Wednesday, January 19, 2011

At Night The Stars Put On A Show For Free



Have I told you lately that I love The Beatles? How do they do it? It's been 50 years since "Ain't She Sweet," and I still feel like they are surprising me.

I've seen this rooftop concert a few times. This time around, it felt like I had never seen it before. Considering the circumstances and conditions surrounding the gig, the lads pull this off in spades. "Get Back" has always been in my top ten of least favorite Beatles' songs, and the boys play it one and a half times in this 21 minute set. And somehow, I could have watched them do it one and a half times more.  I don't think anyone really talks about this performance so much and they should.

13 comments:

Leslie said...

Thank you for posting this :) My last McCartney experience (last week) was an old episode of Later with Jools Holland during which McCartney was interviewed whilst chewing gum. My thought was, "Gee, even Sir Paul looks like a jackass when chewing gum." Now, if I get hit by a bus or something, my last thoughts of Paul McCartney will not be of him looking like a jackass. Instead, his awesomeness. You rock.

Shriner said...

After finally working things out to put their music on iTunes, I have yet to figure out why they haven't released "Let It Be" on DVD. Unless they are waiting for another Beatle to die?

Gene Oberto said...

The greatest bar band ever. And I say that with the utmost respect.

Do away with the effects and knob twisting and silly costumes and you see what 14 hours a day, six days a week gigs in sweaty bars do. The simple truth is that these guys could rock

cooljerk said...

so good, sal...i guess it helps to reaffirm what all the fuss was about...thanks for posting this, its been years since i've seen it

Paul said...

In a word "Magnificent!!!!!"

Thanks Sal for the refresher.

bglobe313 said...

I'm commenting before watching, Sal, which pretty much makes me a jackass, but The Beatles pretty much knowing they were over did what they could to give us a great finale.

And this was Paul doing the grunt work. The rest had their own problems to work out.

As for why no "Let It Be" DVD release, my theories have always been (i) it makes Paul look like a shit, and (ii) there is so much additional footage that it's hard to decide what to include.

But goddamn, just release the original movie with no extras! I've got it on a bootleg VHS taken from the LaserDisc issue and it's great.

Ace K.

Sal Nunziato said...

"I'm commenting before watching, Sal, which pretty much makes me a jackass..."


Okay, Ace. That made my night. haha!

I think you're right about Paul looking like shit. But no one looked like they wanted to be there. So is that because of Paul, or was Paul a dick because of the other three?

steves said...

Do you think they knew at the time that this was going to be their final public performance? I sometimes believe this was in the plan when they decided to make the film, and at other times think this was an improvised way of saying, "Thank you and goodnight." Whatever. It's a treasure. Thanks for the memory.

P.S. And welcome back!

Leslie said...

Wait, wait, wait. Paul's a dick? I don't know the story surrounding this. I thought they just looked a little chilly. Crap. Now I have "Paul's a dick" as my last thought. Not much better than jackass. I need a super spectacular shiny Paul moment to cleanse the palate...

Sal Nunziato said...

Leslie,
Have you never seen "Let It Be?"

Start there.

In the meantime, listen to "For No One." That alone gives Paul a lifetime "Get Out Of Dick Jail Free" card.

Leslie said...

I'm on it...

Leslie said...

I'm disappoined my library doesn't have "Let it Be". I'll be watching it on youtube in nine parts. And "For No One"...yes, he has the card. I think my heart literally broke at the end. This one is great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbJrXqrLtMw

Something that may only be interesting to me. Right after my last post I needed to pick up my eldest from school. Get in the van, few minutes go by and I realize my three year old isn't yammering so I turn up the radio. It's Paul singing "Michelle".

Sal Nunziato said...

I posted the audio of that version of "For No One" after it was given to me by a friend. I had no idea there was video to go along with it. AND..no description of its origin.

Hard to tell if Paul is 23 or 63 in that clip.