Rock and roll reunions happen often now, such as for special occasions like an award or induction into a hall of fame. Other bands do it for sentimental reasons, anniversaries of hit albums, or — let’s be honest — money.
In 1974, the Beatles almost reunited in Syracuse, N.Y., and it all began with a much simpler reason: John Lennon’s birthday on Oct. 9, 1971.
The Fab Four broke up in 1970 after less than a decade together crafting some of the greatest songs in music history, from “Let It Be,” “In My Life” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Come Together,” “Help!” and “All You Need is Love.” Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr drew screaming fans everywhere, influenced multiple generations of musicians, and still remain popular today through music streaming services, artists covering their tunes, documentaries (like Peter Jackson’s upcoming Disney+ series “Get Back”) and multiple Beatles-inspired stories (including the 2007 movie “Across the Universe,” Netflix’s animated kids’ show “The Beat Bugs,” Cirque du Soleil’s “Love,” and Danny Boyle’s 2019 film “Yesterday”).
After the split, the four musicians carved out their own paths, including solo albums, new projects like McCartney’s Wings and Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, and other artistic endeavors.
Lennon came to Syracuse for the opening of his wife Yoko Ono’s first major art exhibit, “This is Not Here,” which ran at the Everson Museum of Art from Oct. 9-27, 1971. According to The Post-Standard archives, the show drew thousands of visitors to the Syracuse museum, including Onondaga Nation faithkeeper Oren Lyons and celebrities like Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol and actor Dennis Hopper.
David Ross, who was then an assistant to museum director Jim Harithas, told The Post-Standard that he was tasked with getting equipment for a special surprise on opening night, Lennon’s 31st birthday: A midnight concert featuring at least three of the Beatles.
Apple Records, The Beatles’ record label, flew in Starr on a chartered plane, along with Beatles collaborator Klaus Voormann and prominent session musicians like keyboardist Nicky Hopkins and drummer Jim Keltner. Harrison was supposed to fly out, but ended up stuck in England. Producer Phil Spector, beat poet Allen Ginsberg and guitar legend Eric Clapton — who played with Voormann on the Plastic Ono Band’s live 1969 album — were in town, too.
The Beatles reunion
These video stills show The Beatles' Ringo Starr, left, and John Lennon celebrating Lennon's birthday on Oct. 9, 1971, at the Hotel Syracuse.
“It was one of the high points of my life,” said Ross, a Syracuse University graduate who later served as art director at museums in Boston, NYC and San Francisco. “There was going to be a secret Beatles reunion concert, with everyone except Paul in the theater at the Everson.”
The concert never happened. Harrison never made it — it’s unknown if McCartney was invited — and plans for a performance at the Everson were canceled because word got out about a possible Beatles reunion. Some 6,000 people showed up at the museum, frenzied like teenage girls during Beatlemania on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964.
“That evening the doors to the Everson were broken down because people had heard there’d be a secret Beatles concert at the Everson,” Ross told The Post-Standard in 2005. “The entire museum was filled with people furious that it had been canceled, and we were afraid they’d trash the place. Ginsberg calmed them down. He got up with this little harmonium and started chanting, and that got everyone chanting.”
Lennon instead celebrated his birthday in a room at the Hotel Syracuse. A video on YouTube, filmed by avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, shows Lennon, Starr, Ono and others jamming in a hotel room with guitars and using trash cans and silverware as percussion instruments. According to the Beatles Bible, much of the party was recorded for posterity on a 43-minute audiotape, featuring “drunken versions” of songs like “Yellow Submarine,” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” “Power to the People,” “Peggy Sue,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Imagine,” the Lennon-Spector collaboration “Bring Out the Joints,” and a medley of “Twist and Shout,” “Louie Louie” and “La Bamba.”
José Carlos Almeida
