I hope to find time to do more of these albums, perhaps even getting into the 1980s and beyond, but since it's one of many projects I want to work on, it's hard to tell how soon I'll manage to get to it.
Rock Show
Venus And Mars/Rock Show (McCartney/McCartney) (1975/05/30)
#9 Dream (Lennon) 4:48 (1974/09/26)
This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying) (Harrison) (1975/09/22)
Call Me Back Again (McCartney) (1975/05/30)
All By Myself (Poncia/Starkey) (1974/11/15)
You (Harrison) (1975/09/12[single]; 1975/09/22)
Soily (McCartney/McCartney) (Recorded 1974/08)
Going Down On Love (Lennon) (1974/09/26)
The Answer's at the End (Harrison) (1975/09/22)
Listen To What The Man Said (McCartney/McCartney) (1975/05/16[single])
Total Time - 44:55
Venus And Mars/Rock Show
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1975/01; Released 1975/05/30
From Venus And Mars
#9 Dream
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/07-08; Released 1974/09/26
From Walls And Bridges
This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1975/04-06; Released 1975/09/22
From Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Call Me Back Again
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1975/02; Released 1975/05/30
From Venus And Mars
All By Myself
Written by Vini Poncia and Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr); Performed by Ringo Starr
Recorded 1974/08; Released 1974/11/15
From Goodnight Vienna
You
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1971/02 and 1975/04-06; Released 1975/09/22 [single 1974/09/12]
From Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Soily
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1974/08; Released 2014 (live version released 1976/12)
From One Hand Clapping/Venus And Mars Archive Collection
Going Down On Love
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/07-08; Released 1974/09/26
From Walls And Bridges
The Answer's at the End
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1975/04-06; Released 1975/09/22
From Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Listen To What The Man Said
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1975/01-02; Released 1975/05/16 [single]
From Venus And Mars
In the alternate universe where the Beatles stayed together, they might have followed their early 1975 release Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life with this album, which I've given the title Rock Show, either at the end of the same year or in early 1976. The title comes from the song that made up the bulk of the two part medley which opened the 1975 Wings album Venus and Mars. Paul McCartney dominates this album almost by default, as Venus and Mars, which most of his contributions come from, was the second strongest Wings album after 1973's Band on the Run, whereas the other three were entering a period where they were less prolific or were releasing weaker material.
As mentioned above, "Venus And Mars/Rock Show" is a two song medley consisting of the brief acoustic track "Venus And Mars" and the longer rock track "Rock Show". Just as it opened the Wings album Venus and Mars, it makes a great opening for this album. Two other songs from Venus and Mars appear here, the soulful "Call Me Back Again" and the excellent pop song "Listen To What The Man Said", which was a number one hit in the US and reached number six in the UK. The latter is this album's closing track, allowing it to go out with a bang. Aside from the above three tracks (or four, if the opening medley is treated as two songs), there is one other McCartney song on this album, the rocker "Soily". This song was written by McCartney (as with all the other McCartney songs here and many others from this era, Paul shares credit with his wife Linda, though he was certainly the primary writer) as early as 1971, and Wings began performing it live in 1972, but it never appeared as a studio recording on any Wings album or single while the band was active. A version from the 1976 live album Wings Over America was released as a single in 1977, but the version here was recorded live in the studio in 1974 for the Wings film One Hand Clapping, which went unreleased until the 21st century. This recording was first officially released as one of the bonus tracks on the 2014 reissue of Venus and Mars.
There are only two songs from John Lennon on this album, because 1974's Walls And Bridges, from which they both were taken, was his last album of original material released in the 1970s. It was a solid effort with quite a few good songs, if not equal to his first two solo albums, and I'll certainly include at least one more song from it on the next album in this series. But in order to ensure that Lennon has some presence on all of these albums (at least until I get into the period well after his death), it's necessary to spread the songs out somewhat. "#9 Dream" was the second single from Walls And Bridges (after "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", which appeared on the previous album in this series) and is one of his better songs from this period. Interestingly, the female voice calling his name on the song does not belong to his wife Yoko Ono (who he was separated from when he recorded Walls and Bridges, but to his girlfriend at the time, May Pang. "Going Down On Love" is a more of a rocker; it was the opening track on Walls and Bridges and makes a very good album track.
Three songs from George Harrison appear here, all taken from his 1975 album Extra Texture (Read All About It). This album is generally considered an improvement on his 1974 album Dark Horse, though not equal to 1973's Living in the Material World, much less his universally lauded All Things Must Pass from 1970. "This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)", which is something of a sequel to his classic White Album song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", is a very solid album track, as is "The Answer's at the End". The upbeat, Motown-inspired "You" was the lead single from the album and was a top 20 hit in the US. Harrison wrote it back in 1971, originally for Ronnie Spector. But her version was never completed or released, so Harrison added his own lead vocal to the already recorded basic track, resulting in one of his best songs from this period.
Finally, there's one song from Ringo, taken from his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna, the title track of which appeared on the previous album in this series. The song included here "All By Myself", was written by Ringo himself in collaboration with Vini Poncia, who also co-wrote two songs with him on 1973's Ringo, universally regarded as Ringo's best solo album. Goodnight Vienna, while decent, falls short of the standards that album set, and it also has far fewer songs written (or co-written) by Ringo and his fellow Beatles, all of whom contributed songs to Ringo. Only Lennon contributed to Goodnight Vienna, writing the aforementioned title track, while the Poncia-Starr team wrote "All By Myself" and one other song, "Oo-Wee". While there are several other good songs on Goodnight Vienna, such as "Snookeroo" (written by Elton John) and the novelty tune "No No Song", for this series of imaginary Beatles albums I have preferred to stick to songs that were at least co-written by one of the group.
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