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Early versions include the line "I dig no Pakistanis." The song began as a commentary about immigration, telling people to "Get Back" to their own countries. It was meant to mock Britain's anti-immigrant proponents. Paul McCartney thought better of it and made the lyrics more obscure. (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)
A live version on the Apple rooftop ended the movie Let It Be. This is what The Beatles were playing on the Apple rooftop when the police shut them down. The album version is a studio take with the end of the rooftop concert spliced on, complete with comments to make it sound live.
"Get Back" was going to be the title of the album. The concept was The Beatles "getting back" to their roots and playing new songs for a live audience without any studio tricks. This song came closest to capturing that spirit, but the album became something completely different when they decided to scrap the idea of a live album. Glyn Johns, who engineered the sessions was asked to put the album together from what were really rehearsal tapes. After he put the album together, it sat around while the Let It Be Movie was being edited from the film footage of The Beatles rehearsing in the studio and playing on the rooftop. During this time, The Beatles made the Abbey Road album, released it, and broke up. John Lennon had Phil Spector produce his solo song "Instant Karma," which Harrison played on. They liked Spector's work and asked him to produce the Get Back album, which was re-titled Let It Be. Spector took the tapes and added orchestrations using his "Wall Of Sound" technique, and the album that was supposed to be the raw sound of The Beatles returning to their roots was released as a highly-produced final album after they had broken up.
In their early days, The Beatles played in clubs for hours most nights, but by 1967, they stopped touring. This single was advertised as "The Beatles as nature intended."
At the beginning of the album version, Lennon sang, "Sweet Loretta fat she thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan." He was making fun of the first line in the song.
At the end of the album version, Paul says "thanks Mo" in response to Ringo's wife, Maureen, who was clapping.
The press release to promote the single contained this quote from McCartney: "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."
Lennon claimed this was basically a rewrite of their 1968 song "
Lady Madonna."
The single version is longer than the album version. Usually it is the other way around.
Paul looked at Yoko in the studio when he sang the line "get back to where you once belong." John thought he was disrespecting her.
McCartney got the idea for this from the line, "Get back to where you should be," which came from a song Harrison wrote called "Sour Milk Sea," which was eventually recorded by Jackie Lomax. McCartney changed the line to, "Get back to where you once belonged." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
There was speculation that the character "JoJo" was based on Joseph Melville See Jr., Linda McCartney's first husband, who was from Tucson, Arizona. McCartney denied this, explaining in his 1988 autobiography Many Years From Now, that he and Linda were on good terms with See, who used the first name Melville, and that "JoJo" was "an imaginary character, half-man and half-woman." See never remarried, and in 2000 he killed himself in Tucson.
Billy Preston played piano and became the only guest artist to get a credit on a Beatles single when this was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." After George Harrison left the sessions, he saw Preston in concert with Ray Charles. The Beatles met Preston in 1962 when they were both playing in Germany, but they hadn't seen each other since. Harrison asked Preston to come by the studio the next day, where he played on this and "Don't Let Me Down." Having him in the studio eased the tension and made it easier for The Beatles to put personal conflicts aside and record the album.
The last version of the song, which can be heard in the widely bootlegged "rooftop sessions," finds McCartney mocking the police as they shut down the rooftop concert. You can hear him ad-lib the lines "You been out too long, Loretta! You've been playing on the roofs again! That's no good! You know your mommy doesn't like that! Oh, she's getting angry... she'll have you arrested! Get back!"
Some of the artists to cover this song include: The Bee Gees, The Crusaders, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Green, Elton John, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Main Ingredient, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Billy Preston, Kenny Rogers, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shadows, Status Quo, Rod Stewart, Ike and Tina Turner, and Sarah Vaughan. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2)
In 2003, Paul and Ringo gave permission to Apple Records to rework the album and remove Phil Spector's production. The result is the stripped down version called Let It Be... Naked, which McCartney claims is what the group intended.
McCartney played this at halftime of the 2005 Super Bowl. It was the year after Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the halftime show.
Comments (76):
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Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root
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Brandi Carlile
As a 5-year-old, Brandi was writing lyrics to instrumental versions lullabies. She still puts her heart into her songs, including the one Elton John sings on.
Brad Smith of Blind Melon
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Ringo's galloping drums fusing with Paul's driving bass and Georges crunchy rhythm all done LIVE is just awesome. I get tingles watching it even now 40 years after it was first performed!
But the results!!!What a sensation.This song hit number 1 in many countries and have been covered many times.
But the results of the covers are disapointing , pathetic.
As an example [ I am writing from Brazil] one of the most brilliant and creative brasilian rock stars -Lulu Santos - have covered Get Back [calle here " De Leve "].The result is poor, it is almost difficult to identify the original song.It is because only the Beatles could take a song like Get Back and perform it to be a complete knock-dow performance, something that catchs you forever and cannot be reproduced.Remember the openning riffs [A major ] and the continuos crescendos that once heard, catch you forever.
And for those who say it is a studium trick , just see the Roof-Top performance to prove that saying: whoever that knows how to do, do it live!
Thank you.
John
Living in a council flat/ Candidate for Labour tells them what the plan is/Then he tells them where its at". ("Council flat" is the British equivilent for "housing project").
He also says John played one of the first and best acid guitar parts on his hard rocking 1968 Beatles single,REvolution,and he also said he played a really good slide guitar on George's song For Your Blue.
Flat out ignorance.
Just because you like it one way, does not mean thats the only way.
I must add that Paul McCartney could do it alone with Ringo (let it be naked) only because he contributed the most in here. Fine, disagree with me but thats what I believe,
Phil Spector's sound of wall didn't last long and even Tina Turner didn't her recording with Phil.
The Beatles didn't like the way it had turned out so who's to say it was better?
Ringo...a lot has been said about him and not all good but why not visit his homepage and see what John, Paul and George said about him. He was the anchor, didn't take sides, and his drumming is fabulous.
Yoko was certainly not the reason of the break-up and she deserves as much respect as anyone else. She was John's love and wife, the mother of his child. Granted that she caused negatives vibes, John loved her his way and that should be respected as well. Their marriage endured and that's a rarity among celebrities.
The Beatles were a band and that's how they should be seen. It's no use to start analyzing each individual because they played as a band. Why not just enjoy their music.
McCartney wanted to run the show as a pseudo-manager and unofficial producer. Note George's annoyance with Mac during Let It Be: "I'll play how you want me to play, or if you want I won't play at all..."
Years later, John's chauffeur in New York was quoted as saying, "John told me that he loved Paul like a brother, but that he didn't like him..."
"Let it be" from the Beatles(version Spector) and
"Imagine" from John Lennon(co-produced by Spector)
very much and I consider Phil Spector as a talented producer and songwriter.
Never understood why, I suppose it's because John Lennon prefered Spector to do this album, anyway it's sad to behave like Mac did.
Spector made a good career for himself as a producer, but there is no way he compares to any of the Beatles save Ringo.
And there were actually four performances on the roof. There was a warm up version, which was dreadful. Then there was a second one, which was sloppy, but spirited. The third is, arguably, the best, with paul giving a little tug on his bass before he count in. Billy Preston flubbed his solo, which is the only error I hear in it. The third was bland, but sweet, and then the fourth was the final one, which is the most spirited, though very sloppy.
does anybody out there agree with me? people i know think i'm looney, so I'd like to know what you think.