Beatles Reunited – Everest (1971)
On Friday John Lennon would have turned 75; a rather frightening thought, since John has stayed forever young, (no) thanks to Mark Chapman.
So this is a good occasion to begin the alternative history of Beatles album as they might have been had the band not split in 1970. I did something like that a few years ago, but not very well. In revisiting the idea I was inspired by Peter Lee’s marvellous alternative history The Death and Life of Mal Evans: A Novel, which I reviewed a few weeks ago, with a Beatles concert “from 1972″.
In his book, Lee recreates Beatles albums through the 1970s, employing rather stricter criteria than I do (his selection process alone is worth getting the book for). The title of this first imaginary Beatles album, set in 1971, is borrowed from Lee’s book. The Beatles actually considered the title Everest for the LP they’d call Abbey Road, on account of the brand of cigarettes smoked by sound engineer Geoff Emerick (whose 2006 book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles is a classic in the Beatles canon).
Such was the wealth of quality which the four produced between 1970 and 1972, that this set is a double LP. The “next album” will be released in “1972” (with hold-overs from George’s All Things Must Pass and John’s Imagine albums).
Some of these tracks might have been Beatles tracks. Jealous Guy was demoed under a different title during the White Album sessions; the version of All Things Must Pass featured here is, in fact, a Beatles demo; Apple Scruffs was another Beatles reject.
In Peter Lee’s book, the first imaginary Beatles album included Lennon’s scathing attack on McCartney, How Do You Sleep. To even things out, I’ll let John have that for his solo album but include Paul’s veiled stab at John, Too Many People.
Ringo released two albums in 1970, both comprising cover versions of standards and country songs respectively. The Beatles didn’t do covers after 1965, but we’ll indulge Ringo with one song, Stardust, which was arranged by McCartney. There was one other contender, the Ringo-penned Coochy Coochy. It didn’t make the cut on account of it not being very good.
I tried to keep Yoko and Linda out of these proceedings, which wasn’t entirely possible, since McCartney’s Ram album was credited to him and Linda (so her voice on, say, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, is unavoidable. But imagine all that with John’s harmonies!). But no Oh Yoko, and no Long Haired Lady. However, seeing I let Linda sing, I let John’s song to Yoko, Hold On, pass. It sounds like a Beatles song, and includes the most unexpected Sesame Street reference ever.
The whole thing fits on a standard CD-R. Covers included; PW in comments.
Side 1
1 Instant Karma (We All Shine On) (John)
2 What Is Life (George)
3 Maybe I’m Amazed (Paul)
4 Every Night (Paul)
5 Apple Scruffs (George)
Side 2
7 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul)
8 Stardust (Ringo)
9 All Things Must Pass (George)
10 Isolation (John)
11 Ram On (Paul)
12 Jealous Guy (John)
Side 3
12 Mother (John)
13 Wah-Wah (George)
14 The Back Seat Of My Car (Paul)
15 Hold On (John)
16 Love (John)
Side 4
17 Too Many People (Paul)
18 Working Class Hero (John)
19 Isn’t It A Pity (George)
20 Junk (Paul)
21 How? (John)
Previous Beatles Reunited albums:
Everest (1971)
Live ’72 (1972)
Smile Away (1972)
Photographs (1974)
77 (1977)
Let It See (1980)
More great Beatles stuff:
Beatles Recovered: A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles Recovered: Beatles For Sale
Beatles Recovered: Help!
Beatles Recovered: Rubber Soul
Beatles Recovered: Revolver
Beatles Recovered: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Beatles Revovered: Magical Mystery Tour
Beatles Recovered: White Album
Beatles Recovered: Yellow Submarine
Wordless: Any Major Beatles Instrumentals
Covered With Soul Vol. 14 – Beatles Edition 1
Covered With Soul Vol. 15 – Beatles Edition 2
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1962-66
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1967-68
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1968-70
Any Bizarre Beatles
Beatles Album tracks and B-Sides Vol. 1
Beatles Album tracks and B-Sides Vol. 2
PW = amdwhah
I was wondering why you didn’t use “It Don’t Come Easy” for the song for Ringo ?
I kept it for 1972.
John Birthday…….here in Australia!!
The Beatles have long been the subject of albums that never were & “Everest” (cooler to be named after the cigarettes rather than the UK double glazing company, I guess) holds its own in the comparison stakes. As I usually say, the Fab Four made some fab music within and without so you can’t go too far wrong. Nice job, many thanks!
I love this game. While results vary from compiler to compiler it’s always fun. Here is my take on the “Beatles didn’t break up” game – http://beatles-whatif.blogspot.com/. I use different rules, probably more strict than most.
I downloaded your Live ’72 comp and look forward to listening to that, interesting idea.
Been reading your blog for a long time and have downloaded many of your comps, especially the soul and funk collections. Thanks so much for sharing. Great music and great articles.
Wow, that blog looks fantastic, UncaDan. Much fun to be had there.
This looks great, and well done!
Is it just me or is nothing available to download on the above mentioned Beatles What If blog? I tried a few zippy files and every one was unavailable, probably because the website has not been updated since 2010!!
@Johannes
I have a love/hate relationship with Zippy. Very download friendly but like most share sites, they delete files if there is no activity after 30 days. No updates since 2010 because I finished the story. I did that for fun and maintaining links is a chore and I don’t get a lot of traffic. The 4Shared links should work but they don’t always make it easy to download. A reader mirrored all the files on Mega but the links are in the comments. One of these days I’ll add them to the posts proper.
My Beatles albums are more than just comps. I try to create a believable album from the available material and often do some unique edits to help the illusion. A labor of love indeed.
So, I downloaded the .rar files and there’s a PASSWORD somewhere for these?? Instructions? (????)
Passwords are always the first comment in the comments section. As mentioned in the text.
Thanks
Always appreciate some Beatles
Regards
Rhod
I appreciate your fine work so much and my heart almost broke, when I found that the link to Zippy
http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/nE2iiPhR/file.html
told me that the file with the comps didn’t exist any more.
Any hints where to d’load these jewels?
It’s up again, along with other dead Beatles links.
After the extremely fruitful “Get Back” sessions in Disney+ it is time to listen to your “what if”-compilations. Any hints where to d’load these jewels in 2022?
Grüße aus Süddeutschland
Tom
Hi Me again Could we get a reup please