An Idea For Beatles Tribute Bands: Channel The Brand (Band)
The Fab Four at Cabot Theater, Beverly, MA
My 24 year old son and I went to see a Beatles tribute band called “The Fab Four” last year. It was amazing. They looked like the band, sounded like them, talked like them, it was a compelling illusion, for sure. These four musicians proved to be experts at mimicking the Beatles. And now, with the advent of AI, mashups, and other forces of musical “pliability,” I have a potentially controversial idea for these bands to take their creativity, musicianship, and love for the Beatles beyond just imitation.
the idea: Channel the band with the band member’s solo songs.
I often talk about how important it is for companies to “Channel the brand” into everything they do. To the point where it’s less about what you would do in the marketplace and more about what your brand would do. What if these talented Beatles tribute bands did the same thing, only it’s channeling the band, not a brand?
Imagine this. After the tribute band nails the early 1960s covers, then cpatures the trippy psychedelic “Pepper” phase, and finally recrafts the later “Abbey Road” finales, what if they took one solo song from each of the post-Beatles repertoire and rethought the song’s arrangements “as if” they weren’t solo songs, but the Beatles actually never broke up and recorded them.
You would effectively “Beatle-ize” these solo songs.
I think most would agree that something was lost with all of the solo work following the Beatles. Some of it was great (John’s Imagine, Paul’s Band On The Run, George’s All Things Must Pass, Ringo’s Photograph), but even those lacked the richness and depth of most Beatles songs.
So I say to tribute groups like The Fab Four, channel the band and Beatle-ize each of these four songs as a final set (encore?). How would the songs be different? How would Paul have played the bass differently on Ringo’s Photograph? What kind of drumming might Ringo have done on Band On The Run? Imagine the harmonies John might have brought to All Things Must Pass. And I could see George adding some subtle, tasty acoustic guitar to Imagine. You guys know better, I’m just spitballing here.
The point is, you are uniquely equipped to do this. You’re already playing their songs constantly exactly as recorded. You’re already channeling the band in that sense. All I’m asking you to do is take it one step further. And help Beatles fans see what might have been.
Artificial Intelligence is already doing it.
Now, if you’re squeamish about messing around with legends and legendary music, don’t be. People are using AI now to recreate lost Beatles songs, to change who sings which song, to have “The Beatles” play an otherwise original song. It’s nuts.
Having a tribute band Beatle-ize solo songs can be your answer to that.
To me, having real people who clearly study the Beatles as a group AND as individuals, recreating “what might have been” is far more interesting than listening to fake AI “performances.” And frankly I think you’ve earned the right to do this. You’re a tribute brand so just think of this as a new way to tribute them.
Adds a new potent, unique dimension to your tribute performance.
If you add a solo set, you’ll be able to put your own personal stamp on what is otherwise a show singularly evaluated on how well you impersonate another band. You can apply your own creativity and surprise fans with your musical decisions for each Beatle’s solo songs. Better yet, if more than one tribute band does this, it’ll give fans a whole new way to evaluate your respective performances. It will create massive healthy debates amongst fans. Sorta like Dead Heads arguing over which live version of “Sugar Magnolia” is best. Only in this case, it’s which interpretation of a solo song was most Beatle-ish. I can hear fans say, “You gotta hear The Fab Four Beatle-ize the song Every Night.”
If this idea takes off, you could expand to more of the solo repertoire, create behind the scenes videos in the studio a la “Get Back” where you’re discussing as a group what John would have done with this Paul song, or vice versa. Would be fascinating to see your thought process.
And in the end, it’s the act we’ve known for all these years. I think there’s an opportunity for Beatles tribute bands to use their expertise and talent to “channel the band” and give us a few more.
Will Burns is a Fractional Brand Officer and Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for a video consultation through my Intro Page.