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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eve's Welcome to this Day in History class,

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Speaker 1: a show that reveals a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: day by day. Today is January. The day was January

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. On that chilly winter day in London,

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Speaker 1: the Beatles played a forty two minutes set on the

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Speaker 1: rooftop of the Apple Core building at three Seville Row.

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Speaker 1: It was the last performance the Beatles ever played in public.

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Speaker 1: By then, the Beatles had already played their last official

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Speaker 1: concert back on August ninety six at Candlestick Park in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco. But this time John, Paul, George and Ringo

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Speaker 1: surprised Londoners with an announced mid day show after they

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Speaker 1: had gone more than two years without performing live, and

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Speaker 1: they'd had big plans for this final show. In the beginning,

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Speaker 1: they had their eyes sent on places like the Palladium

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Speaker 1: in London, the Geese, the Pyramids, and even a two

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Speaker 1: thousand year old amphitheater in Tunisia, But when nobody could

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Speaker 1: settle on a more extravagant location, they ended up taking

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Speaker 1: the easier route and just playing the rooftop. Exactly whose

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Speaker 1: idea it was to play a rooftop is debated. The

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Speaker 1: performance was meant to be the climax of a TV

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Speaker 1: special that would go along with the release of the

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Speaker 1: album get Back. As the name suggests, get Back was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be a return to the Beatles roots. The

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Speaker 1: band wasn't in a good place. It was on the

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Speaker 1: verge of implosion. Ringo Star had quit the band for

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Speaker 1: two weeks in nineteen George Harrison wasn't a fan of

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Speaker 1: Paul McCartney's boss Nous, and earlier that month he had

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Speaker 1: even quit the band for five days, only to return

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Speaker 1: with the list of demands. And John Lennon's relationship with

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Speaker 1: Yoko oh No was becoming a problem for the other

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Speaker 1: band members. So Paul's idea to quote record an album

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Speaker 1: of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before

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Speaker 1: a live audience for the very first time on record

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Speaker 1: and on film. It was definitely Pie in the Sky

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Speaker 1: and lo and behold. The band had a pretty awful

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Speaker 1: time recording the back to Basics sessions for the Get

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Speaker 1: Back album. John Lennon even said, quote, it was the

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Speaker 1: most miserable session on Earth, with the most miserable music

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Speaker 1: going on and on and on, and everyone was expected

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Speaker 1: to have a big smile going Anyway, the show went on,

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Speaker 1: along with the keyboard is Billy Preston, who they brought

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Speaker 1: in to help alleviate tensions. The Beatles played a set

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Speaker 1: of nine takes of five songs. Those songs were Get Back,

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Speaker 1: Don't Let Me Down, I've Got a Feeling, One After

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Speaker 1: nine o nine, and Dig a Pony. Audio engineer Allen

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Speaker 1: Parsons recorded this show on to eight track recorders and

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Speaker 1: the basement of the Apple Building, while director Michael Lindsay

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Speaker 1: hog filmed the performance and onlookers reactions. People didn't really

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Speaker 1: know what was going on. It was an unannounced show,

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Speaker 1: after all, and many were on their lunch break. So

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Speaker 1: while some folks were enjoying the surprise show, others were

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Speaker 1: annoyed by the lunchtime nuisance traffic was backing up and

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Speaker 1: the music was loud, So as the Beatles continued playing

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Speaker 1: and the crowd of spectators grew, the police caught notice.

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Speaker 1: When the cops showed up at the Apple Building, employees

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Speaker 1: were bold enough to refuse to let them in, but

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Speaker 1: after the police threatened to arrest them for controlled substances,

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Speaker 1: they caved. The police made their way up to the

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Speaker 1: rooftop to stop the show. McCartney had a little fun

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Speaker 1: at living lyrics to Get Back. He's saying, you've been

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Speaker 1: playing on the roofs again, and you know your mama

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Speaker 1: doesn't like it. He's gonna have you arrested. But the

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Speaker 1: fund didn't last long since the cops pulled the plug

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Speaker 1: on their equipment minutes after they got to the rooftop.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the

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Speaker 1: group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition.

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Speaker 1: That was how Lennon closed out the show, and the

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Speaker 1: show was good. The band continued recording sessions for Abbey

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Speaker 1: Road and the Get Back project, which was retitled Let

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Speaker 1: It Be. The Abbey Road album came out in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, and twenty one minutes of footage from their

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Speaker 1: rooftop performance was released as part of the documentary Let

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Speaker 1: It Be in nineteen seventy, but the band didn't manage

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Speaker 1: to return to its roots. The Beatles were at the

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Speaker 1: end of their road. John told the group he was

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Speaker 1: leaving in September nineteen sixty nine. Paul wasn't a fan

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Speaker 1: of producer Phil Spector's overdubbing and editing of the Let

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Speaker 1: It Be recordings. And he publicly announced he was leaving

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Speaker 1: the band in April nineteen seventy, just before release of

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Speaker 1: the Let It Be album and film, The Fab Four.

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Speaker 1: It just couldn't get it back together. I'm Eve Steff

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Speaker 1: Cooke and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. You can subscribe to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be

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Speaker 1: back with more history tomorrow