Forty years ago, it was “the break-up heard ’round the world.” The Beatles, the world’s greatest rock’n’roll band, the voice of a generation, were no more. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — they appeared on the scene, as if from nowhere in February 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show, they conquered “the toppermost of the poppermost” with albums such as Revolver and Sgt Pepper, they gave birth to baroque rock and psychedelia, and they bowed out with the sublimely brilliant Abbey Road in August 1969.
But what if it didn’t happen that way? What if Abbey Road was not the swansong for the four loveable lads from Liverpool? This Thursday, February 11, WAMU, the public radio station in Washington, DC, asks the question — if the Beatles had made another album, what would it have been? — with their documentary, The Beatles: One More Album.
Three Beatles experts — Peter Carlin, the author of Paul McCartney: A Life; Tim Riley, the author of Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song; and Richie Unterberger, the author of The Unreleased Beatles — explore the musical legacy of the Beatles and their early solo careers to assemble what a 1970 or 1971 Beatles album might have been. Many ideas have been put forth — my own “Hot As Sun,” The Telegraph, the BBC, science-fiction author Stephen Baxter, even Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux (track list here) — and The Beatles: One More Album hopes to write the definitive word on the subject.
Listeners in the Washington, DC metro region can listen on WAMU at 88.5 FM, Thursday, February 11th at 9 o’clock p.m. or Sunday, February 14th at 6 o’clock a.m. The program can also be heard through WAMU’s audio stream through their website.
Naturally, I shall be listening. 🙂 I’m even sure I’ll disagree with everything they have to say. 😉