WI: Paul is Dead, 1966

19th of August, 1966. Mid-South Coliseum.

Shot rings out in the Memphis arena. With the KKK picketing outside and tensions high, The Beatles set in front of 12,500 people is cut suddenly short.

John Lennon was grazed harmlessly in the shoulder by the bullet intended for him, one of three that miraculously missed him. The band frantically looked about them to see who had been hit as the Memphis Police Department rushes the stage to secure them. The deafening screams become more deafening...

John begins to scream with them as his body crumples and he falls to the floor in front of Paul McCartney, his sunglasses falling into a pool of blood that is not his own. He cannot even feel the pain of his blood soaked shoulder. Lennon is in shock.

Paul McCartney was struck in the side of the head. The pop star was dead in Memphis at 24.

What's next?
 
First post, so I have a lot to learn...

No Sgt Pepper for a start, John would most likely have a breakdown, failing marriage to Cynthia (I think at this time), dead mother, dead collaborator/chief band-mate and friend. He'd probably sink into drugs deeper than he did in real life perhaps end up like Brian Jones. :(

I doubt the Beatles would carry on without Paul at this point as in my opinion Paul was instrumental in them entering the Pepper phase of their career.

George wouldn't go to India with the other Beatles, and would likely not become a Hindu so many of his songs would be radically different.

Ringo would probably go off and become a country-style singer, there are mentions of 'Don't Pass Me By' earlier on so maybe that would come about but in a more primitive form.

John would likely come back in 1969 after hearing of Janov and his primal scream therapy. He wouldn't have learned Travis picking off Donovan, so his guitar style would be different for some songs and no Yoko (Paul caused them to meet each other).

So John's comeback in '70 wouldn't be called Plastic Ono Band, and he'd probably have quite a few songs written such as half of 'A Day in the Life', 'Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite', 'Good Morning, Good Morning', 'I Am the Walrus', 'Strawberry Fields Forever', 'Hey Bulldog', 'Come Together', 'I Want You', etc

I'd see his 1970 album called 'Strawberry Fields Forever' featuring a cover depicting the gates of Strawberry Fields with John standing between the columns. Perhaps Side One being devoted to growing up much like the original plan before Pepper was an album about their childhood, and Side Two devoted to the pain of adulthood, songs like Mother and Isolation, all about loss and suffering.

http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/images/uki.www_uki_ihc/strawberry field gates.jpg

George would likely become a guitarist akin to Clapton for a bit, going from band to band. George had a big admiration for the Band and Bob Dylan, so I can see something happening there. Perhaps, George goes touring with Bob or eventually participates in the Basement Tapes, maybe even a George/Bob collaboration album. Until that point, I can envisage George throwing himself into work with Eric offering him a job joining a four-piece Cream with Eric Clapton who'd be recording their debut at the time.

Who'd take the place of the Beatles in culture in Britain, I'd like to see it be the Kinks. In 1968, the Kinks would release one of their best albums 'Village Green Preservation Society', which was overshadowed by the White Album, after all it was released the same week. Maybe, the Kinks wouldn't be overshadowed and gain their first big no. 1 album buoyed by the success of the famous song 'Days', the Kinks would then spread across the Atlantic with the 'God Save the Kinks' movement. Their quintessentially British attitude would be taken in Britain as 'one of their own' whilst the Americans love a bit of Britain.

Other repercussions would be in the Beach Boys, legend has it that when Brian Wilson was showed 'She's Leaving Home' by McCartney in the SMiLE sessions, he began to go mad, thinking they were stealing his ideas. No McCartney and no She's Leaving Home would mean the release of SMiLE possible, and today, it would likely be received as one of the greatest albums of all time. But who'd fill the Pepper spot, the Kinks' Village Green or maybe their follow up Arthur, or SMiLE?

Sorry if there are any inaccuracies but I'm a newbie. :eek:
 

Welcome to the board and congrats on a great first post!

Most of that seems plausible but so plausible, perhaps, that it becomes uninteresting.

Maybe the Beatles do split up for a minute, but the push for a reunion will be irresistible and such an occurrence seems inevitable before the end of the sixties.

I can see the Kinks filling the gap, but with the British Invasion pushed by such martyrdom, other English groups will no doubt feel the love sooner as well. The Who, the Kinks, etc. Even Bowie could get a break sooner, though how he deals with it is up for debate.

The Beach Boys will definitely shift drastically, you are completely correct.

I'm not sure such a dark and insecure John will be able to go solo immediately. His ego will be repaired by the massive amount of people wanting him to join their groups and I imagine he'll agree. But which groups?

I'm trying to think of a unique and original direction for the ever searching Lennon without his bubblegum foil. I'm drawing blanks... strangely...
 
would this butterfly away Lennon's assionation in '80?

also what would the plausibility of Lennon committing suicide be? i mean he's lost his mom and his wife is leaving him and now Paul's dead due to a bullet meant for him. he may never find the happiness that Yoko gave him.
 
I like the idea of Smile getting a release and the Beach Boys being more prominent after Pet Sounds. I also love the idea of a greater Kinks riding on Village Green. Obviously I also hate the idea of losing a genius like Paul.

Brian Epstein's death in '67 might be butterflied or then again it might occur earlier with no Beatles. No Maharishi probably and perhaps less cultural interest in Indian mysticism in the West.

John takes a year or two out and resurfaces for interviews circa 1968/69. He goes solo rather than joining a band but gathers a touring band around him which would include some stellar types of course. Maybe even ex Beatles. I like the idea that it would be made up of Beatles era songs without his co writer, especially the Pepper stuff. Rather than working out his anger on McCartney as in OTL there'd be some tributes on it.

George goes supergroup or joins an established one like Manfred Mann perhaps, maybe even replaces Brian Jones for a while.

Ringo makes some truly annoying records like 'You're 16', appears in the Magic Christian and eventually becomes famous as the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine. It's all so predictable really.

Or the Beatles don't break up, but stop touring to concentrate on studio work. Brian Epstein commits suicide...
 
Welcome to the board and congrats on a great first post!

Most of that seems plausible but so plausible, perhaps, that it becomes uninteresting.

Maybe the Beatles do split up for a minute, but the push for a reunion will be irresistible and such an occurrence seems inevitable before the end of the sixties.

I can see the Kinks filling the gap, but with the British Invasion pushed by such martyrdom, other English groups will no doubt feel the love sooner as well. The Who, the Kinks, etc. Even Bowie could get a break sooner, though how he deals with it is up for debate.

The Beach Boys will definitely shift drastically, you are completely correct.

I'm not sure such a dark and insecure John will be able to go solo immediately. His ego will be repaired by the massive amount of people wanting him to join their groups and I imagine he'll agree. But which groups?

I'm trying to think of a unique and original direction for the ever searching Lennon without his bubblegum foil. I'm drawing blanks... strangely...

It would be easy to say the Rolling Stones, but I can't see John in the Rolling Stones really, it wouldn't work I think.

What other bands would there be around the time, well there's the Small Faces which Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie in 1968, and at the same time Jimmy Page was working out his 'New Yardbirds', soon to be Led Zeppelin. Humble Pie and Zeppelin, both hard rock and blues-rock bands, and Jimmy Page wanted Steve Marriott I think originally, then of course there's Harry Nilsson, maybe somehow John could befriend him like he did in OTL and Badfinger never coming about.

I've got it, Mal Evans saw the Iveys (later Badfinger) playing at a club one night and contacted the Beatles. Maybe, instead he would contact John, and John would take the Iveys on board as his backing band. John would've called them Prix (his idea at Apple, a dirty pun), maybe he'd go a step further.

Say hello to John Lennon's comeback band, Prix. I actually think it would be a brilliant band for the 1970s; John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar), Pete Ham (vocals, guitar), Tom Evans (vocals, bass), Mike Gibbins (drums, percussion).

Ham and Evans would write the brilliant 'Without You', they also had other great songs like 'Day After Day', etc. Maybe they could even get George Martin to produce them (instead of America), and they'd no doubt get a record deal.
 
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