The Beatles' Final Album

[METALMAN]

I read this fairly interesting article on the paper that speculated upon the possibility that the Beatles didn't break up and recorded one further album. Basically it just compiled songs by all four members roundabout that time. So I thought it would be interesting to do our own final Beatles album.

So yeah stick to songs by all four members released soon after they broke up.

1. My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)

2. Too Many People (Paul McCartney)

3. Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney)

4. Jealous Guy (John Lennon)

5. Love (John Lennon)

6. Smile Away (Paul McCartney)

7. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)

8. If Not For You (George Harrison)

9. Working Class Hero (John Lennon)

10. Teddy Boy (Paul McCartney)

11. Every Night (Paul McCartney)

12. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (Paul McCartney)

13. Back Seat of My Car (Paul McCartney)

14. What Is Life? (George Harrison)

So that's four by Harrison, three by Lennon and seven by McCartney. Which is about right as McCartney is as good as Lennon and Harrison put together.

[probablyoliver]

You're seriously rating McCartney as better than Harrison?

Oh my metalman, I've never lost so much respect for someone in one fell swoop.

[GoGo Yubari]

You're seriously rating McCartney as better than Harrison?

Oh my metalman, I've never lost so much respect for someone in one fell swoop.

Quoted for truth. metalman, you're out of the EWB Cool Guys Who Have Awesome Taste cabal.

[METALMAN]

I still like the other two.

I grew up with Paul McCartney you see. Well, not literally, but you know... >_>

[GoGo Yubari]

I will say that I agree with a lot of your Lennon selections, though I would have put "Mother" in over "Working Class Hero" because John Lennon wasn't working class, dammit.

For me, a proper representation of a late-period Beatles album would be half-Lennon, half-McCartney, three or so Harrison songs, and the Token Ringo Song. I'm at work so I can't really assemble what I'd use right now, but that's how I see it.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Although the Token Ringo Song was never written by Ringo.

Although I guess neither were his hit solo singles.

[GoGo Yubari]

Although the Token Ringo Song was never written by Ringo.

Although I guess neither were his hit solo singles.

Well. "Octopus' Garden" and "Don't Pass Me By" were, actually, which is what I was referring to.

[METALMAN]

I think I should add the only Ringo Starr solo song I know is "You're Sixteen". After hearing that I don't have any great desire to pursue his solo career any further.

[GoGo Yubari]

Ringo's solo career is awesome. I mean, a lot of the songs are cheesy and pretty much all of his songs are very "hey, remember that song that The Beatles/John/Paul/George/I did?", but the man wrote a song entitled "I Think Therefore I Rock & Roll." How can you not love a man who writes songs like that?

Also, "Photograph" is actually a pretty good song and would merit inclusion on something like this.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I think I should add the only Ringo Starr solo song I know is "You're Sixteen". After hearing that I don't have any great desire to pursue his solo career any further.

"It Don't Come Easy"?

"Photograph"?

[GoGo Yubari]

"You're Sixteen" is a cover, anyway, so it's not really fair to judge his entire solo career on that.

[Hobo]

Photograph is a Harrison written song or at least co-written. But it and It Don't Come Easy are great Ringo songs.

[Matt]

Ringo's solo career is awesome. I mean, a lot of the songs are cheesy and pretty much all of his songs are very "hey, remember that song that The Beatles/John/Paul/George/I did?", but the man wrote a song entitled "I Think Therefore I Rock & Roll." How can you not love a man who writes songs like that?

Also, "Photograph" is actually a pretty good song and would merit inclusion on something like this.

Finally, someone who agrees with me that Ringo wasn't a total failure post-Beatles.

Besides that he was the narrator in Thomas the Tank Engine

[METALMAN]

Don't get me wrong, I do love Ringo. It's just that he was a total failure post Beatles.

[gunnar hendershow]

Ringo's basically that guy at a party who you just keep around because he doesn't get in anybody's way, but god can he be annoying.

I'm not sure exactly what I'd compile on to make an album, but it'd be heavily focused around Lennon with enough pop staples by Paul. George would get a few songs, but not as much as Paul (There's only so much complexity an album can have, McCartney's songs keep things grounded). Ringo would get a token song.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Don't get me wrong, I do love Ringo. It's just that he was a total failure post Beatles.

You're not helping any possible return to the club

[METALMAN]

All this time I never even knew I was in the club.

[GoGo Yubari]

Photograph is a Harrison written song or at least co-written. But it and It Don't Come Easy are great Ringo songs.

It was co-written, so I still think that counts.

Don't get me wrong, I do love Ringo. It's just that he was a total failure post Beatles.

Except he wasn't. He had like ten top forty singles.

[John Stones' Paint Trophy]

Ringo gets a pass for being awesome in Hard Day's Night. One of my favourite moments in film is Ringo selling the tyre to the leg.

[Stunner]

I think the problem is that McCartney, Ram, The Plastic Ono Band and Imagine are essentially albums reflecting on The Beatles' split, so very few of those songs would've existed had The Beatles remained as a unit during the early 1970's. As someone with a lot more knowledge on John Lennon's solo career than any other Beatle, the only songs I can think of that may have been more-or-less the same from Lennon's first two solo albums would be Mother, Love, Imagine, Jealous Guy (which did start as a Beatles track, Child Of Nature during The White Album sessions), and possibly Gimme Some Truth.

George's All Things Must Pass, however, is to the best of my knowledge essentially three albums worth of stuff that got rejected by Lennon and McCartney for recording, which explains how Harrison came up with a triple-album so soon after the split. Therefore you could definitely say the majority of those songs were written to be Beatle tracks, and so were more likely to have made a 1970/71 Beatles album. As one of the better Beatle solo albums, it pretty much proves to me how Lennon/McCartney's egos had ultimately got the better of them at that point anyway, as a lot of this "rejected material" is far superior to some of the stuff that Lennon and McCartney themselves had been churning out in that era. So for that reason, it was probably for the best that The Beatles came to a halt there and then.

Edited February 14, 2009 by Stunner