"How might the face of music, television, and politics have changed if the Beatles had stuck around?"
Probably not very different at all.
The Beatles broke up pretty much at the top of their game. This was almost certainly a good thing. Artists (perhaps especially musicians) really only have so much to give. After that, it just becomes sort of sad and embarrassing.
Why would anyone want them to have become what the Rolling Stones have become? Or The Who?
-Kle. #thebeatles
Honest? I cried reading that thinking of how awesome that would have been. SEVEN MORE SEASONS OF THE MUPPET SHOW???
II think in all honesty, had Lennon not been shot I suspect they would have pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to realize they may be good on their own but they were magic together. Maybe never do another album but at least a special reunion concert.
Happenstance, I just watched Hard Day's Night again the other night and forgot just how plain... fun The Beatles were. Seeing them young and funny like that. Man, it breaks your heart knowing how it ends. #thebeatles
On a bit of a tangent, anybody else read the Vertigo miniseries Greatest Hits? It could be described as essentially the Beatles meet Watchmen. Not as good as it could have been, but worth a look. #thebeatles
@TheGreenRanger: I don't mind that, and I like "Living Thing" (used at the end of Boogie Nights), but I found Lynne's production of "Free As A Bird" quite horrible. #thebeatles
I would like to read a book about what it would have been like if the Europeans had made it to North America and the natives already had guns and tech at about the 19th century level. I don't think it would have been so easy. More like what happend in China. #airship
@reddingofish: That's more realistic than the picture. If North America was that technologically advanced, wouldn't it make sense that settlers would've gone to (and maybe conquered) Europe? #airship
@PSac: Well, you'd have to take into account how an advanced Native American culture would operate. I'm not labeling them all as peace-loving peoples (goodness knows many were the opposite) but I don't imagine that trans-oceanic conquest and colonization would have been in the cards. #airship
@Althestane: At the end of the day the Native North American people didn't have the concept of land ownership so how could they go anywhere and "conquer"? #airship
@Sunshineyness: but is that necessarily what they would believe were they so advanced? And though they may not believe in owning land, that doesn't mean anything about not owning people, or using them, or taking their goods. #airship
@The_Sporean_Bob: I guess that's true. I was thinking conquering in the very western sense I think (claiming that land is physically yours). That doesn't exclude taking people, food, supples, etc. But would they have stayed? Governed? It's very difficult to say because the core concepts of their culture were so different than the Europeans even when comparing them at the time of equal technologies. #airship
@Sunshineyness: That's only because they weren't at a stage where economics had risen to the forefront of their philosophical views. The idea of ownership can only be derived from that. They were getting close though, when settlers first arrived. The concept of alliance was being utilized - which requires a tangible distinction of tribes in order to work - and the concept of sovereignty was in its early stages as well. #airship
@1Grand_Marquis: I guess than the better question would have been what if the colonists arrived about 100 years later? Would they tribes have had alliances formed that would have enabled them to avoid being defeated by the Europeans?
(Also, upon some quick searches I'm finding interesting articles on how the issue of Native Americans and land ownership is an historically sticky one...) #airship
@Sunshineyness: That assumes that cultural devolopment follows some positivistic path. It's not like they were a few turns away from researching "Nationalism" in Civilization IV. And as you've seen from your google searches, simply stating that "Native Americans" didn't have notions of land ownership oversimplifies things a great deal.
Now I'm about to be a bad commenter by not looking up what I'm about to say: Regardless of whether or not "Native Americans" (I keep using quotes because European settlers encountered several different tribes) had notions of land ownership, they were organized enough to push a pitiful band of settlers into the sea. #airship
@Sunshineyness: Possibly. It really depends on which tribe went over there, I guess. The Inca, for example, most often used hegemonic methods to slowly absorb other tribes into their own, so they probably would have stayed and indoctrinated the Europeans in their ways, made them speak their languages, and build some roads. Who knows, really? #airship
@PSac: Who the heck would want Europe during that era? Other than a few bright spots of civility amongst the upper classes (Renaissance art, science, literature) most of Europe was a cold, over-crowded, plague-ridden hell hole. The Advanced First Nations may have sent a few scouts to Europe to see what the place is like, they surely would have returned home disappointed and carrying quite a few parasites. I don't see the flu and small pox wiping out hoards of the Advanced First Nations folks since they obviously would have invented anti-virals, antibiotics, and vaccines by then, but still the germ-ridden unwashed Europeans probably wouldn't have been on any interest to them. #airship
11/13/09
Probably not very different at all.
The Beatles broke up pretty much at the top of their game. This was almost certainly a good thing. Artists (perhaps especially musicians) really only have so much to give. After that, it just becomes sort of sad and embarrassing.
Why would anyone want them to have become what the Rolling Stones have become? Or The Who?
-Kle. #thebeatles
11/12/09
II think in all honesty, had Lennon not been shot I suspect they would have pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to realize they may be good on their own but they were magic together. Maybe never do another album but at least a special reunion concert.
Happenstance, I just watched Hard Day's Night again the other night and forgot just how plain... fun The Beatles were. Seeing them young and funny like that. Man, it breaks your heart knowing how it ends. #thebeatles
11/12/09
11/12/09
The simple chronicle/newspaper style makes it so effective.
Thanks for pointing us to this, Lauren! #thebeatles
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Mine *did* have him recording with the Sex Pistols, which in retrospect is just as unlikely. #thebeatles
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(Oh, wait, that's what "Free As A Bird" sounded like)
(Ducks) #thebeatles
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number 9
number 9
number 9 #thebeatles
10/29/09
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(Also, upon some quick searches I'm finding interesting articles on how the issue of Native Americans and land ownership is an historically sticky one...) #airship
10/29/09
Now I'm about to be a bad commenter by not looking up what I'm about to say: Regardless of whether or not "Native Americans" (I keep using quotes because European settlers encountered several different tribes) had notions of land ownership, they were organized enough to push a pitiful band of settlers into the sea. #airship
10/30/09
10/31/09