Your Imaginary Dream Reunion Concert Set | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Digging up this thread after two years in the cooler, I don’t think it will hurt anybody’s feelings all that much if I quibble with the basic premise: during their post-split years, all four Beatles were quite vociferous that one of the reasons they didnt’ want to reunite was that they never wanted to become a jukebox/cover band, just mindlessly churning out the same old hits night after night with no variation or creativity, so my assumption has always been if the B’s had ever reunited, they would have absolutely insisted on doing some ‘new’ material — which in this case means solo songs — along with the old classics.

They had kind of fallen into that routine during their later touring days in 1965-66; most of their setlists varied little from night to night, in many ways they were just going out and sleepwalking through the same old routine and banging out the same old 10 songs (on the 1966 tours, they did nothing from ‘Revolver ‘). This has always been cited by all four Beatles as one of the main reasons they were fed up with touring.

So my feeling is if they had ever reunited, they would have insisted in doing some fresh material, so my imaginary Beatles reunion setlists include a few solo songs from each member, probably some new compositions, and as some others have mentioned, POSSIBLY some cover songs (although I certainly do not believe those would include Supertramp … my god).

So, what the heck, let’s go:

‘COME TOGETHER’ TOUR, 1980.

OPENING NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 14, 1980, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NYC

Onstage 7:59 p.m.

1. “(Just Like) Starting Over,” John (with Paul)

2. “Getting Closer,” Paul

3. “Photograph,” Ringo (with George)

4. “We Can Work It Out ,” John (with Paul)

5. “Here Comes The Sun ,” George

6. “Yellow Submarine ,” Ringo

7. “Let Me Roll It ,” Paul (with John)

8. “How Do You Sleep?,” John (with Paul)

9. “Isn’t It A Pity ?,” George

10. “I’m The Greatest,” Ringo (with John)

11. “You Can’t Do That ,” John

12. “I Will ,” Paul

13. “Mother “/ “Julia ,” John

14. “Let It Be ,” Paul

15. “Back In The U.S.S.R.,” Paul (with John)

Intermission – 10 minutes, 10:25

16. “Sgt. Pepper ‘s Intro” (Paul/John)

17. “With A Little Help From My Friends ,” Ringo

18. “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ,” John/Paul (with guest vocals Elton John)

19. “Glass Onion ,” John

20. “Taxman ,” George (altered lyrics to reflect 1980 politics)

21. “Getting Better ,” Paul

22. “Nobody Told Me,” John

23. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps ,” George (guest soloist Eric Clapton)

24. “Savoy Truffle ,” George

25. “Gimme Some Truth ,” John (altered lyrics to reflect 1980 politics)

26. “Revolution ,” John

27. “Hey Jude ,” John/Paul (switching verses from original recording)

28.”Good Morning, Good Morning,” John

29. “Sgt. Pepper Reprise,” Paul/John

30. “A Day In The Life ,” John/Paul

Fade to black and silence on final piano chord

ENCORE, 11:42 p.m.

31. “I Saw Her Standing There ,” Paul (leading jam including John, Elton John, and Clapton)

32. “Twist And Shout ,” John (leading jam including Paul, Elton John, Clapton and backstage guest Bruce Springsteen)

As final chord ends, band does the Brian Epstein Bow, then John grabs the mike: “There’s been a lot of s**t said over the past few years about a couple of people named Linda and Yoko, so Paul and I have something to say about that.”

33. “She Loves You ,” John and Paul with full house lights up in front of full-throttle rebirth of Beatlemania.

OFF STAGE 11:59 p.m.

In my fantasy world of how the “Come Together ” tour would develop, I think the Sgt Pepper ending suite (“Good Morning/SP Reprise/ADITL”) would probably be interchanged from show to show with the Abbey Road ending suite.

And after they shook the rust off with a few shows mainly based on conventional guitar-rock songs, the psychedelic Sgt. Pepper /Magical Mystery Tour stuff would start to be worked in.