Though I am an avid Beatles fan, the articles in this series are the result of research and fact checking rather than personal insight or actual interviews - so this is more of a report and not an editorial by any means. For more information, please visit www.beatlesbible.com - a site where you'll find a wealth of information about The Beatles, from their earliest days to their final recording sessions in 1970.
The Beatles: On Record - Part VI
Day Eleven: Get Back
"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."
-- John Lennon, 1970
By late 1968, Paul McCartney was eager for the Beatles to perform live again, more than two years after they had given up touring. At the time, there was a great deal of tension among the individual band members, each of whom had been pursuing personal projects over the course of the previous six months. The recording sessions for the The Beatles (aka the "White Album") had been badly affected by a number of serious arguments and strained relations among the group.
McCartney felt a major problem came from years without touring. By using the studio not to record ensemble performances but rather to make increasingly multi-layered and complex recordings that stressed individualism, McCartney felt that the band had grown apart and lost their collective group spirit.
"I think the original idea [for the Get Back project] was Paul's idea to rehearse some new songs and then we were gonna record the new album of the songs in concert. I suppose it was kinda like they do these days on [MTV's] Unplugged, except it wasn't unplugged."
-- George Harrison, 1996
McCartney also decided to invite renowned producer/engineer Glyn Johns to contribute to the recording. However his proposed role was apparently not clearly defined and McCartney also wished to retain the services of George Martin, meaning that Johns was not entirely sure as to whether he was supposed to be producing or co-producing the album or merely engineering it, with Martin having no clear idea of where he stood either.
"I was somewhat taken aback when John started off by saying, 'We don't want any of your production crap on this record.' He didn't want to have any voices overdubbed, he didn't want to have any other instruments. It had to be exactly as it was."
-- George Martin, The Beatles On Record
Most of Let It Be was recorded in January 1969 under the working title Get Back, before the recording and release of the album Abbey Road. For this reason, some critics and fans, such as Mark Lewisohn, argue that Abbey Road should be considered the group's final album and Let It Be the penultimate.
The Get Back album was intended for release in July 1969, but its release was pushed back to September to coincide with the planned television special and the theatrical film about the making of the album. Mirroring the cover of the band’s first album, Please Please Me, for the aborted Get Back LP was John Lennon’s idea. In September, the album's release was pushed back to December because the Beatles had just recorded Abbey Road and wanted to release that album instead. By December the album had been shelved.
(original concept cover art for "Get Back")
A new version of the album was created from the studio tapes by Phil Spector in 1970 and finally released as Let It Be after the Beatles had officially dissolved.
Despite a largely negative review from Rolling Stone magazine at the time of its release, this determination was later retracted with the album being ranked number 86 in the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003.
Let It Be… Naked was released in 2003, an alternative version of the album stripping much of Phil Spector's production work.
Beatles Rooftop Performance
- Get Back
- Don't Let Me Down
- I've Got A Feeling
- One After 909
- I Dig A Pony
- Get Back (reprise)
Written by: Paul McCartney (100%) (credited as Lennon-McCartney)
Producer: George Martin
Recorded: 23, 27, 28, 30 January; 5 February 1969 (Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London, England)
John Lennon: harmony vocals, rhythm guitar (1965 Epiphone E230TD(V) Casino)
Paul McCartney: lead vocals, bass guitar (1961 Hofner 500/1)
George Harrison: lead guitar (1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster)
Ringo Starr: drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple)
Billy Preston: electric piano (1968 Fender Rhodes)
In line with the concept behind the "Get Back project", the idea was to record all songs live to get back to the rock and roll sound of their early work. To achieve this the band recorded multiple takes in the studio trying to perfect the performance of each song.
Billy Preston joined The Beatles on the Fender Rhodes electric piano from January 22, having been recruited by Harrison partly with a view to deter bickering among The Beatles. Harrison's idea worked: when Preston was present The Beatles avoided fighting as they had during some earlier sessions. Augmented by a fifth musician, the group started to produce some tighter performances.
Preston first met The Beatles in 1962 while part of Little Richard's touring band, when their manager Brian Epstein organized a Liverpool show, which The Beatles opened. The Washington Post explained their subsequent meeting:
They'd hook up again in 1969, when The Beatles were about to break up while recording the last album they released, Let It Be. George Harrison, always Preston's best Beatles buddy, had quit and walked out of the studio and gone to a Ray Charles concert in London, where Preston was playing organ. Harrison brought Preston back to the studio, where his keen musicianship and gregarious personality temporarily calmed the tension.
" 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 bickering... 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."
-- George Harrison, Beatles Anthology
The Beatles performed Get Back on the roof of Apple Studios in Savile Row, London on January 30, 1969. The song was performed in full three times and in part twice. On the final version, The Beatles' performance was interrupted by the police, who had received complaints from office workers nearby. After the police spoke to Mal Evans, he turned off Lennon and Harrison's amplifiers only for Harrison to switch them back on, insisting that they finish the song. It was during this version that 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!"
The Beatles Bible adds interesting footnote regarding different lyrics to Get Back as well as a press release written by Paul McCartney.
Some interesting facts about the song:
- The Beatles often played around with their lyrics during recording sessions, as evidenced by Lennon's introduction on the Let It Be album: "Sweet Loretta Fart, she thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan".
- The song is unusual in The Beatles' canon in that almost every moment of the song's evolution has been extensively documented, from its beginning as an offhand riff to its final mixing.
- Get Back was The Beatles' first single release in true stereo in the U.S.
- The comment "Thanks Mo" by Paul is in reference to Maureen Starkey's (Ringo's wife) loud cheering.
- The words to Get Back reference Tucson, Arizona, where Paul's then-fiancee Linda Eastman was from.
- John Lennon, however, later claimed that McCartney's words were directed towards Yoko Ono.
"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."
-- John Lennon, 1980
- Although the group was already disintegrating, they seriously considered having Billy Preston join the band, the only real "Fifth Beatle" ever so considered. In fact, the Get Back single is credited to "The Beatles and Billy Preston." No other Beatles release shares billing in this way.
"The Beatles did treat me as a member of the group. And that was a great honor, you know?"
-- Billy Preston, 1970
"I think it shows on the record that when we were excited, the tracks were exciting. It didn't matter what we were going through as individuals, fuck all that, but when it comes to the music we were all giving a thousand percent."
-- Ringo Starr, The Beatles On Record
"They were quite good sessions. the ones at Apple Studio. I remember, you know, sitting around and quite enjoying the music. It was interesting music to play. And you know, we ended up on the roof."
-- Paul McCartney, 1996
"And I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition."
-- John Lennon, 1969
Previous In This Series: Day Ten: Hey Jude
Next In This Series: Day Twelve: The Abbey Road Medley
(Visit The Beatles Bible)
Sources:The Beatles Bible; Many Years From Now - Barry Miles (author); Beatles Interview Database; The Beatles Recording Sessions - Lewisohn, Mark (author); Whitburn, Joel (2007), Billboard Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin; Playboy Magazine; Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Ian McDonald (author); The Compleat Beatles Vol. 2, Milton Okun (author); Apple Records; Oldies Music Guide, Robert Fontenot (author); The Beatles On Record, BBC Televison; What Goes On, The Beatles' Anomalies List; The Beatles, Hunter Davies (author); The Beatles Let It Be Documentary, January 1969; The Washington Post Archives;
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