The Beatles' Rooftop Concert: Why It Was Their Best Live Performance

 

Known around the world for his work on The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, Peter Jackson’s Get Back gives the world a completely different view of The Beatles’ career. Get Back is compiled from over 56 hours of footage, and over 100 hours of audio recordings, of The Beatles, writing and recording songs from their final two albums, Abbey Road (1969), and Let It Be (1970). It gives viewers insight into a period of their career that has been largely misinterpreted. This period is often thought of as a time when growing tensions were beginning to break the band apart. While this is true to some extent (George Harrison quits the band not far into the doco, but returns later), it is apparent that The Beatles still felt a great sense of endearment for each other. Their relationships with each other, particularly between John Lennon and Paul McCartney were still relatively intact, allowing them to work together constructively. 

An aspect of Get Back that I really enjoyed was seeing The Beatles’ songwriting process. As a songwriter, to be a “fly on the wall” during this process was a real treat. 

There is a very noticeable change in mood about halfway through the documentary when The Beatles decide to relocate from Twickenham Studios to their own Apple Headquarters in London. This change of mood comes when an old friend of the band’s pops by for a visit: famed keyboard player, Billy Preston. The Beatles met Preston while he was the keyboard player for Little Richard. Preston ended up playing keyboards for the entirety of the Get Back Sessions. Having a friend in the studio with them definitely lifted the mood, and caused The Fab Four to start working far more productively. Preston’s keyboard playing kind of reinspired the band, and breathed fresh life into their studio sessions.

Get Back concludes with the now-iconic rooftop concert. Throughout the whole documentary, The Beatles are contemplating a return to playing live. They put a hold on playing live in 1966, largely due to the low-quality PA systems of the time rendering the band unable to hear themselves play, an issue that would be non-existent today with the development of in-ear monitors and better live mixers. The Beatles decide they will perform in a remote location with little or no audience. After many different ideas are thrown around, including performing in The Sahara Desert, The Beatles decide they will perform on the rooftop of their Apple headquarters in London. John Lennon is seen wearing Yoko Ono’s fur coat to stay warm in the sharp January cold. They play a 42-minute set, which would end up being their final live performance. Right up until they walk out onto the roof, they are still debating whether they will do it or not. At the conclusion of the performance, John jokingly says “I’d like to thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition”, and with that, The Beatles signed off for good. The audio was mixed by Glyn Johns, who is also known for his work with The Eagles, The Who and Led Zeppelin. The question is, however, was this rooftop show, in London’s cold January wind, their best live performance? And how does it compare to other notable live performances of The Beatles, for example, their 1965 performance at Shea Stadium in New York?

Apple Corps’ Rooftop, 1969

On 15 August, The Beatles opened their 1965 North American tour at Shea Stadium, to a record attendance of 55,600. Beatlemania was at its peak at the time, and the attendees were crying, screaming, and even fainting, with 2,000 security guards required to keep the crowd under control. Audience members were confined to the stands of the stadium, and only the band, crew, and security were allowed on the field. The crowd was so loud that security guards can be seen covering their ears as The Beatles entered the field, and none of The Beatles, nor anyone else, could hear the band at all. This was the first concert held at a major stadium and demonstrated that large outdoor concerts could be successful and profitable. The Beatles returned to Shea Stadium in 1966.

After retiring from live performance, The Beatles had plenty of time to refine and repolish their sound, leading to a significant leap in the sophistication of their songwriting. They started working with full symphony orchestras, and some of the best musicians of their time, like Billy Preston who appears in Get Back. The music they wrote during this period is by far my favourite era of The Beatles (in particular, 1968’s The Beatles, more commonly known as The White Album) because of this newfound sophistication. They carry this more polished sound over with them to the rooftop concert. The concert can be heard crystal clear, contrary to their Shea Stadium performance, which is drowned out by the thousands of screaming fans. Arguably, their retirement from live performance was exactly what The Beatles needed to focus on the complexity of their music. The rooftop concert sees them with a refined and improved sound that they didn’t have at Shea Stadium. It is almost a musical coming of age, which was no doubt influenced by various band members drawing inspiration from composers like Bach and Beethoven. 

Shea Stadium, 1965

To conclude, the refinement of The Beatles’ sound in the rooftop concert makes it their best live performance. The concert shows us that The Beatles had come a long way since emerging as 4 scrawny kids from Liverpool. The historical significance of the concert makes it more than just another gig. This was one of the greatest and most influential bands the world has ever seen going out in true style. This significance is evident in the number of notable artists that have recreated it over the years, including U2, and New Zealand rock band, Head Like A Hole. The concert has indeed “passed the audition” and is not only The Beatles’ best live performance but one of the best in modern music history.