{"id":3626,"date":"2014-08-04T18:01:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T23:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?p=3626"},"modified":"2014-08-04T19:34:21","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T00:34:21","slug":"the-beatles-pondered-doing-a-live-non-rooftop-show-in-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/the-beatles-pondered-doing-a-live-non-rooftop-show-in-1969\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles pondered doing a live (non-rooftop) show in 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 29, 1969, the day before their rooftop concert, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had an at times intense conversation during the ‘Get Back’ sessions.
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\nOver on the amoralto tumblr page<\/a>, they did a great job breaking down the conversation.
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\nThe conversation – mostly dominated by Paul – revolved partially around the idea that the Beatles could do something instead of the rooftop concert.
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\nPaul suggested playing in front of audiences again, entering a ‘visual’ studio, or doing some other not-yet-hashed-out thing instead of and\/or in addition to the rooftop concert.
\n 
\nIn the excerpt below, Paul makes his case:<\/p>\n

PAUL:<\/strong> Yeah, but so\u2026 Hmm. But I\u2019m just talking about this thing, like this thing we\u2019ve entered upon now, we still haven\u2019t got any aim for it, except another album, again. Our only aim, ever, is an album. Which is like a very non-visual thing, it\u2019s very sort of\u2026 But it\u2019s great, isn\u2019t it, and we do albums, then. But\u2014
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\nJOHN:<\/strong> But albums is what we\u2019re doing, at the moment.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong>\u00a0[uneasy] Yeah, but I don\u2019t know. Like\u2014
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\nJOHN:<\/strong> I mean, that\u2019s what we [inaudible] talk about.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong> \u2014like I was saying the other day, is that you \u2013 is that you \u2013 you\u2014 [hesitating] We\u2019re into albums as the four of us, but I really think we could be into other things. But every time I talk about it, I really sound like I\u2019m the showbiz correspondent, trying to hustle us to do a Judy Garland comeback, you know. But really, all I mean is \u2013 well, look, let\u2019s get \u2013 let\u2019s change, or let\u2019s go into a studio, like a vision studio, after we\u2019ve learnt all of these, that\u2019s just as good as this for sound, that\u2019s got the same sort of thinking\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later on in the discussion, Paul intimates that George would be in favor of a show in the mold of the ones Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley were having around that time, and John wouldn’t rule it out:<\/p>\n

PAUL:<\/strong> There\u2019s no other way. We can\u2019t think ourselves out of it. And we can\u2019t sort of say, well, it will be alright. See, and then the only other alternative to that is to say, well, we don\u2019t \u2013 we will never do it to an audience again. But if we intend to \u2013 to keep any sort of contact on that scene\u2026 [pause] Yeah. I do understand George\u2019s just saying, \u201cThere\u2019s no point,\u201d you know, because it is like we\u2019re Stravinsky, and it\u2019s in the music. And he doesn\u2019t sort of get up and play his \u2018Joanna\u2019 for them anymore. He just writes it, and just sort of maybe occasionally conducts it.
\n 
\nJOHN:<\/strong> But as long as there\u2019s a good reason \u2013 like George wants to do a heavy show, like Dylan and Presley, all that.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong> Mm.
\n 
\nJOHN:<\/strong> And that\u2019ll be a large \u2013 I don\u2019t know, like, I mean, that \u2013 that\u2019s all this.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong> Mm, yeah, I know, yeah. that\u2019s always \u2013 that\u2019s always just\u2014
\n 
\nJOHN:<\/strong> Okay, yeah.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong> That\u2019s us again, you know.
\n 
\nJOHN:<\/strong> Yes, I know.
\n 
\nPAUL:<\/strong> It\u2019s us going silly again.
\n 
\nJOHN:<\/strong> It is, and I think \u2013 I think we might do it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All Beatles fans know what happened next.
\n 
\nThe group went on to the Apple rooftop the next day for their final public performance.
\n 
\nA few weeks later, the group began work on ‘Abbey Road,’ the final album they would record.
\n 
\nWhat would have happened if Paul had convinced John and George to tour again…or if he had just convinced them to do one ‘audience show.’
\n 
\nChances are that with George being held back musically, John wanting to branch off, and Paul’s at times overbearing personality, the group still would’ve disbanded.
\n 
\nHowever, it certainly would’ve been interesting to see what the dynamic would’ve been if the band had toured or played even one legitimate concert instead of the rooftop gig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 29, 1969, the day before their rooftop concert, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had an at times intense conversation during the ‘Get Back’ sessions.   Over on the amoralto tumblr page, they did a great job breaking down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[8,39,117],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beatles-memories","tag-john-lennon","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3631,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions\/3631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}