Koufax, Drysdale, Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Harrison ...
Sunday, Aug. 28, 1966. Where were you, and why weren't you at Dodger Stadium? Hey, I've got no excuse, even though I was just five and couldn't drive myself.
But somehow The Beatles were there, in the very first rock concert that Walter O'Malley allowed at his ballpark. Above is a very rare shot (found on a bootleg website) where John Lennon is at the main mike with the Stadium Club and the rest of the seats along the first-base line are clearly in the background. That's Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the left. The archives in the Dodgers organization doesn't even have a photo of this performance.
Forty years ago today, the Fab Four's next-to-last concert ever as a group took place here -- the same venue, by the way, where the Rolling Stones are schedule to perform Nov. 18 (tickets go on sale to the public today at 10 a.m.).
A poster promoting the event (above) had them dressed in baseball unforms with the tagline: "KRLA brings the Beatles to Dodger Stadium, Sunday, August 28th ... Move over, Sandy."
(If you think about it, the Beatles' run and Koufax' best years sort of parallel. Koufax had only six really impressive seasons from '61 to '66, before retired; the Beatles formally became the group in '61 and stopped touring in '66)
Here's what happened at Dodger Stadium that night:
A recent story in the Dodgers' official program by Jorge Martin tells how it was Bob Eubanks, who'd later become more famous as host of the "Newlywed Game," who pulled this show together for KRLA radio as the main promoters. Some 45,000 filled the stadium.
Martin takes a clip from Eubanks' book, "It's In The Book," to tell about how it went down with a "special $750 sound system" that was installed to help amplify the music.
"For the first time since I began doing business with them, the Beatles actually expressed fears for their safety. ... The crowds had been evolving over the previous few years and a crowd this size usually had a few nuts. Because of that we planned what I thought was a perfect excape."
Meaning, the Beatles, blocked from exiting through the main gate because of fans, leave from the rear of the stadium in an armored car. The LAPD is charged with beating dozens of fans in attempts to maintain order.
The Beatles, who had just release the "Revolver" album, had a playlist that included: Rock and Roll Music, She's A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Day Tripper, Baby's in Black, I Feel Fine, Yesterday, I Wanna Be Your Man, Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer and I'm Down.
-- The website YouTube.com actually has about a one-minute bootleg clip of the group singing "Day Tripper" from the stage set up right behind second base, taken probably with a movie camera up in the top level. It was just added to the site about a month ago. Click here.
-- The official website of former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley has an excellent piece written by former Dodgers front-office man Brent Shyer on how the event went down. Click here.
-- One fan's collection of stuff from that day, including ticket stubs -- the top price was $6 -- a copy of the contract for the team to perform at the stadium, a list of damages done to a Long Beach officer who helped with crowd control, and a newspaper clipping reviewing the show is at this website.
--Another link to what the tickets to this concert looked liked is at this Rare Beatles website.
-- For a transcript of the Beatles press conference in L.A. earlier that day, where the reporters try to pin Lennon down on his recent remark about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, the Beatles Discography website has more interesting information. Scroll down a bit to the history for August.
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I remember that concert well. Was only 11 but, Tommy Factor (my friend's older brother) had his license. Diane and Peter Factor,and my sister Judy,all piled in the car.
Our seats in Dodger Stadium were up pretty high. We could clearly hear
Bobby Hebb, the opening act singing his mega-hit "Sunny."
When the Beatles came on all hell broke loose with everyone around us screaming so loud we couldn't hear a note.
By coincidence, my father had taken me to see the Dodgers play in September 1965 almost a year before the concert. That night Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game. I complained to my father that it was the most boring game I ever saw. The Cubs pitcher almost had a no-hitter too. So you can imagine how slow the game was to a 10 year-old who was barely interested in baseball at the time.
But the Beatles, that was a different story.
I was there too. It was a week after my 16th birthday, and it was the fifth of six Beatles concerts I attended. (My dad drove me to San Francisco for what was to become their final concert at Candlestick Park the next day as a birthday present.)
I don't remember specifics about the concert, only that my best friend Kathy Harris and I tried our darnedest to break through the gauntlet of rent-a-cops in an effort to reach the stage. Kathy's claim to fame was jumping into the pool at the Hollywood Bowl during The Beatles' first L.A. concert in 1964. At Candlestick we jumped from the top deck and made it onto the infield before being carried off.
When The Beatles came to L.A. in '66 for this show at Dodger Stadium, we found out where they were staying and crawled through chaparral for three hours to sneak into the back yard of their Bel Aire home. It was worth it to get a wave from Paul and George.
Ah, the memories...
I fondly remember Jimmy Morrison and I attending the show after we both ingested about 1,000 mikes of Owsley. Jimmy wasn't famous yet so he couldn't get backstage to see the Beatles. Jimmy wrote a poem after he show titled Ode to L.A.: Thinking About John Lennon as Jesus While Tripping and Salaaming With Jean Harlow's Ghost.
Ahhh, the mammaries!
Peace, Felix
Tom:
I work with Olivia Harrison, George's widow, Dhani and Linda Aria's (Olivia's sister) who all found the photos above amazing. Olivia has been searching for years for this type of material from the 1966 Dodgers Stadium show as she attended it!
Would you have any additional photos from that evening that you could share with them? I would be happy to send you a limited edition deluxe re-release of The Travelling Wilbury's when we release next month which will contain CD and DVD footage.