In January 1969, I was four months into my first newspaper job, writing and reporting for The Kentucky Post in Covington, KY, directly across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, where I rented a room in a couple’s house.
That same month and year, while I was just getting started in my career, The Beatles were in the process of winding down their incredible partnership, which had begun in Liverpool in 1961.
After having been off on separate ventures and having established divergent personal lives, they reconnected that month with the goal of putting together enough songs for a new album, a live performance and perhaps a TV special.
That month of preparation turned into an often-torturous and agonizing few weeks that ultimately resulted in the albums “Let It Be” and “Abbey Road” and a brilliant final performance on the roof of the six-story building that housed their Apple Corps studios.
As you undoubtedly have read or heard, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has assembled a seven-plus-hour documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, from 60 hours of previously unreleased footage recorded during the run-up to the rooftop performance.
The documentary came out last week on Disney+, which, if you don’t have it, you can get for $7.99 for one month.
Although the documentary drags in parts, especially the second installment, I was absolutely mesmerized and awestruck. You feel like you are in the room with these four icons as they struggle to make incremental progress and as Paul nudges the group forward, despite the almost certain knowledge that they are nearing the end of the road as The Beatles.
**
To me, the most fascinating and engrossing part of the documentary was watching how the song “Get Back” develops from a seed in Paul’s mind. Its evolution is the spine of the documentary, just as Paul is the spine of the group at this very tenuous stage.
At the first studio session, Paul strums a few chords and focuses on two words, “get back.” As a further starting point, he spins off from the words “get back to the place you should be” — from a song George wrote — and lands on “get back to where you once belonged.” As he experiments, the other three mostly watch and listen.
McCartney envisioned the song as a parody of a British member of Parliament’s anti-immigrant views, and he jokingly throws in some lyrics along those lines, including “don’t dig no Pakistanis taking all the people’s jobs.”
Over the ensuing days, the song moves away from the immigration theme and settles into its straightforward theme about people getting back to their roots.
At one point, Paul attempts to give Jojo a full name, including Jojo Jackson and Jojo Carter, and has him leaving Arizona. As Paul further hones the lyrics, he drops the last name and comes up with the seminal line “Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona, for some California grass.”
In one of the funnier lines of the documentary, Lennon, in genuine uncertainty, says, “Is Tucson in Arizona.” “Yeah, it is,” Paul assures him.
Where the reference to Tucson, Arizona, came from goes unexplained in the documentary. That prompted me to do some research. I quickly focused Linda Eastman, who, at the time, was Paul’s girlfriend and whom he married two months after the rooftop performance. I knew that Linda was American, and it turned out she had attended the University of Arizona in Tucson…Mystery resolved.
The second verse is about a woman named Sweet Loretta Martin, who, in Paul’s musings started out as Sweet Loretta Marsh — and, in a spoken intro by John, is Sweet Loretta Fart.
As the words and music develop, you can see the band members embracing the song and immersing themselves in it. A key addition is when they fortuitously and spontaneously add keyboard player Billy Preston (“Nothing From Nothing”) to the group. Preston offers a constantly smiling, constantly smoking presence. Moreover, he fleshes out “Get Back” with sprightly backup playing and a standout solo.
By the time the group gets to the Apple studios roof on Jan. 30, the song is not only completely polished but a musical tour de force. In the 42-minute “concert,” the band plays the song three times in its entirety. The third run-through, which marks the end of the performance, has a couple of singular elements. First, Paul concludes by saying, “Thanks, Mo,” acknowledging applause from Ringo’s wife at the time, Maureen Starkey, who was standing next to a rooftop wall, among the very select group of people on the scene.
The second unique element is when John, delivering the closing words, leans into his mic and says, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition.” (In a stroke of inspiration, Phil Spector edited that comment into the version of the song on the album “Let It Be.”)
As the documentary nears the end, the camera is on The Beatles and a few others crammed in a playback room, listening to one of the versions they just recorded. The camera shifts down to the feet of the people sitting side by side. Each person is tapping a foot to the driving beat of “Get Back.”
**
Here it is now…”Get Back”
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Well, this is unique. I think this is the first song you’ve posted that I liked.
That said, the Beatles came out in late ’63 and became a watershed phenomenon that transcended virtually all other cultural boundaries. People who didn’t get the Beatles and the British invasion that followed were on one side and those who did were on the other. And while it provided a clear demarcation I don’t recall that it was necessarily polarizing. It was more like a time warp or parallel universe where both sides shared the same space but, at the same time, were worlds apart. The Woodstock Concert in the summer of ’69 really solidified the post Beatles culture as a permanent reality.
These days documentaries abound along with videos of entire concerts from the late 60’s and early 70’s and I suspect most people will simply treat this as a part of that genre, but they were truly sui generis in the impact they had on culture world wide.
You started with “unique” and ended with “sui generis.” I trust that — and the context of the last sentence — will guide some readers toward the definition of the latter…Good comment.
As usual, your reportorial detective work (Tucson) and, as well, splendid writing, make your blog entries, important or fun, or both — always worthwhile reading. Thanks.
Thanks, Vern. I’m glad you appreciated the Tucson tentacle.
I can’t verify this, so I won’t use the woman’s name, but I recall reading decades ago that the lines about “JoJo” were a reference to a woman who worked at the Beatles’ Apple headquarters in London. She originally was from Tucson, moved to California, and saved up enough money to buy a one-way airline ticket to London to look for a job in the music business. The book I’m thinking of was “The Longest Cocktail Party,” by Richard DiLello, who also was an Apple employee. An internet search shows that a woman with that background did work in the Apple office, but I don’t find anything that says she was “JoJo.”
We search for the strands of inspiration…
Great column, Fitz! Wow, you are evoking a heck of a lot of great Kansas City Times and Kansas City Star memories – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb0dTdTeHMU
I think I heard a reference to Polythene Pam in the documentary, Julius, but I hadn’t heard the song and didn’t get the drift.
I’ve been in love since the first needle drop on the first cut on the first album…♡
Of course you have, Gayle. You’re a discerning listener and reader.