The Beatles song that deserves a live performance

nly have been conceived by roping in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop‘s hefty mixing consoles—a mammoth undertaking bordering on impossible.

Keeping our fantasy Beatles live number grounded in plausibility, we have to look toward their rootsier return for 1968’s eponymous double LP. Among a gloriously jumbled toybox of a record packed with a myriad of genre fancies and styles, surely the one cut we’re treated to in our imaginary Beatles concert is ‘Helter Skelter’.

All four Beatles strut on stage, crank the amps up and thrash out Paul McCartney’s raucous ode to love’s disorientating thrill ride with a level of explosive, freak-out slack unseen from the nice old Beatles. The Who’s Pete Townshend’s turning green in the crowd, Jimi Hendrix is studiously taking note for his live cover planned the following evening, and Cilla Black‘s at the front wondering what the fuss is about. They would offer an extended jam, Ringo Starr’s fingers would still blister, and hell, perhaps the first stage invasion may have commenced there and then.

Ever the consummate professionals, from their leather-clad days playing the Hamburg club circuit to their final bow on a Savile Row rooftop, had The Beatles ever had the chance to capture ‘Helter Skelter’s wild energy on stage, it would have stood beside The Ed Sullivan Show and their 1965 show at New York’s Shea Stadium in lauded Beatle mythology.