I think all three would have hit it off at the start....with Neil taking George's place. I think they would have created some fantastic music together....toured a few times and broke up alot sooner than the Beatles did. This would have mostly been due to all three having extreme talent along with all three wanting to be in control of the group.

Imagine if Paul Hester tok Ringo's place? Wow, what a group that would have been!

Anyway, I thought I'd add some craziness to the mix with these thoughts.

If Neil had grown up in Liverpool in the 60s....it wouldve been pretty funny having a 5 year old on lead guitar.

While he would've been able to do the Cavern lunchtime gigs during his lunch break from primary school, his mum would never have allowed him to participate in the evening gigs, especially those in the rough parts of town and then certainly would have frowned on him hanging around in coffee shops eatting bacon butties and cadging ciggies off people

And Hamburg! Forget it!

It's an interesting idea. Probably everything would go almost completely differently for him. I think he would have gone into chartered accountancy, actually.

That or the Royal Navy!

Oooh, or both, perhaps. He could have become a chartered accountant in the Royal Navy, and then through an implausible series of events, find himself willingly dragooned (for the good of the nation or, if they were calling it that at that point, the empire) into working for MI-6 on a project of utmost importance that ends up averting something awful that would otherwise have happened, like somebody blows up Big Ben??

In fact, who's to say that didn't actually happen? Big Ben is still standing after all. The possibility is a provocative one.

And if that's the case, we may have to face up to the fact that OUR Neil is in fact some kind of alternate-reality time-travel impostor!

EDIT: Jeez folks. renzo, Martine...I apologize.

I always get so caught up in these hypotheticals.

- what would the songwriting partnership have been though, Finn/Lennon, McCartney/Finn etc?

- the Beatles may never have split up and Paul would simply have got a hearty slap when he came to rehearsal with "Hey lads, I've got this great idea of doing a song about Frogs'.

I think Neil's early development through maturity as a songwriter was very much a solitary road. Didn't they say that Tim and Neil never really wrote together when they were in the Enz?

Today he is a strong, confident, self-assured voice as a songwriter, and he collaborates very comfortably with Tim and others. But the confidence that he has, to be able to do that, is a strength that was born of solitude.

I doubt he'd be anything like the songwriter he became if he came of age in a vastly different creative environment.

Albeit, from what I hear, for many of your "Lennon/McCartney" credited numbers, the song itself was either a John song or a Paul song, with maybe a suggestion here or a bit added there to complete it from the other partner. Of course, many other L/M's were more thoroughgoing in their collaborative aspect. But the point is, Lenny & Macco were very much interested in forging a partnership. I don't think Neil really was, until he'd already fully found his mature voice.

If anything, I'd be extremely doubtful that the Beatles could have had room in their dynamic for another dominant creative voice. If Neil were kicking around at that time, perhaps he'd have served as rival or competitor or foil rather than collaborator.

Another wrinkle is influences. If Neil came up back then, then much of the music that formed his backbone and foundation, most of the music that influenced him would be totally missing. A Neil Finn influenced by the best artists of the 60s and early 70s is not going to be the same Neil, if you subtract those strong influences and substitute those artist's influences.

Crowded Beatles?

quote:

Originally posted by Ellefinn:
Crowded Beatles?

lmao Beatle House

Cool and interesting topic...

I still would like to see and hear Neil and Paul record an album. 12 new Finn/McCartney songs...

as a related note....I just saw in Neil's 40th B Day interview that the song he had wished he had written the most was "Across the Universe". Maybe in a past life he assisted John with this song.

Except that John wrote "Across the Universe" during Neil's current life, and I've never run across a mention that Neil helped John write this song when he was 8 years old or anything in any biography....so that shoots that theory all to pieces, doesn't it?

hehe haha second one from Martine....you got me again......sheeeesh!

having just finished reading a biography on the beatles, i finally figured out my reply to this thread...
He and Lennon wouldn't have gotten on very well at all personality wise..
he and Sir Paul might have..
personally I think he'd have seen what a spectacular guitarist Harrison was going to be and nicked him! maybe bringing Paul in as well...
i don't think he and Lennon would've gone as far as writing songs together as I don't think they'd have liked each other enough.. Lennon comes across from various accounts as a bit of a bully.. I don't think Neil would've liked this..

so.. if Neil had grown up in Liverpool in the 60's.. the world might've had McCartney/Finn or Harrison/Finn.. and would certainly have had more Harrison songs from that era.. which would be great..
but on the other hand, Lennon may never have made it without the others.. and that would be bad!..

thanks for that response Vereor. Very interesting. I should re-read the Beatle biography to get more of a feel for the younger version of the Beatles. Your insight gave me a great feel for that.