Gratitude Friday 8 29 2025 The Beatles (USA) Ltd 1966 World Tour Last Show

“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

This weekly post is for me a musing, often on things I am grateful for and as I have oft reflected, also a place to dive into a topic. These are often arcane things that interest me and so it matters not to me if anyone reads this, it is an exercise in learning for me as I have found that writing about something, at least for me is a great way to learn. So I am grateful for this space to do so. That it is a weekly post sort of keeps me on the hunt for things to write and learn about. This week as I was trying to figure out what to write about, I checked the web to see what happened on this day. The event that stuck out to me was that on this day in 1966, the Beatles played their last paid public performance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. I knew next to nothing about it and how it related the dissolution of the Beatles a decade later, but I found my topic.

I don’t think anyone beyond the Beatles or Brian Esptein their famed producer knew that it was the end of live performances for the Beatles. It was simply the final stop on their two segment world tour, billed as The Beatles (USA) Ltd 1966 World Tour. They were not having fun. They found that a lot of their work was becoming too complex for live performances and so saw it as a limiting factor.

There were controversies that had originated out of the John Lennon More popular than Jesus interview that led to death threats for the band, groups like the KKK protesting them and radio stations pulling their songs from the play list. Attendance for their last ever show was undersold by 7,000 seats and the quality of the production was poor. I found some videos including this one and this one. Brian Esptien missed the show because of some personal matters he had to deal with and regretted that he did. Exactly one year less a day later he died of a carbrital overdose.

On the night of that final public performance, they took the stage at 9:27 pm, and proceeded to play their eleven-song set. At one point, Ringo Starr sang into the counterweight of the boom stand microphone set up at his drum kit, rather than the microphone itself. There is a bootleg partial audio recording of the concert called the "Long Tall Sally" recoding, which is incomplete as the person recording it did flip the tape over during the show. For a time, Paul McCartney held a copy of this recording. At the end of the show, they jumped into an armored car and drove to the airport to fly to LA. On the plane, George Harrison said he was no longer a Beatle, foreshadowing the end that would come over the next decade. In a later interview when asked about the decision to quit touring Harrison explained that "We'd been through every race riot, and every city we went to there was some kind of a jam going on, and police control, and people threatening to do this and that ... and [us] being confined to a little room or a plane or a car. We all had each other to dilute the stress, and the sense of humour was very important ... But there was a point where enough was enough."

The music of the Beatles is not just the music I was raised with, but to my adult ear sounds timeless and some of the best compositions ever. Music is so important to me and the Beatles are right up there as some of the most important groups. Prior to writing this, I never had a timeline of events. After 66, the Beatles kept recording in the studio, two of my favorite albums, Sgt Pepper and the White Album came after that last public concert. In September 1969, John Lennon privately informs the band he's leaving, which he states publicly on April 10, 1970. The last time they played together was on the rooftop of their studio on Jan 30, 1969. The band legally dissolved on January 9, 1975. Over the course of my childhood, there were always rumors of a reunion that never came to fruition. I can still recall the morning in 1982

When John Lennon was murdered. George Harrison passed away from cancer in 2001.

All but two of the Beatles are gone now. Paul still plays and I saw Ringo celebrate 37 years of recovery recently. As a band, they were done before I walked into a school and sat at a desk for the first time, but there music and the influence that they had over my life and so many other people remain deeply meaningful. I agree with the quote of Kurt Vonnegut above. Their music made me feel grateful to be alive. Good music, like theirs has the capacity to bring people together. I was sad to more fully understand all the division and strife that they experienced in the mid-1960s. I can tell you all that was long gone within a few years. Their legacy is not controversy or division. They left a treasure of music that I hope people enjoy as much 50 years from now. I am grateful to have grown up with these songs on AM and FM radio and on records that we would examine and listen to as full compositions.

What are you grateful for today?