When The Beatles entered their later years, the logic of their songs went out of the window. They were no longer singing understandable, relatable clichés of love or longing or whatever tender feeling coloured the track. Instead, their lyrics were populated by strange stories of bizarre characters, diving into made-up worlds and goings on. ‘Get Back’ is one of them, as the verse lyrics make no real sense as they roll towards the singalong chorus. However, in an earlier draft, Paul McCartney had penned a controversial verse taking a stand against a serious real-world issue.
Even while The Beatles seemed to have stopped writing about the real world, they remained engaged. All four members were passionate about various social causes. Especially after the dissolving of the ground, all of them would dedicate their time and talent to tackling real issues; Lennon would implore people to ‘Imagine’ peace, Paul and Linda McCartney were trying to save animals from slaughter one veggie sausage at a time, George Harrison because a vocal supporter of Greenpeace and launched into humanitarian work, and Ringo Starr is still on his “peace and love” train.
It’s clear that all four members were clued up on what was happening in the world, which was crucially important during the 1960s when a lot was happening around them. It’s all too easy to forget that during the countercultural eras of the 1960s and ‘70s, a period that so many look back on with rose-tinted nostalgia, people were fighting for their rights. The civil rights movement was tackling racism both on an institutional and societal level, and their mission revealed just how deep prejudice ran in society.
It wasn’t just a problem in America. In 1968, British politician Enoch Powell gave one of the most chilling, racist speeches in political history that still to this day empowers white supremacists. Speaking out against a bill that criminalised the refusal of housing, employment, or public services to persons on the grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origin, he claimed that allowing immigrants into the country would result in violence, inciting it as he said, “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’”.
The Beatles were disgusted by this. As they were working on Let It Be, they would see headlines proving Britain’s racist reaction to immigrants and the media’s role in worsening it. When it came to working on ‘Get Back’, McCartney tried to put his frustrations into the song by poking fun at these backwards beliefs through a satirical lens.
He sang, “Meanwhile back at home too many Pakistanis/ Living in a council flat/ Candidate Macmillan, tell us what your plan is/ Won’t you tell us where you’re at?”. He was borrowing the voice of these racists, but like with all attempts at satire, there was the risk of its intentions being missed.
Not wanting to take that chance, the verse was cut, and the song was re-written into a more vague track about a fictional character, Jojo. His worries about the original lyrics were right, as when the recorded outtakes from the sessions were released, featuring the initial verse, criticism fell on the band. McCartney defended his work, though, telling Rolling Stone, “When we were doing Let It Be,” he recalls to Rolling Stone in 1986, “there were a couple of verses to ‘Get Back’ which were actually not racist at all – they were anti-racist.”
