Search - Press Conference Sept 17 1964 Spoken Word :: Beatles 64 Goin To Kansas City

"Kansas City, here I come..."

Michael Hockinson | Portland, Oregon United States | 02/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"George Harrison once sang, "It's all up to what you value", and in the case of the previous review by the New York "Beatlemaniac", there's much more to consider here than just the list price. The Beatles' 17 September Kansas City concert is unique on their 1964 North American tour for the amount they were offered to play - $150,000 - at the time the largest fee ever paid for a single performance. Writing the check was Kansas City Athletics baseball owner Charles O. Finley. Though 20,280 fans attended the concert at the Kansas City Municipal Stadium, Finley lost money, having needed sales of 28,000 tickets just to break even.



Prior to the show, the Beatles gave a press conference on the top floor of the Muehlebach Hotel, presented here in its entirety, running just under 25 minutes. Sound quality is very good, perhaps a little loud at times when a Beatle gets too close to his mike. While the Kansas City press ask all the predictable questions, including four devoted to their hair, the Beatles' banter amongst themselves and with their audience is light-hearted, and highlights abound, with John in especially fine form.



Asked to comment on how his wife Cynthia feels about having the group's female fans "screaming and running after (him)", John states, "She knows they never catch me".



"With all the girls chasing you all over the world," asks another reporter, "who's the most exciting woman you've met?" Without missing a beat, Lennon declares, "Ringo's mother was pretty hot."



A 32-page full color booklet features an informative essay on the Kansas City show by Mark Naboshek, illustrated with many previously unseen photos from the press conference and the concert, along with reproductions of concert-related correspondence, newspaper articles and tickets. The packaging is quite elaborate, a 7" square gatefold picture sleeve that once upon a time would have housed an extended play single. Here, it showcases a CD resembling one of Capitol Records' green swirl Star Line singles, a nice touch.



Amazon's track listing for this release notes the first four songs the Beatles performed that night. For the record, there is no music on this disc. In addition, this CD is not "enhanced" with any data tracks for DVD/CD-ROM players.



In assembling one of the handsomest packages to date for a press conference, producer Joseph A. Tunzi has raised the bar on non-official Beatles releases. One hopes this won't be the only spoken-word release by the group JAT Records offers. Is the price "out of line"? That's up to you to decide.



UPDATE (April 2010): JAT Records notes on their website that they have sold through their limited run of 2,000 copies.

"