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Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones almost collaborated on album

SINGAPORE — Legendary musicians Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones came close to making an album together sometime during the late 1960s to early 1970s, reported Rolling Stone magazine yesterday (Nov 7).

Bob Dylan performs "Maggie's Farm" at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 13, 2011. Photo: Reuters

Bob Dylan performs "Maggie's Farm" at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 13, 2011. Photo: Reuters

SINGAPORE — Legendary musicians Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones came close to making an album together sometime during the late 1960s to early 1970s, reported Rolling Stone magazine yesterday (Nov 7).

The revelation came from former Rolling Stones and Beatles album producer Glyn Johns, who is releasing a new book on Nov 13.

Johns said that he had briefly bumped into Dylan one day at an airport in New York. “(Dylan) asked me about the Beatles album I had just finished and was very complimentary about my work with the Stones over the years,” Johns said. “In turn, I babbled about how how much we had all been influenced by his work.”

Dylan then made a surprising admission, said Johns. “He said he had this idea to make a record with the Beatles and the Stones... And he asked me if I would find out whether the others would be interested.

“I was completely bowled over. Can you imagine the three greatest influences on popular music in the previous decade making an album together?”

Johns then said he immediately approached members of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on a possible collaboration. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and George Harrison of the Beatles both thought the idea was “fantastic”, said Johns.

“They (Richards and Harrison) would since they were both huge Dylan fans,” according to Johns. “Ringo (Starr), Charlie (Watts) and Bill (Wyman) were amicable to the idea as long as everyone else was interested. John (Lennon) didn’t say a flat no, but he wasn’t that interested. Paul (McCartney) and Mick (Jagger) both said absolutely not.”

The album of course did not come into fruition. Bob Dylan nevertheless would later collaborate with George Harrison, alongside Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison to form the super-group The Travelling Wilburys, which recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990.

 

Source: Rolling Stone

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