If the members of the Beatles showed up in 1970 as unknowns, how would their solo careers rate?

Let's say the Beatles didn't exist, but each of the four members all popped up as solo performers around 1970. They start as totally unhyped artists, and each go on to put out the exact solo output they actually did.

What would be each of their places in music history? Would all their hits actually have been hits? Is it possible one or more of them would have remained unknown?

What do you say?

 

Well, first you'd need to imagine (no pun intended) what the musical landscape would look like without having had the Beatles around for the 60s. That would be completely different. Probably Mowtown and soul would have dominated in their absence, so in that kind of backdrop, I fear the solo fabs would be quirky but forgettable.... and very white.

 

My take (comparisons to other artists are for level of fame only, not style or quality of music):

Paul would have been a rock star. About the same fame level of, let's say, early 70s Rod Stewart. Or maybe Steve Miller. Songs like Jet, Helen Wheels, Junior's Farm, Band on the Run et. al. fit perfectly into FM radio playlists at the time and were accessible to a very wide audience. Plus he has a sunny and charismatic personality. So yeah, rock star.

John would have been a cult artist. Fame level along the lines of artists like, maybe, Sparks or Robert Wyatt. I'm not sure there's anything in his solo catalog that would be catchy enough to help an unknown John Lennon break through to a mass audience via FM radio. But the people who get him love him.

George could've achieved singer/songwriter success on the level of people like Cat Stevens. But it would have taken some luck and the right record label behind him. Or he could have been a totally obscure artist beloved by music collectors.

Ringo. It's hard to say. But if his fellow unknown George happened to know unknown Ringo and helped him put together Photograph and It Don't Come Easy, unknown Ringo might have had a nice little run as a pop star. Maybe at a David Essex kind of level.

 

Good point. So, for the sake of this discussion, let's say there was a group called the Schmeatles who had already changed the music world. Ron, Jake, Mike and Brillo came out of Sunderland and rocked the universe with such hits as 32 Days a Month, She Digs You and Col. Benny's Stamp Collecting Club.

So the landscape the unknown fab 4 show up into is exactly as it actually was in 1970.

Oh, and in this scenario, the Schmeatles have already broken up and are busy suing each other rather than making competing music.

 

Well, they would have had a lot more to prove. Paul could never have gotten an album McCartney released as a debut. John’s first album couldn’t be all about him, no one would have been interested. Only George made an album that might have sold without name recognition.

So they would have had very different careers, having to prove themselves and appeal to a public that didn’t know them. They wouldn’t have been burned out, they would have been motivated and they probably would have been up to it.

 

Here's the catch though, FM radio in 1970, up until about 1977 in most areas was quite adventurous. Heck, my local rock station was playing artists from John Fahey to John Mayall to Pharoah Sanders to Gil Scott-Heron, in addition to all the mainstream artists like Macca, Elton, Paul Simon, etc. Yes, Paul would probably have been the arena sellout he became, but I think even if Lennon had less of a following than he had with our awareness of The Beatles past he would have had a career at a level somewhere between Lou Reed and Joni Mitchell, give or take.

 

Definitely possible. But was John's solo output at the level of Lou Reed's or Joni Mitchell's? Also, Lou and Joni could write hits when they needed to (Walk on the Wild Side, Big Yellow Taxi). I'm not sure there's a "hit" in Lennon's solo work (there's greatness, but is there anything that would have carved out radio space in the States for an unknown, kinda surly guy from Liverpool?)

 

Fair enough.

 

But an unknown George Harrison would never have gotten Phil Spector to produce the record, and it is doubtful that George would have gotten Eric Clapton and the rest of the Dominoes either. So the All Things Must Pass album would have sounded very different.

 

Instant Karma and Imagine would have been hits.

 

My god man, are The Rutles not good enough for you??

 

If it was 1973, all the marbles would have gone to the one who was best at making hit records.

So sorry to the other guys, but we need to get behind Ringo.

 

John as that new singer songwriter type ala James Taylor
Paul as that marvelous new artist who plays all the instruments
George with ATMP as the most ambitious musician since Hendrix
Ringo as this crazy Brit singing cw songs

 

I dunno. If it's 1971 and I'm kicking back listening to my local FM station and, mixed in with Stairway to Heaven and Maggie May and Riders on the Storm, Imagine pops up, does it grab me? For me, probably not. Obviously, we're deep into "who can say?" territory here, though.

But there are a lot of intangibles about Imagine that really transcend the record itself. Stripped of those, I don't think it's quite as iconic as it's become in real life.

Instant Karma? Maybe. But I think the earlier poster who pointed to Whatever Gets You Through the Night is on to something. That would've jumped out of my radio and made me say "Who is this John Lennon guy?"

 

Yeah better…

 

I'm not good enough for the Rutles, actually.

 

Another factor to consider. Many artists have written a lot of songs years before their recording debut and then they record them on their early albums. Would the individual Beatles have a backlog of songs to include in Their post-1970 solo albums? What if McCartney had substituted Yesterday, Hey Jude and Let it Be for some of the lesser songs on Ram?

 

Paul: Probably would have had a decent-sized career as a pretty dependable pop/rock star. Not as big as he is now, but fairly big.

John: Would have been that weird guy who had a couple of good albums before losing the plot. Although, he would probably still be alive, so he might have made some more great albums. Still very much a cult artist, though.

George: His record company never would have allowed a triple album from an unknown artist. So, they would have held half of the tracks back for a second album and used the rest as b-sides. Then he would have been that guy who had a couple of great albums and then promptly vanished from the mainstream. Kind of like Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Ringo: If he was lucky, he might have had a top ten novelty hit, and he would now be a question on Trivial Pursuit: Boomer Edition.

 

I suppose if we allow John, Paul and George to have a backlog of brilliant songs never used by the nonexistent Beatles, then they all become stars. But, for the sake of discussion, let's say their mythical solo catalog is identical to their actual solo content.

 

So Harry Nillson, then?

I could see that.

 

I think John could have been a big star of the '70s. He had a big ego and wanted it badly enough. He would have had songs saved up. More importantly, he was good at interviews and playing up to the media, which was more important in the '70s than in the '60s. Ringo would probably be the only one who wasn't successful.

 

George Harrison would have been the exception here. "What Is Life" in particular was a soul song, with more than a touch of Motown influence. He actually wrote it for Billy Preston, who was one of the major R&B artists he was working with at that time. Doris Troy was another.
Of course the question of whether he would have gotten Phil Spector to produce or the fabulous musicians he had play on it, being an unknown new artist, is there. Could "What Is Life" have been a hit without the wall of sound and the musicianship? I think it would've because it's a strong enough song. And blue-eyed soul at the very least.

 

Is John with Yoko in this alternate musical universe?

 

Well...
In ANY cases, George would have been asked to join The Traveling Wilburys, a band created and made by Jeff Lyne (of ELO fame - remember all those crazy mixes with pop and cellos ? Nobody ever did that before ) and Tom Petty. They already asked Bob and Roy to join them. They needed another fellow so they remembered that gardener who happened to make music on his own in his Liverpool shed and who had a minor hit by doing a successful cover of "Got my mind set on you" that was used in that Diesel jeans commercial in the late 80s....