Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

After the Beatles played on the rooftop of APPLE, they decided to go back on the road with only the four of them. The instruments played were bass, guitar, guitar, drums, and keyboard. The set list included twelve songs. What were they? Abbey Road had not been recorded yet.

One After 909
Get Back
Don't Let Me Down
I Got A Feeling
Let It Be
Two Of Us
Helter Skelter
Dig A Pony
Hey Bulldog
Hey Jude (?)
Revolution
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
and, maybe 'Yellow Submarine' ('cause of the Film, y'know...) In context, these would make a pretty decent set for them to perform and they could most likely get away with doing them. as an alternate: 'The Long And Winding Road'.

Here is my set list for the 1969 tour. I figured they would stick to songs they could easily enough play live with just the four members' bass, guitar, guitar, drums and keyboard. Songs would stay in the '68-69 time frame because they would be the most familar at that time.
1. Don't Let Me Down
2. I've Got a Feeling
3. Yer Blues
4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
5. Revolution
6. One After 909
7. Dig a Pony
8. Back in the USSR
9. Don't Pass Me By
10.I'm So Tired
11.Birthday
12.Get Back

For me it would seem strange to see the long haired 1969 Beatles playing any of their pre-1968 songs live.

Let's not forget that the One after 909 on Let it Be was first recorded in 1963 and a mainstay of their early live act.

There is an interesting, albeit sometimes tiedius book about the Let it Be recordings called "GET BACK : the Let It Be Disaster" that give you all the songs that they played or started to play during the month of january 1969, plus the snippets. To read what goes down then, they played a lot of old pop music, like R&B and other group's songs that were hits, but did not really get retained as part of the 1960's musical canon. The book shows also that little of "The Beatles" let alone "Yellow Sub" was even used to jam on.

Of note, John has a particularly difficult time proposing new material,-could not remember "Across the Universe" -, George quits, Ringo is more interested in finishing up to be in the film "The Magic Christian" and Paul spends a ton of time playing on the piano.

Furthermore, by the time that they got on the roof, and the fact that they were on the roof and not in some greek ampitheatre or on a boat on the nile doing the show, is because only Paul wanted to tour in any fashion.

I thought I'd bring this topic to the fore again.

If the Beatles would have gone back to touring after the Get Back project (assuming it was a good experience for them), which 12 songs would they have chosen for their set list? The instrumentation would include: bass, guitar, guitar, drums, and keyboard.

They surely must play a couple of George's songs:

• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  Here Comes the Sun (was that written, yet?)
  Savoy Truffle

...would be among the more "recent" tunes I'd pick from.

And then there were some good ol' rockers that George used to sing:
Roll Over Beethoven for instance. I think he also was known to sing some Carl Perkins covers, like "Ev'rybody's Trying to Be My Baby."

JimK

I think you could include some Abbey Road songs. I think they were rehearsing one or two during the Let it Be sessions.

Indeed they were working on some songs that later surfaced on Abbey Road. A quick check of songs the Beatles worked on in one form or another in the first four months of 1969 include:
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Old Brown Shoe
Something
Oh! Darling
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
All Things Must Pass
Isn't It A Pity
Teddy Boy
That Would Be Something
Every Night
Child Of Nature (Jealous Guy)

So it's safe to assume they could have worked up versions of any of these to include for a stage show.

Yeah! What he said!