THE BEATLES – MEMPHIS, August 19, 1966

"It doesn't matter about people not liking our records, or not liking the way we look, or what we say. You know, they're entitled to not like us. And we're entitled not to have anything to do with them if we don't want to, or not to regard them. We've all got our rights, you know,” 

John Lennon, Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis TN (August 19, 1966) in an Interview with England's ITV

There is perhaps no other group in the history of recorded music than has achieved the fame, genius and notoriety of The Beatles.   The group, composed of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, was the physical embodiment of the societal evolution of the sixties. To date, The Beatles remain the largest selling musical artists of all-time.

In August 1966, the group toured North America, with dates in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and a lone southern stop in Memphis.  There was particular concern about performing in the “Bible Belt” city of Memphis, due to a comment made in March by John Lennon concerning the popularity of the group.  On March 5, 1966, London Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave interviewed the group at St. George's Hill estate, in Surrey, England.  Cleave asked Lennon about his interest in Christianity and other religions, to which the guitarist replied: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first—rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."  For the most part, the remark went unnoticed by both the press and public in general.

The remark gained notoriety when the American teen magazine Datebook published a portion of Lennon’s remarks on the cover of their August 1966 issue. The cover featured a photo of McCartney along with the Lennon quote “I don't know which will go first—rock 'n' roll or Christianity.”   The backlash to Lennon's statement became so strong that the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein considered cancelling the upcoming North American tour.  The Memphis Board of Commissioners tried to have the concert cancelled by unanimously passing a resolution that stated the Beatles were not welcome in Memphis.  The resolution went on to officially declare Memphis as “a city of churches.”  The local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan even joined in the fray by burning a Beatles album nailed to a wooden cross. The Klansman had also vowed to bring justice to the “Godless Beatles.”

On the morning of August 19,1966, the Beatles landed without incident in their chartered American Airlines DC-6 at the Tennessee Air National Guard facility, located on the Memphis International Airport property. The group then proceeded to the Mid-South Coliseum via Memphis Area Transit Authority bus for their two scheduled performances.  Upon arrival, The Beatles hosted a press conference on the lower level of the Coliseum for fan club members and local school newspaper reporters.  The press conference went off without incident and included a few light-hearted comments from Lennon about Memphis and the recent controversy.

Beatles' Press Officer Tony Barrow would later recall: "….when we got there (Memphis) everything seemed to be controlled and calm, but underneath somehow, there was this nasty atmosphere. It was a very tense and pressured kind of day."  There were a handful of protestors outside of the Coliseum with signs stating “Memphis Does Not Welcome the Beatles” and “Memphis Does Not Welcome Communists.” Local fundamentalist firebrand Baptist minister Reverend Jimmy Stroud, staged a rally outside the Coliseum along with six fully-robed members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Memphis Police Department provided 80 officers as security for both the group and their multitude of fans.  The first show began as scheduled at 4:00 pm with an attendance of 7,589.  The show lasted for 28 minutes and the set list included the following songs:

Rock & Roll Music

She’s A Woman

If I Needed Someone

Baby In Black

I Feel Fine

Yesterday

I Want To Be Your Man

Nowhere Man

Paperback Writer

Long Tall Sally

The Beatles - Mid South Coliseum - August 19, 1966

The Beatles second Memphis show started promptly at 8:30 pm, with 12,539 in attendance. The set list for the show was as follows: 

Rock & Roll Music

She's A Woman

If I Needed Somone

Day Tripper

Baby's In Black

I Feel Fine

Yesterday

I Wanna Be Your Man

Nowhere Man

Paperback Writer

Long Tall Sally

About a minute into the song “If I Needed Someone,” an audience member threw a Cherry Bomb (an explosive device containing flash powder) at the stage.  Memphis Police Officers apprehended the subject and Lennon dedicated the song “Nowhere Man” to the agitator. The other member of the Beatles and many in the crowd thought that the noise was gunfire aimed at Lennon. The group was a bit nervous due to the protests and controversy that had followed them during their 1966 tour and it seemed to have reached its peak in Memphis.  The unnerving cherry bomb incident at the Mid-South Coliseum was viewed by many critics as the reason The Beatles stopped touring.  

The group would play six more dates on their 1966 tour, with the final concert coming at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.  After almost 600 live performances, the Beatles would perform only one more time after completion of their 1966 tour.  Their final performance would be on the roof of Apple Record’s offices in London on January 30, 1969. 

Jeff Droke - December 2014