The further you fall down The Beatles rabbit hole, the less solid everything seems to be. + There are alternative answers for everything. Who was the fifth Beatle? Depending on who you ask, it could be George Martin, Brian Epstein, or Billy Preston. What was their first single? It depends on whether you’re talking about American or UK releases. When did the band split up? Don’t get us started. At the end of the day, the only thing you can be sure of is that Paul McCartney was there. Wait, what do you mean he’s dead?!
Seriously though, the level of scrutiny that John, Ringo, George and Paul were under for the entire 1960s means that there are about five different answers to each question about the band. Even something as simple as “What was the last song the Beatles ever played live?” can spark debate. For many years, the answer to that question was ‘Long Tall Sally’, the last song of their last ticketed show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29th, 1966.
Coming hot off the heels of John Lennon saying something as unwise as it was true about Jesus, the furore around the Fabs was at an all-time high, and, for a change, it wasn’t all positive. Combined with a fateful show in Tokyo where they could finally hear themselves playing and did not like what they heard, the choice was made to put the kibosh on playing live, at least for the foreseeable future.
They did have a run of stadium shows in the US of A booked in, though, so they would honour those shows, then retreat into the studio. The shows went off without a hitch, and then, as quickly as the decision had been made, along came the show that, to the band’s knowledge, would be the last they’d ever play. This group, who’d cut their teeth as a raucous, livewire rock ‘n’ roll group soundtracking seedy Hamburg dance clubs, were leaving the stage behind.
To commemorate, the band took a camera on stage with them, and McCartney asked the band’s press officer, Tony Barrow, to record the set. He needn’t have bothered, really. The screams cover up the majority of the band’s (rather tired) playing, and as it was with the vast majority of these early stadium shows, the sound was pretty pants even underneath the screaming. Still, their joyous throwback of a set closer, ‘Long Tall Sally’ still shows the gas they had left in the tank when they really felt it.
But what about the rooftop concert?
Then, there’s the other option. An option slightly more famous than that night in Candlestick Park on account of it being one of the most famous concerts in the history of rock. At lunchtime on January 30th, 1969, The Beatles incongruously took to the roof of their Apple Corp building in Saville Row, London, and played a fistful of their new songs for a steadily growing group of shocked onlookers.
As you probably saw in Peter Jackson’s phenomenal (if overlong) documentary Get Back, the rooftop concert is a thing of ramshackle beauty. A 40-minute treat held together with Sellotape and hope ends with the cops descending on the party like the joyless locusts they are. Seriously, if you haven’t given the concert a watch since lockdown lifted, go back and watch the utterly staggering second take of ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ and weep for what could have been.
No good thing lasts forever, though, and the police were watching like a hawk, arriving on the rooftop to let everyone know that the fun stops now. The song they’re playing when it becomes clear that playtime’s over and they have to go home? The last song The Beatles ever played live, ‘Get Back’. A track inspired by their collective desire to ‘get back’ to their roots as a down to earth rock ‘n’ roll band. At least, for all the complexity and conflicting information we have about this most important of bands, it’s undeniable that they started the way they finished.
