David Bowie Joins The Beatles (An Alternate Beatles Timeline)
Intermission: Past Masters I & II (1987)
Glass Spider - Glass Spider (1987)
Tin Machine never really existed. David Bowie had given those interviews to get the press off his back while his real intentions remained hidden. The idea of some sort of Beatles reunion had secretly enthralled him since their dissolution. He even considered Live Aid the best time for them to reunite, yet his idea failed when George Harrison and Ringo Starr failed to show up. But even his former bandmates were somewhat into the idea; all of them had played on each other's solo albums throughout the 80's, so the idea didn't seem as farfetched as some would think. Obviously the reason that it never happened was that John Lennon was dead, and it wouldn't be the Beatles without him. But what if it didn't have to be? He discussed the idea with Paul McCartney when he could, and they came to an agreement that would benefit everyone.
Until being contacted by Bowie, Harrison and Starr didn't even have music on the brain. Starr had recently recorded with Wings, but that was about it for musical activity up to that point. He was addicted to alcohol moreso than his drums, and it was blindly apparent. He may have been at a low point in his life, but Harrison was at a high point. While his last few albums weren't considered fantastic by any measure, he really didn't care. He spent his waking hours doing other things he loved and being with friends. Jeff Lynne, frontman of the recently broken-up ELO, was one that he spent the most time with, and the idea of making music together was bound to happen eventually. This would coalesce in Harrison's recording of Rudy Clark's "Got My Mind Set on You", produced by Lynne and released on January 12, 1987. This single alone would sell better than his last three albums, something that both embarrassed and fascinated Harrison. He finally thought to himself that there was a place for him in the current music scene after all.
With the other three former Beatles being free of musical obligations in early 1987, Bowie took the opportunity to finally ask the others to reform, not as the Beatles but under another name. This would not be just an excuse for the Beatles to come back, according to him, but to make music that the Beatles couldn't have imagined making even just 6 years ago. With that idea in mind, Harrison invited Jeff Lynne with him to fill a niche that had been missing before. Starr would only be let back in if he kicked his alcohol addiction. Going cold turkey would be tough, but Starr agreed, and with that, the lineup was complete.
When it came time to make music together again, something that came very natural to them at this point, it was decided that they would take the risk of using unorthodox playing and recording styles in an attempt to distance their sound from the Beatles. McCartney and Bowie, in particular, would experiment with writing longer and more experimental songs although still with a contemporary sheen. The classic Beatles sound would end up shining through on a select few tracks however, with the final track, Harrison's "Circles" straight up being a Beatles outtake from 1968. Lynne's two tracks were both outtakes from ELO's final album, Balance of Power, both reworked with a more grandiose sound and without as many synthesizers. Starr's only contribution was "Hard Times", a song he had previously contributed for Wings' Blue Nights. He had hoped that with the other Beatles, the song could be cleaned up and be made better, but the song was left off once again due to time constraints. When basic recording for the album had finished, the group didn't even have a name or any sort of identity yet. Bowie would name the group after one of his tracks, citing the inspiration came from the rut they had all fallen into following the Beatles' dissolution.
On April 21, 1987. The first album, self-titled, by Glass Spider released. While basically unknown to the public at the time, this was their first release with no singles preceding it, it was hyped up massively by Apple Records, with their plastered on every phonebook, billboard and even television commercial. For a band that no one had heard of until the release of their first record, Apple wanted this to succeed. The names of the individuals in the group weren't known either, the album lists everyone who contributed as simply "Glass Spider". This secret barely held for long though. As the listener started to play the first song and the first single released the same day, "Good Times Coming / Feel the Sun", it was noticeably Paul McCartney's voice he heard. Weird that he would release something not under his own name like that. But then he heard George Harrison's voice, and then David Bowie's voice, and soon enough, everyone knew what was happening. They were witnessing a Beatles reunion in real time, and, thankfully in Apple's case, everyone had found out around the same time. It's been said that a local radio station had obtained the single a few hours earlier, and the DJ's reaction could be heard as it was playing. The operation to keep the whole thing a secret had been a success.
As for the album itself, it was well received by both the public and critics, who praised the Beatles for not sounding like the Beatles. Songs like "Good Times Coming" and "'87 and Cry" were considered catchy, and the title track was called "ethereal". There were even Chinese-influenced songs written by Harrison and a protest song against the Catholic Church in "The First Stone". This album seemed to have everything a Beatles fan could want and more, and both the album and the single would reach #1 on their respective charts. Retrospectively, praise for the album has declined, citing massive hype for a Beatles reunion and its dated production for why it hasn't stood the test of time the way prior Beatles albums had. Regardless, Glass Spider was a success, and fans wanted more.
Time Will Crawl
![]() |
Back cover |
David Bowie & Iggy Pop - Blah-Blah-Blah (1986)
Bowie's Silhouettes World Tour had ended in 1984, and he was left a wreck. It was his first large (mostly) drug-free outing in what felt like forever, and Bowie didn't have anything to keep him going. Bowie finished his Serious Moonlight album in mid 1984, and then he rested. Similarly to directly after the Beatles disbanded, he turned to films to keep him active. He had a starring role in Absolute Beginners and provided the title song that became a chart hit when it was released as a single. His only other major film outing during this time was Jim Henson's Labyrinth. Henson wanted him to star as Jareth in the film, but Bowie just didn't have it in him for another major film role. He did however work with Sting, formerly of the Police and the new actor for Jareth, in writing songs for the film that would come to be known as some of Sting's best solo work. For Bowie however, that was basically it when it came to big projects for the time being.
Until his dear friend Iggy Pop rang him up to help him on his new album. The two had met in 1971 and spent much time together in Berlin where each of them had a rebirth in their respective careers. Bowie accepted his offer, and he became the album's co-producer alongside David Richards. As the sessions went on, Bowie decided to pitch more and more of his own songs to Pop for use on the record (a few of these being songs that Bowie wrote for Labyrinth that went unused) until Pop had the bright idea to make it an official collaboration album between the two artists. Bowie reluctantly agreed, but it paid off in the end. The two were musically in sync, and their styles were nearly identical. The last thing that was added to the album before its completion was Paul McCartney's backing vocal on "Shades", marking another temporary Beatles reunion.
The album released on June 9, 1986 to mostly negative reviews, with critics saying it was "the most calculatedly commercial album of the two men's careers". The album's title, Blah-Blah-Blah, really fit the tone of the album, and Bowie and Pop knew it. Both of them would retrospectively disown the album, with Bowie calling it his "nadir".
This album would mark Bowie's final solo album of the decade. Following the Beatles' dissolution, he had grown massively not only as an artist but as an entertainer as well. But deep down, he missed playing with his old bandmates, and he was sure that they would share the same sentiment. It would later be shared with the public that Bowie booked several meetings with higher-ups from Apple Corps in late 1986, but for what purpose hasn't been shared publicly. Although sooner than later, it became obvious.
Wings - Blue Nights (1986)
Paul McCartney's tour with Wings came to an end in July of 1984. The tour proceeded even after the release of Wings' debut album Amiens Mons, and it succeeded more because of it. All parties were happy with the end result of the tour, and following its conclusion, Wings once again went on hiatus as they had many times in the past. This left McCartney by himself once again, a circumstance he took advantage of. For having no studio release that year, 1985 was an oddly busy year for him. He was commissioned to write a song for the comedy film Spies Like Us and it became the titular track and he was asked by David Bowie to play on a track for his album that would be due out sometime the following year. A film revolving around Wings' world tour was also in talks, but this never came to be. The real success for him McCartney this year was his appearance at Live Aid, a huge benefit concert done to raise funds for a famine in Ethiopia. While some predicted a full Beatles reunion, minus John Lennon of course, only McCartney and Bowie showed up. But they did a set where they played together, making this the closest thing to a reunion since their dissolution in 1981. Other than some minor technical issues, the set was praised highly, and people's wish for a Beatles reunion of sorts were only boosted.
McCartney reentered the recording studio in October 1985 with renewed interest in making a solo album, without Wings. This would change shortly after when he realized that the sound he was going for required their services. While Linda McCartney, Denny Laine and Laurence Juber would all return, drummer Steve Holley would not, citing a lack of interest. Luckily, it didn't take long to find a replacement. McCartney decided to hire fellow Beatle Ringo Starr to be their new drummer. Since Lennon's death in 1980, Starr was in a terrible mental state and was a functioning alcoholic. McCartney hired him to give him something to do. The album, initially called Press to Play started its sessions by finding Starr something to sing on the album. Luckily for them, he had written 3 songs in the past year that he brought with him, all in the Memphis country style. McCartney didn't find these recordings endearing and, in the end, Starr was left with nothing to sing on the album. Other than that, recording went smooth enough, and the album would be renamed to Blue Nights after the Denny Laine song of the same name. This album would have the most former Beatles collaborations of any McCartney album, with Starr drumming on every song, George Harrison doing occasional guitar work throughout, and David Bowie singing lead vocals on "Press".
Despite the album being finished in December 1985, it wasn't released until August 25, 1986 to lukewarm reviews. "Press", the big single off the album, was praised for sounding like a return to the Beatles days, but everything else would be outright rejected by critics. They said that the best of Blue Nights sounded like the worst of Amiens Mons, and that it felt like McCartney was jumping on the contemporary bandwagon. Wings would once again disband following recording sessions, with McCartney eyeing a project much bigger.
![]() |
Back cover |
George Harrison - Redletter Days (1985)
The scant notability that George Harrison's last two studio albums received from the public was taken by him as a sign from up above that perhaps music shouldn't always be in the forefront of his mind. And so from 1982-1985, he focused more on his racing and film producing hobbies than he did on music. Some even say he never even touched a guitar in that span of time (obviously hyperbole). But all in all, the current music scene was just something he did not find very appealing, and he longed for the times where his music (and the music of others like him) topped charts. Hell, sometimes he even wished the Beatles were still around. They could definitely whip every schmaltzy artist into shape, he thought. His musical hiatus was cut short temporarily in 1985 when he was asked to provide a song for the sex comedy film Porky's Revenge!, produced by James Komack. His contribution was "I Don't Want to Do It", a song Bob Dylan had written for him 15 years prior, but it hadn't been released until now. In an act of desperation for some success to capitalize on his contribution, he decided to release a new studio album with the Dylan song as the lead single. This album would be mostly comprised of outtakes from previous albums, but they all still sounded fresh in his mind, and in his mind, not releasing them would be a waste.
The title Redletter Days referred to a red-letter period, or a time of any opportunistic significance. Harrison thought this title fit the last few years of his life quite well, and the album was released on April 21, 1985 (April 21 being the Queen's birthday, a nationally recognized red-letter day). Outside of "I Don't Want to Do It", which was a Top 50 hit, the album was received poorly, with critics saying there was nothing of note to listen to more than once. They also said that Harrison was now past his prime. But once his break from music had concluded, Harrison was now only warming up his engine with his new partner in crime, Jeff Lynne.
![]() |
Back cover |
John Lennon - Menlove Ave. (1985)
The time following John Lennon's untimely death in 1980 was hard on everyone that knew him and his music. But it came the hardest to his wife Yoko Ono. Since their relationship started in the late 1960's, they had been considered two peas in a pod, and they accompanied each other quite well, not only personally but musically as well. In the 1970's, Lennon and Ono released two albums together when Lennon was not busy with Beatle matters, Fly (1971) and Free the People (1973). Ideas for a third Plastic Ono Band album to be released in the late 1970s were floated around but never came to fruition. Time passed by following his death, and the public had seemed to calm down about Lennon's passing. Ono had waited until the time was right to release an out-takes compilation album that would be seen as the epilogue of John Lennon's musical journey. Ono sought famed Aerosmith and Cheap Trick producer Jack Douglas to help produce and compile the material into a suitable LP. The resulting album, Menlove Ave. (named after his childhood home) was released on January 28, 1985. Side A was comprised of unused songs he written for the Beatles' Look Back in Anger, and Side B was comprised of multiple songs he had recorded throughout the 70's including the one Top 5 hit from the album, Lennon's cover of "Stand by Me". Despite most of these songs being unused Beatles recordings, none of the other Beatles are on any of these tracks.
![]() |
Back cover |
Paul McCartney & Wings - Amiens Mons (1984)
Following the moderate success of Arnie Pupe, Paul McCartney wished to get back on the road and finally commit to a world tour. McCartney hadn't done a tour of that scale since the mid 1970's with the Beatles, but since then he had done multiple smaller venue tours with his backing group Wings. Wings had formed in 1972 and usually comprised of Paul, his wife Linda and friend Denny Laine, along with some other lesser known session musicians that changed over time. It was formed to give McCartney an excuse to play live shows when the other Beatles weren't up to it, and the band consistently broke up and reformed when McCartney felt the need to tour. Before 1983, their biggest concert had been at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea in 1979, in which their lineup was the two McCartneys and Laine, as well as Laurence Juber as an additional guitarist and Steve Holley as their drummer. This lineup returned for their 1983 tour that didn't end until mid 1984. This tour roughly coincided with David Bowie's world tour that also went from 1983-84. Some expected a reunion of some kind, but in the end none ever occurred.
The tour would end up being incredibly well received, and McCartney wanted to take the energy of their live shows into the studio. Sessions for a new McCartney album, and his first with Wings, would start while the tour was still underway. George Martin would return as the album's producer, despite some pushback for McCartney to record the album on his own. He eventually fell in line, and for once, McCartney didn't have to assemble a band to record his album with. Recording went smoothly and, for the most part, the live energy that McCartney wanted was maintained. The album eventually became a double as a concept was established; the first disc would symbolize war and conflict, and the second would represent peace through love. This would be represented in the album's name Amiens Mons, referring to the first and final cities of the Hundred Days Offensive that would end World War I. Holley would be accompanied by Ringo Starr on a few tracks, and George Harrison would add guitar to "Cage" and "Through Our Love", although David Bowie, still on his world tour, wouldn't be able to add anything.
Amiens Mons would release on February 27, 1984 to very positive reviews. Critics would applaud the exceptional songwriting effort, typical from Paul McCartney, as well as the rest of Wings, who provided the backbone for McCartney's musical ideas. Laine and Linda McCartney's songs weren't ignored either, both given credit for their musical and lyrical abilities. The album would go on to be a favorite of Generation X, and it along with Bowie's Serious Moonlight would come the closest to hitting the mainstream. Retrospectively, the album has been considered the best thing McCartney associated himself with in the 80's, minus Look Back in Anger of course. David Bowie as well as for its collaborations with former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Retrospectively, it has been seen as a precursor to the bloated CD albums that would come to define the 1990's.
![]() |
Back cover |
-
The Beatles and David Bowie are two of my favorite artists. They epitomized the popular culture and the zeitgeist of the 1960's, 70...
-
David Bowie, born David Jones, was at a crossroads in his career. After a few failed singles with a few bands, he had left his label, Pye Re...
-
August 6, 1980. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and David Bowie, all together again after four years at the Hit Fa...