STACK #204 Oct 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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WHISPER WORDS OF WISDOM How 42 minutes on a rooftop changed the course of Let It Be Words Zoë Radas

bosom of The Beatles’ closest circles. Keys player Billy Preston recalled it was John Lennon’s idea. Recording engineer Glyn Johns has said it was his own. Former US Manager of Apple Records, Ken Mansfield, reckons it was Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director of the film for which the event was recorded (1970’s Let It Be ). Whoever it was, the notion of the Let It Be sessions culminating in a live performance had been baked into the record’s concept since the beginning, as the group endeavoured to find the joy that’d been lacking during strained recording sessions at Twickenham Film Studios, and then at the band’s

As Universal prepare to launch the special editions of The Beatles’ chart-smashing 1970 album Let It Be – including a SuperDeluxeVinyl package which includes 4 LPs, a 12-inch EP, and a 105-page hardbacked book of rare images and notes – we’re trotting down the lane of musical memory; here’s the story of the band’s renowned 1969 rooftop concert. J ohn messy-haired in a fur coat, Paul beaming with the wind in his beard, Ringo rocking a tangerine mac and George appearing to have skinned a bear for his get-up: these are The Beatles

ultimately became the last public performance of the beloved group’s career – and for millions of fans, the end of an era. Who came up with the concept for the rooftop concert is debated, even within the

on January 30, 1969, sky-high on a rooftop in London’s West End. The lads played for a total of 42 minutes before the bobbies shut down the show at 3 Savile Row, so ending what

own Apple Studios, throughout the month of January 1969. The only question was where that stage should be. Once it was decided they need only travel

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