If Stuart Sutcliffe had lived...

[Lord Reith]

How would his influence have played out in The Beatles' career? Would he have remained an insider or would he have distanced himself from them and gone his own way? Would the cover of Revolver be by Stuart instead of Klaus? Would he have become involved in Apple? With Stuart to encourage her, would Astrid have given up photography?

Then there is the matter of his relationship with Astrid. I can't think of John and Yoko without thinking of Stu and Astrid. I am convinced that John was envious of Stu and modeled his relationship with Yoko after his friend. Would they have teamed up on artistic projects? Would John even have met Yoko if Stuart had still been around?

[20YearsAgo]

Hmm... I never equated Stuart/Astrid with John/Yoko before this but it makes sense.

Had Stuart lived... he would've become a famous artist. Just based on his Beatle connection. He showed incredible promise when he was alive. When the Beatles started to break big in 63, people naturally would've gotten curious about the "Fifth Beatle" who left the band. Art dealers, seeing a quick buck (or a quick pound) to be made, would've rushed to represent him and exhibit his work. As far as designing album covers... it probably would've been beneath him. But who knows?

[paul62]

If Stuart Sutcliffe had stayed with The Beatles and did the recordings at Polydor, Decca and EMI how would he have sounded?

Would George Martin have told Brian Epstein "That rhythm section has to be replaced before we start making records with the group"?

What did John, Paul, George and Pete truly feel about Stu's bass-playing? Would John have allowed Stu to be sacked like Pete?

Would Stu have been a wedge between John and Paul that prevented the songwriting collaboration between Lennon and McCartney to fully develop?

Would Stu have engaged in the virtual Satyricon of Beatles tours if he was so loyal to Astrid? Was Stu mentally and physically strong enough to survive Beatlemania?

Would Stu be mentally and physically strong enough to join John in exploring (and nearly destroying) his mind with drugs (and if so, could Stu have become a great psychedelic artist and designed an LP sleeve for The Beatles in their middle years)?

Are Paul McCartney's efforts to be a visual artist influenced by Stu or by memories of Stu (or an attempt to fit his feet into Stu's shoes)?

Could Stu have shown, through a strong relationship with Astrid, that John could enjoy a similar relationship with Cynthia (or even with Bettina)? Would Stu have managed to steer John clear away from Yoko?

[JoeWadley]

It's an impossible question to answer.

On the one hand, John was very close to Stuart, and he may have remained an influence on his thinking, the Beatles' visual style, etc. It is possible to see him playing the role Klaus stepped in played played - designing an album cover, playing bass here and there on solo records if he stuck with it.

On the other hand, The Beatles could move on from a person very quickly when they were no longer of use. As fame swept them up, Stuart may have become no more than old friend they would see when they played Hamburg, maybe an artist who Apple supported in some way, but just another part of their back story.

[Mr Hankey]

He would have drawn the Revolver cover instead of Klaus

[Lord Reith]

Stu was a big influence on John but also more than that, he was the only person John could be "arty" with. Paul was of course a great friend to him but they were more like army buddies as Paul once said. I think he missed having Stu to talk to and bounce things off and that may have had something to do with why he fell so hard for Yoko.

Re Stu's bass playing I think he probably learned to play okay and it is one of the easiest instruments to fake (not literally but in the musical sense) so i think they probably sounded quite reasonable with him once he'd been through the Hamburg apprenticeship with them. The only recordings we have of him are from early 1960 and he had only just started learning. I'm sure he improved. But he is unlikely to have reached the heights that Macca did on bass and Stu and Pete would not have been nearly as good a rhythm section.

Music aside though, there's no reason to think he wouldn't have continued to have a stylistic influence on John at least. Photos of Stu with a Beatle cut and a Mod suit and tie show him looking like one of the Fab Four in 1961. It's not unreasonable to think that the guys were not opposed to donning the suits because they had seen trendy French and Germans starting to dress this way. Who knows what else Stu and astrid may have introduced The Beatles to.

[paul62]

It's probably fair to say that if he'd lived, he'd have had some of his works sold through...Indica Gallery. Through that crowd, he and Astrid may have fallen into the orbit of Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg (and found themselves involved in the sordid lifestyle those two were leading).

It was a nice gesture for The Beatles/Peter Blake to have a shot of Stu on the cover of SPLHCB: Pete Best should have been included, too (especially so, given the fact that John wore Best family medals for the SPLHCB photo shoot).

[WilliamShears]

I can imagine John would have talked him and Astrid into reluctantly starting up Apple Gallery and giving them free rein to do whatever they wanted to do. At least until Klein would have shut it down...would have been interesting to see how that worked out.

[Lord Reith]

It's hard to imagine Stu not becoming involved with Apple in some way. The more I think about it the more it seems like Stu's passing was a very big deal for John and had a profound effect on how things panned out.

[20YearsAgo]

I was just listening and reading up on "Cambridge 1969," the live March 2, 1969 John & Yoko performance that takes up side 1 of "Unfinished Music #2: Life with the Lions." According to Wikipedia, John kept his back to the audience throughout the entire performance... and my first thought after reading this was, "How very Stuart Sutcliffe of him!"

Question: Wikipedia states that the 26:32 LP version of this track was edited down. Does a more complete tape of this performance circulate?