THE NEW BEATLES LP?
A Rock and Roll “What If” For Our time
The 2019 Danny Boyle movie “Yesterday” subversively proposed that the Beatles musical catalogue did not (and does not) necessarily have to have come from John, Paul, George and Ringo to exist.
So New Music from John Paul George and Ringo is still coming?
Yes, In an alternative universe, as detailed here—the music of John, Paul, George and Ringo might continue to be created even if they aren’t the ones bringing it to the public.
Our question is where are those songs? Which artists are the vessels?
To answer that, and to hear those songs, we must enter the multiverse: a place that looks and feels identical to ours with small but very significant differences. In this universe John Lennon is alive, having survived the assassination attempt on December 8th, 1980. And these are the songs (and story) of The Beatles 1990 reunion album called simply “Beatles 13.”
Listen to the Beatles 13 in iTunes
Listen to the Beatles 13 in Spotify
The Beatles in the Multiverse- In this world, John Lennon survives the attack of December 8th, 1980
Beatles 13: The REViEW
SPIN MAGAZINE REVIEW by Sean Ladderflynn
The Beatles 13: LENNON SPEAKS with all four voices of The Beatles.
After almost a decade of silence where we all feared the worst for John, this long-awaited I’ll say it “Beatles Reunion” — a high-wire act to be sure— is no phoned in, cash-in from a weakened recluse, but a powerfully wrought, defiantly written, brilliantly realized collection of songs that equals anything they’ve ever done.
The key is a superior set of songs—all songs on “13” are credited to “The Beatles” so perhaps unity has returned to the Beatles as with the tracks, which argues its own superiority but in the end unite coherently, just as it was on you name it— Revolver, Abbey Road.
John is the tip of the iceberg, but Mssrs McCartney, Harrison and Starr are the bulk of the thing keeping it floating on the ocean; they are at their peaks here too. Special mention to the Martin family, George and Giles, for as George always did, provide just enough structure for The Beatles to produce a soundscape that sounds at once like nothing you’ve ever heard before and every other Beatles record. The one bad thing may be how disappointing some of their solo work has been and how we may never want to revisit any of those songs after we’ve been reminded of what a grownup Lennon and McCartney sound like.
It’s essentially Christmas Day for Beatlefans, and the presents are all the tracks on their new album. A love letter to fans an explanation of everything in “Beatlese”— Within the first three songs they have referenced the assassination attempt, John’s sending back of his MBE, quoted themselves from Abbey Road, The White Album and all the way back to She Loves You with a glorious and unexpected set of “Whooos” in the delightful “If You Want My Love.” By the fourth song, “Let Love Rule,” you realize how incredible these four were when they were together. Paul, singing at his “Oh Darling!” best gives the performance of his career, and his exquisite bass playing coupled with Ringo’s drumming is a rhythm section that hurls you forward in the universe.
For hard-core fans, each song is a drool-worthy collection of musical homages, in-jokes, references, ear candy and lyrical callbacks that is likely to keep even the most fervent scholars busy till the end of the millennium. For middle of the road fans, there is just a great set of new songs — 14 to be exact; the title is a reference to the number this studio LP would be if you only counted UK releases and discounted greatest hits collections (and counted “The White Album” as one). For fans who first encountered the Beatles as solo artists, they may be disappointed that there is not a lot of George Harrison or Ringo Starr lead vocals (they each have one, “The Way” and “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”). However, in the mix you can hear the exquisite musicianship of each Beatle. George lays down fierce guitars in “The Way,” “Karma Police” and “She’s The One.” Ringo kills it on the opening track “Lucky One” and never relents, proving that he not only belongs but is required to make these tunes work, mastering every and any genre that the Beatles rest in for three minutes, and they cover quite a musical map on “13.”
Yet, when we hear Ringo sing “I’m just a little bit heiress, a little bit Irish” and the silly backup vocals and symphonics that harken back to Yellow Submarine— we know it’s all four of them asking us to “be kind if I’m a mess.”
John’s journalistic, confessional and anthem-building instincts are on wonderful and outrageous display here, and the LP’s first song opens with “Sending out a call to arms” He does “All You Need is Love” proud lyrically with “She’s the One,” but finds a banner to hang in “Let Love Rule.” His confessions of being numb in the opening number, and having “lost myself” in “Karma Police” (the new enemies) are as heartbreaking as they are accusatory. They are never dour, though— even when he sings “I’ve given all I can, it’s not enough,” he adds, “but we’re still on the payroll.”
And with Lennon is such great form, it would have been easy for Paul to simply relax and take second position, but he is second to none on this album— he is showing that he deserves his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame placement for every aspect of his musicianship here—as a writer (“You Can Make Me Free”) a singer and bassist (“Let Love Rule”) and a harmonizer on “It’s Only Natural” and “Blue.” You can feel his presence on every track— and we understand in some un-understandable way the effect of all four of them being on the same room, the same track, the same journey has even if we can’t point to a specific reason we believe that. All in all, these Beatles are the ones we wanted. After a twenty year absence, we truly believed that if we only had more Beatles, things in the world might actually be better.
When the record’s last track, the folksy “Blue” asks “why don’t stay behind?” you really, really want to.