Alternate Universe Albums

Raymond

Four years ago, in 1969, a 27-year old George Harrison heard 'Tommy' by The Who for the first time. The album, centered around a boy by the same name and his life as a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, caught Harrison's attention enough to start him down a path that would culminate in The Beatles' most ambitious project ever. This passion and interest in the art of storytelling through the album medium was further fueled by The Who's followup to 'Tommy', 'Lifehouse'.

Now, in 1971, nearly two months after 'Lifehouse', and two weeks after 'Junk In The Yard', Harrison presented the idea of a concept album to his fellow bandmates. McCartney and Starr were both intrigued by the idea. After some discussion amongst themselves about what was feasible, it was decided; The Beatles were to compose, produce, and release a concept album.

Of course, for a concept album, a story is needed. Tensions arose as McCartney wanted a prince-and-pauper style story about a fisherman and a farmer, and Harrison wanted a spiritual journey record. Eventually, after multiple redraws and rewrites, McCartney and Harrison joined together aspects of their individual visions, and emerged with the story of 'Raymond'.

The sheer size of the project, however, would require assistance. It was for this reason that The Beatles hired two new members. Joining them would be newcomer Linda McCartney, whom Paul married a few years prior, and Denny Laine, who was good friends with Paul.

Material proved to be fruitful, with McCartney working full steam, and Harrison with his backlog of multiple unfinished songs. Linda and Harrison reintroduced the sound of the Moog synthesizer to The Beatles, and McCartney tried his hand at composing and conducting orchestral pieces. Needless to say, The Beatles were back in full creative swing.

In terms of The Beatles' impressive album-a-year record, 'Raymond' was the closest they got to breaking it. The writing of the new material started February 11th and ended on May 23rd. The recording took from June 20th to September 17th. The mixing and final editing took from September 31st until November 29th. 'Raymond' was released on the 30th of December, 1972. The Beatles had miraculously managed to save their album-a-year streak by a day.

Critical and public reaction to 'Raymond' was noticeably better than that to 'Junk In The Yard'. Critics who bashed their previous record declared that 'The Beatles are back', with one even stating that 'for the first time in a while, they've made something I can't fall asleep to'.

Upon hearing samples of his compositions in 'The Tuning Sequence' and 'Ebb & Blood Flow', John Lennon threatened to sue for infringement. The issue was eventually settled out of court, and Lennon was credited on all new releases. When later asked about his thoughts on 'Raymond', Lennon replied that ''It's surprisingly not all shit.''