The Beatles Don't Break Up in 1970 - A Timeline
- Thread starter YellowSubmarine93
- Start date
IDK, but earlier in this timeline, they lost to, in their own words, "a bloody folk duo."
It wasn't so much the Beatles as Rock in Roll in general that the Grammy's were biased against but they probably also disliked the Beatles because of the long hair and being foreign too.
To give you an example how biased the Grammy's were against rock music, no R n R album had won a Grammy until 1967, about 15 years after the first rock album had been released. That album that won in 67 was Sgt. Peppers but I believe the main reason it won that year was because it was such a huge hit not just in the US but world wide and almost every music critic in the business sang its praise, so if Pepper's hadn't won that year the Grammy people would've looked pretty stupid.
Still 15 years for a popular genre of music to win a Grammy is pretty out there but its par for the course, Heavy Metal and Punk Rock also had to wait a long time before the Grammy's gave them their due too.
I think 666 was released too late in the year to be considered for the 1972 Grammies but it will be eligible (along with All Things Must Pass) for the 1973 Grammy Awards.
All Things Must Pass Tour North American Dates
Now that The Beatles have reached the French portion of the tour, here are the dates for the North American leg. The group will play in both outdoor and indoor venues. On the European leg they've played exclusively in soccer stadiums.
June 2 - Shea Stadium, New York City, New York
June 4 - Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
June 7 - Jarry Park, Montreal, Quebec
June 10 - Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
June 12 - Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio
June 15 - Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Michigan
June 17 - Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois
June 20 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
June 23 - Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas
June 25 - Astrodome, Houston, Texas
June 29 - Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona
July 1 - Las Vegas Stadium, Las Vegas Nevada
July 3 - Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
July 7 - Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
July 10 - Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
July 13 - Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington
July 15 - Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado
July 18 - Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, Louisiana
July 20 - Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Atlanta, Georgia
July 23 - RFK Stadium, Washington DC
The group will then fly out of New York City to Australia.
June 2 - Shea Stadium, New York City, New York
June 4 - Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
June 7 - Jarry Park, Montreal, Quebec
June 10 - Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
June 12 - Cleveland Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio
June 15 - Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Michigan
June 17 - Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois
June 20 - Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
June 23 - Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas
June 25 - Astrodome, Houston, Texas
June 29 - Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona
July 1 - Las Vegas Stadium, Las Vegas Nevada
July 3 - Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
July 7 - Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
July 10 - Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
July 13 - Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington
July 15 - Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado
July 18 - Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, Louisiana
July 20 - Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Atlanta, Georgia
July 23 - RFK Stadium, Washington DC
The group will then fly out of New York City to Australia.
Fingers crossed for Western Springs Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand.
They have a very good chance of breaking OTL's New Zealand record for biggest concert attendance: approx 80,000 on 26 Nov 1983 for David Bowie (final show of the Australasian leg of the Serious Moonlight tour)
I can just imagine Paul commenting "It looks like most of your country has turned up for this!" between songs...
Thursday, July 13, 1972. No school. But Rick and Jerry were both working as gophers for Rick's dad in his contracting company. They and me, I went by Randi, also worked at the local paper mill 'folding pulp' on week-ends. It took the lumber coming in and made it into this pulpy, thick, paper that came out in long rolls. We'd sit at either end of a pallet and fold it so it piled up on the pallet. We'd usually wear gloves to protect our hands. It paid an enormous high wage, we thought, for those days- $4.75 and hour! We might get one or two shifts each weekend. The folded up pulp, bound up after our pallets filled up, would go off to other mills to be made into regular paper, facial tissue, or bathroom tissue. The later two types of mills were also at our local mill, but there was more pulp made then they needed- so some was still shipped off to other mills.
Greg and the other two girls in our little clique- Jill and Jenny- didn't work. So the only issue was Rick and Jerry getting off on Friday the 14th and getting off early on the 13th for the near two hour trip, and hour and half to Seattle, and a half hour in the busy city traffic and finding the parking. But that wasn't a problem since they worked for Rick's dad.
(Let me describe my friends [real OTL friends then.] Greg was tall, thin, wore glasses, had dark brown hair, was a senior, and was knowledgeable about just everything you can imagine. I was just normal with blonde hair and was a junior. Rick was tall, but not as tall as his cousin Greg, had short blond hair and was a junior. Jill had a round face, short, bobbed, black hair, and was a sophomore. Rick was a little pudgy with brown hair, freckles, liked to wear boots, and was a junior. Jenny had long straight red hair, a thin face, liked to wear chokers, and was a sophomore.)
How we were going to travel was an issue. Six of us. The only ones of us who owned their own vehicles were Rick and Jerry. Rick had a little pickup truck that had a canopy and a plywood floor in the pick up bed. He could get three in front, probably Jill squeezed in the middle so she'd be next to him since she was his girlfriend. (Rick and Jenny were a couple. Greg and I had gone out, but we weren't a couple.) But we didn't relish half of us sitting in the back. We'd rather be squeezed in three in front and three in back in Jerry's 1959 red Plymouth sedan.
How Greg got the money I don't know. He never worked, his family was not well off, but he always had spending cash. I think he may have gotten an allowance. He lived with his widowed working mom and two older brothers, both adults, who worked. So they probably helped with household finances, leaving their mom enough to give her baby son, now 6'3" tall, a good allowance. Jill and Jenny had been saving up from baby sitting. I had that weekend job at the mill that paid a lot and I'd been saving too.
The Collesium was one of the big venues in the Seattle Civic Center, famous for the Space Needle, that had originally been the site of the early 1960s Seattle World's Fair. Besides the Collesium, where the Sonics played basketball and a lot of acts did concerts, there was the Opera House, with much nicer seating in padded theater seats, a really great stage and acoustics, but not the capacity for a big rock act.
The Collesium is in the lower left with the red stripes. The Opera House is above it with the parking garage, costly but convient if you coud afford it, across the invisible street. In the back you can see I-5 crossing Lake Union.
We were thrilled the Beatles were in Seattle with Creedence opening. Vancouver would have been better- closer and it is such a beautiful city and they'd have been at the PNE and we could have gone on the exhibition rides before the concert. But Seattle was close enough that we wouldn't have to get motel rooms. We planned on getting drive in fast food burgers to eat on the way down and then go to a sit down restaurant aterwards before driving home. We figured we'd get home after 2:00 am, but that was no big deal for kids our age. Why we'd stay up that late for a triple feature at the Drive-In.
As we drove down, Jenny sat in the middle of the front and Greg, the tall one don't forget, sat next to her on the passenger side as there was more leg room up front. I sat behind Jerry, Jill in the middle, and Rick behind Greg. I knew that Rick and Jill would probably make out on the drive home when it was all dark. I was used to that, before Rick got his license the previous summer, the three of us would go to the Drive-In in my family car, since I got my license early our Sophomore year, and they'd end up making out in the back seat while I sat up front trying to ignore it.
We didn't get on the road until after 5. But Rick and Jerry still got off work early at 3:30 instead 4:30. They didn't want to see the Beatles in their dirty work clothes. They'd showered and put on clean clothes. Jerry picked up Jenny first, then Jill, who lived between Jenny's home and Rick and Greg, who lived next door to each other. Then he got Rick and Greg. At 5:20 Jerry's red car pulled into my drive way and I said goodbye to my mom and dad and headed out the door. "Be careful and have fun," my mom said.
"I will," I said. The five of them were waiting in the car, big smiles plastered on their faces. I got in my seat and we were on the road.
Jerry had an 8 track player in his car, he'd had it installed since they sure didn't have them in 1959. They were already listening to Beatles' albums as I got in. We went straight to the interstate and headed south.
Half an hour later we were in Burlington and there was a McDonalds right at an exit. We got off and ordered dinner and were back on the Interstate in a few minutes. In those days a couple of burgers, fries (only came in one size) and a Coke cost around a dollar!
We pulled into Seattle around 7:00, there had been heavy traffic. The doors woud open at 8:00, so we had plenty of time to park, walk over, and get in the ticket holders line. We'd all bought our tickets together as soon as they were available. In those days before the internet there were little ticket selling businesses all over the nation. We had one in Bellingham and we all gone in the day the tickets had gone on sale- having waited in line there for three hours. By then the floor seating was gone. We'd be up in the stands at the far end from where the stage would be, but we didn't mind. We brought binoculars!
(OOC: I saw Yes and Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the Collesium in the early 90s. Neil Young had Sonic Youth opening and I sat then exactly where I described above. At the other concert, it was the combined Yes with two guiarists, two keyboardists, and two drummers and they set up in the middle of floor and had a stage in the round!)
We got in and found our seats around 8:20. Music was filling the place, piped in music- not of the Beatles but of other rock bands. I guess they didn't want to spoil the actual live performance with us just hearing the recorded versions. The order of our seating from my left to my right was Greg, Rick, Jill, me, Jenny, and Jerry who was on the aisle. Greg had a stranger on his left.
We sat and just couldn't believe it. Soon Creedence Clearwater Revival would be on that big constructed stage at the far end of the floor, which was thrilling enough, but then it would be the Beatles. It stretched from one side of the floor to the other with big curtains behind it and a big screen in front of the curtain. The seats behind the stage were obviously empty. Big columns of speakers were on either side of the stage and microphones were set up. A drum kit was elevated above the front of the stage like it always was in old pictures of old Beatles' performances. We could see little speaker monitors at the front and side of the stage pointing in towards where the band would be. In the middle of the floor was another elevated place and on it were all sorts of sound equipment controls. Three guys were already there, just sitting and chatting towards each other. We figured they'd done all the sound check before. Big lights were on scaffolding above the stage, but right then they weren't on. The stadium lights were still on and that was how we coud see.
At 9:02 the stadium lights went out. The entire place suddenly got very quiet. We couldn't see a thing. Then drums began playing. At first we could barely hear them. Then they got louder and louder. Then that distinctive guitar riff started up. Then the chords of the rhythm guitar. The stage lights went on and Creedence was playing. Soon John Fogerty started singing. Shivers went down my back and goosebumps were all over me. We were rocking back and forth.
Then came "Up Around the Bend." Then another two favorites of mine.
Then they did their big hit, "Proud Mary." As it ended the stage lights went low and the screen behind them lit up with a film. It was moving over water and then we saw a jungle ahead. That's when the music started up. As the music began the film switched to soldiers running with jungle in the background getting into a helicopter. It was Vietnam. Again the shivers and goosebumps took over me.
The intensity went down after that as they did lighter songs, "Who'll Stop the Rain" and their latest hit, "Sweet Hitchhiker." Years later I'd realize that despite the light feel of "Rain" it was also about Vietnam.
They finished up with another Vietnam song. This time the screen lit up with a slide not a film. A Giant American flag all torn and dirty with holes in it.
Forty minutes had passed. The lights went up and everybody was talking. Roadies came out and switched out the drum kit for Ringo's. We could see the Beatle's logo on it. Several different guitars were set up, ready to be picked up. CCR hadn't changed instruments during their set. We realized the Beatles would. A grand piano was rolled out onto the side of the stage. We could see other keyboards set up in the rear. The roadies finally got done, but only after a sound check on the drums, which were miked, was finished with a roadie at the kit. All this time other songs of CCR that hadn't been played like "Lodi" and "Looking Out My Back Door" and "Down On The Corner" were played through the piped in music. The roadies were gone but the last song went on until it was finished.
Then the auditorium lights went off again. Unlike the silence before CCR when this happened, this time screaming began. Everyone was standing up. I don't even remember standing up. I couldn't help it, I was screaming and my arms were up in the air. Then one of the most memorable moments of my life began....
A very familiar guitar riff was louder than our screaming. The lights on the stage went on. The Beatles were on stage and Paul started singing at his mic...
"Asked a girl what she wanted to be..."
I thought I'd been screaming before. Now I really was.
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Awesome job Asharella! I'm already looking forward to reading the rest, which will probably come when I get to that point in the timeline I imagine. Also, I was thinking of putting the concert in Vancouver but decided to put it in Seattle since it would still be accessible to fans living in Vancouver.
I wasn't sure if there was an opening act. I'm hoping there isn't, that it's just the Beatles.
Does this begin with Golden Slumbers or with You Never Give Me Your Money? I've seen both referred to as the medley
I want to change this after going back and seeing that Queen might be the opening act. Here's a story of mine that is true that does connect Queen with the Beatles.
When I was a junior in college I was in a poetry class as I was an English minor. We had a big thick paper book full of poems and we'd pick several for the next class and whoever picked one got to read it and then we'd discuss it.
Well, "A Day In The Life" was one of the poems, any you know me, I picked it one class when I got to pick on of the poems for the next class. Unfortunately I couldn't re-listen to it since I didn't own Sgt. Pepper. This was Fall 1975 and there was no internet.
So as I lay in bed that night with my radio by my side, I called up the radio and requested they play it for me. Of course I had no idea how long it would take for them to get to it, so I turned on the radio and listened to the top forty songs they were playing until they got to my request. On and on it went and then...
...without any naming of the song by the DJ or the band, a band I'd never heard before that I'd noticed....
...a chorus of voices started singing.
I lay in bed enraptured.
So in this fantasy three years earlier as I wait for the Beatles to have the opening band, a band I'd never heard of before, be Queen fits in my story. I want it! Too bad it's too early for BR.
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Badfinger has been opening for the group during the European leg of the tour. Queen was an additional opening act at the Wembley Stadium concert. CCR will open for them in North America. If you need to adjust your narrative, feel free to do so.
How long a set will CCR do? Is there a set list or can I make it?
Butterflies!
But Tom left before their last album which has the hit "Sweet Hitchhiker," that was in April of 1972 then they broke up.
Let's Butterfly that Tom stayed and they didn't break up, at least until they open for the Beatles.
Or maybe they regrouped to open for the Beatles?
They did in OTL. It's my understanding that they broke up due to the lack of creative control their label afforded them. Since they've signed with Apple, which does allow them to have full creative control, they are still together at this point ITTL.