Imagine...a Beatles reunion concert: what are the opening and closing songs?

Hmmm…the last song is kind of a given, but maybe not?

I pick** Back In The USSR** to open the show,** A Day In The Life** as the finale, and The End as the last encore.

‘In My Life’ to open just like it opened the Anthology documentary series, then they’d launch into a “bigger” sounding song like ‘Back In The USSR’ or ‘Birthday’, maybe even ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.

There would really be no other way to end it than with ‘A Day In The Life’ leading into ‘The End’.

It’d have to start with the best chord in the history of rock: A Hard Day’s Night.

I’ll end with a stadium-filling singalong to Hey Jude.(Only because The End is just too obvious, and I want to be a little contrary.)

I’d open with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band (the title track), because it’s their own introduction, and, predictably, A Day In The Life or Hey Jude to finish with.

Assuming the Beatles are all alive and well, they’ve settled most of their personal differences. But John and Paul are always going to be a little competitive, which leaves me looking for a way to settle this question: do they start with a John song or a Paul song? How do they decide to resolve that between themselves? I see it happening this way…

All the lights in the theater go out a few minutes after 8. The crowd lets out a deafening roar that doesn’t subside for about six minutes. The band takes the stage in darkness, and just as things start to quiet down, Lennon walks to a keyboard and starts playing a dreamy melody. The lights come up, and as he sings “Let me take you down/'Cause I’m going to…” the crowd explodes again. Almost nothing is audible for 15 minutes, by which time the band has played its Strawberry Fields opener. John intones “cran… berry… sauce… or was it ‘I BURIED PAUL?’” as the band moves straight into Penny Lane, using their most famous double-A side single as a double opener. The crowd finally starts settling into the concert as the band works through Please Please Me, Taxman, and Octopus’s Garden. The first set ends later with Helter Skelter.

Music stands are set up on the side of the stage during the intermission. The band returns to the sound of a horn fanfare and plays All You Need Is Love. The horns depart after the song ends, and they’re replaced by a group of violinists and cellists led by Yo-Yo Ma. Paul picks up an acoustic, sits down, and sings Eleanor Rigby with John on backing vocals. After the strings leave, the acoustic set continues with solo performances of Blackbird and Julia and a trio performance of My Sweet Lord. The rest of the set is electric, starting with Revolution. The set ends with Let It Be and at last A Day in the Life.

First encore:
Come Together
Hey Jude

Second encore:
I Am the Walrus
Something
And I Saw Her Standing There

That gave me chills. But there’s no way that concert would end on anything other than “The End.”

I Want To Hold Your Hand

stuff in the middle

The End

Marley:

That is perfect. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.

Thread winner.

If it helps, I was picturing it as the first night of a reunion tour or any given night on the tour, not necessarily as a one-off show. But either way I think The End is most people’s choice and they’d want to surprise people. :wink:

I think they’d finish, after protracted negotiations, with some kind of medley of Let It Be, Imagine and My Sweet Lord, with a brief drum spot for Ringo. Not “The End”. It’s nice, but it’s too obscure.

But man, it would be the gig to end all gigs. All those songs that they never performed live, and with today’s stage technology! And I think that it would have happened, one way or the other. Curse that fucker who shot John Lennon.

Is Lorne Michaels still kicking in three grand? They could give Ringo a smaller cut - that’s entirely up to them.

There’s a great song by John Wesly Harding about the hype and lunacy surrounding a potential Beatles reunion. He’s updated it a few times; the only online version I can find is here.

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