The Beatles - London Town

The Beatles - London Town
(soniclovenoize reimagination)

Side A:
1.  Blow Away
2.  Cafe on The Left Bank
3.  Here Comes The Moon
4.  Just One of The Boys
5.  Backwards Traveler
6.  I’ll Still Love You

Side B:
7.  I’ve Had Enough
8.  Soft-Hearted Hana
9.  I’m Carrying
10.  Not Guilty
11.  Morse Moose and The Grey Goose

Merry Christmas! 

At long last, here is my final album reimagining of 70’s-era Beatles albums, that postulates “What If The Beatles Didn’t Break Up?”  This would be the second album of the band’s theoretical “Lennon-less” albums (along with 1976’s Between The Lines), that are more centered on the pairing of Paul and George as creative centers of the band, presuming John had decided to take a delineated role in the band, choosing to instead be a stay-at-home dad for Sean.  With that said, there are some John Lennon surprises here!  London Town encompasses the timeframe between 1977-1978, chronologically between two other imaginary Beatles albums, Between The Lines and Skywriting By Word of Mouth. 

As with my previous Beatles 70s Albums, I will adhere to three rules, although there are some slight modifications for these albums that follow Lennon’s real-life domestication and retirement:

1)  One album is represented per year, culled from tracks each Beatle recorded that year; this rule is revised so that one album spans two years instead of one.  Not only will this accommodate a lack of new material from some of the Beatles during this time, it will also force the outcome to be of better quality. 

2)  Generally speaking, to include five Lennon songs, five McCartney songs, three Harrison songs and one Ringo song; this rule is revised to presume that Lennon largely retired from The Beatles, occasionally contributing as a studio musician but leaving most of the heavy lifting for Paul and George.  

3)  The chosen songs must be Beatle-esque in nature; we will attempt to avoid the idiosyncratic musical tangents each Beatle pursued in the 70s and vie for the solo songs that would have been most likely recorded by The Beatles (i.e. not vetoed by the rest of the band).

4)  The songs must flow together and make a unified album that shares a specific tone.

London Town combines the material from Wings’ 1978 London Town and George Harrison’s self-titled 1979 album.  Although Wing’s Back To The Egg was literally recorded simultaneously with George Harrison, I have chosen to pair the aforementioned albums together because they had a more similar production aesthetic and the songs seemed to compliment each other better than George Harrison and Back To The Egg.  Additionally, we are using the George-written “I’ll Still Love You” as Ringo’s contribution to the album, a hold-over from 1976’s Ringo’s Rotogravure, due to the distinct lack of ex-Beatle involvement in his contemporaneous Ringo The 4th and Bad Boy– not to mention how awful those albums are anyways.  Lastly, as on Between The Lines, we will use a token Lennon demo from this time period for flavor– “One of The Boys”, dating from late 1977.  I’ve also included some additional Dakota-era Lennon dialog on “Cafe on the Left Bank” and “Morse Moose and The Grey Goose” that seemed eerily appropriate.  These little flourishes make London Town that much more like a theoretical Beatles album, in this author’s opinion anyways!

Side A begins with one of the highlights of the album, George’s late-period chestnut “Blow Away” from George Harrison.  This is followed by “Cafe on the Left Bank” from London Town, bookended by John Lennon’s humorous dialog about the literal cafe on the Left Bank that McCartney was referencing in the song!  This is crossfaded into the conscientiously Beatle-esque “Here Comes The Moon” from George Harrison, and the most fully-realized Lennon home demo that wasn’t destined for Double Fantasy–”One of The Boys”, here taken from Home Tapes.  This was intended as a medley paired with “Backwards Traveler” from London Town, which bleeds into “I'll Still Love You” from Ringo’s Rotogravure.  Side B begins with McCartney’s standard 50s rocker “I’ve Had Enough” from London Town, followed by George’s “Soft-Hearted Hana” and Paul's gorgeous ballad “I’m Carrying”.  We could not possibly make this re-imagined Beatles album without George’s “Not Guilty”, and the album closes with the divisive “Morse Moose and The Grey Goose” from London Town.  Here, I have included some humorous Lennon sea shanty poetics into the instrumental bridge sections, making the track a bit more interesting and as an appropriate late-era collaboration between Paul and John. 

So sit back and imagine an alternate timeline…

Eh, let’s just be honest here…  It’s a fun listen but this is a contractual obligation album, isn’t it?  Although George had saved some solid material, he also relied on an ancient Beatles outtake (“Not Guilty”) and a sequel to a Beatles classic (“Here Comes The Sun”).  Paul had some fun contributions, but the band was a bit skeptical as he seemed to be saving more electrifying material for his own solo album Back To The Egg, to be released the following year!  Like the last album, John simply phoned in a solo acoustic song, as well as some humorous dialog, apart from his rhythm guitar parts and reluctant solo on “I’ve Had Enough” (a song he otherwise loved). But in two years, John would have a more prominent role in their following 1980 album, Songwriting By Word of Mouth, his final one with the band. 

 

Sources used:

• George Harrison - The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992
• John Lennon - Between The Lines (2006 bootleg)
• John Lennon - Home Tapes (2010)
• Paul McCartney - London Town (1993 CD Remaster)
• Ringo Starr - Ringo's Rotogravure (2009 Rhino Remaster)

 
 LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM REIMAGINATION ON MY PATREON