Tag Archives: Paul McCartney

The Last Beatles Concert ► Monday Musical Appreciation

It was 48 years ago today when The Beatles gave their last live performance, although no one knew that at the time. It’s come down through history known as The Rooftop Concert.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo — at that point the most famous musicians in the world — had been filming the recording of their ‘back to basics’ LP, that was supposed to do away with overdubs and studio trickery. The idea of a movie started out as a tee vee documentary ending with a live concert, before it morphed into a major motion picture.

Originally the album was to have been called “Get Back,” but was eventually released as “Let It Be,” the same name as the eventual movie and the biggest hit on the soundtrack.

The recording sessions were fraught with tension, with the Beatles bickering with each other.  Even the level-headed and Transcendental Meditationizer Harrison had enough. He also quit the band for a period. When he returned he did so with Billy Preston to play keyboards, correctly guessing that the presence of a musician they all respected would cut down on the fighting.

According to the WikiWackyWoo:

Harrison recalled that when Preston joined them, “straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we’d created among ourselves.”[14]

While most of the bickering was left on the cutting room floor, this clip was left in the final cut of the movie:

They were stumped for a location for the ending of the movie. The documentary was always going to end with a live show, but they were stumped where to hold it. Suggestions ranged from an ocean liner, to the pyramids, to Pompeii. However, logistically those shows would have been difficult. At almost the last minute, as time was ticking away before Ringo had to start filming The Magic Christian, the decision was made to perform on the rooftop of Apple Corps, the Beatles’ own building on tony Savile Row.

The 42 minute concert was the last time The Beatles played for an audience. However, they would go on to record one more LP, Abbey Road, actually released before the movie and Let It Be album. By the time the movie was release, The Beatles were history.

The songs performed on the roof that day were Get Back (five versions), I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Don’t Let Me Down (two versions), I’ve Got A Feeling, One After 909, Danny Boy, Dig A Pony (two versions), and God Save The Queen.

Also cut out of the movie was all of the genesis for the song that eventually became Get Back. It started off much differently than the song you hear now and could NEVER have been released in this form:

The Beatles have been criticized for these 2 songs once bootlegs started to appear, but it’s clearly a protest song of sorts, condemning the racism that they had been seeing at home. It’s just not a very subtle character study, like Elanor Rigby, f’rinstance.

Ironically, the session tapes of Let It Be were eventually given to Phil Spector, who laid all kinds of overdubs on the songs. This appalled Paul McCartney, who had been outvoted. Eventually, in 2003, Let It Be… Naked was released, without all the sweetening in a form that McCartney could live with.

The movie Let It Be was briefly available to purchase on VHS, Betamax, or LaserDisc, however the 1981 release was the first and last time it was available legally. There are reports that the entire movie was remastered by Apple in 1992. Apparently there was another remastering in 2003, including outtakes and bonus material, that was to have been released with the Naked CD, but that never happened either.

“Some people say” it’s Paul who has held off release of the movie because he comes off looking like a dick. The Wiki has something to say about that, too:

In February 2007, Apple CorpsNeil Aspinall said, “The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realised: this stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues.”[43]

An anonymous industry source told the Daily Express in July 2008 that, according to Apple insiders, McCartney and Starr blocked the release of the film on DVD. The two were concerned about the effect on the band’s “global brand … if the public sees the darker side of the story. Neither Paul nor Ringo would feel comfortable publicising a film showing the Beatles getting on each other’s nerves … There’s all sorts of extra footage showing more squabbles but it’s questionable if the film will ever see a reissue during Paul and Ringo’s lifetime.”[44] However, in 2016, McCartney stated he doesn’t oppose an official release, stating, “I keep bringing it up, and everyone goes, ‘Yeah, we should do that.’ The objection should be me. I don’t come off well.”[45]

Maybe one day we’ll finally get to see this movie again. Until then, enjoy some bootleg recordings of the Rooftop Concert while they’re still on the YouTubery.

ENJOY!!!

Pet Sounds ► Monday Musical Appreciation

Previously on Not Now Silly:

Brian Wilson ► Happy Birthday, Genius ► A Musical Appreciation

On this date 50 years ago one of the greatest LPs of the Rock era was released: The Beach Boys 11th studio album, Pet Sounds. It was not an immediate hit, only rising as far as #20 on the Billboard album chart, far below their previous LPs.

Yet, Pet Sounds rises to the top of all critics’ greatest lists. Rolling Stone pegged Pet Sounds as the #2 Greatest Album of All Time, right behind Sgt. Pepper. That’s ironic because Beatles producer George Martin said that without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper would never have happened. No less a musical authority than Sir Paul McCartney has rated Pet Sounds as his favourite LP. In fact, he’s been widely quoted as saying:

[I]t was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the
water. First of all, it was Brian’s writing. I love the album so much.
I’ve just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in
life—I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard that
album. I was into the writing and the songs. 

Double irony: Brian Wilson, for his part, was spurred on to write Pet Sounds by The Beatles’  Rubber Soul. From the WikiWackyWoo:

Wilson recalls that Asher played him the Beatles‘ newest album, Rubber Soul (1965),[19] it being the alternate US version that was configured by Capitol Records to have a cohesive folk rock sound.[25][nb 6] Wilson was immediately enamored with the album, given the impression that it had no filler tracks, a feature that was mostly unheard of at a time when 45 rpm singles were considered more noteworthy than full-length LPs.[26][27][nb 7] Inspired, he rushed to his wife and proclaimed, “Marilyn, I’m gonna make the greatest album! The greatest rock album ever made!”[29] He would say of his reaction to Rubber Soul:
“I liked the way it all went together, the way it was all one thing. It
was a challenge to me … It didn’t make me want to copy them but to be
as good as them. I didn’t want to do the same kind of music, but on the
same level.”[30] Later, he clarified: “The Beatles inspired me. They didn’t influence me.”[31][nb 8]

Which makes it a triple irony: Wilson loved that it had “no filler tracks” and “the way it all went together, the way it was all one thing,” but it wasn’t that at all. It was a record cobbled together for the U.S. market by his own record company, different from the canonical Rubber Soul that The Beatles released in Great Britain.

FURTHER READING

 PET SOUNDS: THE ONLINE STORY

15 Facts About ‘Pet Sounds’

At 50, Pet Sounds remains The Beach
Boys’ most puzzling, influential album


Five amazing albums that wouldn’t exist
without The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’


Why Does the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet
Sounds’ Still Have Its Hold on Us?

The rest of The Beach Boys were not so enamored of Pet Sounds. Here’s the quick backstory:

After Brian Wilson had a panic attack on an airplane while on tour with the band, he retired from live performing. This gave him the time to produce the more complicated songs he had begun writing. When the rest of the band returned from a tour of Japan and Hawaii, they were presented with an almost completed album, with tracks laid down by The Wrecking Crew, a group of studio musicians who had played on hundreds of songs for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound productions. All that was needed to complete the tracks were the Beach Boys’ harmonies. However, they weren’t convinced.

One of the issues was the album’s complexity and how the touring Beach Boys would be able to perform its music live.[54] Wilson said that the band “didn’t like the idea of growing musically … They wanted to keep making car songs and I said ‘No, we’ve gotta grow, guys’.”[55] Marilyn said: “When Brian was writing Pet Sounds,
it was difficult for the guys to understand what he was going through
emotionally and what he wanted to create. … they didn’t feel what he
was going through and what direction he was trying to go in.”[56] Tony Asher remembered: “All those guys in the band, certainly Al, Dennis,
and Mike, were constantly saying, ‘What the fuck do these words mean?’
or ‘This isn’t our kind of shit!’ Brian had comebacks, though. He’d say,
‘Oh, you guys can’t hack this.’ … But I remember thinking that those
were tense sessions.”[57]
Wilson believed the band were worried about him separating from the
group, elaborating that “it was generally considered that the Beach Boys
were the main thing … with Pet Sounds, there was a resistance
in that I was doing most of the artistic work on it vocally”. The
conflicts were resolved, accordingly, “[when] they figured that it was a
showcase for Brian Wilson, but it’s still the Beach Boys. In other
words, they gave in. They let me have my little stint.”[58]

Next month Capitol Records is releasing a giant 5-CD 50th Anniversary Edition of the iconic LP. According to Ultimate Classic Rock

Pet Sounds (50th Anniversary Collectors Edition) will include four CDs of various mixes, outtakes and alternate versions of the album as well as a Blu-ray audio disc featuring a 5.1 surround sound mix of the 1966 classic, often heralded as one of the greatest records ever made. The set will be released on June 10, about a month after the record celebrates 50 years.

Like 1997’s celebrated four-disc The Pet Sounds Sessions, Pet Sounds (50th Anniversary Collectors Edition) will include snippets from the studio as Brian Wilson pieced together his masterpiece. Backing tracks, alternate mixes and different versions (including some songs where Wilson or Mike Love sang lead on numbers that were released with other members singing) round out the collection.

As Not Now Silly is fond of saying, it’s all in the grooves. Listen to Pet Sounds.

Crank it up and  D A N C E ! ! !

The Beatles Conquer The U.S. Charts ► Monday Musical Appreciation

Further reading at Not Now Silly:

The Beatles’ Last Concert

On this day in 1964 The Beatles had the top 5 tunes on the ‘Merkin Billboard charts, an amazing feat for a band that was barely known on this continent just a few months earlier. Those songs are:

5). Please Please Me
4). I Want To Hold Your Hand
3). She Loves You
2). Twist And Shout
1). Can’t Buy Me Love

Let’s take a quick look at all of these songs:

Please Please Me

“Please Please Me” was not only a song title, but also the name of The Beatles’ first LP in the UK. It was recorded and released in January of 1963 to capitalize on the success of this song, which had burned up the British charts. There were 14 tunes on the “Please Please Me” album, and eight of them were written by The Beatles, including this one. It was also the second single ever released by The Beatles following “Love Me Do.” According to the WikiWackyWoo:

“Please Please Me” has a diverse history. George Martin has stated
that the original version of this song was “rather dreary”, was too slow
and consequently had little prospect of being the big hit the band were
looking for. Martin said, “I was still thinking that we should release
their [earlier] recording of “How Do You Do It?“”, a previously taped Mitch Murray
composition that Martin insisted the Beatles record which he had
seriously considered as an alternative debut single instead of “Love Me
Do”. The group replied that they were only interested in recording their
own material.[7]
McCartney said: “It was symptomatic of our group that we turned down
“How Do You Do It?”. Ringo Starr commented: “I remember us all being
ready to stand up for the principle of, ‘We have written these songs and
we want to do them'”. George Martin was ultimately sympathetic to their
appeals, but said later: “[I] would still have issued “How Do You Do
It?” had they not persuaded me to listen to another version of “Please
Please Me”.[11]

Lennon first conceived “Please Please Me” as a bluesy, slow tempo
song. Lennon recalled: “I remember the day I wrote it, I heard Roy Orbison doing “Only the Lonely“, or something. And I was also always intrigued by the words to a Bing Crosby
song that went, ‘Please lend a little ear to my pleas’. The double use
of the word ‘please’. So it was a combination of Roy Orbison and Bing
Crosby”.[7] Originally it was vocally sparse, did not contain any harmonies or responses, nor did it have the scaled harmonica intro.

On the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, published by Rolling Stone, “Please Please Me” clocks in as #184.

I Want To Hold Your Hand

This tune was released at the end of November of 1963 and — had it not been for “She Loves You” — would have gone right to #1 on the British charts. It had to settle for the #2 spot on its release date. According to the Wiki:

It was also the group’s first American number one, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 13 January 1964 at number forty-five and starting the British invasion
of the American music industry. By 1 February it held the number-one
spot, and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by “She
Loves You”, a reverse scenario of what had occurred in Britain. It
remained on the US charts for a total of fifteen weeks.[6] “I Want to Hold Your Hand” became the Beatles’ best-selling single worldwide.[7] In 2013, Billboard magazine named it the 44th biggest hit of “all-time” on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.[8]

This was The Beatles’ first tune to be recorded on 4-track and it took 17 takes to get a version they were happy with.
She Loves You
“She Loves You” was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney while they were touring England with Roy Orbison and Gerry and the Pacemakers. They started writing the song on the tour bus, as the Wiki tells us:

In 2000, McCartney said the initial idea for the song began with Bobby Rydell‘s hit “Forget Him” with its call and response pattern,
and that “as often happens, you think of one song when you write
another … I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would
sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’. We
decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a
song called ‘She Loves You’. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few
hours and wrote it—John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.” It
was completed the following day at McCartney’s family home in Forthlin
Road, Liverpool.[4]

On that same Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, “She Loves You” is ranked at #64 and is the best selling Beatles’ single in history.
Twist And Shout

This is the only song on this list not written by Lennon-McCartney. The Wiki fills in the rest of the story:
“Twist and Shout” is a 1961 song written by Phil Medley and Bert Berns
(later credited as “Bert Russell”). The song was originally recorded by
the Top Notes. It first became a chart hit as a cover single by the Isley Brothers in 1962. The song has since been covered by several artists, including the Beatles on their first album Please Please Me (1963), as well as The Tremeloes in 1962 and The Who in 1970 and 1984.
This rollicking rocker was recorded at the famous recording session of February 11, 1963, during which The Beatles recorded 10 complete tunes in 13 hours. They left it as the last song to be recorded as they knew it would tear up John’s throat. They were right. The take we hear is the first one. They tried for a second, but John had no voice left.
Can’t Buy Me Love

This tune was recorded partially in Paris and then finished at the famed Abbey Road studios. Once again, we go to the WikiWackyWoo:

“Can’t Buy Me Love” was recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI‘s Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France,[10] where the Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre. At this time, EMI’s West Germany branch, Odeon, insisted that the Beatles would not sell records in any significant numbers in Germany unless they were actually sung in the German language[11] and the Beatles reluctantly agreed to re-record the vocals to “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand
prior to them being released in Germany. George Martin travelled to
Paris with a newly mastered rhythm track for what was to be “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” (“Come, Give Me your Hand”/”I Want to Hold your Hand”). “Sie Liebt Dich” (“She Loves You”) required the Beatles to record a new rhythm track as the original two-track recording had been scrapped.[10]
EMI sent a translator to be present for this recording session which
had been hurriedly arranged to tie in with the Beatles’ Paris
commitments. This was accomplished well within the allotted studio time
allowing the Beatles an opportunity to record the backing track, with a
guide vocal, to the recently composed “Can’t Buy Me Love”.[11][10]
At this stage the song included background vocal harmonies. But after
listening to the first take, the band concluded that the song did not
need them. Therefore, “Can’t Buy Me Love” became the first single the
Beatles released without their characteristic background harmonies.
McCartney’s final vocal was overdubbed at EMI Studios, Abbey Road,
London, on 25 February.[6] Also re-recorded on this day at EMI Studios was George Harrison‘s
modified guitar solo, although his original solo can still just be
heard in the background. Harrison said: “What happened was, we recorded
first in Paris and re-recorded in England. Obviously they’d tried to
overdub it, but in those days they only had two tracks, so you can hear
the version we put on in London, and in the background you can hear a
quieter one.”[12] Helen Shapiro, a friend of the Beatles and present at this overdub session, says that Ringo Starr also added extra cymbals “over the top” and that “apparently this was something he did quite often on their records”[13] (Geoff Emerick, tape operator and later the Beatles’ recording engineer, credits Norman Smith, the Beatles’ then-current engineer, with this overdub).[14]
“Can’t Buy Me Love” is also the only English-language Beatles track
that the Beatles themselves recorded in a studio outside the UK,
although the instrumental portion of the Beatles’ B-side “The Inner Light” was recorded in India by Indian session musicians.

This song was written in Paris just prior to the sessions and made #295 on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Hits of All Time list.

When it hit #1 in the United States it set several records, no pun intended:

• Until Billboard began using SoundScan for their charts in 1991, it had the biggest jump to number one: (number twenty-seven to number one; no other single had ever done this).

• It gave the Beatles three consecutive number-one songs (“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was replaced at number one by “She Loves You” which was in turn replaced by “Can’t Buy Me Love”). The three songs spent a combined total of 14 consecutive weeks at No. 1. This is the only time an artist had three number ones in a row. The best prior was Elvis, who had two consecutive number ones with Don’t Be Cruel and Love Me Tender.[16]

• When “Can’t Buy Me Love” went to number one (4 April 1964), the entire top five of the Hot 100 was by the Beatles, the next positions being filled by “Twist and Shout“, “She Loves You“, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me,” respectively. No other act has held the top five spots simultaneously.

• During its second week at number one (11 April 1964), the Beatles had fourteen songs on the Hot 100 at the same time.

    This is just one of the reasons why The Beatles were the greatest band of the Rock era.

    It’s Only A Northern Song ► Monday Musical Appreciation

    On this day in 1963 The Beatles formed the music publishing company Northern Songs —  with Dick James owning 51% — which is how Michael Jackson eventually came to own their back catalog of songs. Follow the bouncing ball:

    Brian Epstein made a number of bad deals for The Beatles. For example, there’s Seltaeb — “Beatles” spelled backwards — a company created to merchandise Beatles’ products. Epstein didn’t have the time, or inclination, to decide on all the merchandise requests that were rolling in, from Beatles wigs to drum sticks to plastic guitars. He decided to outsource this job and signed a contract which gave The Beatles a mere 10% of the royalties. Normally up to 75% would go to the artists on such a deal. It’s estimated that The Beatles lost at least $100,000,000 on that deal, which could have been more lucrative than the worldwide royalties on their music.

    However, of all the deals that Brian Epstein got the Beatles involved in, Northern Songs is the one that had the most-lasting effect, biting them in the ass to this very day.

    George Harrison was so irritated, he wrote a song about it:

    Dick James had been kicking around the music industry since his teens in the ’40s, as a musician and singer. In fact, it’s James’ voice heard on the theme song to the tee vee show The Adventures of Robin Hood. As the WikiWackyWoo explains:

    James entered the music publishing
    business as his singing career tapered off. In 1958 he joined Sidney
    Bron Music as a song-plugger but decided to leave and open Dick James
    Music in 1961. In early 1963, he was contacted by Brian Epstein who was looking for a publisher for the second Beatles single, “Please Please Me“. James called Philip Jones, producer of the TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars, played the record down the phone to him and secured the band’s first nationwide television appearance.[3] The pair subsequently established Northern Songs Ltd., with Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to publish Lennon and McCartney’s original songs.[4] (Fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr were also signed to Northern Songs as songwriters, but did not renew their contracts in 1968). James’s company, Dick James Music, administered Northern Songs.[5]

    What initially began as an amicable working relationship between the
    Beatles and James disintegrated by the late 1960s: the Beatles
    considered that James had betrayed and taken advantage of them when he
    sold Northern Songs in 1969 without offering the band an opportunity to
    buy control of the publishing company. James profited handsomely from
    the sale of Northern Songs, but the Beatles never again had the rights
    to their own songs.[6]

    In later years, The Beatles groused about this deal, but was it really that bad? According to Did the Beatles Get Screwed, at Slate:

    Decades later, McCartney would refer to the agreement that created their publishing company, Northern Songs, as a “slave contract.” Harrison would mock its terms in an outtake from Sgt. Pepper’s,
    singing “it doesn’t really matter what chords I play… as it’s only a
    Northern Song.” Lennon would say with some bitterness that the bald and
    bespectacled man who proposed the deal, Dick James, had “carved Brian [Epstein] up.”

    In fact, by the standards of the day, Dick James made the Beatles—a
    band with one hit record and zero leverage in the industry—a pretty good
    deal.

    Keep in mind that when Chuck Berry recorded his first 45 for Chess Records
    in the mid-’50s, the Chess brothers made him share songwriting
    credit—right on the label—with a prominent disk jockey, as well as with
    the company’s landlord. The publishing rights to Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti
    were purchased by his label bosses for all of 50 dollars. This kind of
    wholesale theft was commonplace; in the early rock era, the ethics of
    the average music publisher could make a mob capo blanch.

    After Epstein died The Beatles unsuccessfully tried to renegotiate the deal with Dick James, but in 1969 he sold the publishing catalog (which by then included many other songwriters) to Lew Grade‘s ATV without even telling The Beatles. Then they tried to buy back Northern Songs. Unfortunately, it came as The Beatles were in the process of (secretly) breaking up and John Lennon and Paul McCartney couldn’t come to terms. Each had their own advisers by then — Allan Klein for Lennon and Lee Epstein (no relation) for McCartney — and no one could agree on terms. Eventually, the negotiations fell apart and the songs stayed with ATV, with Lennon and McCartney receiving a healthy buy-out for their shares in the company.

    After Lennon’s death McCartney again tried to buy the tunes back. According to the Wiki:

    In 1981, with Yoko Ono, McCartney attempted to make a joint purchase of the ATV music catalogue.[33] At a 1990 press conference, McCartney stated, “I was offered the songs to buy for 20 million pounds”,[34] but did not want to be perceived as being “grabby” for “owning John Lennon’s bit of the songs”.[35][36] So he asked Ono if she would make a joint purchase with him, sharing the cost equally.[35][36]
    According to McCartney, Ono thought they could buy it for half the
    price being offered and he agreed to see what could be done about that.[35] McCartney then let the deal fall through when they were not able to make a joint acquisition.[33][35][36]

    A few years later, McCartney recorded with Michael Jackson. As always, the Wiki knows all:

    During their collaboration on the song, “Say, Say, Say“, McCartney informed Jackson about the financial value of music publishing.[37] According to McCartney, this was his response to Jackson asking him for business advice.[1] McCartney showed Jackson a thick booklet displaying all the song and publishing rights he owned,[37] from which he was then reportedly earning £24.4 million from songs by other artists.[36] Jackson became quite interested and enquired about the process of acquiring songs and how the songs were used.[37]
    According to McCartney, Jackson said, “I’m going to get yours [Beatles’
    songs]”, which McCartney thought was a joke, replying, “Ho ho, you,
    you’re good”.[1]

    And, that’s how the songs ended up at Sony Music.

    McCartney and Yoko Ono were given first right of refusal, but both passed when they couldn’t strike a deal. Michael Jackson stepped in and bought the catalog, including Northern Songs. Once he owned the songs, he started licensing them out for
    tee vee commercials, something The Beatles had always resisted. This outraged
    Beatles’ fans around the world.

    When Jackson started to experience some cash flow problems, he eventually sold the rights to half of his publishing company to Sony, where they have stayed ever since.

    Paul McCartney Deported From Japan ► Monday Musical Appreciation

    It was 36 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to — OOPS! On this day in 1980, Paul McCartney was kicked out of Japan for trying to smuggle almost half a pound of marijuana into the country.

    Sir Paul, his wife Linda, and his band Wings were about to embark on what would have been a lucrative tour of Japan. McCartney had not been to Japan since The Beatles tour of 1966, where they were greeted by enthusiastic audiences.

    However, this Wings tour would end before it began when Japanese customs officials at Narita airport discovered close to eight ounces of marijuana right on the very top of his suitcase. The cute Beatle was promptly marched off to jail, where he spent the next 9 days behind bars.

    This was not McCartney’s first bust for dope. In fact, he had been nabbed more than once, receiving little more than a slap on the wrist. According to the Performing Songwriter web site:

    Prior to his arrest in Tokyo, Macca had been busted three times. In 1972, he paid a $2,000 fine for smuggling hashish into Sweden. The same year, he was fined for pot possession in Scotland, and in 1973, he was fined again for growing cannabis on his Scottish highlands farm. The story goes that before the Japanese tour, Paul was made to sign an affidavit stating that he no longer smoked dope, as a condition for receiving his visa. When the pot was found, Japanese authorities felt that they’d “lost face” and had no choice but to arrest him.

    While 8 ounces of pot is not an extreme amount, it would have been enough to garner a smuggling charge, which could have kept McCartney locked up for the next 7 years.

    As McCartney explained in the Wingspan documentary:

    According to the History web site:

    The question that troubled the minds of observers at the time was, “What was Paul thinking?” Half a pound of marijuana was a prodigious amount for one man to carry around for personal use—particularly a man who had had reason to expect especially close examination of his person and his baggage by Japanese customs officials. After all, Paul had been denied a Japanese entry visa just five years earlier due to his numerous earlier drug arrests in Europe.

    Twenty years after his 1980 arrest, Paul would opine that his psychological motivation may have been to find an excuse to disband Wings, which he in fact did immediately following his return to England. In another interview, however, Sir Paul offered an explanation that may be the more compelling for its simplicity: “We were about to fly to Japan and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there,” McCartney said in 2004. “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me.”

    His former writing partner, John Lennon, is said to have opined:

    “If he really needs weed, surely there’s enough people who can carry it
    for him. You’re a Beatle, boy, a Beatle. Your face is in every damn
    corner of the planet. How could you have been so stupid?”

    Smartening up, McCartney decided to toe the line while in jail. Ultimate Classic Rock picks up the story:

    As Inmate No. 22, he decided to become a model prisoner. As he said
    in the ‘Wingspan’ documentary, “I started to realize, “Right, I’m going
    to get up when the light goes on, I’m going to be the first up, I’m
    going to be the first with his room cleaned, I’m going to roll up my
    bed, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’”

    After nine days in the pokey, Japan kicked McCartney out of the country.
    He returned to Japan in 1990 and subsequently toured there several
    times.

    Also on this day in McCartney history: In 1991 Paul appeared on MTV’s Unplugged, a performance and CD which revitalized his career.

    Paul Is Dead ► Monday Musical Appreciation

    Forty-six years ago today occurred one of the craziest events in the annals of Rock and Roll Music History, in which I played a minor role. Here’s how it all came about

    According to The Music History Calendar:

    1969 : Russ Gibb, a DJ at WKNR in Detroit, takes a call from a listener who tells him that if you play The Beatles song “Revolution 9” backwards, a voice says, “Turn me on, dead man.” Gibb plays the record in reverse on the air, and the phone lines light up with astonished listeners offering more clues as to why Paul McCartney might be dead. For about a week, Gibb entertains a stream of rumors on the show, as ratings explode and the story goes national. Other clues include a voice at the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever” that says “I Buried Paul” (actually John Lennon saying “Cranberry Sauce”) and the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album, where Paul is wearing an armband that says “OPD” – “Officially Pronounced Dead.”

    This Day In Music erroneously writes about this event:

    1969, A DJ on Detroit’s WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play The Beatles ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words “I buried Paul.” This started a worldwide rumour that Paul McCartney was dead.

    What does this have to do with your humble correspondent? According to Paul is dead?!?, “introduced and explicated by saki” on the old USENET group rec.music.beatles:

    Another
    source for clues invention was a popular radio show hosted by
    disc-jockey Russell Gibb of WKNR-FM in Detroit was a vital element in
    the spread of the hoax. A regular r.m.b. reader, Headly Westerfield, who
    was not only a friend of Gibb but was present in-studio that afternoon
    (12 October 1969), recalls reading an “underground newspaper” (it may
    have been one of the the college papers then carrying the “clues”,
    similar to the ones Dartanyan Brown remembers seeing) with a list of
    “Paul Is Dead” clues.

    Gibb and cohorts were sufficiently inspired
    to read them on the air and to improvise new ones on the spot.
    Listeners to the show even recall someone calling up Gibb to report that
    if you played “Revolution No. 9” backward, you’d hear a secret message.
    (Note: radio-show collectors used to offer an aircheck of this show or a
    followup show for trade! Anyone have a copy?)

    Within days, Gibb
    & Co. were astonished when newspapers and reporters took their
    on-air joke seriously and spread the tale more widely. Some clues which
    have become part of established folklore, Westerfield reports, were
    invented that obscure day at WKNR-FM, but have since been accepted as
    part of the original hoax. Gibb and friends were not the source of the
    hoax, he emphasizes, but played a part in its initial wider
    dissemination. 

    TommyGarcia2’s YouTubery has a 2 part exposé on the Paul Is Dead rumour:


    When this rumour broke wide I was shocked and ashamed. From just goofing around in a radio studio, to it becoming a worldwide sensation, freaked me out. I was just 17 years old and unsophisticated in the ways of the world. I was worried that somehow this would all blow back on me in a horrible way. Therefore, I didn’t mention my involvement to anyone for about 20 years. Then I allowed myself to be interview by saki, who got word of my involvement from a mutual friend.

    When I saw what was finally printed, I went underground for another 20 years. Recently I told the whole, deeper story to my nephew Adam, one of the subjects of my blog post My Days With John Sinclair. He suggested I just live with it, in essence echoing the advice at the end of the wonderful 1962 John Wayne/James Stewart/Lee Marvin Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:

    Ransom Stoddard: You’re not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
    Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

    I’ll let Sir Paul, with a little help from his friends, have the last word:

    Headlines Du Jour ► Friday, April 25, 2014

    Hello, Headliners. Today’s birthday boy is Egbert Roscoe Murrow, aka Edward R. Murrow. who read a lot of Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear:

    Let’s get right to today’s Headlines Du Jour:

    IN LGBT NEWS:

    Gay veteran, 74, denied burial
    with spouse because of Idaho law

    GET THE FRACK OUT OF HERE:

    In Landmark Ruling, Jury Says
    Fracking Company Must Pay
    $3 Million To Sickened Family

    ANOTHER EXCITING EPISODE OF COPS GONE WILD:

    Two Former LA Sheriff Deputies Charged With Planting Guns At Marijuana Dispensary

    GOP STANDS FOR “GOT OVERLY PLASTERED”

    Mormon GOP Senator
    Who Claims to Abstain from
    Alcohol Arrested for DUI

    GUNS, GUNS, GUNS:

    What Georgia’s expansive
    new pro-gun law does

    Georgia Governor Signs Bill
    Allowing Guns In Bars,
    Churches, Libraries And Schools

    IT’S A SERIES OF TUBES:

    US proposes pay-for-priority
    Internet standards

    Net-Neutrality Advocates Angered
    by FCC’s Planned New Rules

    F.C.C. On Track To Ruin Last Truly Democratic Institution: The Internet

    WAR IS HELL, UNLESS YOU’RE A CONTRACTOR:

    The Real Winner of the Afghan War
    Is This Shady Military Contractor

    The State Department paid out $4 billion
    to rebuild Afghanistan. Some $2.5 billion of
    that went to a single firm with a bad, bad past.

    IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS:

    Buffalo Bills Cheerleaders Allege Minimum
    Wage Violations In Lawsuit Against Team

    $COTU$ WATCH:

    Dawsey: The Ban on
    Affirmative Action Is About
    Preserving the Caste System

    8 Times the Supreme Court
    Was Bewildered by Technology

    WHACKO WATCH:

    Libertarian Hero Cliven
    Bundy Shockingly Turns
    Out to Be Gigantic Racist

    Cliven Bundy is part of a long tradition: corporate mooching

    Cliven Bundy’s Slavery Delusion

    FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Fox News’ Anti-Gay Selective Outrage In One Chart

    Fox Goes Silent On Bundy
    After Racist Tirade

    Fox’s Krauthammer Blasts Conservatives For Their
    Support Of Cliven Bundy

    ROGER AILES IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Roger Ailes owns Cliven Bundy now: How dumb opportunism became a right-wing nightmare

    Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen,
    Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka?

    SEAN HANNITY IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Sean Hannity Claims That He
    Is The Real Victim of Cliven Bundy’s Racist Comments

    Hannity Addresses Bundy on Fox: Comments ‘Downright Racist’ and ‘Bigoted’

    Hannity: ‘I Think Jon Stewart Is Extremely Talented and Funny’

    LOOFAH LAD IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    O’Reilly on
    Bundy Fallout:
    ‘Be Careful Who
    You Partner Up With’

    GRETA VAN SUSTEREN IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Greta: ‘I Condemn What Cliven Bundy Said About African Americans’

    WRETCHED GRETCHED IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Fox’s Gretchen Carlson
    Shuts Down Democrat’s
    Attempt to Bring Up Bundy

    BRAIN BRIAN KILMEADE IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Mocks
    His Own Prom Photo,
    Says It’s “A Little Gay”

    ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑΛΎΤΕΡΟ ΗΛΊΘΙΟΣ TANTAROS IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    Fox’s Tantaros: Supreme Court
    Rolling Back Civil Rights Laws Is
    What “Martin Luther King Wished For”

    CNN IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

    President Obama Tears Apart CNN’s Lazy
    and Biased Press Conference Question

    IN INNER SPACE:

    Watch as swarms of micro-robots run around making stuff

    TODAY IN ART:

    Dozens of Never-Before-
    Seen Andy Warhol Works
    Found on Floppy Disks

    IN BEATLES NEWS:

    Paul McCartney sets Aug. 14 Candlestick show

    VIDEO DU JOUR:

    Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
    Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
    Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
    today’s open thread.

    Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, January 12, 2014

    When Headlines Du Jour is outlawed, only outlaws will read Headlines Du Jour. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

    BEST HEADLINE DU JOUR:

    Pimp Suing Nike for $100 Million After He Stomped Man Nearly
    to Death with Jordans

    LGBT NEWS:

    U.S. Government Issues LGBT Travel Alert For Olympics

    ROGER AILES IN THE NEWS:

    Biography Of Fox’s Roger Ailes Alleges Sexism, Anti-Semitism

    Roger and me: How I got berated by Fox News
    Channel’s boss

    ANOTHER HACK ATTACK:

    Neiman Marcus is latest victim of security breach
    Customers’ card information stolen and unauthorized charges made

    TODAY’S EXCITING EPISODE OF COPS GONE WILD:

    Los Angeles woman who fell from moving police car says she was sexually assaulted by cop

    SO GLAD WE’RE LIVING IN A POST-RACIAL SOCIETY:

    The racism at the heart of
    the Reagan presidency

    White professors still dominate Bay Area
    colleges as student bodies grow more diverse


    Franklin McCain — of ‘Greensboro Four,’
    who defied whites-only barrier — dies

    FREE THE WEED!!!

    Faces of Pot: The Vapour Lounge

    Marijuana case filings plummet in
    Colorado following legalization

    STOP THE PRESSES!!!

    NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio lambasted for eating pizza with a fork

    IN THE ART WORLD:

    Renoir found at flea market returned to museum by Virginia court

    OUT OF THIS WORLD:

    Planetology comes of age
    Those who study planets orbiting other
    stars now have plenty of data to play with

    Rare, Eclipsing Binary Asteroids Discovered by Undergraduate Astronomy Class

    Scientists spot hypervelocity stars escaping clutches of galaxy

    TODAY IN BEATLES’ NEWS:

    Paul McCartney And Ringo Starr May Stage Beatles
    Reunion On ‘Late Show With David Letterman’

    VIDEO DU JOUR:


    Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
    Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
    Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
    today’s open thread.

    Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► The Beatles’ Last Concert

    Dateline – August 29, 1966 – Candlestick Park, San Francisco – After an estimated 1,400 live shows and 9 years as a Band on the Run, John, Paul, George and Ringo, collectively known as The Beatles, perform their last concert for paying customers.

    The Beatles arriving in San Francisco for the last concert

    It had been a Long and Winding Road. From Hamburg to Liverpool. Then all around England, at first. Then the entire world. It seemed Beatlemania would never end. It got crazier and uglier and more dangerous as time went on. By the time The Beatles reached Candlestick Park in 1966, they knew it would be their last show. Even Paul was ready to throw in the towel and he was the Beatle who always wanted to tour and record.

    “On our last tour people kept bringing blind, crippled and deformed children into our dressing room and this boy’s mother would say, ‘Go on, kiss him, maybe you’ll bring back his sight.’ We’re not cruel. We’ve seen enough tragedy in Merseyside, but when a mother shrieks, ‘Just touch him and maybe he’ll walk again,’ we want to run, cry, empty our pockets. We’re going to remain normal if it kills us.”

    ~~~~~John Lennon

    “There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end. At
    that San Francisco gig it seemed that this could possibly be the last
    time, but I never felt 100% certain till we got back to London.

    John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he’d had enough.”

    ~~~~~Ringo Starr

    “Thank you very much everybody. Everybody, wonderful. Frisco, butchered.
    We’d like to say that, erm, it’s been wonderful being here, in this
    wonderful sea air. Sorry about the weather. And we’d like to ask you to
    join in and, er, clap, sing, talk, do anything. Anyway, the song is…
    good night.”

    ~~~~~Paul McCartney, introducing the last song at Candlestick Park

    “That’s it, then. I’m not a Beatle anymore.”

    ~~~~~George Harrison, on the plane after the show
    The Beatles taking the stage at Candlestick Park

    According to Mitch McGeary’s Beatles website:

    • The Beatles took 65% of the gross, the city of San Francisco took 15% of paid admissions and 50 free tickets. This, along with lukewarm ticket sales and other unexpected expenses resulted in a financial loss for Tempo Productions;
    • The oversize tickets were to [sic] large to fit the counting machines at Candlestick and had to be counted by hand;
    • The performance was taped by Tony Barrow at Paul McCartney’s request and is available in bootleg format. The last song was truncated because the recorder ran out of tape;
    • Just before leaving the stage, John teasingly strummed the opening guitar notes of “In My Life”;
    • Wes Wilson designed the concert poster for the show. Wes later on to become one of the most influential artists of the psychedelic movement and designed many important posters for Bill Graham.

    Although Candlestick Park had 42,500 seats, unbelievably the ticket sales were sluggish and just over half were sold. Only 25,000 people were on hand to witness the final official concert by the greatest Rock and Roll band to ever come down the pike.

    Knowing it could be their last show The Beatles took some commemorative pictures:

    “Before one of the last numbers, we actually set up this camera, I think it had a fisheye, a wide-angle lens. We set it up on the amplifier and Ringo came off the drums, and we stood with our backs to the audience and posed for a photograph, because we knew that was the last show.”

    ~~~~~George Harrison

    The 33 minute show had a slightly altered setlist from the other shows on the tour:

    1. Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover)
    2. She’s a Woman
    3. If I Needed Someone
    4. Day Tripper
    5. Baby’s in Black
    6. I Feel Fine
    7. Yesterday
    8. I Wanna Be Your Man
    9. Nowhere Man
    10. Paperback Writer
    11. Long Tall Sally (Little Richard cover) (with ‘In My Life’ snippet at the end)

    One other thing The Beatles did to commemorate the occasion was to ask press officer Tony Barrow to record the show: According to The Beatles Bible:

    “At San Francisco airport, as our plane prepared to take off, Paul’s head came over the top of my seat from the row behind: ‘Did you get anything on tape?’ I passed the cassette recorder back to him: ‘I got the lot, except that the tape ran out in the middle of Long Tall Sally.’ He asked if I had left the machine running between numbers to get all the announcements and the boys’ ad lib remarks. I said: ‘It’s all there from the guitar feedback before the first number.’ Paul was clearly chuffed to have such a unique souvenir of what would prove to be an historic evening – the farewell stage show from the Fab Four.

    Back in London I kept the concert cassette under lock and key in a drawer of my office desk, making a single copy for my personal collection and passing the original to Paul for him to keep. Years later my Candlestick Park recording re-appeared in public as a bootleg album. If you hear a bootleg version of the final concert that finishes during Long Tall Sally it must have come either from Paul’s copy or mine, but we never did identify the music thief!”

    ~~~~~Tony Barrow; “John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me”

    Beatles fans (and completists like myself) are lucky there was a music thief. That’s why 46 years later we can still listen to the last concert The Beatles ever performed for a ticketed audience. Sadly the tape ran out part way through the last song. However, we still have this record of The Beatles at the height of their live performances.

    From this moment through to Abbey Road, The Beatles were a recording band, save for their one brief appearance on the roof of Apple for the Let It Be film (which has still not been released on DVD. Get on that, Sir Paul.)

    ***

    ***

    Musical Appreciation ► Live Aid

    He was a member of The Boomtown Rats, an Irish Punk band from the late ’70s. At the time no one could have predicted that Bob Geldolf, writer of everyone’s favourite work anthem “I Don’t Like Mondays,” would be elevated to a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his charity work on Live Aid, the biggest fundraising Rock Concert ever mounted. It took place on two continents at two separate venues, Wembley and JFK stadiums in London and Phildelphia respectively. The simultaneous concerts were broadcast around the world and, in the final accounting, raised an estimated £150,000,000 for famine relief 27 years ago today.

    However, it was the music that kept people in front of their tee vee sets. Here are just a few of the performances. [Full list of performers at below]

    The Coldstream Guards set the tone for the day with the Royal Salute and God Save The Queen. Speaking of Queen; their performance is considered one of the best of the day and one of the best live performances of their career. Freddie Mercury was at the top of his game, belting out all the high notes. Here is their full performance:

    Although they were never billed as such that day, here was the much anticipated reunion of Led Zeppelin, performing their biggest hit:

    The Material Girl had a set:

    As did Paul McCartney, whose opening was marred by a faulty microphone when he was brought out as the show closer:

    David Bowie turned in an electrifying performance of Heroes:

    Phil Collins performed “In The Air Tonight” in Philadelphia after a set in London earlier in the day. He’s the only artist to appear at both concerts.

    This came after a hurried Concorde flight from London, where he accompanied Sting on such songs as Roxanne and Every Breath You Take:

    Sting also performed with Dire Straits, recreating his performance from the Money For Nothing.

    Guitar God Eric Clapton blasted out a searing Layla (with Phil Collins, who seemed to be everywhere that day, on drums):

    The concerts lasted 16 hours but, with sets occurring at both venues simultaneously, the actual running time of the music was much longer. Here is the rundown for both venues with the songs performed (as listed on the WikiWackyWoo):

    Wembley

    •     Coldstream Guards – “Royal Salute”, “God Save The Queen” (W 12:00);
    •     Status Quo – “Rockin’ All Over the World”, “Caroline”, “Don’t Waste My Time” (W 12:02);
    •     The Style Council – “You’re the Best Thing”, “Big Boss Groove”, “Internationalists”, “Walls Come Tumbling Down” (W 12:19);
    •     The Boomtown Rats – “I Don’t Like Mondays”, “Drag Me Down”, “Rat Trap”, “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” (sung by the audience) (W 12:44);
    •     Adam Ant – “Vive Le Rock” (W 13:00);
    •     Ultravox – “Reap The Wild Wind”, “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes”, “One Small Day”, “Vienna” (W 13:16);
    •     Spandau Ballet – “Only When You Leave”, “Virgin”, “True” (W 13:47);
    •     Elvis Costello – “All You Need Is Love” (W 14:07);
    •     Nik Kershaw – “Wide Boy”, “Don Quixote”, “The Riddle”, “Wouldn’t It Be Good” (W 14:22);
    •     Sade – “Why Can’t We Live Together”, “Your Love Is King”, “Is It A Crime” (W 14:55);
    •     Sting and Phil Collins (with Branford Marsalis) – “Roxanne”, “Driven To Tears”, “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)”, “Message In A Bottle”, “In the Air Tonight”, “Long Long Way To Go”, “Every Breath You Take” (W 15:18);
    •     Howard Jones – “Hide And Seek” (W 15:50)
    •     Bryan Ferry (with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitar) – “Sensation”, “Boys And Girls”, “Slave To Love”, “Jealous Guy” (W 16:07);
    •     Paul Young – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (intro), “Come Back and Stay”, “That’s The Way Love Is” (with Alison Moyet), “Every Time You Go Away” (W 16:38);
    •     U2 (introduced by Jack Nicholson)– “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Bad” (with snippets of “Satellite Of Love”, “Ruby Tuesday”, “Sympathy For The Devil” and “Walk On The Wild Side”) (W 17:20);
    •     Dire Straits – “Money for Nothing” (with Sting), “Sultans Of Swing” (W 18:00);
    •     Queen (introduced by comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones) – “Bohemian Rhapsody”/”Radio Ga-Ga”, “Hammer to Fall”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “We Will Rock You”/”We Are the Champions” (W 18:44);
    •     David Bowie (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) – “TVC 15”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Modern Love”, “Heroes” (W 19:22);
    •     The Who (introduced by Jack Nicholson) – “My Generation”/”Pinball Wizard”, “Love, Reign O’er Me”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (W 20:00);
    •     Elton John (introduced by Billy Connolly) – “I’m Still Standing”, “Bennie and the Jets”, “Rocket Man”, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (with Kiki Dee), “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (with George Michael and backing vocals by Andrew Ridgeley), “Can I Get a Witness” (W 20:50);
    •     Finale at Wembley Stadium:
    •     a) Freddie Mercury and Brian May (Queen) – “Is This The World We Created?” (W 21:48),
    •     b) Paul McCartney – “Let It Be” (W 21:51),
    •     c) Band Aid (led by Bob Geldof) – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (W 21:54);

    JFK Stadium

    •     Bernard Watson – “All I Really Want to Do”, “Interview” (JFK 13:51);
    •     Joan Baez (introduced by Jack Nicholson) – “Amazing Grace”/”We Are the World” (JFK 14:02);
    •     The Hooters – “And We Danced”, “All You Zombies” (JFK 14:12);
    •     Four Tops – “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)”, “Bernadette”, “It’s The Same Old Song”, “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” (JFK 14:33);
    •     Billy Ocean – “Caribbean Queen”, “Loverboy” (JFK 14:45);
    •     Black Sabbath (introduced by Chevy Chase) – “Children of the Grave”, “Iron Man”, “Paranoid” (JFK 14:52);
    •     Run–D.M.C. – “Jam Master Jay”, “King Of Rock” (JFK 15:12);
    •     Rick Springfield – “Love Somebody”, “State of the Heart”, “Human Touch” (JFK 15:30);
    •     REO Speedwagon – “Can’t Fight This Feeling”, “Roll With The Changes” (JFK 15:47);
    •     Crosby, Stills and Nash – “Southern Cross”, “Teach Your Children”, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (JFK 16:15);
    •     Judas Priest – “Living After Midnight”, “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)”, “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” (JFK 16:26);
    •     Bryan Adams (introduced by Jack Nicholson) – “Kids Wanna Rock”, “Summer Of ’69”, “Tears Are Not Enough”, “Cuts Like a Knife” (JFK 17:02);
    •     The Beach Boys (introduced by Marilyn McCoo) – “California Girls”, “Help Me, Rhonda”, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “Good Vibrations”, “Surfin’ USA” (JFK 17:40);
    •     George Thorogood and the Destroyers – “Who Do You Love” (with Bo Diddley), “The Sky Is Crying”, “Madison Blues” (with Albert Collins) (JFK 18:26);
    •     Simple Minds – “Ghost Dancing”, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, “Promised You A Miracle” (JFK 19:07);
    •     The Pretenders – “Time The Avenger”, “Message Of Love”, “Stop Your Sobbing”, “Back On The Chain Gang”, “Middle of the Road” (JFK 19:41);
    •     Santana and Pat Metheny – “Brotherhood”, “Primera Invasion”, “Open Invitation”, “By The Pool”/”Right Now” (JFK 20:21);
    •     Ashford & Simpson – “Solid”, “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” (with Teddy Pendergrass) (JFK 20:57);
    •     Madonna (introduced by Bette Midler) – “Holiday”, “Into The Groove”, “Love Makes The World Go Round” (JFK 21:27);
    •     Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (introduced by Don Johnson) – “American Girl”, “The Waiting”, “Rebels”, “Refugee” (JFK 22:14);
    •     Kenny Loggins – “Footloose” (JFK 22:30);
    •     The Cars – “You Might Think”, “Drive”, “Just What I Needed”, “Heartbeat City” (JFK 22:49);
    •     Neil Young – “Sugar Mountain”, “The Needle and the Damage Done”, “Helpless”, “Nothing Is Perfect (In God’s Perfect Plan)”, “Powderfinger” (JFK 23:07);
    •     Power Station – “Murderess”, “Get It On” (JFK 23:43);
    •     Thompson Twins – “Hold Me Now”, “Revolution” (with Madonna, Steve Stevens and Nile Rodgers) (JFK 00:21);
    •     Eric Clapton (with Phil Collins) – “White Room”, “She’s Waiting”, “Layla” (JFK 00:39);
    •     Phil Collins (having flown Concorde from UK to US) – “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)”, “In The Air Tonight” (JFK 01:04);
    •     Led Zeppelin Reunion – (with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Tony Thompson, Paul Martinez, and Phil Collins) – “Rock and Roll”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Stairway To Heaven” (JFK 01:10);
    •     Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, “Daylight Again/Find The Cost of Freedom” (JFK 01:40);
    •     Duran Duran – “A View to a Kill”, “Union Of The Snake”, “Save A Prayer”, “The Reflex” (JFK 01:45);
    •     Patti LaBelle – “New Attitude”, “Imagine”, “Forever Young”, “Stir It Up”, “Over The Rainbow”, “Why Can’t I Get It Over” (JFK 02:20);
    •     Hall & Oates – “Out Of Touch”, “Maneater”, “Get Ready” (with Eddie Kendricks), “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” (with David Ruffin), “The Way You Do The Things You Do”, “My Girl” (with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin) (JFK 02:50);
    •     Mick Jagger (with Hall & Oates / Eddie Kendricks / David Ruffin) – “Lonely At The Top”, “Just Another Night”, “Miss You”, “State Of Shock”/”It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It) (reprise)” (with Tina Turner) (JFK 03:15);
    •     Finale at JFK Stadium:
    •     a) Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood – “Ballad of Hollis Brown”, “When the Ship Comes In”, Blowin’ In The Wind” (JFK 03:39),
    •     b) USA for Africa (led by Lionel Richie) – “We Are the World” (JFK 3:55)