This is a topic which was previously brought up in a thread I did a long while ago on had the Beatles not gone psychedelic. In the OTL the Beatles were a basic Rock group and did go Folk Rock for a number of songs and notably on the album Rubber Soul. Folk and Folk Rock was rather popular in the era. Their move to psychedelic began with Revolver. Rubber Soul was the marijuana album, and Revolver was the LSD album. The psychedelic Beatles would exist on Sgt Pepper's and Yellow Submarine and singles of that 67/68 era, but they'd move away from it with their self named album in 1968, getting back to basics for the remainder of their existence as a band.
To get a sense of the context, there were singers and groups who rejected or sidestepped the psychedelic, and most of those artists that went psychedelic did it for only a while before going 'back to basics' subsequently. Bob Dylan completely ignored it and went to Country Rock upon coming out of retirement. And Country Rock is notable as one of the genres where people went in lieu of psychedelic or subsequent to it in trying to get back to basics. Taking that into consideration, the idea that the Beatles may not go full psychedelic is not out of bounds. It should also be noted, Lennon himself always preferred basic Rock and Roll and while he partook of and innovated in the psychedelic, he seems to have regretted "Strawberry Fields Forever" being psychedelic as it was. Personally, I prefer Folk Rock and Rubber Soul is my favorite Beatles album.
What if the Beatles had avoided going psychedelic, or at least full blown psychedelic*, and remained Folk Rock and Rock instead during that period, and subsequently continued evolving along the lines of the Rock they'd 'get back' to in the OTL starting with The White Album.
*I could see something like Revolver being closer to Rubber Soul, and their psychedelic excursion being only as psychedelic as Revolver.
To get a sense of the context, there were singers and groups who rejected or sidestepped the psychedelic, and most of those artists that went psychedelic did it for only a while before going 'back to basics' subsequently. Bob Dylan completely ignored it and went to Country Rock upon coming out of retirement. And Country Rock is notable as one of the genres where people went in lieu of psychedelic or subsequent to it in trying to get back to basics. Taking that into consideration, the idea that the Beatles may not go full psychedelic is not out of bounds. It should also be noted, Lennon himself always preferred basic Rock and Roll and while he partook of and innovated in the psychedelic, he seems to have regretted "Strawberry Fields Forever" being psychedelic as it was. Personally, I prefer Folk Rock and Rubber Soul is my favorite Beatles album.
What if the Beatles had avoided going psychedelic, or at least full blown psychedelic*, and remained Folk Rock and Rock instead during that period, and subsequently continued evolving along the lines of the Rock they'd 'get back' to in the OTL starting with The White Album.
*I could see something like Revolver being closer to Rubber Soul, and their psychedelic excursion being only as psychedelic as Revolver.