Why the Beatles' Shea Stadium Show Was Even Greater Than You Knew
Leaving festivals like Woodstock and Monterey aside, there is no more famous gig in rock & roll history than when the Beatles played Shea Stadium, an orange and blue ass pit of a venue in front of 56,000 mostly teenyboppers on August 15th, 1965. It is a gig one might even term infamous, for all of the misunderstanding it has generated over the years, with one old saw after another getting parroted in the various histories of rock.
If you've seen the footage, you know that the Beatles were positioned on a rickety stage on an infield diamond, with the screams raining down from all directions. The band laughs maniacally, exchanges "shit, can you believe this is happening?" looks and takes the piss with song introductions repeatedly.
Chances are if you've seen footage of a single Beatles gig, it is this one. And chances are, too, that you've heard they were rubbish as a live act once they became famous, couldn't even hear themselves, just wanted to haul ass out of Dodge ASAP, all of that. And, for many years, the tales surrounding that Shea Stadium gig, plus the footage, plus the bootleg of the show, reinforced all of this. Which is a shame, and a matter in need of redressing.
Help! had just come out earlier in August. There may be no worse Beatles album. Granted, that's not the most damning remark, given that we're talking a record that contained the title track — one of John Lennon's half dozen best songs — "Yesterday," "I've Just Seen a Face," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and "Ticket to Ride," the last of which Lennon hilariously claimed invented heavy metal, a totally spurious argument that is nonetheless fun to muck about with.
By: Colin Fleming
Source: Rolling Stone
