What if the Beatles were American

Ed Sullivan would’ve been a mere train ride from Levittown.

 

they still would have been as popular...and they sounded like American singers...' )

 

sacrilege...I always hated that cover...still do...How creative. Was that a cool cover? LOL.

 

LOL... good one , but not quite...

 

Well, they practically were once they got famous. But black music, rhythm and blues (not to mention skiffle) were all big forms of music in England in the early '60s. For the most part, white audiences weren't as interested initially, but perhaps the timing was right for The Beatles. Black R'n'B music was much harder edged, for the most part. Think Chuck Berry, then think Buddy Holly (whose music, even though he was white, had a harder edge than most '50s rockers). So The Beatles were certainly part of that British Invasion with the above influences. But The Beatles almost adopted the United States as their own, as they started to listen to American folk music (particularly Bob Dylan), and American musical theater (Paul was interested in that. Their interests as songwriters quickly expanded, so it was this huge amalgam of influences that allowed them to really expand popular music.

 

This has been a great thread, all the comedians have come out to play. I've laughed more tonight than I have in weeks. Thanks Flaxton. (I hope this was your intention)

 

Yeah, that Brian Wilson man, he had no idea what innovation was all about. I mean Good Vibrations, Pet Sounds and others were just run of the mill, very ordinary rock songs that had no new ideas whatsoever.

 

John woulda been beaned by a bottle outside his Knightsbridge apartment in 1980 and would still be with us today.

 

No idea but you may have ended up with the drummer narrating a cartoon called Thomas The *rump Ingenuine?

 

What if the Beatles were aliens from Area 51?

What if the Beatles were born 20 years later?

What if the Beatles had each played different instruments?

What if Klaus Voorman, Pete Best, & Stu Sutcliffe, (had he lived), formed an alternative band to the Beatles?

What if Jagger & Richards had written I Wanna Be Your Man & given it to the, (then), hitless Beatles? When the Stones recorded their version then, would Charlie Watts have sang lead on it like Ringo did?

There, I've just covered the next five "what if" topics in the never ending worshipping of the Beatles here.

 

What if the sky was green and the fields were blue?

"Hey man, pass that joint."

 

Are You Experienced - recorded in London (De Lane Lea & Olympic Studios) (released in UK 3 months before US)
Axis: Bold As Love - recorded in London (Olympic Studios) (released in UK in 1967, 6 weeks before 1968 release in US)
Electric Ladyland - recorded in London (Olympic & Mayfair Studios) and in New York (Record Plant Studios) (US released 9 days ahead of UK)

Jimi lived and died in London before and after his successful recordings took place.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

George and Paul would have fallen off the top of the school bus.

 

I think you could distill down this entire thread to two posts : The OP and this one :

The whole shebang just summed up so elegantly and so succinctly. Like a super-compressed little diamond of irrefutable, gleaming truth. What could one possibly add to it ? It's perfect.

D.D.

 

No they would be frank Zappa and the Mothers ...lol

 

Oh, absolutely. And I think American performers would have felt even more strongly about that.

 

Where you record albums does not determine your nationality. Jimi was born in the US to American parents, went to school in the US, served in the US Army, and learned to play guitar in American bands touring the US. He's American.

 

So all of those emails asking me to send money to some far-off
bank account so he could claim his millions would have come
from Woody Guthrie?

Damn!



I think this whole thread is Highly Selassie!

 

A prime example of when one nails it!

 

Exactly. The Stones recorded in America, it didn't make them American.

 

If The Beatles were American, than The Byrds would be British

 

As we say in England. "If your auntie had boll***s she'd be your uncle"