{"id":806364,"date":"2020-04-14T11:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T17:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=983419"},"modified":"2020-04-14T11:01:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T17:01:34","slug":"flashback-paul-mccartney-sings-let-it-be-with-david-bowie-pete-townshend-at-live-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/flashback-paul-mccartney-sings-let-it-be-with-david-bowie-pete-townshend-at-live-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Paul McCartney Sings \u2018Let It Be\u2019 With David Bowie, Pete Townshend at Live Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It was 50 years ago this month that Paul McCartney<\/a> told the world that the Beatles had broken up<\/a>. \u201cPersonal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family,\u201d he wrote in a \u201cself interview\u201d that accompanied the release of his debut solo LP McCartney<\/em>. \u201cTemporary or permanent? I don\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just one month later, the Beatles<\/a> released the documentary Let It Be<\/em> and an album of the same name. It came out after Abbey Road<\/em>, but was largely recorded prior to it. This has caused decades of debate<\/a> about which one is actually their final album. That argument will likely flare up later this year with the release of The Beatles: Get Back<\/em>, a new documentary about this time period directed by Peter Jackson. It utilizes unseen footage from the Let It Be<\/em> sessions that fans have been waiting to see for the last half century.<\/p>\n

The Beatles never got the chance to play any of the Let It Be<\/em> songs in concert, at least if you discount their legendary January 20th, 1969, rooftop performance<\/a> since that was really just an outdoor, public recording session and not an actual gig. But Paul McCartney has made up for it by playing the title track 681 times, more than any other song in his catalog. (\u201cHey Jude\u201d comes in second at 672.) It\u2019s just the perfect singalong song for any occasion and it\u2019s hard for him to leave any stage without playing it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

McCartney first played \u201cLet It Be\u201d during his final Wings tour in November and December 1979. That tour ended with a drug bust in Japan that put him in prison for nine days. The experience soured McCartney on touring and played a large role in his decision to end the band a little more than a year later.<\/p>\n

McCartney stayed busy in the studio throughout the early Eighties and even landed a couple of hits with Michael Jackson, but he largely avoided concerts until Bob Geldof talked him into taking the stage at the end of Live Aid at Wembley Stadium right before the grand finale of \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the night, the satellite broadcast went dead right when the Who kicked off their reunion set with \u201cMy Generation\u201d and didn\u2019t return until midway through their second song, \u201cPinball Wizard.\u201d And when McCartney launched into \u201cLet It Be,\u201d his microphone went dead and the vast majority of the Wembley crowd couldn\u2019t hear a thing. As you can see on this video, they let out a roar of joy about two minutes in when the sound finally kicks in.<\/p>\n

Near the end, Bob Geldof walks out with David Bowie, Pete Townshend, and Yaz\u2019s Alison Moyet to sing a reprise of the song for the fans that missed the beginning. Bowie starts singing the wrong verse at the 3:51 mark, but he quickly corrects himself.<\/p>\n

Despite the mic problems, Live Aid was a positive experience for McCartney and he slowly began returning to live performances, beginning in January 1986 when he did three songs at the the Prince\u2019s Trust Rock Gala at Wembley Arena. He wouldn\u2019t return to the road until the summer of 1989 when he hit stadiums all over the world to promote Flowers in the Dirt.<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019s basically been on the road ever since, but his plans to gig around Europe this summer will probably run up against the coronavirus. No matter what happens, fans will finally be able to see more footage from the Let It Be<\/em> sessions later in the year. Let\u2019s all hope it will be worth the long wait.<\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 50 years ago this month that Paul McCartney told the world that the Beatles had broken up. \u201cPersonal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family,\u201d he wrote in a \u201cself interview\u201d that accompanied the release of his debut solo LP McCartney. \u201cTemporary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 04:21:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}