The Beatles iconic 1969 rooftop concert was very nearly on a cruise ship
Some of the best footage captured by Michael Lindsay-Hogg during the Get Back sessions comes from when George Harrison is in a bad mood, to the point where he’s threatening to kill one of the most iconic moments in The Beatles’ history.
“I don’t wanna go on the roof,” the guitarist moans, looking at Paul McCartney with all the tension of these recording sessions buzzing between them, threatening to blow up into another fight. The band had already moved from Twickenham Studios back to London and back into their Apple HQ base in Savile Row.
It was clear to everyone around them that these were the end times. Already by this conversation, Harrison had quit the band once, noting it plainly in his diary as he showed up to rehearsals one day and then stormed out before sandwiches were even served for lunch. Being propped up by runners bringing them unlimited cigarettes and whatever alcoholic beverage they wanted, whenever they wanted it, the footage Lindsay-Hogg initially released as Let It Be doesn’t quite capture the full story.
Naturally, as the film was released to promote the record, it was going to be glossed over, but in reality, the band were flailing to the point where even finishing the album seemed unrealistic. With each new fight, the goalposts were changed just to try and help them get it done, and one of the most obvious markers is the finale concert.
Initially, Let It Be was all supposed to be a vehicle for the band’s live return. The plan was to make a record quickly and then mark January 19th and 20th on the calendar for the days the shows would happen. The plan was for the show to be wild, and the ideas first thrown around were exactly that.
The Beatles would play live on the pyramids was one option, or, for a good while, Lindsay-Hogg’s plan was to get the boys on a boat. The plan was to go on a cruise to Libya, where fans could even pay for or win tickets to join the band on the boat, and then they would dock in the city of Sabratha and play in the crumbling amphitheatre in the ancient location.
Obviously, that would have been epic, and it would have made for an incredible documentary for the director, but with the band falling apart more and more by the day, surely anything on that scale would have completely pushed them overboard.
Lennon loved the idea, saying, “God’s the gimmick” about the idea of playing in the ancient venue. Starr and Harrison were being realists, pushing back on the price it would cost, but also simply stating that they hated the idea of “being stuck with a bloody big boatload of people for two weeks”. Both were more than happy with the band’s legacy of not playing live, more than happy with the comfort of their lives. Really, it was McCartney’s suggestion to start with, launching it as a desperate last attempt to give them something to band around.
Things were just too broken, though. As the plan became more unpopular and unrealistic, the longer the album took, and the more the tensions grew, it needed to be minimised. Given that Harrison didn’t even want to take the stairs up to his own rooftop to play for an hour or so, there was surely absolutely no way the guitarist was signing onto a cruise.
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