The Beatles in St. Louis | Teen Ink

The Beatles in St. Louis

January 6, 2021
By jonasrains BRONZE, Lake Saint Louis, Missouri
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jonasrains BRONZE, Lake Saint Louis, Missouri
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Author's note:

I wrote it in my Creative Writing class during our Historical Fiction unit. I wrote it about the Beatles' Concert in St. Louis because I live fairly close to St. Louis and because I love the Beatles.

Julie and her friends were talking at lunch on their first day of school. Her friends that were there were Amy, Carol, Cindy, and Julie’s boyfriend David. Julie is the shiest of her friends but was the only one who has a boyfriend. Julie was zoning out during most of the conversation until they started talking about a band that’s going to be playing near them soon. She missed their name but tried to figure out what they’re talking about.
“I’m going to see them,” Carol said. “My parents wouldn’t pay for the tickets because they don’t like their music but I had some money saved up and bought me and Cindy some tickets. Are any of the rest of you going?”
“When is the concert?” Amy asked.
“Sunday, August 21st at 8,” responded Carol, “only a couple weeks away. If any of you wanna go you’d better get some tickets soon.”
“I won’t be able to go then, I work in the evening on the weekends, and my manager isn’t flexible with my scheduling. I hope you have fun though!”
“That’s a bummer. Are any of you going?” Carol asked the others.
“Uh, where will it be? I’ll, um, be free on the 21st” Julie said.
“Busch Stadium, so you could also visit the new arch that they finished last year”
“Sounds like it’ll be a gas, I’ll get some ti-” Julie was cut off by David.
“Don’t worry about it, babe. I’ll get some tickets for us.”
‘... Thank you, David.”
“David don’t forget to get them soon, The Beatles are popular right now so if you wait too long it’ll be hard to find tickets,” said Carol.
They finished lunch and proceeded to their next classes. Julie doesn’t know if she can trust David to remember to get the tickets, because he is forgetful. She plans to call him to remind him to buy them tonight.
Later that evening, after Julie finished her homework, she called David to remind him to buy the tickets. He picked up.
“Hi David, I uh, just wanted to remind you to get out to get those tickets to the Beatles concert before they’re sold out.”
“Don’t worry babe, I was about to leave to get them.”
“Alright. Uh, thanks.” They both hang up.
Julie isn’t sure if David was actually about to go get them or not, but she doesn’t worry about it right now. Julie decided to go out and get some of the Beatles music. She had heard them on the radio a lot, but she didn’t yet own any of their music. She went to the record store and found out that their latest album had just been released the other day, so she bought it for $4. The album was called Revolver, and Julie liked its artwork. The artwork had a sketch of all 4 members heads, and between them, there was a collage of their faces. On the back, there was a picture of them wearing sunglasses.
When she got home she started playing it. This album wasn’t like most of their other songs she heard on the radio. She could still tell it was them, but this album had a more of a psychedelic feel than their other albums she’s heard. Julie likes this feel a lot, and she likes the last song on the album, Tomorrow Never Knows. She’s sure it won’t be performed at the concert though because there are many things in this song that can’t be performed live.

The next day, when Julie and her friends were at lunch together, she asked David if he got the tickets.
“So, uh, David, you got the tickets, right?” Asked Julie.
“Yep I got them right after I finished my homework.”
“I’m Jazzed! Thank you, David!” Said Julie.
“No sweat,” replied David, “I’ve wanted to see them as well.”
“I’m still bummed out I won’t be able to go,” said Amy.
“Don’t worry, Amy,” said David, “we can tell you about it afterwards.”
“Yeah but, it’s not the same as seeing it in person.”
“I guess,” responded David”
“Anyways, have any of you listened to their new album, Revolver?” Asked Julie, “I just got it yesterday.”
“I didn’t even know that was out yet!” Replied Cindy.
“Cindy?! I thought you would have known? It’s all I’ve been talking about recently” said Carol.
“Oops,” Cindy said. “Anyways looking forward to the concert.” The others agreed.

A few weeks later, on August 21, Julie and her friends all drove with each other to Busch Stadium. They left around 7:30 PM because the concert starts at 8:00 PM. It was beginning to rain. They were starting to worry if it would get cancelled due to the rain. “Looks like the rain is starting to come down,” said Julie, “I hope this won’t affect the concert…”
“Even if it continues raining I doubt they’ll cancel it,” responded Carol.
When they got there they noticed they were still selling tickets. “Wow, I would’ve thought they would’ve sold out,” said Carol.
“Well it kind of makes sense,” said David, “my parents barely let me come after something that one of the members said something about them being more popular than Jesus or something, I don’t know.”
“Hm, that was John, but he’s already apologized for that, it’s weird that they didn’t sell out,” said Carol.
Julie and David and Cindy and Carol had to split up because their seats were in different places. Julie noticed how there weren’t as many people as she thought, the stadium looked at least only half full. When the show started it was still raining, and there were 30 minutes of opening acts. Julie was able to recognize a few of the songs from stuff she heard on the radio, but she was eager to hear the Beatles.
Julie and David were wet, but the rain kept coming, but there was no sign of this concert getting cancelled, so they stayed. David begged Julie to leave early because of it but Julie was determined to stay and see the Beatles. David decided to stay to not disappoint her.
After the opening acts finished up, the Beatles came out on stage. Their fans started going crazy, Julie and David tried to stay away from these crazy people. The Beatles started playing Rock And Roll Music. It was hard to hear them. Julie asked David if they could get closer. David resisted for a little but Julie wanted to hear them well.
They joined the chaos at the front. They could hear them a little better but there were lots of screaming girls that still made it hard to hear, but it was better up here than in their seats. Julie saw a lot of girls getting hurt in the chaos so she was trying her best not to get too far into the chaos. She was soaking wet at this point. She saw Carol and Cindy and told David that they should hang out with them, so they went over there.
¨Hi girls, how’s the concert,” said Julie to Carol and Cindy.
“Amazing, I love this so much.” Responded Carol, she looks like she is really happy getting to see them.
“This has been nice for me as well,” Said Cindy.
The Beatles played many songs that Julie had recognized, like Day Tripper and Yesterday. They played Carol’s favourite song, Nowhere Man and Julie knew that was her favourite song and that she loved hearing it live. The concert felt like it passed fast to Julie, She wished it could have gone on forever. She’s glad she got to experience it with David and her friends.
By 9:00 they were done performing, and Julie and her friends went back to their car, soaking wet, and headed home. They talked about it as they drove.
“So, what’d you think of it, Carol?” Julie asked.
“It was the best, I will never forget about this,” They responded.
“Same here, I wonder if they’ll ever tour again,” Julie said.
“Ha, yeah it’d be nice to watch them and not get soaked, but even if they don’t this was still an amazing experience.”
“It was,” agreed Cindy, “they didn’t seem to really like playing in the rain though.”
“I noticed that too, that’s why I hoped that they could come again sometime in the future,” responded Julie.
“That would be nice, but I don’t know if they will,” said Carol, “or at least, not near us again.”
Carol was right, as after this tour, the Beatles didn’t tour again. In fact, they didn’t have another concert until their final performance in 1969 with the iconic rooftop concert. None of the members would come back to St. Louis for a while, perhaps due to their poor experience with the 1966 concert shown here where they played in the rain.

“The Beatles at Busch Stadium in 1966.” STLtoday.com, 1 Aug. 2017, www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/the-beatles-at-busch-stadium-in-1966/collection_28fc56d6-2f70-5681-a624-67b6352edae0.html. 

“Live: Busch Stadium, St Louis.” The Beatles Bible, The Beatles Bible, 16 Aug. 2018, www.beatlesbible.com/1966/08/21/live-busch-stadium-st-louis/.



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