Once There Was a Way: What If The Beatles Stayed Together? (Breakpoint, 2, Band 2) - Softcover

Zabel, Bryce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682303217 ISBN 13: 9781682303214

Verlag: Diversion Books, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

The next novel from author Bryce Zabel, whose debut, Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas? won the coveted Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

“We know The Beatles let it be, but what if they worked it out instead? This book gives life to every fan’s fantasy. It's a great new adventure full of twists and turns that never were, but might have been." ―Chris Carter, host, Breakfast with the Beatles & Chris Carter’s British Invasion (Sirius/XM Radio)

We all know the tragic story by now. After seven years as the most popular rock-and-roll group the world has ever seen, The Beatles―torn apart by personal and creative differences―called it quits in 1970, never to play together again. The fact that their contemporaries like the Rolling Stones are still playing today makes their ending even more painful.

Once There Was a Way: What if The Beatles Stayed Together? is a story of another reality, the one we wished had happened, where the Fab Four chose to work it out rather than let it be. This book is no mere fairy tale, but a chronicle crafted from the people and events of our own history, shaped to create a brand new narrative in which John, Paul, George, and Ringo find a way to stay friends and keep the band together. Imagine there was more. Lots more. It’s easy if you try.

"Hold on to your hats, folks. You're in for quite a ride." ―Harry Turtledove, alternative history author, How Few Remain, on Surrounded by Enemies

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Award-winning CNN correspondent-turned-screenwriter Bryce Zabel has created or developed five primetime network television series, including fan favorites Dark Skies, M.A.N.T.I.S., and The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. Bryce has worked on a dozen TV writing staffs, been a feature writer in both live-action and animation, and has collaborated with both Steven Spielberg and Stan Lee. Bryce won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) award for the miniseries, Pandemic, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for the original version of Surrounded by Enemies. He has received screenwriting credit on Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Blackbeard, NBC’s primetime The Poseidon Adventure, Lois and Clark, and L.A. Law. Bryce was the first writer since Rod Serling elected to serve as Chairman/CEO of the Television Academy, the organization that awards the Emmys. He has also been an adjunct professor at both the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Marshall School of Business.

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Once There Was a Way

What if The Beatles Stayed Together?

By Bryce Zabel

Diversion Publishing Corp.

Copyright © 2017 Bryce Zabel
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-68230-321-4

CHAPTER 1

A DOLL'S HOUSE (1968)

They Blew His Mind Out in a Bar

In May 1968, Paul McCartney and John Lennon traveled together to New York City to tell the world that Apple Corps Ltd. was the new company behind the Beatles. The New York Post headline proclaimed "Beatles Pitch Apple in the Big Apple."

McCartney and Lennon labored through multiple press briefings and interviews to explain why they had done it. McCartney took the position that it was a natural extension of the brand, a way to control their own destinies. "The Beatles are more than records," he explained. "We're a bit of everything these days, aren't we? We have to watch out for ourselves."

The reality was that Apple had been conceived as a tax dodge shortly after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in the late summer of 1967. Truly on their own then, the Beatles had received sobering news that over £4MM would need to be paid in taxes by the Beatles unless the money was used for business purposes. It was simple survival math since corporate tax rates were far lower than those for individuals. Under the new arrangement worked out by lawyers and accountants, each Beatle would own 5 percent of a company known as "Beatles and Co." and Apple — owned collectively by all four Beatles — would own the other 80 percent.

This line of reasoning played out as far too mercenary and boring for John Lennon, who chose to cast the entire decision as primarily a creative one. "It's so people who want to make a record or a film, you know, don't have to go on their knees in an office, begging for a break. They can just come to us and sit in one of our chairs if they want."

There was pushback everywhere to this idea that, inspired by capitalism, Apple could be embraced by its owners as a counter-culture answer to capitalism, opening its doors and its cash reserves to strangers while almost simultaneously trying to extend its brand to everything from clothing to technology. It was clearly a risky affair, given that the primary talent of the Beatles, up to that point, was making music.

At a St. Regis Hotel press conference, American journalists seemed as skeptical as their English brethren that these drug-taking leftist musicians could manage a real-world business. Worse than the skepticism, however, was the palpable lack of interest. Most reporters seemed uninterested in the new venture but fixated on the idea that the behavior and the music of the Beatles were alienating them from their fans.

Only a few days into the New York visit, after some back-and-forth with the press, both Lennon and McCartney found their moods darkening. Playing businessmen was supposed to be fun. Otherwise, what was the point?

On Tuesday, May 14, the two Beatles were scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where eleven million viewers could hear their pitch. When Apple publicist Derek Taylor broke the news to them on Monday that Johnny was unavailable the next night and that they would be appearing with substitute host and former baseball player Joe Garagiola, John had had enough.

"Fuck that," he said. "Let's just go home."

With twenty-four hours' notice, the celebrated team of Lennon and McCartney sent their regrets to the bookers of The Tonight Show. A miserable staffer, Craig Tennis, was sent to the hotel where John and Paul were staying to plead for them to reconsider. According to Tennis, Mister Carson was performing in Gaithersburg, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C. It was something that was booked long before they ever knew that John and Paul were coming to America. Tennis explained that his boss "feels strongly that you need to be at the studio as was negotiated."

John Lennon gave Tennis the middle finger. "Negotiate this."

Paul, ever the perfect host, sent the staffer away with this message: "You just tell them back at the show that we always wanted to meet Johnny, you know. King of Late Night, they say he is, don't they? So maybe next time we can do it. No hard feelings."

Johnny Carson, not a fan of guests dictating terms to him or his show, still knew history when it called, and while he had made his peace with Garagiola getting this big one, he would be damned if he was going to lose two Beatles as guests at the height of their popularity. Carson knew this was a "get" that would be good for both him and his show and might introduce him to a younger audience. He sent back the flustered Tennis with only one condition: Carson would come back if Lennon and McCartney agreed to do the entire show and promised to sing at least one song.

Fortunately for the NBC-TV network, Carson's stipulation gave the two Beatles a chance to get away from the irritating interviews with stodgy reporters and change the subject a bit. They had shown their dominance again the past November with a number one single featuring McCartney's "Hello, Goodbye" on the A-side and Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" on the B-side. John had never been happy with that, thinking that his song was the superior choice. Paul, having won that battle when producer George Martin sided with him, saw a chance to throw a peace offering to his partner.

"Let's do it, John. You sing 'Walrus' and we'll blow his mind."

As a result, on that Tuesday, Johnny Carson canceled a gig at the last minute, returning to New York City. And John Lennon and Paul McCartney got in a limo, smoked a joint, and cruised over to Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, where The Tonight Show was broadcast from NBC Studio 6B.

Although the show felt live, it was actually taped hours earlier than it aired, at 7 p.m. Mayor John V. Lindsay, a Republican, and half his staff were there. Simon and Garfunkel tried to attend, but imposters had taken their tickets and they were turned away at the door at the last minute. The two Beatles had to be smuggled in through an underground tunnel to avoid a possible public incident.

The show began with Carson asking a block of getting-to-know-you questions focused on why rock stars adored by millions of available women would want to start balancing spreadsheets. Lennon and McCartney described the state of Apple to Carson before the commercial break. Soon Carson and the two Beatles were reminiscing about their 1964 arrival at Kennedy airport and the appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Lennon was as clever as his reputation made him out to be and McCartney was cheeky enough that every comment seemed to come with a wink. Carson seemed engaged and informed. McMahon chortled at everyone's jokes.

It was good television, and the show was only half over.

What Johnny Carson didn't know was how the two men sitting side by side on his couch were at a crossroads in their friendship. They were soldiering on with this trip to America, but back home they had been drifting apart for over a year or more. Carson saw them as close friends and pressed them for the secret of their friendship. He pointed out that he and Ed McMahon socialized together outside the show all the time. They'd had coffee just last week.

"Oh, we're great friends like that, we are," assured Paul.

Lennon did not miss a beat. "Although coffee's not exactly our drug of choice."

The audience held its breath to see how this confession from the long-haired Lennon would play with the straight-arrow Carson. The host timed it perfectly. "Of course not," he deadpanned....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Diversion Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1682303217
• ISBN 13: 9781682303214
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 308
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande