Let’s imagine it together: The Beatles did their rooftop concert. The challenging Get Back sessions ended with that iconic moment, marking a strange point where the band simultaneously knew they were breaking up but also seemed somehow reinvigorated by the process. Now imagine a world where they had another booking to be working towards, another show to prepare for: Woodstock.
The rooftop gig took place in January 1969 and was the first time the band had played live since 1966. They’d quit touring when things had got too much, and then as they spent more and more time in the studio, their music became too experimental to ever truly work on a stage. They couldn’t have toured Sgt Pepper or the White Album; the recordings went too far beyond that.
But when they came to make Let It Be, that was the whole point. Initially, the plan was to write an album quickly and perform it live in a big, dramatic show. However, the drama of that idea was soon slimmed down during ongoing tension in the group, and even the rooftop concert almost didn’t happen as the band were undecided until basically the moment of when John Lennon said, ”Fuck it – let’s go do it.”
In the years between their last performance and then, it seems the band had got stage fright. They were so used to their private way of working, and so aware that that likely protected those delicate relationships, that the idea of fulfilling the typical role of a band and doing some gigs had become such a far-off idea. But when Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P Roberts started organising Woodstock, they thought maybe they could do the impossible.
So, yes, an invite was sent to The Beatles asking them to play the festival. The organisers naively wondered if perhaps they had a shot. Not only had the band just made Let It Be, an album purposefully crafted to be simpler and able to play live as they did on the roof, but George Harrison, especially, had spent a lot of time in the area. He’d been hanging out with Bob Dylan a lot at his Woodstock home and was majorly inspired by the scene there in Upstate New York, so perhaps the organisers thought they’d be able to coax him onto the stage.
Why did The Beatles turn down Woodstock?
Honestly, who even knows if the staff at Apple Corps would have even bothered suggesting the festival to the band?
While the promoters took a chance, they realistically always knew it wouldn’t work. The band were busy on Abbey Road by then, but mostly, they were busy breaking up, and that wasn’t a secret. The situation was irreparable by then, so there was no way they were getting the Fab Four to put it to one side and step even further out of their comfort zone with their first public performance in years.
However, still hoping to get at least one member, the festival team then pivoted and asked John Lennon if he wanted to perform and bring the Plastic Ono Band. But that fell through too, partly getting caught up when Woodstock initially lost their original site in Wallkill, sending them into logistical chaos. A lot of it came down to politics, though. Richard Nixon and the US government did not want Lennon in the country, given his stance on Vietnam, a recent drug bust and his general involvement in political action. Nervous to not poke the bear over a brand new festival that didn’t mean all that much to them, Lennon let it drop, pulling the plug on what would have been a truly iconic performance.
