ABetterTelePlayer
Tele-Holic
Had the Beatles had a fifth Beatle, a bit of a frontman,
They could have done rather well....
They could have done rather well....
Had the Beatles had a fifth member...
- Thread starter ABetterTelePlayer
- Start date
They did! George Martin!
Billy Preston FTW!
Bourbon Burst
Tele-Holic
Stu Sutcliff was the original 5th band member (bass) with three guitar players.
murray the K
John, Paul, George, and Ringo (and John’s rude ‘tude? 
)
)
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tubedude
Tele-Afflicted
Pete Best
memorex
Poster Extraordinaire
The Beatles, with the help of George Martin, were all good enough keyboard players to get the job done on their early albums. Billy Preston was great on the Get Back stuff. If he could have covered the synth and mellotron, etc. stuff, they could have played any of their music live. Another guy I think could have filled that position was George Duke, although he never played with them.
Flip G
Tele-Holic
Mal Evans! Anvil Wrangler!
Flip G
Tele-Holic
I remember playing the original Trivial Pursuit, and the answer to the question, Who was the fifth Beatle? was Murray the K.
Boreas
Doctor of Teleocity
Are we forgetting Yoko?
ZackyDog
Friend of Leo's
In this book, Peter Brown said that Neil Aspinall (holding a Gretsch Country Gent) was the 5th Beatle.
saltyseadog
Tele-Holic
I think that if they had not broken up after the Saville Row rooftop concert then it was very possible Billy Preston would have joined as his connection with them went right back to the early Hamburg days and anyone watching last years multi hour documentary saw what an effect he had on them.
runstendt
Tele-Holic
A fifth Beatle is an interesting concept. What I wonder is would it have been a frontman or virtuoso musician, or would. Have been a fifth “equal”, such as a keyboard player or brass/woodwind player. I’m leaning towards the second idea, but it would have been an interesting, and completely different, band.
ZackyDog
Friend of Leo's
Boreas
Doctor of Teleocity
Yeah - I think a front-man would have sunk them before they started to float. It would have killed the group dynamics, as they often would be required to lay back and let the dude out front do the work. It worked with the Stones, but they were not the Stones. They were "four lads from Liverpool" - not "four lads and a peacock".
puddin
Tele-Afflicted
ZackyDog
Friend of Leo's
When I first heard this song back in the day, I thought Jeff sounded a lot like John Lennon. John was a bit of an ELO fan; he liked Showdown.
memorex
Poster Extraordinaire
We've tried, but like a bad foot fungus, she won't go away.
Like others have said a front man would have killed the band. I also believe a great guitarist would lead directly to George leaving and later John since he was worried his playing didn't measure up. They met Billy Preston when he was playing for musicians that were their heros and in the documentary you can see how much those songs came alive once he put his keyboard parts to them. I don't think anyone else could have done that.
