Notes and Quotes: "Get Back"

Billy Preston becomes another "fifth Beatle" as they search for a way to enhance their ability to perform live music. The theme of "Get Back" refers in part to a conscious decision to escape the artificiality of studio recordings and to evoke the kind of music that would dominate the numerous music festivals this year.

McCartney evokes the country rock sound emerging in 1969; note that the song has an alternating verse-chorus form. In general, the Beatles were trying to recapture some of their rock roots, thus the emphasis on a live sound. (Compare with the Blind Faith recordings.)

"Get Back" also comes from the period of time when the Beatles are attempting to be their own masters, producing their own recordings and managing their own enterprise. Unfortunately, they discovered that they were unable as a corporate entity to achieve what they had musically.

Miles. Typically these were partly lifted from newspaper stories: in this case about the plight of Kenyan Asians, who were rushing to get to Britain before the passage of the Commonwealth Immigration Bill which would have denied them entry. Intended as a parody on racist attitudes, the line, "Don't dig no Pakistani taking all the people's jobs!" was dropped early on as being too easily misconstrued. (Miles 1997, 535)

McCartney. The words were not racist at all. They were antiracist. If there was any group that was not racist it was the Beatles. 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. (Miles 1997, 535)

Harrison: When I went with Eric Clapton to see Ray Charles play at the Festival Hall, before Ray came on there was a guy on stage playing the organ, dancing about and singing "Double-O Soul." I thought, "That guy looks familiar," but he seemed bigger than I remembered. After a while Ray came on and the band played for a few songs and then he reintroduced... Billy Preston! Ray said, "Since I heard Billy play I don't play the organ any more—I leave it to him." I thought, "It's Billy!" Since we had last seen him in Hamburg in 1962, when he was just a little lad, he had grown to be six foot tall. So I put a message out to find out if Billy was in town, and told him to come into Savile Row, which he did. 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 acting strange." He was all excited. I knew the others loved Billy anyway, and it was like a breath of fresh air... Billy came down and I said, "Remember Billy? Here he is—he can play the piano." 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. Billy didn't know all the politics and the games that had been going on, so in his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band. Everybody was happier to have somebody else playing and it made what we were doing more enjoyable. We all played better and that was a great session. It was more or less just as it is on the record. (Anthology, 318)

Starr: I don't think Billy Preston made us behave a bit better. I think we were working on a good track and that always excited us. His work was also a part of it, so suddenly—as always when you're working on something good—the bullshit went out the window and we got back down to doing what we did really well. "Get Back" was a good track. I felt, "This is a kick-ass track." "Don't Let Me Down" also. They were two fine tracks. Quite simple and raw—back to basics. I'd done a hook to the track in "Get Back" which sounded good and it's been copied since—by myself, in fact, in "Back Off Boogaloo." That's perfectly allowed by me." (Anthology, 318)

McCartney: Billy was brilliant—a little young whizz-kid. We'd always got on very well with him. He showed up in London and we all said, "Oh Bill! Great—let's have him play on a few things." So he started sitting in on the sessions, because he was an old mate really. It might have helped us all behave better with one another on the sessions. I think it also created problems, because as the Beatles we'd always just been four people in the band. We were very much a unit—the Four-Headed Monster, I've heard us referred to. / So when Billy came in, I think that though we did have to behave ourselves a bit—because it was like having a guest in the house, someone you put your best manners on for—there was a slight worry in the background also that maybe he was joining the group. That kind of thing was happening. So we couldn't tell whether it was a crack in the whole thing, or whether it was going to be good. It was a little bit puzzling. But he played great and we all had a great time, so it worked out fine in the end. (Anthology, 318-319)

Martin: Billy Preston was a great help and a very good keyboard guy, and his work on "Get Back" alone justified him being there. He was an amiable fellow too, very nice and emollient. He helped to lubricate the friction that had been there. (Anthology, 319)

Lennon: We've often used other musicians on millions of records, you know. We just named Billy on the cover of Let It Be because Billy was playing a pretty funky piano solo. That's all. He used to play with Ray Charles's band, and he came over and signed up with Apple. George is producing an LP with him. He's a groovy cat. He comes in and sits in on the session and then lays it on you, so we thought we'd give him a credit. I can't understand people's problem with it. It [the album cover] says, "With Billy preston." It doesn't say, "Billy Preston instead of the Beatles." I don't understand how these myths get going. (Pritchard and Lysaght, 280)

Lennon: "Get Back" is Paul. That's a better version of "Lady Madonna." You know, a potboiler rewrite. [Q: That one is a real story, though, isn't it?] No, I think there's some underlying thing about Yoko in there... You know "Get back to where you once belonged": Every time he sang the line in the studio, he'd look at Yoko. [Q: Are you kidding?] No. But maybe he'll say I'm paranoid. You know, he can say, "I'm a normal family man, those two are freaks." That'll leave him a chance to say that one. (Sheff 1981: 179)

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23 April, 2012