Texas USA
- 24th November - Hofheinz Pavilion - Houston, Texas USA (Two Shows)
- 26th November - LSU Assembly Center - Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA
- 27th November - Mid-South Coliseum - Memphis, Tennessee USA
- 28th November - Omni Coliseum - Atlanta, Georgia USA (Two Shows)
- 30th November - Chicago Stadium - Chicago, Illinois USA (Two Shows)
- 4th December - Olympia Stadium - Detroit, Michigan (Two Shows)
- 6th December - Maple Leaf Gardens - Toronto, Canada (Two Shows)
- 8th December - Montreal Forum - Montreal, Canada (Two Shows)
- 10th December - Boston Garden - Boston, Massachusetts USA (Two Shows)
- 11th December - Providence Civic Center - Providence, Rhode Island USA
- 13th December - Capital Centre - Landover, Maryland USA (Two Shows)
- 15th December - Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, New York USA (Two Shows)
- 16th December - Spectrum - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
- 17th December - Spectrum - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA (Two Shows)
- 19th December - Madison Square Garden - New York City USA
- 20th December - Madison Square Garden - New York City USA (Two Shows)
1) Jet (Swapped with Get Back for the Arizona Shows)
2) Come Together (Swapped with New York City for the Madison Square Garden shows)
3) What Is Life
4) I'm The Greatest
5) Something
6) Maybe I'm Amazed
7) Live And Let Die
8) I Am The Walrus
9) Jealous Guy
10) Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
11) Stand By Me
12) Photograph
13) Got To Get You Into My Life
14) Monkberry Moon Delight (Swapped with Michelle for the Montreal shows)
15) Here Comes The Sun
16) All Things Must Pass
17) In My Life
18) Imagine
19) While My Guitar Gently Weeps
20) Don't Let Me Down
21) Band On The Run
Encore
22) Yesterday
23) Strawberry Fields Forever
24) My Sweet Lord
In what was am ambitious tour, the long awaited North American tour would see the band head to some places they hadn't been before and others that were a long time coming though it was to a rather mixed bag return to say the least in which while many would welcome the return of the band on the live stage again and with most American audiences being finally able to hear them live compared to the mass hysteria of those early US tours, it wasn't all perfect as it seemed that much of the criticism was aimed at poor old George Harrison who despite his vocals being somewhat better than what had happened before the tour had started, he did have the impression of a man who wanted to be anywhere other than on this tour which only gave the rest of the band much regret with hindsight that they shouldn't have toured then despite the tour being commercial a huge success that did seem to meet the demands of a pent-up crowd wanting to riding on a tide of Beatlemania.
Perhaps what was treated as the biggest sin of that tour was George attempting to change some of his songs around in which the most damning to many was his infamous handling of the song Something in which he would change the lyrics around that reflected around his recent split from Patti which is more heart-breaking when one remembers it was a song written for Patti in mind [8]. In contrast to this though was that Paul, John and even Ringo all got great right ups with Paul being treated as the best performer of the bunch saying that with George being he weak link, Paul had to be the performer that had to drag the show forward with some critics dreading a show if this had been a George Harrison solo tour. To say it was a tour that the quiet Beatle would rather forget about would be an understatement in which the only silver lining from that tour was that during that time he would meet up with Olivia Trinidad Arias in which as the two would become romantically link.
While in New York, there was oddly no meeting between John and Yoko there though there was a phone call between the estranged husband and wife to which Yoko had been out of the picture for so long that Paul and Ringo would admit that they forgot John was still married to Yoko and that May had been his wife all along which did make some inside the band and in their inner circle wondering just what might happen for the Lennons. Then of course if that wasn't enough, there was to be a meeting of The Beatles with the president of the United States but not the one that had been the bane of John Lennon's time in America.
---------
Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
Little needs to be said about what Watergate means in American history in which Nixon would be forced to resign and his vice-President Gerrard Ford would be sworn in as president and with that, it would seem that the dark cloud that had always been hanging over John Lennon's head during his time in America of threatening to kick him out of the country in the form of Nixon was gone and now here was a president that seemed to be willing to let water pass under the bridge for Lennon to stay in America if he wanted too though Lennon was greatly wary of meeting the new president who while may had not had any axes to grind with him unlike what Nixon had, Ford had pardoned Nixon for Watergate which had caused anger among many with Lennon being one of them who felt Nixon deserved what was coming to him.Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
However if he was to be asked that he would be meeting the leader of the free world at the White House during a Beatles tour, he'd say even hell freezing over couldn't do it but alas, that would very much happy on this tour. On November 16th, the president's son Jack Ford would meet with the band backstage after the concert in Salt Lake City. Jack, who was studying forestry at Utah State University, befriended Harrison in particular and invited him and the rest of the band and several other guests to visit the White House [9]. It was an invite that drew a mixed response from the band and from Epstein who had been against the idea of meeting leaders from countries during those early years of the band if the entire infamous Philippines experience was all down simply for failing to meet the dictator leaders then yet the prospect of rubbing shoulders with the president of the United States and one that wasn't Nixon seemed like something that Epstein couldn't resist at the prospect of a meeting of that kind.
It would take some convincing on Epstein's part to get the band to visit the White House, mostly Lennon who was understandably wary given his history, but a meeting would take place on December 13th in which the band, along with their partners and several of their entourage which included Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans and George Martin would accommodate the band to the White House for that famous meeting with President Ford [10]. The group first dined with Jack in the Third Floor Solarium as they enjoyed beef, ham, and vegetable plates, the group conversed while listening to Band On The Run and Rock 'N' Roll with Jack and his sister Susan acted as tour guides as the entourage viewed the White House rooms. In the East Room, Harrison and Preston sampled a few bars on the 1938 Steinway piano situated in the historic room. Then finally they would meet President Ford though this big meeting was rather anti-climatic in some ways as it was all rather brief with them for about 15 minutes in the Oval Office.
Politics were avoided that day though apparently in private, Ford would apologise to Lennon for what he had to put up with when Nixon was in power which did soften Lennon's view on the man though oddly it was Epstein who Ford was more interested in meeting in which he wanted to thank him for bringing the Beatles to America in the first place with this being the 10th anniversary of their arrival in America which Epstein would admit felt floored when he heard that as he would describe it as something of personal vindication that all the years he had done with The Beatles had led to this moment. However, even better would be to follow in which just before Christmas when the tour ended, Brian Epstein was to gain something from royalty that the band had gained before he had just over ten years ago...he was to be awarded an MBE for his efforts for music and in all honesty, no one else deserved it more than himself [11].
The news itself among the Beatles and the rest of Apple and all the artists there was one of 'about time' when they heard in which which Epstein had always felt downhearted that he had never gotten an MBE when The Beatles did when some would argue he deserved it more than he did given how he had driven this band to where they were with Harrison famously saying that he had always thought that MBE stood for 'Mr. Brian Epstein'. Regardless though, it had been better late for never and despite some shaky moments on that tour, 1974 had ended on a good note though what was to happen in 1975? No one knew...
[1] So yes, this tour takes the place of OTL Dark Horse tour
[2] Big moment here ITTL, Steve Jobs will play a bigger role here and was actually in India at this time.
[3] Much like OTL, Harrison's throat it utterly kaput here.
[4] Slight change in which without having to do all the work like OTL's Dark Horse tour, Harrison gets the time to rest up to get his vocals somewhat better here.
[5] He is still in cranky state despite this though if OTL Harrison was anything to go by IOTL.
[6] Who were all part of that tour IOTL so they make up the backing musicians for The Beatles here.
[7] As they did with OTL tour.
[8] Yes, this sadly still happens like with OTL, only with less of a fucked up throat as seen here.
[10] The meeting is roughly the same though with more Beatles ofc.
[11] This was always something that bothered Epstein until his death though thankfully he gets what he deserves here
Now then, there we are and some big butterfly effects are about to happen in which we have a less shambolic 1974 tour in without Harrison making it quite bad, you can count on Macca and Lenny making it a better experience for all there. Anyway, we now move into 1975 and what do you think might be happening next to our boys next? Please comment if you want to read more as though things ITTL seem to follow roughly the same as OTL things will go different so keep that mind...until then, catch you all later!
"The man looked at him and smiled. "Steve Jobs." - jaw drop. That's one BIG butterfly! Looking forward to more on this.
No tour dates in Alaska or Hawaii? Dump one of the Tucson shows and head for the sun?
Skip an Inglewood night and play a gig on the Queen Mary whilst in Long Beach!
Seems while George, John, and Ringo's personal lives are falling apart the business end of the Beatles is doing ok. Hope '75 is better - guess we don't get Sean.
Suspecting they won't be, but will be band be influenced by Disco or Punk or lean more into the Metal beginning to develop?
Did the Beatles meet Billy's family whilst in the US?
BTW- did Jimi Hendrix avoid his 1970 death ITTL?
No tour dates in Alaska or Hawaii? Dump one of the Tucson shows and head for the sun?
Skip an Inglewood night and play a gig on the Queen Mary whilst in Long Beach!
Seems while George, John, and Ringo's personal lives are falling apart the business end of the Beatles is doing ok. Hope '75 is better - guess we don't get Sean.
Suspecting they won't be, but will be band be influenced by Disco or Punk or lean more into the Metal beginning to develop?
Did the Beatles meet Billy's family whilst in the US?
BTW- did Jimi Hendrix avoid his 1970 death ITTL?
Jobs and Apple? Lol! Nice combo there.
BTW speaking of technology, been meaning to ask what happened to the new recording studio that Geoff Emerick was building for the Beatles, IOTL?
He mentioned that he was working on it during the recording of Abbey Road.
Would like to know the same about meeting Preston's family and the fate of Jimi Hendrix.
BTW speaking of technology, been meaning to ask what happened to the new recording studio that Geoff Emerick was building for the Beatles, IOTL?
He mentioned that he was working on it during the recording of Abbey Road.
Would like to see a Punk and Metal influence on the band but for the love of God, please, please. no disco!!!!
Would like to know the same about meeting Preston's family and the fate of Jimi Hendrix.
My favorite story about Olivia Arias (aka Harrison) is this: in 1999, when George was stabbed repeatedly by a knife-wielding intruder named Michael Abram, Olivia stopped him by hitting him with a fireplace poker and lamp. While George was in the hospital recovering, Tom Petty sent him a get-well soon card saying "Aren't you glad you married a Mexican woman?"
Also, Harrison and Eric Clapton's friendship had to be pretty strong to survive Patti leaving George for Eric, IMO...
Good update, BTW...
Also, Harrison and Eric Clapton's friendship had to be pretty strong to survive Patti leaving George for Eric, IMO...
Good update, BTW...
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To answer your questions as follows.
Yes, this does all hint to there being just one Apple company ITTL.
Regarding the tour dates, I was just following the OTL Dark Horse tour dates to stick to some realism though when it comes to other future tour dates, things will be rather different.
Yes, with the exception of Paul, the other Beatles' lives are not exactly in a good place as with OTL despite ironically the band being in a better place here. Won't say Sean is butterflied here, just keep an eye on this...
With the other musical styles, we'll have to wait later on in the decade to see what happens next.
Yes, Preston did get the chance to see his family out there with the Beatles.
Jimi Hendrix I haven't said anything about him as he does sadly meet his OTL fate though there will be others in the Beatles inner circle that don't pass earlier on here, one of who that I'm surprised hasn't had a TL about this person living, I'll let you figure out who that might be when we get to that...
Anyway for the next update, I'll have to go back to some details in 1974 that I missed out that are non musical related but still count in differences in The Beatles lives, those being a certain comedy trope's first film and of Lennon's childhood Highland holiday home...
The Lizard King?
I hope.
And what about Emerick's made to order for the Beatles recording studio?
ITTL, Lennon's not as active in the leftist circles due to several events if you remember that saw Lennon seen as sell out which ironically helps Lennon for any deportation attempts in which he doesn't end up being seen as a threat that requires their attention even if he has a reputation for it.
Their reaction is likely be of stunned disbelief to see Lennon in the White House though most of the leftists that isolated Lennon here would have a indifferent view of the event.
Other Events of 1974
It's time for another update only this time a little different. Rather than go straight into 1975, we're going to explore other events that happened in 1974 which I did think about adding in the last update but alas it would have bloated it and being non musical related so it would be better to simply making it is own thing as it is quite detailed and a lot to get through. So without further ado, lets see what else Mr Epstein and his boys were getting up to in 1974...
From then onwards, Silva's affair with Stone was the trigger that led Preston to stop having relationships with women though would not talk about his sexual orientation to Brian Epstein in which the two men at least could rely on each other for support and if they should reveal their secret public at that time. Only Paul seemed to be the only member of the band that had a stable marriage and family life but even he would admit he felt rather bad that he had it all good compared to the rest of how the rest of the band were coping. It was a cruel irony that while the band might have been enjoying riding the second wave of Beatlemania, it wasn't meaning anything to them considering their own personal lives and they were needing something of a break or something different following that arduous recording of Band On The Run to do something different and thankfully they would get a lucky break when the comedy troupe Monty Python came calling.
During 1973, the famed British comedy group were coming towards the end of their ground breaking TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus which would come to an end the following year but during that time they began writing up what would be their first feature film (technically they had already done a film called And For Something Completely Different which was nothing more than a collection of shorts from the show and reshot for the film) and the film would end up being Monty Python And The Holy Grail; a parody of the legend of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail. It was no secret that during this time that George Harrison was a huge fan of Monty Python ever since the start and a friendship between the Pythons and the band had first really started during the infamous 'Weekend at George's' when the Monty Python group had ended with many over special guests there and this is where much of the friendships between the two sides really started.
With Apple Films having managed to keep themselves going along with films such as Born To Boogie in 1972 and with Son Of Dracula coming out in 1973 [2] and Little Malcom coming out later in 1974, it might have seemed like George might've been the one to suggest having the Pythons to have their film being produced by Apple Films, it was actually Brian Epstein of all people who made the offer to the Pythons for Apple to produce the film who at that point looked as though that EMI films would distribute the film for he had been introduced to the Pythons by George and while he might have not been much of a big as a fan as the quiet Beatle was, he wound strike up a close friendship with the Pythons, especially with Graham Chapman over their shared sexual orientation struggles, and always did have a shrewd view on what had potential and after reading the script, he loved it and told them that Apple Films would help fund the film and the other Beatles were left amazed at this sudden but welcomed news from their manager and it is here that the world of Monty Pythons and The Beatles would come together.
Funding itself was actually quite easy to come by as while then the band would only make some contributions to the film's budget, they would not be the only musicians funding the film would be financed by eight investors: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Holy Grail's co-producer Michael White, Heartaches (a cricket team founded by lyricist Tim Rice), and three record companies including Charisma Records, the record label that released Python's early comedy albums (moving eventually to Apple Records in the near future); all of which contributed the entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974) with many of those rock stars mentioned before all saw it as "a good tax write-off" due to the top rate of UK income tax being "as high as 90%" at the time [3] and with that, filming could begin.
As it would turn out, the Pythons had a some scenes in mind in which the first was to give John Lennon the role of Tim the Enchanter but he turned it down saying that he wasn't feeling like he was a good fit for the role and being a larger speaking role which meant John Cleese would play the role instead but the Pythons would get all four Beatles to cameo for them (Billy Preston unable to attend do to him back in America to visit his family for a extended stay) in what would be the infamous Swamp Castle sequence in which The Beatles would play the role of four rather useless guards who all find themselves on the rather brutal end of a murderous rampage by Lancelot who, after receiving an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle, thinks the note is from a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several members of the wedding party, only to discover the note is from an effeminate prince called Prince Herbert.
Originally both Eric Idle and Graham Chapman were to play the role of two rather foolish guards who are meant to guard Prince Herbert by orders of his father the Lord of Swamp Castle until he gets back but in typical Monty Python fashion, the scene drags out when such a simple order is made more confusing as the two guards take a while to catch onto what they are supposed to do however it was then decided that both Ringo and George would star as the guards in what would be their cameo scene with Ringo getting all the speaking lines originally planned for Eric Idle's character given that Ringo was considered the better actor of the band with George not speaking a word other than a few hiccups which ironically played up his reputation as the quiet Beatle even more [4].
Despite being on screen for less than two minutes, Ringo ends up steeling the scene in his own way with George's own silent part only adding to it. While Ringo was more than happy to play up his extended cameo to show of more of his acting credits, George was said to have been rather reluctant to say any lines for not being all that confident to act alongside the Pythons so the compromise was made of him just hiccupping which in some ways helped the scene. Of course, George and Ringo weren't the only ones to play guards as both John and Paul would play two guards standing at the entrance greeting wedding guests before they both meet their end at the hands of Sir Lancelot storming the castle in his rescue mission [5].
In a classic case of the egos of John and Paul coming into effect, the whole cameo from them nearly never happened when the two had an argument over bizarrely over who was to get killed for originally in the script, it would have had had Sir Lancelot killing one of the guards at the gate, played by John, before racing onwards leaving the other guard to look on rather bewildered at what had happened. John didn't like the idea of Paul being the only Beatle being the only one to survive the onslaught while Paul tried to reason with John that they had to follow the script yet that classic case of pride and ego rose its ugly head regarding the famous duo in which Michael Palin would describe the off camera moment of the two Beatles having an argument in full costume over who was to take the fall being 'something that would have been straight out of a Python sketch and wished they had filmed it as it was hysterically funny over how absurd the whole thing seemed'.
As much of the cast, crew, extras and various Apple staff watched on at the bizarre argument, it was John Cleese who would step in and told them instead that instead of killing one, both would get killed by him in which in the end both men agreed and which would end up in the final film. John Cleese would always brag for years after that with him killing The Beatles in their guard roles that he would remain the only man to have killed The Beatles onscreen which is a bizarre claim to fame that will never be repeated again. Despite this though, all four Beatles enjoyed their time on set though admitted they weren't sticking around for more scenes as they probably knew that many audiences would be left shocked at seeing the band all get killed which is quite funny given in the film Help! that they are trying to survive in that film.
As time would go on following the film's release, the film's reputation would grow with many critics and audiences with many saying it is one of the greatest comedy films of all time and the film that really set Apple films up for the future and the appearance of the The Beatles in the film only added an extra edge to the film with some saying The Beatles were in many ways unofficial members of the Monty Python group and while all four had warm memories of filming their scenes, its not to say not all were happy with the film with John Lennon would share his disappointment with John Cleese over the film's rather anti-climatic ending in which as King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are leading an army to storm the Castle Aarrgh which is said to be said to be the rest place of the Grail and is occupied by French soldiers, only for suddenly for the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere for the murder of the historian earlier in the film and break the camera, ending the film.
There would be at least one alternative ending that the troupe considered: "a battle between the knights of Camelot, the French, and the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog" however due to the film's small production budget, that idea for a 'much pricier option' was discarded by the Pythons in favour of the ending with 'King Arthur getting arrested', which Michael Palin deemed 'cheaper" and 'funnier' though John Lennon would regret over the years that had he been more committed in helping out with more funds for the film then he would have happily have funded the big grand ending he felt the film needed though despite his own feelings about the ending, he did say overall the film was very good. With that though, with the film being deemed a commercial success for Apple, it wouldn't be until 1977 that another film from one of the Python members, Terry Gilliam, would make something of non-related and non-Monty Python piece of work known as Jabberwocky but that's another story.
While John would meet up with his cousin Stan during the band's Edinburgh show on that tour in 1971 though would admit saying that even two years after the meeting with Yoko that neither Mater or Bertie were thinking of her any better then. When John and Yoko split following his disastrous drunken infidelity moment following Nixon's election victory in 1972, it is unknown exactly how Mater felt about her nephew cheating on Yoko though Stan would admit saying that her reaction was, 'neither of joy or anger at what John and done for now she saw him as just a big mouth who had only himself to blame for his own downfall'. When John would meet his Stan, Mater and Bertie again during that time of filming of Holy Grail, John was with a different woman with it being May Pang.
Like when they first Yoko, they likely didn't have a clue what to expect and were baffled when John explain that May had been set up by Yoko to keep an eye on him while being his mistress which just of course confirmed Mater's thought about strange Yoko was. However when John introduced May to his Scottish side of his family, the reception could not have been more different. Compared to the, at best, lukewarm reception Yoko had gotten when John had introduced her to Mater and her family, the reaction for what they thought about May was far more positive in which while she might have not been the classic wife figure that Mater would have liked in Cynthia, May Pang was more grounded than Yoko and was willing to ask more questions about Scotland and what John had been telling her about John's childhood holiday home in Durness and what it was like.
Stan Parkes would later state that, "In just ten minutes from when John introduced May to his mother and father that day, May pretty much won them both over and Mater seemed to become more fond of her when she found out that May had managed to mend relations with John and Cynthia so that they could be more cordial but mostly had managed to help rebuild John's relationship with Julian and had even invited them both up to Scotland to see the shoot take place which Mater was delighted in and was happy to catch up with John's ex-wife and Julian". Stan would also reveal that with that, "he had to wonder how Yoko with all her non-conformist views had set her husband up with a woman who not only consider a far more normal person but one that was actually more suitable for John and had to wonder if Yoko had thought this through".
It was a happy day for the Lennon side of the family and with Mater being like all the other woman in the Lennon family who all spoke their mind, it was stated that Mater had dragged her nephew to the side in private and stated that after becoming so fond of May explained to her that he thought she was a better woman than Yoko was and pretty much stated that she felt John's relationship with Yoko was doomed and it would leave the Beatle in a dilemma about where to go. On one hand, the meeting he hoped to have gone well with his Scottish side of his family introducing May had gone well, or rather, too well to the point in which it seemed that they made no secret in what they still felt for Yoko yet John knew that May had been set up by him by Yoko so would he really want to betray his estranged wife like that like much like what had happened with him and Cynthia? It would be a troubling thought that he hadn't any idea what to do though the time in Scotland would mean John had other matters to attend to and that was a trip that he had failed before but would now pull it off again...the return to Durness.
Having heard about John's love of Durness and how he lamented he never got the chance to return there when he did, Brian had known about what John had felt for the place and like John, he had found out about the sale of the estate in the The Times newspaper too but unlike John had found out sooner and he predicted rather correctly that John would be once again be too late to get his hands on the property so instead, Brian would dig deep into his own pockets and would buy the estate but he wasn't going to keep it for himself; he instead was giving it to John. At first, John had been rather put out that Epstein of all people had gotten his hands on the Durness Estate when he had found out prior before he and the band had gone up to Scotland to film their scenes for Monty Python and why his manager had done it.
However, everything change when Brian pointed out that if not for him, John would have missed out on buying the place and even the Beatle couldn't argue with that but more so was when Brian revealed to him that he was willing to make a quick sale to John to official hand it over to him as a gift in which according to May Pang who had been there when Brian had explained this bit of news was that "John was silent for a good few minutes being utterly dumbfounded at this bit of news as it wouldn't dawn on him that him acquiring his childhood Highland holiday home was within his grasp and all he had to do was accept the deal from Brian." Of course, John would accept and for a undisclosed amount of money between the two men, John Lennon would become the owner of the Durness and May would add saying that, "from that moment onwards, any ill feelings the two men had for each other was gone for good as it did show how much Brian cared for the band and that they could never get another manager like him."
With Paul McCartney already having his own land on the Mull of Kintyre and now with John Lennon now the proud owner of the Durness Estate, the most famous song writing duo in the history of the twentieth century had both become Scottish landowners. It was of course no surprise that following the end of the time with the Pythons after they had filmed their scenes and The Beatles planning to go their separate ways that John Lennon was insisted in started something that he should have finished back in 1969...returning to Durness.
Lennon and Antony would catch up with each other after some several years following Lennon's absence away in New York in which a plan was put in place how they were to get up there. Instead of driving all the way up from where they were filming at Doune Castle to go all the way up to Durness, the plan was for John, May, Julian and Les a flight from Edinburgh and fly to Dalcross airport near Inverness in which Antony would drive a hired car and take them all the way up to Durness in what would be hopefully a more safer journey.
Tittenhurst Park had been bought by John in 1964 when he was still married to Cynthia and had where his marriage had ended when he had cheated on her with Yoko with the latter staying with him there until they up sticks to move to New York and sadly with Yoko still on his mind, the house held many uncomfortable memories that the idea of trying out with a possible third partner there seemed like he was a glutton of punishment and he knew that an alternate residence would have to be looked out for. What better place for John Lennon to start afresh than in a place that was untainted from all the things that had happened to him in his life before than in the place that he had spent many happy years of his childhood than with Durness?
May Pang, Les Antony and Julian Lennon would both state that the closer they got to Durness (a journey that mercifully this time would be a very uneventful journey compared to the last one), the memories seemed to all come flooding back to John in which he pointed out certain locations that hadn't changed the last time he was here though he would be shocked by a motley crowd waiting for them when they arrived at Durness who most likely couldn't believe that here was the famous John Lennon coming back to a place that was like a long lost love. Julian and May soon realised why this place had meant a lot for John in which the house stands atop a windswept pinnacle, looking down like a sentinel on the rest of the village and in the distance was the fringes of the beaches looking out towards the wild North Atlantic. Stan would welcome his famous cousin back and John would sign a few autographs before saying to the small crowd that he needed some alone time in which he would take lead May and Julian down towards the beach for him to gather his thoughts on what this all meant.
It was then that John would admit that it only dawned on him that he was now the proud owner of this estate that as a child had spent many years of his life here and couldn't believe that he now owned this place. When they reached the beach with him in the middle with May and Julian at both sides, they were all silent as they looked out towards the crashing seas and did nothing but watch with Julian describing the scene years later probably the best. "The three of us all stood there on that beach saying nothing and I had never seen Dad that silent before which really told me what this meant for him before then he first looked at May then towards me before removing his glasses with tears in his eyes before he smiled at us and said two words that really summed it up...'I'm Home'".
[1] Yes, these events still happen to Preston much like OTL.
[2] Son of Dracula was supposed to come out that year but was delayed by another year because of the OTL Apple troubles then which ITTL never happen so the film gets its original release date as planned though reception isn't much better as with OTL.
[3] Still the same ITTL as with OTL.
[4] Now then, the cameos for the Beatles ITTL's Holy Grain in which Ringo and George play Eric and Graham's roles respectably in which you can't remember the scene, here is the scene starting from 1:53 in the video with the scene playing out the same as OTL though with more Beatles.
[5] Same thing for Lennon and McCartney in that same video at 6:35 with the scene going about the same except both are killed here.
[6] Yes, this almost did happen but Lennon was too late in getting the estate.
[7] The big change is that with Epstein living here and likely being more on the ball compared to Lennon, he's buys the estate first before giving it to John ITTL.
And there we are, not a musical update but more fun in the lives of the Beatles and more Monty Python crossover fun as I just figure out if the Beatles had done a cameo role in that film in which that scene is almost perfect for them and expect more Python/Beatles crossover to follow soon. Plus, the Durness estate is actually quite tragic how close Lennon actually did get it though was too late and he did lament about until his death and it is quite funny think that in some other TL that both Paul and John could have both been Scottish landowners at that same time but alas it wasn't to be so here, we get that here which I'm shocked is never used more for any Beatles TL so yeah, good to be first.
Anyway, we now move onwards for 1975 and what else do you think we'll see that year in the lives for Epstein and his boys? Find out next time and please comment!
Other Events Of 1974
Extract from 'A History Of Apple Films' by Ryan Parker
Even if one was to ignore the release of Rock 'N' Roll and the North America Band On The Run tour that would happened towards the end of the year, 1974 was a busy year for the band in more ways than one. While they were basking in the glory of how Band On The Run had been such a triumph that had brought them to levels of popularity not seen since exactly ten years ago, much of their personal lives were all rather sad state of affairs. Lennon's absence from Yoko was still looking like it was still going to remain for the time being with May Pang by his side, George's relationship with Patti was pretty much in the gutter with her going with Eric Clapton while Ringo's marriage to Maureen was looking like divorce would happen soon and even Billy Preston was having a hellish time himself in which despite his own homosexual nature, had been engaged to actress/model Kathy Silva. At this time Preston had become close friends with musician Sly Stone, and made many contributions to Stone's recordings of the period when Preston wasn't working with The Beatles though sadly Preston would be left devastated when he came home one day to find Stone in bed with Silva (who later famously married Stone on stage at Madison Square Garden) [1].Extract from 'A History Of Apple Films' by Ryan Parker
From then onwards, Silva's affair with Stone was the trigger that led Preston to stop having relationships with women though would not talk about his sexual orientation to Brian Epstein in which the two men at least could rely on each other for support and if they should reveal their secret public at that time. Only Paul seemed to be the only member of the band that had a stable marriage and family life but even he would admit he felt rather bad that he had it all good compared to the rest of how the rest of the band were coping. It was a cruel irony that while the band might have been enjoying riding the second wave of Beatlemania, it wasn't meaning anything to them considering their own personal lives and they were needing something of a break or something different following that arduous recording of Band On The Run to do something different and thankfully they would get a lucky break when the comedy troupe Monty Python came calling.
During 1973, the famed British comedy group were coming towards the end of their ground breaking TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus which would come to an end the following year but during that time they began writing up what would be their first feature film (technically they had already done a film called And For Something Completely Different which was nothing more than a collection of shorts from the show and reshot for the film) and the film would end up being Monty Python And The Holy Grail; a parody of the legend of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail. It was no secret that during this time that George Harrison was a huge fan of Monty Python ever since the start and a friendship between the Pythons and the band had first really started during the infamous 'Weekend at George's' when the Monty Python group had ended with many over special guests there and this is where much of the friendships between the two sides really started.
With Apple Films having managed to keep themselves going along with films such as Born To Boogie in 1972 and with Son Of Dracula coming out in 1973 [2] and Little Malcom coming out later in 1974, it might have seemed like George might've been the one to suggest having the Pythons to have their film being produced by Apple Films, it was actually Brian Epstein of all people who made the offer to the Pythons for Apple to produce the film who at that point looked as though that EMI films would distribute the film for he had been introduced to the Pythons by George and while he might have not been much of a big as a fan as the quiet Beatle was, he wound strike up a close friendship with the Pythons, especially with Graham Chapman over their shared sexual orientation struggles, and always did have a shrewd view on what had potential and after reading the script, he loved it and told them that Apple Films would help fund the film and the other Beatles were left amazed at this sudden but welcomed news from their manager and it is here that the world of Monty Pythons and The Beatles would come together.
Funding itself was actually quite easy to come by as while then the band would only make some contributions to the film's budget, they would not be the only musicians funding the film would be financed by eight investors: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Holy Grail's co-producer Michael White, Heartaches (a cricket team founded by lyricist Tim Rice), and three record companies including Charisma Records, the record label that released Python's early comedy albums (moving eventually to Apple Records in the near future); all of which contributed the entire original budget of £175,350 (about $410,000 in 1974) with many of those rock stars mentioned before all saw it as "a good tax write-off" due to the top rate of UK income tax being "as high as 90%" at the time [3] and with that, filming could begin.
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Extract from 'Beatles At The Movies' by Roy Carr
Once the funding had been put in place, it was planned that shooting was to take place for five weeks from April to May 1974 and famously when scouting for castles to film at around Scotland, they were denied access to most of the castles that had been scouted, so Castle Doune stood in for three different locations and it was here that the idea of having The Beatles have cameos in the film would happen. Officially The Beatles coming to see the filming was said to be that of the investors coming to see filming when in truth it was done as pretty much as an excuse for the band to have a small holiday away from anything music related as well as some of the troubles that some of the band were having with their relationships at the time and the film would prove to be a welcomed get away from it all with Harrison being practically excited in catching up with the Pythons once again though might have been felt like having cold feet when the idea of having a cameo appearance in the film would take place as it just so happened that unaware to any of the band, the Pythons had a scene in mind in which they could all star in.Extract from 'Beatles At The Movies' by Roy Carr
As it would turn out, the Pythons had a some scenes in mind in which the first was to give John Lennon the role of Tim the Enchanter but he turned it down saying that he wasn't feeling like he was a good fit for the role and being a larger speaking role which meant John Cleese would play the role instead but the Pythons would get all four Beatles to cameo for them (Billy Preston unable to attend do to him back in America to visit his family for a extended stay) in what would be the infamous Swamp Castle sequence in which The Beatles would play the role of four rather useless guards who all find themselves on the rather brutal end of a murderous rampage by Lancelot who, after receiving an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle, thinks the note is from a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several members of the wedding party, only to discover the note is from an effeminate prince called Prince Herbert.
Originally both Eric Idle and Graham Chapman were to play the role of two rather foolish guards who are meant to guard Prince Herbert by orders of his father the Lord of Swamp Castle until he gets back but in typical Monty Python fashion, the scene drags out when such a simple order is made more confusing as the two guards take a while to catch onto what they are supposed to do however it was then decided that both Ringo and George would star as the guards in what would be their cameo scene with Ringo getting all the speaking lines originally planned for Eric Idle's character given that Ringo was considered the better actor of the band with George not speaking a word other than a few hiccups which ironically played up his reputation as the quiet Beatle even more [4].
Despite being on screen for less than two minutes, Ringo ends up steeling the scene in his own way with George's own silent part only adding to it. While Ringo was more than happy to play up his extended cameo to show of more of his acting credits, George was said to have been rather reluctant to say any lines for not being all that confident to act alongside the Pythons so the compromise was made of him just hiccupping which in some ways helped the scene. Of course, George and Ringo weren't the only ones to play guards as both John and Paul would play two guards standing at the entrance greeting wedding guests before they both meet their end at the hands of Sir Lancelot storming the castle in his rescue mission [5].
In a classic case of the egos of John and Paul coming into effect, the whole cameo from them nearly never happened when the two had an argument over bizarrely over who was to get killed for originally in the script, it would have had had Sir Lancelot killing one of the guards at the gate, played by John, before racing onwards leaving the other guard to look on rather bewildered at what had happened. John didn't like the idea of Paul being the only Beatle being the only one to survive the onslaught while Paul tried to reason with John that they had to follow the script yet that classic case of pride and ego rose its ugly head regarding the famous duo in which Michael Palin would describe the off camera moment of the two Beatles having an argument in full costume over who was to take the fall being 'something that would have been straight out of a Python sketch and wished they had filmed it as it was hysterically funny over how absurd the whole thing seemed'.
As much of the cast, crew, extras and various Apple staff watched on at the bizarre argument, it was John Cleese who would step in and told them instead that instead of killing one, both would get killed by him in which in the end both men agreed and which would end up in the final film. John Cleese would always brag for years after that with him killing The Beatles in their guard roles that he would remain the only man to have killed The Beatles onscreen which is a bizarre claim to fame that will never be repeated again. Despite this though, all four Beatles enjoyed their time on set though admitted they weren't sticking around for more scenes as they probably knew that many audiences would be left shocked at seeing the band all get killed which is quite funny given in the film Help! that they are trying to survive in that film.
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Extract from 'A History Of Apple Films' by Ryan Parker
Monty Python and the Holy Grail had its theatrical debut in the United Kingdom on April 3rd 1975, followed by a United States release on April 27th 1975 and while many would call the film as one of the greatest comedy films of all time, it most be remembered that most reviews at that time were mixed saying that while there were some good jokes in there most of the film could be described as silence, indeed this was feeling even during test screenings to be shown to many executives at Apple Corps to see what had been filmed in which left many unimpressed with Brian Epstein and Neil Aspinall both admitting that the infamous test screening was a bit of a disaster and might have easily pulled the plug on the film had the film by that point had the large bulk of the film hadn't been filmed already and that all they could do was hope that much of the film could be fixed in the editing room. Despite all this, the film would easily recoup its mall budget and would be the big hit for Apple Films in 1975 and did give the ropey film diversion of Apple something to build off on and the success of that film meant that now plans were underway for the Pythons to start work on another feature film.Extract from 'A History Of Apple Films' by Ryan Parker
As time would go on following the film's release, the film's reputation would grow with many critics and audiences with many saying it is one of the greatest comedy films of all time and the film that really set Apple films up for the future and the appearance of the The Beatles in the film only added an extra edge to the film with some saying The Beatles were in many ways unofficial members of the Monty Python group and while all four had warm memories of filming their scenes, its not to say not all were happy with the film with John Lennon would share his disappointment with John Cleese over the film's rather anti-climatic ending in which as King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are leading an army to storm the Castle Aarrgh which is said to be said to be the rest place of the Grail and is occupied by French soldiers, only for suddenly for the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere for the murder of the historian earlier in the film and break the camera, ending the film.
There would be at least one alternative ending that the troupe considered: "a battle between the knights of Camelot, the French, and the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog" however due to the film's small production budget, that idea for a 'much pricier option' was discarded by the Pythons in favour of the ending with 'King Arthur getting arrested', which Michael Palin deemed 'cheaper" and 'funnier' though John Lennon would regret over the years that had he been more committed in helping out with more funds for the film then he would have happily have funded the big grand ending he felt the film needed though despite his own feelings about the ending, he did say overall the film was very good. With that though, with the film being deemed a commercial success for Apple, it wouldn't be until 1977 that another film from one of the Python members, Terry Gilliam, would make something of non-related and non-Monty Python piece of work known as Jabberwocky but that's another story.
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Extract from 'The Beatles In Scotland' by Ken McNab
While The Beatles were in Scotland during their time on the set of Monty Python And The Holy Grail, their first time all were together in the country since the Imagine Tour of 1971, the chance had arose for John Lennon to catch up with the Scottish half of the family while up there in which he would catch up with his older cousin Stan and his Aunt Mater and Uncle Bertie. That said though, the infamous meeting during John's ill fated trip up to Durness a few years ago played on his mind as even without the incident that had saw him and Yoko in hospital following crashing the car, the meeting in Edinburgh when John introduced Yoko to his Aunt Mater and Uncle Bertie hadn't been exactly a warm reception in which John's divorce from Cynthia had made Mater angry and that Yoko just rubbed off Mater the wrong way and this was made worse following John's crash that made her think that how careless John had been especially as he had children on board and the whole trip which John had hoped to gain the approval about his new Japanese wife could have been looked on with hindsight as a failure.Extract from 'The Beatles In Scotland' by Ken McNab
While John would meet up with his cousin Stan during the band's Edinburgh show on that tour in 1971 though would admit saying that even two years after the meeting with Yoko that neither Mater or Bertie were thinking of her any better then. When John and Yoko split following his disastrous drunken infidelity moment following Nixon's election victory in 1972, it is unknown exactly how Mater felt about her nephew cheating on Yoko though Stan would admit saying that her reaction was, 'neither of joy or anger at what John and done for now she saw him as just a big mouth who had only himself to blame for his own downfall'. When John would meet his Stan, Mater and Bertie again during that time of filming of Holy Grail, John was with a different woman with it being May Pang.
Like when they first Yoko, they likely didn't have a clue what to expect and were baffled when John explain that May had been set up by Yoko to keep an eye on him while being his mistress which just of course confirmed Mater's thought about strange Yoko was. However when John introduced May to his Scottish side of his family, the reception could not have been more different. Compared to the, at best, lukewarm reception Yoko had gotten when John had introduced her to Mater and her family, the reaction for what they thought about May was far more positive in which while she might have not been the classic wife figure that Mater would have liked in Cynthia, May Pang was more grounded than Yoko and was willing to ask more questions about Scotland and what John had been telling her about John's childhood holiday home in Durness and what it was like.
Stan Parkes would later state that, "In just ten minutes from when John introduced May to his mother and father that day, May pretty much won them both over and Mater seemed to become more fond of her when she found out that May had managed to mend relations with John and Cynthia so that they could be more cordial but mostly had managed to help rebuild John's relationship with Julian and had even invited them both up to Scotland to see the shoot take place which Mater was delighted in and was happy to catch up with John's ex-wife and Julian". Stan would also reveal that with that, "he had to wonder how Yoko with all her non-conformist views had set her husband up with a woman who not only consider a far more normal person but one that was actually more suitable for John and had to wonder if Yoko had thought this through".
It was a happy day for the Lennon side of the family and with Mater being like all the other woman in the Lennon family who all spoke their mind, it was stated that Mater had dragged her nephew to the side in private and stated that after becoming so fond of May explained to her that he thought she was a better woman than Yoko was and pretty much stated that she felt John's relationship with Yoko was doomed and it would leave the Beatle in a dilemma about where to go. On one hand, the meeting he hoped to have gone well with his Scottish side of his family introducing May had gone well, or rather, too well to the point in which it seemed that they made no secret in what they still felt for Yoko yet John knew that May had been set up by him by Yoko so would he really want to betray his estranged wife like that like much like what had happened with him and Cynthia? It would be a troubling thought that he hadn't any idea what to do though the time in Scotland would mean John had other matters to attend to and that was a trip that he had failed before but would now pull it off again...the return to Durness.
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Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
While the band were in Scotland with the Monty Python group, it just so happened to be at that time that the Durness Estate, the childhood holiday home that John Lennon had spent many happy years at until he stopped going when he was fifteen, was going up for sale and the idea of buying it sudden became an option for John [6]. He would make an offer for it though Brian Epstein would admit saying that, "while John might have been one of the greatest songwriters in history and an inspirational figure in the eyes of many young people, that all meant for nothing regarding his time keeping in which famously John would always leave things late proving that his timekeeping was pretty terrible." This would be proven yet again when the Durness Estate was announced to be going on sale thanks to article in The Times newspaper that John found out about the sale and made an offer to buy but like always had left it too late as it looked as though a Dutch and Belgian consortium had got their first to get their hands on the location until even they found out they were pipped to the post by another buyer at the eleventh hour...that buyer being none other than Brian Epstein himself [7]. Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Having heard about John's love of Durness and how he lamented he never got the chance to return there when he did, Brian had known about what John had felt for the place and like John, he had found out about the sale of the estate in the The Times newspaper too but unlike John had found out sooner and he predicted rather correctly that John would be once again be too late to get his hands on the property so instead, Brian would dig deep into his own pockets and would buy the estate but he wasn't going to keep it for himself; he instead was giving it to John. At first, John had been rather put out that Epstein of all people had gotten his hands on the Durness Estate when he had found out prior before he and the band had gone up to Scotland to film their scenes for Monty Python and why his manager had done it.
However, everything change when Brian pointed out that if not for him, John would have missed out on buying the place and even the Beatle couldn't argue with that but more so was when Brian revealed to him that he was willing to make a quick sale to John to official hand it over to him as a gift in which according to May Pang who had been there when Brian had explained this bit of news was that "John was silent for a good few minutes being utterly dumbfounded at this bit of news as it wouldn't dawn on him that him acquiring his childhood Highland holiday home was within his grasp and all he had to do was accept the deal from Brian." Of course, John would accept and for a undisclosed amount of money between the two men, John Lennon would become the owner of the Durness and May would add saying that, "from that moment onwards, any ill feelings the two men had for each other was gone for good as it did show how much Brian cared for the band and that they could never get another manager like him."
With Paul McCartney already having his own land on the Mull of Kintyre and now with John Lennon now the proud owner of the Durness Estate, the most famous song writing duo in the history of the twentieth century had both become Scottish landowners. It was of course no surprise that following the end of the time with the Pythons after they had filmed their scenes and The Beatles planning to go their separate ways that John Lennon was insisted in started something that he should have finished back in 1969...returning to Durness.
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Extracts from 'The Beatles In Scotland' by Ken McNab
It really wasn't a surprise that following him getting his hands on the Durness Estate that he was wanting to head further north following the ending of the shoot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to show May Pang and his son Julian the place that had meant so much and likely one that was going to play a big role in his life. However, the memory of the last time he had tried driving up there and suffered that car crash was still fresh in the mind of many in which when he did say he was going to drive up there again, his Aunt Mater, cousin Stan, ex-wife Cynthia, Brian Epstein, the rest of the band and frankly everyone in John Lennon's inner circle flat told him not to drive there ever again in case a similar mishap was to happen again. Likely more wiser from what happened before, John accepted in which Brian Epstein would instruct the Lennon's former chauffeur Les Antony to come up and help out and do the driving in which Antony had said he would have done the original trip back then had John not been so stubborn in wanting to do it all himself. Extracts from 'The Beatles In Scotland' by Ken McNab
Lennon and Antony would catch up with each other after some several years following Lennon's absence away in New York in which a plan was put in place how they were to get up there. Instead of driving all the way up from where they were filming at Doune Castle to go all the way up to Durness, the plan was for John, May, Julian and Les a flight from Edinburgh and fly to Dalcross airport near Inverness in which Antony would drive a hired car and take them all the way up to Durness in what would be hopefully a more safer journey.
[...]
Mater, Bertie and Stan were already waiting for the arrival of John along with his girlfriend and son up in Durness and even despite being perhaps the most remote village in all of mainline Britain, word had gotten out to nearby communities that a Beatle was coming and one that several older faces knew who it was from years gone by though to some of them, it seemed strange why John had thought about the possibility of starting a new life up in Durness when he had splashed out on quite a lavish life though when one was to ask John about his feelings, people would likely have gotten an answer that made a lot of sense. When he did arrive back in the UK in 1973 following his split with Yoko, he would briefly return to Tittenhurst Park which at the time was owned by Ringo of whom he sold it to in the first place and he might have bought it back from his bandmate but John did have strong reservations of taking up residence once again there.
Tittenhurst Park had been bought by John in 1964 when he was still married to Cynthia and had where his marriage had ended when he had cheated on her with Yoko with the latter staying with him there until they up sticks to move to New York and sadly with Yoko still on his mind, the house held many uncomfortable memories that the idea of trying out with a possible third partner there seemed like he was a glutton of punishment and he knew that an alternate residence would have to be looked out for. What better place for John Lennon to start afresh than in a place that was untainted from all the things that had happened to him in his life before than in the place that he had spent many happy years of his childhood than with Durness?
May Pang, Les Antony and Julian Lennon would both state that the closer they got to Durness (a journey that mercifully this time would be a very uneventful journey compared to the last one), the memories seemed to all come flooding back to John in which he pointed out certain locations that hadn't changed the last time he was here though he would be shocked by a motley crowd waiting for them when they arrived at Durness who most likely couldn't believe that here was the famous John Lennon coming back to a place that was like a long lost love. Julian and May soon realised why this place had meant a lot for John in which the house stands atop a windswept pinnacle, looking down like a sentinel on the rest of the village and in the distance was the fringes of the beaches looking out towards the wild North Atlantic. Stan would welcome his famous cousin back and John would sign a few autographs before saying to the small crowd that he needed some alone time in which he would take lead May and Julian down towards the beach for him to gather his thoughts on what this all meant.
It was then that John would admit that it only dawned on him that he was now the proud owner of this estate that as a child had spent many years of his life here and couldn't believe that he now owned this place. When they reached the beach with him in the middle with May and Julian at both sides, they were all silent as they looked out towards the crashing seas and did nothing but watch with Julian describing the scene years later probably the best. "The three of us all stood there on that beach saying nothing and I had never seen Dad that silent before which really told me what this meant for him before then he first looked at May then towards me before removing his glasses with tears in his eyes before he smiled at us and said two words that really summed it up...'I'm Home'".
[1] Yes, these events still happen to Preston much like OTL.
[2] Son of Dracula was supposed to come out that year but was delayed by another year because of the OTL Apple troubles then which ITTL never happen so the film gets its original release date as planned though reception isn't much better as with OTL.
[3] Still the same ITTL as with OTL.
[4] Now then, the cameos for the Beatles ITTL's Holy Grain in which Ringo and George play Eric and Graham's roles respectably in which you can't remember the scene, here is the scene starting from 1:53 in the video with the scene playing out the same as OTL though with more Beatles.
[6] Yes, this almost did happen but Lennon was too late in getting the estate.
[7] The big change is that with Epstein living here and likely being more on the ball compared to Lennon, he's buys the estate first before giving it to John ITTL.
And there we are, not a musical update but more fun in the lives of the Beatles and more Monty Python crossover fun as I just figure out if the Beatles had done a cameo role in that film in which that scene is almost perfect for them and expect more Python/Beatles crossover to follow soon. Plus, the Durness estate is actually quite tragic how close Lennon actually did get it though was too late and he did lament about until his death and it is quite funny think that in some other TL that both Paul and John could have both been Scottish landowners at that same time but alas it wasn't to be so here, we get that here which I'm shocked is never used more for any Beatles TL so yeah, good to be first.
Anyway, we now move onwards for 1975 and what else do you think we'll see that year in the lives for Epstein and his boys? Find out next time and please comment!