When Paul walked out of the studio during the Revolver sessions (reportedly during the recording of She Said She Said), The Beatles didn’t break up. When Ringo left during the White Album sessions, and George did likewise during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, the remaining Beatles continued recording.
But when John announced “I want a divorce,” in September 1969, Paul considered The Beatles irrevocably disintegrated.
We could investigate why or how John’s departure differed from each preceding departure (remember, John was the last Beatle to walk away, and the other three had all returned pretty soon after leaving), but that’s not really the point of this post.
Instead, I want to consider how an admittedly farfetched alternative response from Paul might have not only kept The Beatles intact, perhaps only temporarily, but also repaired another relationship within the band.
By George
Let’s start with the counterfactual that in late 1969, rather than assuming that The Beatles were irreparably broken, Paul believed that John would return to the band after–what’s the best way to say this?–sowing his wild oats. In this hypothetical, Paul is both finely attuned to John’s changing moods and self-aware enough to realize that accepting John’s divorce declaration at face value (and responding in kind) would only widen the rift between them.
Reluctant to release Beatles music not credited to Lennon & McCartney, Paul turns to George and says, You have a backlog of songs. Let’s start working on them. Our next album will be all Harrison compositions. “The Beatles By George.“
By late 1969, George had stockpiled these songs, among others, that The Beatles hadn’t yet recorded (thanks to the invaluable Beatles Bible and Steve Hoffman Music Forums)*:
- All Things Must Pass
- The Art of Dying
- Beautiful Girl
- Circles
- Cosmic Empire
- Everybody, Nobody
- Going Down to Golders Green
- Hear Me Lord
- I Live for You
- Isn’t It a Pity
- Let It Down
- Mother Divine
- Not Guilty
- Ramblin’ Woman
- See Yourself
- Sour Milk Sea
- Wah Wah
- Window, Window
- Woman Don’t You Cry for Me
- You Know What To Do
Over time, The Threatles** pare that list to 14 (choose your favorites), or perhaps George writes one or two more. The Beatles By George, produced by George Martin, is released in April 1970 (instead of McCartney). Maybe they issue Wah Wah b/w I Live for You as a single. In promoting the album, Paul, George, and Ringo are all careful to emphasize that John is welcome to rejoin them whenever he’d like.
The aftermath
I don’t believe for a minute that this cockamamie scheme would have saved The Beatles. Even after all of the nastiness surrounding the breakup is stripped away, the fact remains that each Beatle had a different set of goals that he wanted to accomplish in the 1970s, and most of those goals didn’t involve the other three Beatles. What would The Threatles done after By George? By Ringo?
But if Paul didn’t issue the press McCartney press release announcing that The Beatles had disbanded in April, maybe John wouldn’t have written God in 1970 and How Do You Sleep in 1971,*** perhaps making an 1970s reunion more likely. Maybe George would have felt more charitably towards Paul after their work on The Beatles By George.
Or working so closely with Paul on may have convinced George never to work with him again. And since the By George album would have included tunes that otherwise ended up on All Things Must Pass, maybe George wouldn’t have begun his solo career with his masterpiece, limiting his success as a solo artist and perhaps embittering him even further.
And in the end
I maintain that The Beatles broke up at exactly the right time, after the triumph of Abbey Road and before they tarnished their reputation with work that didn’t meet or exceed their standard. After completing this thought exercise, I’ve convinced myself that it would have been a stupid idea. But thank you for humoring me while I worked it out. How stupid do you think it is? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.
*I’ve omitted songs that George co-wrote with non-Beatles, including Badge (Eric Clapton), Dehra Duhn (Donovan), and I’d Have You Anytime (Bob Dylan).
**Threetles or Threatles? I prefer Threatles.
***And Paul wouldn’t have written Too Many People, and Ringo wouldn’t have written Early 1970.
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