If I weren't so lazy (mainly, if I believed people actually gave a flippin' flip about my opinion), I'd do what this blogger spent time doing and thinking about. He came up with a track listing for a theoretical, one time only, Beatles reunion album. If you are interested, you can read about the reasoning behind the song selections at his site. Without a doubt, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr (yep, even Ringo!) each have better songs from their solo careers than the ones he included, but his rationale appears to have been to use things each of them did after Lennon's death in December 1980, leading primarily up to the 1995 Anthology release (Paul apparently wrote much of Flaming Pie in '95), with the exceptions being a George and Ringo tune, or two. Anyway, I think it's an interesting mix:
Disc 1
1- "The Songs We Were Singing" (Flaming Pie, 1997)
2- "(Just Like) Starting Over" (Double Fantasy, 1980)
3- "This Is Love" (Cloud Nine, 1987)
4- "Woman" (Double Fantasy, 1980)
5- "Somedays" (Flaming Pie, 1997)
6- "Free As A Bird" (Anthology 1, 1995)
7- "King of Broken Hearts" (Vertical Man, 1998 - it may be slightly Beatlesque and feature George on slide guitar, but goodness it's bad)
8- "When We Was Fab" (Cloud Nine, 1987 - this would be the title track)
9- "Watching the Wheels" (Double Fantasy, 1980)
Disc 2
1- "Flaming Pie" (Flaming Pie, 1997)
2- "Rising Sun" (Brainwashed, 2002)
3- "What In The World" (Vertical Man, 1998 - features Paul on bass and backing vocals)
4- "Real Love" (Anthology 2, 1996)
5- "Calico Skies" (Flaming Pie, 1997)
6- "Pisces Fish" (Brainwashed, 2002)
7- "All Those Years Ago" (Somewhere in England, 1981)
8- "Here Today" (Tug of War, 1982)
9- "Beautiful Night" (Flaming Pie, 1997)
Hidden Track - "Grow Old Along With Me" (Milk and Honey, 1984)
I have been a devoted Beatle fan as long as I can remember, yet never much of a fan of their solo work.... especially after 1980. I know a lot of their work as Beatles were essentially solo efforts since there wasn't much collaboration on albums like the White Album.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there was something magic about when the five got together (yes, I said five, lest we forget Martin the fifth Beatle) that was sorely lacking on their solo LP's.
Keep posting on great bands like XTC The Beatles and I'm all ears! (er,um,..eyes... whatever)
They were definitely better together than apart! And if you take just one of them out of the picture, it's a totally different thing. But at least up until Lennon was assassinated, there was still the competitive edge between him and McCartney, and it at least made McCartney's solo material pretty good.
ReplyDeleteYes, without George Martin, think about how different things like "In My Life" or "I Am the Walrus" or the entire Sgt. Pepper album would have been.
Thank you very much.