Get Back

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Get Back is a song off The Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be. It was their first single of 1969. It was written by Paul McCartney.

Contents

Writing

Get Back originally had drastically different lyrics, parodying British politicans and the British press' attitude toward immigrants. The issue of immigration had apparently been in McCartney's mind during the Get Back sessions, because he and the other Beatles improvised a song called Commonwealth, parodying British politician Enoch Powell's views on immigration. It was based mainly off his "Rivers Of Blood" speech. A famous version of Get Back before the lyrics change is commonly known as "No Pakistanis" on bootlegs. It contained the line: "Don't dig no Pakistanis taking all the people's jobs." It was obviously unfinished, but it did contain a rhyming couplet which rhymed Puerto Rican and Mohican. Many demos of these early versions exist from the Get Back sessions. One of them has these line:

"Meanwhile back at home too many Pakistanis
Living in a council flat
Candidate Macmillan, tell us what your plan is
Won't you tell us where you're at?"

Once bootlegs of the Get Back sessions became available, people accused McCartney of the seemingly racist lyrics. In reality, it was parodying racism, but the fans could not tell. McCartney later said, "When we were doing Let It Be, there were a couple of verses to Get Back which were actually not racist at all - they were anti-racist. There were a lot of stories in the newspapers then about Pakistanis crowding out flats - you know, living 16 to a room or whatever. So in one of the verses of Get Back, which we were making up on the set of Let It Be, one of the outtakes has something about 'too many Pakistanis living in a council flat' - that's the line. Which to me was actually talking out against overcrowding for Pakistanis... If there was any group that was not racist, it was the Beatles. I mean, all our favourite people were always black. We were kind of the first people to open international eyes, in a way, to Motown." It is unknown where the lyrics to the chorus came from. A 1968 George Harrison song, Sour Milk Sea, demoed by The Beatles and recorded by Apple artist Jackie Lomax, contains the lyrics "Get back to where you should be," which couldhave possibly inspired "Get back to where you once belonged." John Lennon, however, thought the lyrics were an attack at his wife, Yoko Ono. He told Playboy in 1980, "I've always thought there was this underlying thing in Paul's Get Back. When we were in the studio recording it, every time he sang the line "Get back to where you once belonged," he'd look at Yoko." Because their intentions of the immigration lyrics might be misinterpreted, they slowly came up with the stories of Jojo and Loretta. Paul later said, "Many people have since claimed to be the Jo Jo and they're not, let me put that straight! I had no particular person in mind, again it was a fictional character, half man, half woman, all very ambiguous. I often left things ambiguous, I like doing that in my songs." Get Back was intended to be the title track of what would become Let It Be, and was up until shortly before it was released.

Recording

Although Get Back had originated from the Get Back sessions in Twickenham Film Studios in early January 1969, no formal takes were recorded until January 23, 1969, at Apple Studios. They taped roughly ten takes. Mark Lewisohn writes in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, "By the time sessions reached Apple the lyric had changed and the title... well, Paul had his own ideas in that direction. George Martin, over the talkback: 'What are you calling this, Paul?' Paul: 'Shit. Shit, take one.'" Get Back was the first Beatles recording released to feature Billy Preston, whom George Harrison had recruited to improve the group's sound and to keep them from fighting. George recalls, "He came in while we were down in the basement, running through Get Back, and I went up to reception and said, 'Come in and play on this because they're all acting strange'. He was all excited. I knew the others loved Billy anyway, and it was like a breath of fresh air. It's interesting to see how nicely people behave when you bring a guest in, because they don't really want everybody to know that they're so bitchy... He got on the electric piano, and straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we'd created among ourselves." More recording came on January 27 and January 28. The session on January 28 included the basic track used on the final version. Even though it is faded out on the disc, a thirty-seven second reprise was included on early acetates of the album and has been subsequently bootlegged. It has ad-libbed lyrics and fake laughing. Get Back was performed three times on the rooftop of Apple Studios on January 30, 1969. The first was basically a rehearsal, although an edit of it and the second performance was included in the Let It Be film. The third version was interrupted when police officers instructed Mal Evans to turn The Beatles' amplifiers off. He did this, only t have George Harrison turn his amp back on. Because of this, Evans turned Lennon's amp back on, too. This version almost broke down, though it was finished. During it, Paul McCartney ad-libbed, "You've been playing on the roofs again, and that's no good, and you know your Mummy doesn't like that... she gets angry... she's gonna have you arrested! Get back!" This version was included on Anthology 3. A version of the song from January 28 was mixed for single release on March 28. However, after hearing John Peel and Allen Freeman broadcast the song on BBC radio, he decided that it needed to be remixed. On April 7, new mono and stereo mixes were made, because the single was to be released only four days later. Because of this, many stores didn't receive copies until several days after. John told Rolling Stone in 1970, "Yes, I played the solo on [Get Back]. When Paul was feeling kindly, he would give me a solo! Maybe if he was feeling guilty that he had most of the a-side or something, he would give me a solo. And I played the solo on that." Phil Spector made a new mix on March 26, 1970, editing on some studio chat from January 27, 1969 (John's "Sweet Loretta Fart, She thought she was a cleaner, but se was a frying pan.") and applause and talking (Paul saying ""Thanks Mo" and John saying "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition") to simulate a new performance. A shorter remix of the song is included on the 2003 album Let It Be... Naked.

Single Release

Get Back was released as a single in the UK in April 1969. Paul McCartney wrote the following press release pertaining to the single:

"Get Back is The Beatles' new single. It's the first Beatles record which is as live as live can be, in this electronic age. There's no electronic whatchamacallit. Get Back is pure spring-time rock number. On the other side there's an equally live number called Don't Let Me Down.

Paul's got this to say about Get Back: 'We were sitting in the studio and we made it up out of thin air... we started to write words there and then... when we finished it, we recorded it at Apple Studios and made it into a song to roller-coast by.

P.S. John adds, it's John playing the fab live guitar solo. And now John on Don't Let Me Down: John says don't let me down about Don't Let Me Down.

In Get Back and Don't Let Me Down, you'll find The Beatles, as nature intended."

In the UK, Get Back ended up being the only Beatles single to debut at number one on the charts. It stayed on the charts for seventeen weeks. It was billed as The Beatles with Billy Preston, making it the only single to credit an outside musician. Even though the single and album versions of the song are taken from the same recording, the single version includes a coda cut out by producer Phil Spector on the album. It was replaced by live dialogue to make it seem like a new performance. The coda for the single version begins after a false ending. The coda contains the lines, "Get back Loretta, your mummy's waiting for you. Wearing her high-heel shoes and her low-neck sweater, get back home, Loretta."

LOVE Mix

A remix of this song is included on the 2006 album LOVE. It contains the opening chord from A Hard Day's Night, drum and guitar solos frm The End, percussion from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), and the orchestral climax from A Day In The Life.

Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

The Beatles

Paul McCartney

John Lennon

  • Home Recording, 1978?, (Bootlegs)

George Harrison

  • Jam, 1970, (Bootlegs)
  • George Demo for Doris Troy, 1970, (Bootlegs)

Ringo Starr

Available On

Cover Versions

Source

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