The Beatles' Rooftop Concert - What other songs were on the setlist?

Great pix by all concerned. I've discussed the rooftop session on this forum and elsewhere for years now. I think that the Beatles fully intended to perform a full concert (meaning 10 or so songs) just prior to actually taking the roof stage. The night before ALL were in agreement that this would be a "show" not just a few tunes done for the film. George's Old Brown Shoe was near-perfected during the sessions that preceeded the gig and they resurrected several other tunes, including All Things Must Pass, Let It Down and For You Blue. Certainly For You Blue and Old Brown Shoe were ready to go.

Before the show, the Beatles met in the basement of Apple (without cameras or mics) and made final decisions on what they'd be doing. For reasons we'll never know, George decided that "his" songs weren't ready to perform. Nerves? A craw in his foot about John's stubborness on learning his tunes? No one knows. Such the pity really. As we can all see, once the Beatles started the gig, much of the old magic returned. Smiles, laughter and some real good ensemble playing. I have NO doubt that if George had done one of his songs they all would have pulled through and given it their best shot.

The first photo is VERY interesting. An acoustic guitar mic next to Paul. A second electric keyboard behind George. John's lap steel. Unless Mal and Neil just moved the gear up there without much direction, one would surmise that Two Of Us and perhaps Old Brown Shoe were originally planned to be played. Sounds silly, but I could even see them doing Dig It, Teddy Boy or Let It Be (all played during the rehearsal session the days before) Ahhh... Ron

PS I wonder if George Martin (down in the Apple bunker) urged them NOT to do the acoustic or piano tunes due to the weather elements?

 

It was a joke:
The man in the mac said, "You've got to go back".

I read the thread, thank you.

 

Sorry. Sometimes intended jokes don't come out quite right on the internet I guess.

 

Yes, I remember someone did. Wasn't it around the time of the show's 40th anniversary?

 

On another forum, the alleged (but seemingly real, so no reason to doubt him) Kevin Harrington actually did several posts talking about the Let it Be sessions, including the rooftop. His thread was even titled "Kneeling man on the Roof". He said that back several years ago, he was called up by Apple and interviewed and filmed for the release of the Let it Be on DVD. However, other threads I've seen with information about the contents of that alleged LIB DVD release listed interviews with several people, but did not include Kevin, so maybe they decided not to use any of his information.

He seemed like a genuine guy, but he only answered questions for a few days. Unfortunately, some of the questions were not the best, so things like the set list or songs intended to be played never got asked. Apparently, he quickly tired of the barrage of questions being thrown at him and disappeared.
Was it really him? I'd say yes but who knows.

 

Maybe this is simply me asking the same question in a different way, but with everything that was documented at the time, did the Beatles ever discuss how long they would play on the roof? I wonder if they expected to only be up there for 45 minutes or so anyway, or were they expecting to stay up until it got too cold to play? It seems unlikely that they would decide to play a gig and not discuss how long it would be.

 

Hey chaps!

This thread made it to the Rolling Stone magazine!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...top-concert-15-things-you-didnt-know-20160129

Go to the "The set list may have ended up being longer." section and see the following link.

Cheers for all us "eagle-eyed rock scholars"!

 

Thanks for that. Someone at Rolling Stone reads (and steals) info from SHF!
But there's a few things in that article that are questionable. Is that Yoko's coat that John is wearing, or is it his own coat. There's another thread somewhere here on SHF that has LOTS of different photos from different dates where John is wearing this very same coat, so he must not have borrowed it, but have absconded with it. Actually, I thinkit is just HIS coat, not hers, although she also had fur coats. And Yoko being 5'2" and John being 5"11", I doubt he'd even fit in her coat across the shoulders.

 

I've often wondered the same about this coat. The oldest pic I've seen has Yoko wearing it. That was in the Rock & Roll Circus.
(It certainly seemed to fit her better). Every pic after that had John wearing it. Maybe he got the idea from watching George wear that beautiful lambs wool coat.