If The Beatles Performed Live After 1966?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Benjamin Edge, Apr 9, 2017.

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  1. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    How would The Beatles have fared if they were to have performed live in the years after 1966?

    Would such albums as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be still have been made, as well as the Zapple releases by George Harrison (Wonderwall Music, Electronic Sound) and John Lennon & Yoko Ono (Two Virgins, Unfinished Music #2: Life with the Lions, and The Wedding Album)?

    I know a few tunes would have been live favorites, like:
    "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
    "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
    "Dear Prudence" (The White Album)
    "Don't Pass Me By" (The White Album)
    "Julia" (The White Album)
    "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (Abbey Road)
    "The Long and Winding Road" (Let It Be)
    Questionable: "Carnival of Light" (unreleased)
    Questionable: "Revolution 9" (The White Album)

    ~Ben
     
  2. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    They would've needed additional musicians
     
  3. The Elephant Man

    The Elephant Man Forum Resident

    I'm trying to figure out the last two questionable entries. How would they have performed these live?
    I can't imagine they would have been live 'favorites'. Hahaha.
     
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  4. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    Because they're sound collages... maybe they could play them during bathroom breaks, I suppose.

    ~Ben
     
  5. The Elephant Man

    The Elephant Man Forum Resident

    Oh, kinda like Lou Reed playing 'Metal Machine Music' in between sets during the 70's to observe people getting
    agitated without knowing why... I get it. Cool.
     
  6. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    ???


    Oh- the Beatles DID perform after 1966. Apple rooftop in January 1969.
    Played only new, unheard material.
    If the Beatles did keep performing, I'm sure they would have stuck to newer material with a few older songs- as they always did.
     
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  7. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    I think I will relish what they actually did do, rather than spend time thinking about what they didn't play live.
    We've got a massive set coming out in a month that has unheard alternative takes, remixes, and 5.1 mixes.
    And we have their live performance from the rooftop in 1969, which we know has a couple of performances that haven't been officially released, so I will perhaps spend a bit of time wondering if we might get those in a Deluxe Let It Be box sometime in the next few years. And prior to the group officially breaking up, we've got Lennon's performance at the Toronto Music Festival, on The Rock and Roll Circus and the UNICEF Charity Concert (Harrison on the latter as well).

    But I know for a fact that no one will ever hear songs that they never performed live. And I don't really see the sense in pining after what cannot happen. Alternate realities don't exist in this reality.
     
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  8. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    ...they would have broken up sooner.:wantsome:
     
  9. MaccaBeatles

    MaccaBeatles Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greater London
    The thing is, most of their later albums probably wouldn't have existed in quite the same way if they didn't have the extra time to spend in the studio.
     
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  10. Sluggy

    Sluggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Red Centre
    Yeah, 'Julia' would go down a treat in a stadium full of screaming kids.

    Cheers, SLuggy
     
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  11. Denise Norris

    Denise Norris This Is Probably A Beatles Thread

    Location:
    Georgia
    Half of what he sung would be meaningless.
     
  12. Fullbug

    Fullbug Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Lucy would have been a full "lighters out" moment.
    Ringo doing Don't Pass Me By would have been the time everyone headed for the bathrooms and maybe grab a Beatledog topped with Mean Mustard
     
  13. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    The Pepper tour would've been pretty psychedelic, probably playing the whole Sgt. Peppers' album, maybe George would play "Within You Without You" accompanied by Ravi Shankar.

    The White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road would've been roots rock, maybe a mix of album tracks with covers, the same way John later performed oldies at his solo concerts. Then again, in the early days of the Get Back sessions, the Beatles were planning on having costumes and a singalong with "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", so who knows what they would have done.
     
  14. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    They would have trotted out the warhorses to screaming fans. You might have seen Hey Jude, Revolution or the rooftop songs in a set list, but the ability to perform the more ornate Pepper or MMT songs just wasn't practical at that point in time.
     
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  15. micksmuse

    micksmuse Forum Resident

    Location:
    san diego
    they would have had billy preston on keys and he would have had a 10 keyboard set up & fog like rick wakeman of yes.


    lots of songs on pepper could have been done with just their instrumentation: fixing a hold, friends, hendrix did the title track with less players.
    many bar bands do tracks from the white album and abbey road.
    could have been done.
     
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  16. chrischrischris

    chrischrischris Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    More road crew than Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans. Those Mellotrons are heavy.
     
  17. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    they could have done it, just like the eagles, 4 or 5 extra guys in the background.
     
  18. boggs

    boggs Multichannel Machiavellian

    I think the Beatles, along with George Martin, would have been creative enough to arrange
    post 1966 songs that would sound great live. They would have most probably needed to add a keyboard
    player. But I feel that their live shows would have sounded more sophisticated and quite unique, as Paul's
    perfectionism would run a muck. A different question might be, would John and George be patient
    enough to deal with the need to re-arrange newer songs to be played live ?! (I think we all know how
    J & G would feel about P's perfectionism. :yikes: )
     
  19. Beattles

    Beattles Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    Badfinger could have opened and filled in on other numbers. Remember, they never played more than 30 minutes!
     
  20. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    They busted out a mean 'Sgt Pepper' title track in 1979 (sans John) at Eric and Patties wedding. Sadly no tapes were running at the time.
     
  21. DeadLoss

    DeadLoss Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    ....... there'd be another hundred threads wittering on about it.
     
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  22. petem1966

    petem1966 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy TX
    They would have made different records. Pepper might never have been.
     
  23. sixtiesstereo

    sixtiesstereo Senior Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    It COULD have been done if they had tried (or wanted to).
    Here's the "Fab Four" (from 2012) doing some of the Sgt. Pepper tracks live in concert.
    Nearly identical to how it would have sounded if the Beatles had done it in '67....... )
    (Jump ahead to the 7:50 mark to hear/see the Sgt. Pepper reprise and "A Day In The
    Life"....remarkable).

     
  24. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    They played Revolution & Hey Jude live on TV & as well as the whole Rooftop performance (With Billy Preston), a year later.
     
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  25. BrutandCharisma

    BrutandCharisma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, Colorado
    They'd have to "ELO" a lot of the post-Revolver stuff. Lotta pre-recorded backing tracks if the intent was to recreate the records. But that would defeat the purpose of "Sgt. Pepper" - it was never designed to be played live.

    One of the great tragedies of rock and roll is that people didn't really get to see what a great live band the Beatles were. By the time those guys got back from doing 3 shows a night for a year + in Hamburg, they were the tightest live band on the planet. They were doing punk 15 years before the term got invented.

    But all that mach schau got buried under thousands of screaming teenage girls by 1964.
     
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