I was born just in time to see the Beatles’ final tour.
It’s true. On August 21, 1966, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Beatles hit the stage for what would be, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, (even the Beatles) one of the last times. At age eight, I was there.
As it turns out, they would only play together five more times, the last on August 29, 1966, at the famed Candlestick Park concert in San Francisco. But it on was this date 53 years ago that it became official. The Beatles would not tour again.
It actually came to a head the night before. On Saturday, August 20, the group was scheduled to play at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. But torrential downpours prevented the Fabs from performing. The uncovered stage was soaked, and the risk of electrocution was too great. The show was canceled.
Fans were crestfallen. Many threw away their ticket stubs. Big mistake. Because shortly thereafter John Lennon agreed to come back the following day. So that Sunday they returned on a hot afternoon, under a covered stage, to play a 30 minute set of eleven songs, to a half-full stadium of about 15,000. After the concert they hurried off to St. Louis to play their scheduled show that night.
But by this time Beatlemania, now two years old, had peaked. Crowds were down. John had recently been publicly trashed for misspeaking in an interview, saying “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus now.” Even though he admitted he was wrong, and apologized, many never forgave him. Their enormous popularity began to wane due to the controversy.
By August of 1966 they’d been either on the road or in the studio continuously for about five years. They were exhausted. The shows had become scream-fests. Nobody could hear the music, not even officiallythe Beatles. John once lamented, “Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore. They’re just bloody tribal rites.”
The 1966 Cincinnati show was significant for several reasons.
* It was the only show the Beatles ever canceled.
* It was the only time the Beatles ever played two cities in one day.
* It was after this double date Paul officially agreed to stop touring, as George and John had urged.
* It was the only Beatles concert I ever attended.
One week later, the Beatles performed their last show. They didn’t announce their retirement. It was just the end, and they knew it. They were done.
They soon made the studio their show. For the next three years they grew in creativity, and developed their music into masterpiece productions that still set the standard today.
But the Cincinnati concert marked the beginning of the end of an era. It’s where the tables began to turn away from the Mop Top days of Beatlemania, to the studio Beatles, or “Beatles-Phase Two”.
And it’s where I got on board.