The Beatles onstage presented a line of three singer-guitarists standing toward the front, with the drummer sitting behind and above them on a small platform flanked by guitar amplifiers. [...] Their haircuts had been regularized into shiny, bowl-shaped helmets that framed their faces and enlarged their heads, giving them an almost childlike silhouette. They were dressed identically, coiffed identically, and the three in front were all of equal height. Yet their uniformity of appearance was offset by an almost complete lack of uniformity in their individual styles of performance. On the right side of the stage stood John Lennon, facing the audience squarely, his feet planted widely apart, his body flexing up and down at the knees in a motion that suggested Elvis Presley idling in neutral. Half-blind as he was without the glasses he refused to wear onstage, John’s naturally petulant expression was compounded by an air of obliviousness as he sang, his head tilted back, squinting down his nose at the blur of lights and shapes that swam before his eyes. Across the stage from his songwriting partner, Paul McCartney bounced and hopped and twisted as if his movements were being controlled by an apprentice puppeteer, the neck of his violin-shaped bass guitar alternately jerking up and down or sweeping across the stage as he turned to face his bandmates. In contrast to John, Paul seemed to take in everything that was happening around him onstage, as reflected on his face by a constant flow of smiles, frowns of concentration, surprised laughter, and histrionic double-takes—one moment the picture of crooning sincerity with his head bowed and his eyes raised, the next moment actually shaking from head to toe with the excitement of the music. A more sober form of concentration could be seen on the face of George Harrison as he stood in the middle of the band, his guitar held perfectly level and worn high on his body. George onstage was a collection of small, poised gestures: now stepping forward to take a solo, now leaning over to share a microphone with Paul or John on the chorus harmonies. Behind the others sat Ringo, surrounded by his new American-made drum set, the front head of his bass drum displaying the name of the band in stark black lettering. Raising his sticks high, fanning his hi-hat cymbals with his arm drawn across his body, Ringo seemed to vie with the audience for the attention of the three guitarists in front of him, at times actually lifting out of his seat with the enthusiasm of his playing. And on his face, mixed in with the sidelong glances and knowing grins that linked the Beatles to one another onstage, could be glimpsed a look of absolute astonishment that the others, if they did nothing else, managed to suppress.

[—from Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America, Jonathan Gould]