If the Beatles split up in 1966...

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They were great but they weren't the catalysts as The Beatles were and those are the plain facts. Basically every early progressive rock band ranging from Yes to King Crimson were influenced by The Beatles.

Robert Fripp on hearing the Beatles Sgt Pepper

Robert Fripp- "When I was 20, I worked at a hotel in a dance orchestra, playing weddings, bar-mitzvahs, dancing, cabaret. I drove home and I was also at college at the time. Then I put on the radio (Radio Luxemburg) and I heard this music. It was terrifying. I had no idea what it was. Then it kept going. Then there was this enormous whine note of strings. Then there was this colossal piano chord. I discovered later that I'd come in half-way through Sgt. Pepper, played continuously. My life was never the same again"

 

Paul would be alive.

 

I honestly don't get these threads that would be like asking what if The Rolling Stones broke up in 1968 or Led Zeppelin after 1971.

 

Ringo wouldn't have blisters on his fingers.

 

Yes, they would still be massive, and Tomorrow Never Knows would have been a tantalising hint of what could have been.

 

Um....he said progressive rock, not heavy blues-rock.

 

I guess it depends on your definition of "legends". Without everything post-Rubber Soul I think they're merely looked at as one of a handful - rather than the band that towers over all.

 

The British Moby Grape

 

Not a chance.

 

One thing that may have happened. George Martin might have ended up doing the kind of work he did with the Beatles with a different band.

I don't think the Beatles would have had nearly the impact or fame they enjoy now, simply because it was after 66 that they proved beyond doubt there was a hell of a lot more to rock music than the stereotype implied.

 

Have you heard "1983, A Merman I Should Turn To Be"?
No seriously, I know what to mean. Jimi might not have ever written that without "Strawberry Fields" all that followed it. However the OP's theory does leave a window for "Tomorrow Never Knows" and Georges sitar laced toons to have influenced the spacier aspects of Hendrix and Cream.

 

Revolver is their peak.

The best-selling album of 1968 (even though it came out in 1967) in the US, Are You Experienced, was heavily influenced by it, imo.

I'm think the comment about Lennon being an acid casualty has merit.

Dylan, Lennon, Wilson all seemed to go into funks around the same time 1966/1967----and none of them were quite the same afterwards.

Optimist McCartney pulled the band through. Lennon seemed to return to dominance for the White Album.

I think they needed to get through 1967 together!!!! The John of 1967 visibly lacks confidence (on occasion)the way the Paul of 1963 did(on occasion).

I do think that the acrimony of 1968-1969 is slightly exaggerated.

 

. . . or an ashram.

 

$4.75? That's highway robbery for a concert in 1966!

 

Marmelade would'nt get their number 1 Hit. No Let It Bleed.

 

He's a talented chap ati.

 

He was the editor of Ravi Shankar's memoirs, he was a real player in the Movie Business, he was a Travelling Wilbury. Talent will always rise above.

 

The dude abides. Completely agree. Also, a great sense of humour.

 

"So, how's your first day of work been so far?"

 

yep, must have been so frustrating for those Hermits, if only they had been a tiny bit edgier they could have come up with Rubber Soul and Revolver, and were on the brink of Pepper themselves. I think the typing chimps would have come up with Hamlet first personally....

 

With the Beatles demise. Brian Epstein becomes Lou Reed's manager after The VU & Nico debut album flops . Reed has a number 1 album loaded with hits. "White Heat" stays in the charts for 4 months end of 69'.

 

At the end of 1966, there were all kinds of rumors that the Beatles were breaking up. Of course, the story that they've painted since then is that there was no truth to that and their plan all along had been to blow the world's collective mind with Pepper. Particularly with what we know now, there seems to have been some truth to that rumor.

• George declared after the 1966 tour had ended, I'm no longer a Beatle.
• They never toured again.
• With that development, they had far less need for the services of Brian Epstein whose contract was ending in 1967, who tried to sell NEMS and his connection with the group to Stigwood and who, within a year, was dead of a drug overdose, apparently a result of his depression over his marginalization by his charges.
• Lennon was eating acid multiple times a day, his personal life in total disarray.
• George's role on Pepper was minor, with several of his songs rejected and only one song placed on the album, a song on which, significantly, none of the others even played.
• McCartney filled in the vacuum, dominating the group's affairs and foisting MMT on them. The film was barely watchable, the first misstep of the band's career. The soundtrack album was salvaged only by Capitol tacking on the group's singles as side 2, quite a switch from the label's watering down the soup, essentially cutting off the second sides of HDN and Help for US consumption.
• Apple, a tax write-off playpen for the group, was a financial and operational trainwreck.
• The fissures within the group manifested themselves with the White Album, which was essentially solo recordings by John and Paul, to a lesser extent George, and a couple of bones thrown to Ringo for appearances. They culminated with the tumultuous sessions for Let It Be, at which pretty much everyone quit the group but Paul, who was too busy telling everybody what to play.
• Abbey Road was a brief return to form by what had become four professionals, but they all knew it was over, which it was.

Had they packed it in at the end of 1966, the Beatles had created a body of work that put them at the top of popular music, not to mention their ubiquitous impact on culture. Notwithstanding the remarkable quality of the films of their contemporaries Dave and Herman, the Beatles had earned their place in musical history far above those of the others.
Just my 2 cents.

 

Excellent.

 

Yeah, because Hendrix and Cream sat on their hands until Pepper came out. (I'm kidding) the prog rockmovement was already underway. Not much would have changed, except the Beatles' incomes

 

No power pop. No John Fred And The Playboys. No concept albums. Maybe no prog rock.