Alternate Universe Albums

Earth & Mars

With the fan-splitting 'Symphony No. 16', released during the front half of 1975, and The Beatles having gotten over the cancelation of 'Scandal', work was started on more material surprisingly quickly.

However, despite the eagerness to begin recording, the sessions were marred by personal issues. Lennon, going through a terrible case of writer's block, pulled out his stops from years prior, while Harrison, who was suffering from constant drug abuse, could barely pull himself together to record on the album, let alone write material.

There was hope, however, in McCartney. At a high point in his life, McCartney's output was producing music at an incredible speed. He soon, however, found more songs than he knew what to do with. This issue led to the majority material being of McCartney's descent, as well as the creation of 'The Million-Mile Medley', a collection of 13 songs, with 8 being McCartney's. Initially, the band wished for McCartney to create an entire medley of just his songs to pad out the runtime due to the unfruitful sessions for the majority of the band. However, McCartney successfully convinced Lennon, Harrison, and Starkey to contribute songs as well so McCartney wouldn't feel isolated from the rest of the band.

To finish off the medley (or begin it), the band recorded a brief cover of Yes' 'The Revealing Science Of God (Dance Of The Dawn)', released a year prior on 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. Lennon explained in a later interview that "they had created a wonderful cut of 'Every Little Thing' in the late sixties or something, so we thought that the least we could do is return the favour. It also led off the medley quite nicely, so that was a good bonus!"

'Earth & Mars' was released during the latter half of 1975 to near-universal acclaim, with reviewers singling out 'Rock Show', 'Love', and 'The Million-Mile Medley' as the standout tracks.