The Beatles' rooftop concert (Apple building) | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

The extra keyboard is interesting in that Billy Preston’s keys are all ready present beneath the corner of the small roof in the foreground behind Paul, I first thought that perhaps the other piano was something for John (it is a flat surface) to rest his lap steel on so he could stand and play it but you can clearly see that the extra keyboard is plugged in.  I wonder if the original negative of this photo is high enough quality to be digitally enhanced so as we could read what’s on that clipboard situated on the music stand behind Ringo for it’s facing straight at the camera, it could very well be the “lost setlist”.  The person kneeling before John with the “cue cards” should be sought out as well, for even if he’s no longer in possession of the sketchbook in his hands, surely he must have some recollection of what was originally planned for that day.

The only two songs that I can think of from the ‘Get Back ‘ sessions that were in “suitable” condition to be performed live and employed two keyboards is ‘Let It Be ‘ & ‘The Long And Winding Road ‘, or perhaps they were thinking about ending the show with one of the ‘Oldies’ medleys and wanted to jam out a bit, either way the prospects are very intriguing.  The original poster from the Steve Hoffman forum suggests that maybe ‘Old Brown Shoe ‘ was on the agenda, but I’m not as certain about that one, George was about as confident as Ringo was on his piano playing and I can’t really picture him performing live on the keys.  It’s almost a certainty that ‘For You Blue ‘ was slotted in for performance, besides John’s lap steel sitting “on deck” the likelihood of The Beatles playing atleast one George Harrison song is a strong probability, and ‘For You Blue ‘ was the one George song that was farthest along to being finished when you compare it to the state that ‘Old Brown Shoe ‘, ‘All Things Must Pass ‘ or even ‘I Me Mine ‘ were in at the time.

As for the waist high microphone placed before Paul suggesting a song where he plays acoustic guitar?  Well, again it could be that Paul was to play it on ‘For You Blue ‘ (which he does during the ‘Concert For George&#39, or as the OP implied, ‘Two of Us’.  The show is great “as is”, but looks like it was intended to be much more.  Just think of how much better the final album or film would’ve been had The Beatles been allowed to play their full set, even if it was only one or two more songs played live on the roof.  The second half of The Beatles performance looks as though they were just starting to really get into it, before London’s finest showed up as they quickly tried to squeeze in one more take of ‘Get Back ‘ before the plug was pulled.  John’s “audition” quip wasn’t too far off for that’s pretty much what the live show that they’d discussed throughout that month of January had turned into, a brief showcase, if however “short & sweet”…:-)

4or5Magicians said
It’s somewhat surprising that their plan for the concert is such a mystery, considering peoples’ ardent fascination with every minute detail of everything The Beatles ever did. Since they were recording for the album, I wonder if they may have planned on taking a break to warm up, then doing another set at some point. Or if they even considered the police breaking the performance up in the first place.

That’s an interesting thing to ponder for they did almost look to be expecting them.  They just opened up the front door and seemed to say, “Oh, hi fellas, come right on in and step this way please”.  It would’ve been much better had they just kept the Apple front door locked (they could very well have used the excuse that they couldn’t hear them knock because of the music) and made them break down the door instead (that would’ve given them time to do atleast a couple more tunes) which would’ve made for much better cinema for sure.  They may not have even been able to break down the door without a warrant anyway which likely would’ve bought enough time for the full show.  Ringo & Paul’s ‘Anthology’ interviews where they discuss their wanting/hoping to get arrested kinda lead me to believe that they were expecting them to show up, especially if they were literally next door.

The thing is that there’s some footage at street level where the music doesn’t seem to be really all that loud when compared to the street noises (could be a by-product of the final mix) and it doesn’t look like anybody is plugging their ears or anything.  I think that the bigger concern by the police was a larger crowd congregating and disrupting the traffic/local businesses.  There was also probably the matter of not having some sort of suitable permit to stage such an event in the Metropolitan Area.  The Beatles/Apple Employees’ co-operation with the authorities was pretty much mandatory for John & Yoko had all ready been busted by Sgt. Pilcher’s squad only a few months before, while George and Patti were about to get more acquainted with them themselves, no need to throw gasoline on that fire which was still smoldering in their lives.  My guess is that they absolutely considered/expected a police presence, but like the set itself proved to be somewhat anti-climatic than what it could’ve been had they just all out went for it…:-)