David Bowie Joins The Beatles (An Alternate Beatles Timeline)

THE BEATLES - BEATLES LIVE Released:  29 June 1974 Genre:  Rock Producer:  The Beatles, George Martin, Tony Visconti Side A Band on the Run 1984 Jet Instant Karma! Hi, Hi, Hi Side B Cold Turkey It Don't Come Easy Rebel Rebel I've Just Seen a Face Suffragette City Side C Changes Come Together A Cracked Actor Photograph Live and Let Die Side D Rock 'n' Roll with Me Lady Madonna Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds I Saw Her Standing There Side E Rock Show New York City Imagine Rock 'n' Roll Suicide Side F Goodnight Vienna Maybe I'm Amazed Give Peace a Chance Soily Big Brother Chant A mix for this album will be coming in the distant future.

THE BEATLES - 1962-1966 Released:  2 April 1973 Genre:  Rock, pop Producer:  George Martin Side A Love Me Do Please Please Me From Me to You She Loves You I Want to Hold Your Hand All My Loving Can't Buy Me Love Side B A Hard Day's Night And I Love Her Eight Days a Week I Feel Fine Ticket to Ride Yesterday Side C Help! You've Got to Hide Your Love Away We Can Work It Out Day Tripper Drive My Car Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Side D Nowhere Man Michelle In My Life Girl Paperback Writer Eleanor Rigby Yellow Submarine THE BEATLES - 1967-1970 Released:  2 April 1973 Genre:  Rock, pop Producer:  George Martin, Glyn Johns Side A Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane With a Little Help from My Friends Love You 'till Tuesday Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds A Day in the Life All You Need Is Love Side B I Am the Walrus Hello, Goodbye Magical Mystery Tour Lady Madonna Karma Man Hey Jude Revolution Side C Dear Prudence Blackbird While My Guitar Gently Weeps Helter Skelter Get B

David Bowie had left the Beatles so he could find himself and, hopefully, quit his crippling drug habit that had been a part of him for the best part of 3 years. But this all didn't happen immediately. He was quite lazy, and took up temporary residence in Los Angeles, alongside the other former Beatle John Lennon. Kicked from his own band, Lennon was also starting to recover from his own drug and alcohol problems, although he was quite lazy as well. In the middle of it all was Harry Nilsson, a close friend of both Lennon and Bowie, a chart-topper in his own right. He never had a crippling drug addiction and his heavy drinking had subsided due to a ruptured vocal cord in 1974. During these times, the three hanged out often, usually ending the night at one of their favorite bars or restaurants. One night, Nilsson mentioned that the three of them should record an album together, although it was not a serious offer. The next morning, Bowie called the other two saying he had booked stud

Following the back-to-back successes of Gouster and Oldies but Mouldies , the Beatles' next record would be made under tense conditions. Infighting had flared up again, similar to the Get Back sessions of 1969, no doubt due to the personal lives of most of the band's members being in shambles. John Lennon and George Harrison were fighting double heroin addictions, David Bowie basically depended on cocaine, and Ringo Starr was a functioning alcoholic. Only Paul McCartney stayed clean throughout the turbulent 70's, thanks to the help of his loyal wife, Linda. The band had initially decided to take a break from recording to pursue other ventures. Starr and Bowie pursued their film careers, starring in "Lisztomania" and "The Man Who Fell from Earth" respectively. McCartney spent time with his family, and Harrison spent more time out with his new friends from Monty Python. But it was Lennon's antics that made headlines. Still apart from his estranged wi

In 1969, John Lennon wrote the song "Come Together", and it was recorded with the Beatles for their landmark album, Space Oddity . It bore a resemblance to an old Chuck Berry number called "You Can't Catch Me", and this didn't go unnoticed. In 1973, the song's original publisher, Morris Levy, sued Lennon for infringement, and the case was brought to a New York court. While the ordeal was settled out of court, Levy announced that Lennon had to record three songs by Big Seven publishers for his next album, whether it be a band or a solo record. Work began in late 1973, but was paused when the Beatles started the framework for the now-unfinished Nineteen Eighty-Four film.  By the time work for Lennon's covers began, he had fallen into a rough spot. His wife, Yoko Ono, had caught Lennon making out with another girl while at a party celebrating President Richard Nixon's resignation which had led to a temporary hiatus in their relationship. He began d

The Beatles' world tour had come to an end, and Future Legends had released to positive reviews. Yet, the band was not happy with their overall sound. They had done the same style for years, with their current phase starting somewhere in 1971. And, as always, they quickly got bored of doing the same stuff for too long. John Lennon and David Bowie had come to love funk and Philadelphia soul, no doubt due to their close affiliation with the United States. They both knew that this was the next evolution in their sound. And it wasn't a complete jump either, with "Goodnight Vienna" and "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" from Future Legends and "1984", a non-album single, inhibiting elements of the two genres. Work began on a new Beatles album that would bring a breath of fresh air for the band, with the tight sound of the tracks contrasting with the laid-back energy of the recordings and the sessions that birthed them. It was also around this time that G

The Beatles were on top of the world. Their last two studio albums, both titled Ziggy Stardust , were massive successes, and the world tour that followed was immensely well received. But now, starting in 1974, the Beatles were at a crossroads. David Bowie was willing to retire the Ziggy Stardust character in favor of something new, and their glam rock inspired sound was starting to get tired and old to the Beatles, as was usual of them. A new opportunity would come when George Orwell's estate allowed the Beatles to do a film adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four , one of Bowie's favorite novels. Before filming started, the Beatles would take the opportunity to write new songs for the film and its inevitable soundtrack album. However, before filming could begin, legal issues made it impossible for the film to be created, and it was scrapped. It was a massive blow to the band, but they now had a large amount of songs that could be put towards an album with its own identity. The albu

Following the success of The Concert of Bangla Desh and it's accompanying studio album, George Harrison decided to rest and take a semi-hiatus from recording, something normally off for him. People were used to new music from him all the time because of the Beatles, but now that he was out, he could record whenever he wanted. During this time off, he would produce and record here and there for other artists such as Badfinger, Lon & Derrek Van Eaton and Harry Nilsson. This streak would end after he went on a tour of North American with close friend Ravi Shankar from February to March of 1974. Fresh off his streak as a Beatle, the tour would be received fairly positively, but would pale in comparison to the Beatles' Spiders from Mars tour, which would happen at the same time. Afterwards, Harrison would hit the studio to make his second studio album, using songs he had written over his hiatus. The resulting album was It Is He! , and it released on June 3, 1974. The album was f

David Bowie's second solo album, Panic in Detroit released on October 19, 1973. It was the summation of a few ideas Bowie had floating around, both for the Beatles and for himself. He had a few songs from the Ziggy Stardust duology that had gone unused, a testament to his songwriting ability. Three of the songs, including the title track, were included on Side A, with "Time" and "Lady Grinning Soul" being written for the solo album. These five tracks, put together, made a mini rock opera that sets one final curtain for the Ziggy Stardust character. The B-side, on the contrary, was all covers, a remnant of another idea that Bowie had of making a British rock covers album that would encapsulate the songs of his youth. In the end, the only song not from a British band was "White Light/White Heat", a favorite for Bowie to perform live, by American group The Velvet Underground. Other covers were from The Who, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds

Paul McCartney's debut solo outing, aptly named McCartney , was released on January 28, 1974. With the exception of "Big Barn Bed" (an outtake dating back to the Hunky Dory sessions), the album took a laid-back easy-listening approach that ended up being popular to long-time fans. The album also notably featured Paul's wife, Linda, on various instruments and backing vocals, a first for her on a studio recording. She would continue to record with Paul, and eventually the Beatles, throughout their long careers. Reception towards the album was generally positive, although less so than either John Lennon or David Bowie's solo outings, released around the same time. It's most notable feature was the four-song medley at the album's end, hearkening back to McCartney's medley-making skills on Space Oddity five years prior. It was criticized for it's relative boringness and inferiority to the Space Oddity medley. PAUL MCCARTNEY - MCCARTNEY Released:  28

Following the massive successes of the Ziggy Stardust duology, the Beatles finally decided to give into demand and go on a world tour, their first since 1966. The tour went from July of 1973 to March of 1974, starting in Europe before going to North America, then Japan and then back to North America. They mostly played their hits from the 70's, although a select few 60's songs were added as the tour on to keep things interesting. As expected, every concert played was sold out, and the reception was incredibly positive. After all these years, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were just as in sync as ever, and David Bowie's stage presence was almost trance-inducing. During the tour's off-time, Lennon, McCartney and Bowie all took up solo projects to keep themselves busy. Fly had been a commercial failure, but Lennon didn't want to stop working with Yoko Ono. The two worked on a new, more commercial-friendly studio album along with the Plastic Ono Band. As

Ziggy Stardust and His Band on the Run was the sequel to Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars , and released exactly three months after the latter on July 20, 1973. Recording for the album went about two months after the conclusion of the Spiders from Mars sessions to make way for new song ideas from John Lennon and Paul McCartney that would fit with the concept of the album. David Bowie had written his songs in a very short span of time, fitting with the idea that Bowie's songwriting and and stage presentation was growing at a rapid rate to the point of Lennon and McCartney having a hard time keeping up. Unlike Spiders from Mars , whose two paragraph story was featured prominently on its inner gatefold, there was no such story anywhere on Band on the Run . In fact, it was almost as if the Beatles had given up on the concept somewhere through the recording of the album, a fact McCartney would later confirm simply because they were getting bored of the whole thing. Even to the

David Bowie had always yearned for fame and success. In his search for success, he had tried out a variety of alter egos and guises as influence for his studio recordings and live performances. These attempts got him varying amount of success, and by the time he had joined the Beatles, he basically dropped the idea entirely. That was until late 1971. Bowie played local clubs and venues with his side band Hype when the Beatles weren't recording or playing the odd performance (John Lennon hadn't gotten fully around to playing live just yet), and it was during this period of time that he began to develop a character, one that would serve as the main character of a story that would play out on an album. The androgynous space alien was inspired mainly by Vince Taylor, but Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Gary Glitter would all serve as other influences. After farming out songs within a matter of months by the summer of 1972, Bowie knew he had a goldmine on his hands and knew he h

The sessions for the Beatles' next album would be instantaneous, unlike others in the past. No one had any prior plans, Hunky Dory and John Lennon and David Bowie's solo albums had been successful, and they each had enough leftover songs from past sessions to use on another album. So, as usual, the Beatles decided to soldier on and create another masterpiece. Due to most of the songs already being written beforehand, recording would go much faster than Hunky Dory did, and the album was finished in the span of about two months. Compared to Hunky Dory , the sound of the album was more all over the place, with a mix of glam and blues rock and even some vaudeville. But overall, they were louder than they had been before, something they knew fans would be interested in. The resulting album, The Red Rose Speedway , was released on May 12, 1972. It was clear from release that fans didn't immediately take to it as much as they had with their previous three albums. It scored gener

Committed to continuing his music career following his departure from the Beatles, George Harrison started working on his debut solo album almost immediately after. He decided to bring in Phil Specter as co-producer, and the album contained a rotating cast of well-known characters, such as former band members John Lennon and Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and the rest of Derek and the Dominos, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Pete Drake and Badfinger. Despite his newfound freedom, most of the songs recorded were not new, with most being written during his time in the Beatles with a few even being rejected outright by Lennon and Paul McCartney. But since he was on his own, no one could tell him what or what not to do. Leading up to the release of the album, Harrison would put together the Concert for Bangla Desh, a relief concert (the first of its kind) that would donate all money to the ailing people of Bangladesh following the Bangladesh Liberation War that was still ongoing. Performers woul

In addition to John Lennon and Yoko Ono's output, David Bowie also had a large amount of songs that had gone unused from the Beatles last two albums. Bowie booked recording sessions following the release of Hunky Dory to record songs that had originally been recorded by the Beatles, along with a few new songs. The resulting album was Bowie's first solo album, Don't Sit Down , released March 3, 1972. The style of Side A matched The Man Who Sold the World , and Side B matched Hunky Dory . The result is a mesh of both sounds that only sounded natural for Bowie. The final song, "I'm Only Dancing" was written after fellow band member John Lennon disapproved of his choice of clothing for his live performances. DAVID BOWIE - DON'T SIT DOWN Released:  3 March 1972 Genre:  Glam rock, folk rock, hard rock, art rock, pop rock Producer:  David Bowie, Ken Scott Side A She Shook Me Cold Conversation Piece Saviour Machine Holy Holy Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed D

Following the release of The Man Who Sold the World and George Harrison's departure, John Lennon decided to take some time off from recording to spend time with his wife, Yoko Ono. During this time, he would hone his primal therapy that he and Ono had learned through Arthur Janov's classes in Los Angeles for most of the previous year. They never finished their classes due to their expiring visas, but they were taught to scream their way to enlightenment and to release emotional pain from their respective childhoods. They had also visited New York City during this time, and they would move to the city in August. But, despite his time off, he knew he needed an outlet for the therapy he was going through. Feeling that his newest material was far too personal for use in the Beatles, Lennon and Ono decided to record an album with just them and the Plastic Ono Band, made up of Klaus Voormann, Alan White and Billy Preston. Beatle Ringo Starr and former Beatle George Harrison also mad