Jan 302014
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtrooe
For me, The Beatles’ rooftop performance from Let It Be is one of the most fascinating musical performances ever put to film. It’s not the “greatest” performance ever committed to film, or anything like that, but it’s like stumbling across the gods of Mount Olympus playing a pickup game of touch football on an open city lot. Just the still images of them playing live and in the studio on the cover for Let It Be resonate with me as deeply as they did when I first stared at them, as a kid.
And today is it’s 45th anniversary.
Indeed, it’s a rock-oliday!
I’m dreading the years of 50th Beatle anniversaries that cranks up in a few weeks with the first Ed Sullivan one.
I never get tired of watching this — the Beatles had more cool LOOKs than anyone.
Pourquoi?
Whenever I watch the Apple rooftop concert, I always wonder how they didn’t say to themselves after, “damn, that was good and a lot of fun and we can do this again.” I know all the backstory on the grandiose plans for a concert at the outset of the Get Back/Let It Be planning, which in the end came down only to a concert on their roof. But, shoot: they were capable of really playing well together live, at a level they probably hadn’t attained since before they came to America; better, really, because they were more experienced and the confidence with which George plays, especially, compared to the early days, is amazing. Yeah, it coulda been great.
I find obsessing over the Beatles tiresome and counter-productive.
The rooftop thing just makes me sad. A band that good at playing together who can’t be bothered to just do it anymore. I think people treating them as idols was the cause of their demise. That and McCartney being a twit.
Here’s a fun piece that BigSteve can obsess over until the Ed Sullivan Show anniversary festivities get underway:
http://www.mojo4music.com/11595/20-things-need-know-beatles-rooftop-concert/
All joking aside, I totally appreciate BigSteve’s bad attitude about this stuff!
By the way, what’s the deal with those microphones the Beatles are singing into? They were prevalent in a lot of televised/filmed performances of that time and seem related to the mic Gene Rayburn used on on the legendary game show Match Game [insert year]. The mics seems to come right out from the mic stand. There’s not visible chord. Was there a chord inside those mic stands and then the mic “bulb” screwed onto the stand/chord? Once I actually went on eBay trying to find one of those things, but I had no idea what terms to search under.
Counter-productive to what?
Not me. I’m all about being positive.