There are quite a few songs from The Beatles’ discography that were never performed by the band live. “Every Little Thing”, “I Need You”, and “Martha My Dear” are a few examples. However, one particularly huge hit by the band was never actually performed live, to the surprise of many newer Beatles fans.
The song in question is “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” from The Beatles’ famed 1969 album Abbey Road.
The lack of live airtime is surprising, as “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is a truly iconic song from The Beatles’ discography. Written by Lennon, the song was one of the last songs to be finished for Abbey Road. It also happened to be the last song to be mixed on August 20, 1969. That marked the very last time that each of the Fab Four was in a studio together.
Why The Beatles Never Performed “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” Live
The simple answer to why the band never performed this track live is that The Beatles had stopped touring by the time the song was released. They stopped touring and retired from performing live at the end of 1966. However, John Lennon did make a few one-off performances in which he performed The Beatles’ music.
Lennon never really toured as a solo musician. However, he brought out a few hits during those few and far-between performances. He performed songs older than “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, particularly “Yer Blues” from the band’s famed 1968 White Album. He performed “Come Together” for Live In New York City as well. And we can’t forget tracks like “Well Well Well” and “It’s So Hard”.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” would have been perfect for that particular performance in NYC. It’s a little puzzling that it was never tacked onto the setlist.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was allegedly written about Lennon’s love for Yoko Ono. The track is known for its use of blues scales, aggressive bass-playing, white noise, and multi-tracked guitars. It’s a unique song for The Beatles, and some have even described it as proto-metal. Not only do the lyrics describe the symbolic heaviness (or intensity) of the object of Lennon’s love, but the song is musically quite heavy for its time.
While it’s sad that we’ll never hear “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” get a proper performance from The Beatles, we can at least enjoy it for what it is.
