my dear pal and magno performer Al Kooper (fellow Aquarian, born just five days after moi) sent this writing and video. it's from a very special moment in our shared (that's all of us) of our shared musical pleasure and history. the beatles and billy preston and "get back", plus a few guests.... enjoy and thanks al. best, o
from al:
"Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did. The history of the song
made it even more interesting.
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Here's a clip you likely have never seen. The recording of 'Get Back'
for the 'Let It Be' album.
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."
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."
The character "JoJo" was based on Joseph Melville See Jr., Linda
McCartney's first husband. He was from Tucson, Arizona, and killed
himself there in 2000.
The missing verse from Get Back: "Meanwhile back at home there's
nineteen Pakistanis, 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 equivalent for "housing project").
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.
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. There
was a rare quote by Paul that said "I don't take any notice of her.
She's John's wife so I have to respect her for that, but I don't think
she's the brightest of buttons. She's said some particularly daft
things in her time. Her life is dedicated to putting me down but I
attempt very strongly not to put her down." They eventually became
friends even if it did have to be after John was murdered. Ringo was
the only one who would accept Yoko in the beginning when she first
came in picture, during and after The Beatles.
Billy Preston played piano and became the only guest artist to get a
credit on a Beatles single - "The Beatles with Billy Preston." George
Harrison had left the recording session one day and saw Preston in
concert with Ray Charles. The Beatles had met Preston back 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. Having him in the studio eased the tension and made it easier for
The Beatles to put personal conflicts aside and record the album.
On the clip you can briefly see a young Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts
from the Rolling Stones in the booth. Phil Spector was the guy with
the glasses."
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and thanks to jason mcphail, the trainspotting bestest sammy glick of a manager from glasgow this side of wee alan mcgee, for reminding us how great the johnny burnette rock and roll trio, rip into " honey hush".
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and here's another hip tip from jason.....
"Her head to body size ratio will have Gered doing cartwheels. As Kenny pointed out 'We're talking Bruce Springsteen ratios here'"
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2 comments:
Paul and Yoko never became friends. Yoko helped Jackos outbid Sir Paul for the Beatles publishing, and refused to allow the songwriting credits for Yesterday (which Paul composed by himself) to read- McCartney-Lennon instead of the traditional Lennon-McCartney, not to mention that Paul and everyone else knows Yoko called in the tip that got Sir Paul thrown in the clink attempting to enter Japan with stash of smoke in tow. Nice attempt to be diplomatic, but the truth is they've always hated each other, and the feeling seems to grow no disapate over the decades.
This vid says it's a "never-before-heard version". It's the same goddamn version heard on the record!! I've heard it hundreds of times. WTF??
The console is an EMI REDD 51 recording desk, so it's Abbey Road Studio, not Apple Studio, which had a Helios console. Yeah, there's a shot of the Apple name plate, but the room they are shown setting up drums in is Twickenham Film Studios.
During this clip, Paul is seen singing into 3 different vocal microphones.
George is also seen playing two different guitars, a Telecaster and a Les Paul.
Somebody obviously cobbled some footage together and used the released track to create a music video. There is nothing historically revealing about this presentation.
I don't see any shots of Paul looking directly over at Yoko, do you?
Also in the scene with Mick Jagger, it's not Charlie Watts, it's Mick Gosslip.
And the dude with the glasses is Beatles roadie Mal Evans, not Phil Spector.
Don't the people that write this even know shit about what Phil Spector looks like?
Jeezuz!!
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