The Beatles 1980 Central Park Reunion Concert..

So the story goes that John Lennon visited Apple's lawyers in New York concerning preparations for a court case against the Producers of Beatlemania . John said in a sworn affidavit that : "I and the three other former Beatles have plans to stage a reunion, to be recorded, filmed and marketed around the world."
That same week the New York Police Department was approached by an unknown organization asking if it would be possible for the city to prepare a feasibility study for a Beatles Reunion concert in Central Park!
So was this concert in the planning stages? Was it mere bravado on John's part? Would Yoko have been keen to see this happen? Were the Beatles at a good place collectively for this to take place? What songs would have been on the set list? Which Beatles songs and would any solo material have made the set list? Your thoughts?

 

Long as Yoko was around, a Beatle reunion would have never happened. Not in the 70's or the 80's or 90's had John been alive.

 

Love the live album by Simon and Garfunkel from Central Park. It has a very nice vibe. I find it difficult to imagine The Beatles come together only for entertainment like that. Four solo artists who were not really very friendly with each other anymore.

 

it makes one really fn' angry doesn't?...she truly took down the Beatles from within.

 

they would have done a set from each period 64-66... 67-69 and some solo cuts...

 

don't kid yourself I see it as they most definitely would have had a blast...

 

Concert? Nah. George wouldn’t want to. It took for him to be in financial trouble to do the anthology. Just my .02.

 

hmmm... maybe after all this,

John did that tune with Ringo the following week, they called George, got together and started filming rehearsals (à la "Let It Be" minus the negative vibes) for the upcoming surprise reunion concert at Central Park and what would become a bestselling live album called "Come Together" !

 

John overestimated the audience for any Beatles reunion in 1980. It turns out the Beatles reunion was a done deal, but no promoters were willing to back it up financially. So the Beatles were stuck as one of the opening acts for Peter Frampton:






(From Mark Shipper’s very humorous Paperback Writer book)

 

Lol!....For a second...just for a second....

 

Pure legal maneuvering. Nothing more.

 

I am not sure if it was just legal manoeuvring, because of the organisation contacting the NYPD, but also because Jack Douglas has said John was expecting Paul to be working with him around that time, because of the rumour that they were all going to work on a Ringo album, potentially together, and because a BBC music journalist, who may have been the first person Paul spoke to on the phone after John died, has since confirmed that Paul told him they were going to reunite/work together again.

I believe, according to Douglas, that John was expecting Paul to turn up for a recording session, but that unbeknownst to him, Paul had arrived but then was turned away. We also have the source (maybe Douglas) saying that George called John, but that Yoko blocked the call from reaching him.

All of it suggests some form of reunion activity potentially, if Douglas and the BBC journalist are reliable sources (Douglas just worked with Ringo again, so has hardly been frozen out for what he has said through the years).

 

All of the reunion possibilities and hypotheticals jump straight into new output or setlists, and while it is fun to ponder, there's no denying that a reunion could've died as soon as the four met up and had old problems arise. It's not exactly unlikely that a Beatles reunion could've been the four of them planning something, meeting up to begin work on it, and then abandoning it. We're lucky we even got Anthology!

 

Imagine a world were a Beatles reunion would get second billing to Peter Frampton in the mid-70s.

 

I don't consider myself an overt optimist and I'm not into these 'what if?' kind of threads but...
it came to light a few years ago that Paul had it written in his Columbia contract that should The Beatles reform, he could -in a sense - put the contract on pause until his Beatles commitment was over. This would be a huge win-win for everybody involved.

:--)

 

Michael, since they would have been in America, would they be performing the 64-66 songs with extra reverb?

 

any setlist requests?

 

you are not funny! LOL!

 

Pretty strong indicator that he was at least not ruling it out, potentially even planning for it. It would have been really easy for him to be like "naw, sorry lads, can't do it, contracts and all that" to avoid a reunion if he truly didn't want to do it.

 

John and Paul blew it when they didn't take the chance and show up at Saturday Night Live. I have always wondered what would have happened and what they would have done. Could they have walked on unrehearsed?

 

It's wonderful that you did a nice copy & paste job and added italics and your own random questions, but didn't feel the need to include the source.

 

Author Peter Doggett page 268 of You Never Give Me Your Money for those in doubt.

 

Would WHOPPIE have been there in Central Park for the show?

 

They probably would have played something like Bye Bye Love, with a couple of acoustic guitars...

 

The guys selling loose joints kept their cash and a guy rushed the stage when John was singing a new song written about Paul Simon.