Dylan wanted to make a record with The Beatles and Rolling Stones

How writing sessions may have gone down, if Bob Dylan had been able to convince The Beatles and Rolling Stones to write a record with him

Producer Glyn Johns has declared that Bob Dylan sought to make a record together with The Beatles and Rolling Stones

he producer and musician, Glyn Johns has stated that Bob Dylan asked him to bring together The Beatles and Rolling Stones, in order that they could cut a record together. When speaking to Rolling Stone Johns said, “[Dylan] asked me about The Beatles album I had just finished and was very complimentary about my work with The Stones over the years. In turn, I babbled about how much we had all been influenced by his work. 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?”

Despite the enthusiasm of Dylan and Johns, the interest of the Stones and Beatles members varied from enormous to non-existent, with Johns advising, “Keith [Richards] and George [Harrison] thought it was fantastic. But they would since they were both huge Dylan fans. 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.”

Johns went on to say that he had established a formula for making the songwriting collective work, saying, “I had it all figured out. We would pool the best material from Mick and Keith, Paul and John, Bob and George, and then select the best rhythm section from the two bands to suit whichever songs we were cutting. Paul and Mick were probably, right, however I would have given anything to have given it a go.”

Unfortunately we’ll never know whatthe combination of these legendary songwriters would have sounded like.

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