48th Anniversary of The Beatles' legendary concert SHEA STADIUM

48 years ago today, The Beatles performed to their largest audience ever at the baseball diamond Shea Stadium in New York City. All the tickets sold out immediately, raising a whopping $304,000, a world record breaker in 1965. Only eleven songs were played to the crowd of 55,600 fans, most of them screaming teenage girls. But it didn't matter. Even with over 5 kilowatts worth of amplification and the stadium's PA system, concert-goers were treated to a viewing of The Beatles as opposed to what most concerts are like, you know, listening to music. It was 28 minutes in all.

The concert at Shea Stadium represents several aspects of The Beatles' career, which is why it is celebrated near half a century later. On a surface level, it is considered the peak of the boys' touring era. No other band in history up until that point had played to that many people, especially not a foursome from England breaking into the US, an unthinkable feat in the 1960s. Thanks to recordings of the concert and modern technology to make it possible to hear the songs being played, we realize that despite the fact that the Beatles knew no one was listening to them, they gave what they promised; a rock-solid performance that would make their German fans in Hamburg proud (Hamburg is cited as the place that formed The Beatles into an almost perfect performing guitar group). The Beatles, it seems, despite the mounds of commercialism surrounding them, did not sell out, even at the pinnacle of their success. To John, Paul, George, and Ringo, they were four guys from Liverpool playing songs they wrote at home or together on trains and planes. The only difference was, they were playing to 55,600 people.

On a deeper level, Shea Stadium is a perfect representation of The Beatles' "flash on earth," if you will. At 28 minutes long, The Beatles were in and out, literally running into the diamond from the dugout and back out again. For those thousands of fans, they were there for a few seconds and then disappeared, most of them never able to see the boys again (touring ended for the Beatles in 1966). To those of us who were born almost exactly thirty years after Shea Stadium, we feel the same way as those 14-year-old girls, only we see them through the music they left behind. At times, The Beatles feel unreachable, like they were around for 28 minutes (or ten years) and then were gone before we even had time to be born. Taken by itself, Shea Stadium is the representation of what The Beatles gave to the world; perfect performance, creativity, legends, and music. The Beatles were in and out of the dugout and the music scene. What they left behind is rare and completely unique, a true flash indeed.

Unfortunately, Shea Stadium has been destroyed. A new arena has been opened in the last five years that exists on the site, but nevertheless doesn't have the same aura surrounding it. Paul performed at the new arena in 2009, as part of his tour "Good Evening New York City," the first time being back at the site and playing there since that fateful day in 1965. As Ed Sullivan said, "Ladies and gentlemen...THE BEATLES!"                            
                               AUGUST 15, 1965, New York City, USA