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Beatles forums => Songs => Topic started by: nyfan(41) on October 22, 2009, 11:50:38 PM

Title: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 22, 2009, 11:50:38 PM
john said he thought it was. he said paul always looked right at her when he said 'get back' . .
but then again, john thought hey jude was about him, not julian

but let's explore the possibility that there is an undercurrent based off paul's feelings towards yoko . . . . maybe john DID pick up a vibe - he knew paul pretty well - especially song writing-wise . . . .

THE CASE -

1) yoko's ever-presence in john's life - and the beatles' every move - must have been a pretty major thing for paul. work is so important to him. it's crazy to think those feelings wouldn't come out in his art. 'two of us', from around the same time - certainly seems to have a hidden meaning about john/paul relationship . .

2) paul's original lyrics for get back were about a 'paki' coming to england and taking british people's jobs . . . so there is a precedent about the song's meaning being . . 'anti foreigner' . .

3) 'thought she was a woman but she was another man'.......nuff said

4) jojo yoko jojo yoko jojo yoko jojo yoko jojo yoko jojo yoko jojoyokojojoyokojojoyokojojoyokojojoyoko
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 23, 2009, 12:02:25 AM
" . . . Jojo Yoko was a girl who thought she was a woman, but she was a g@d#%m man !!! . . . . . get back jojo yoko . . . go back where you belong . . . . YO MOMMA is waiting for you jojo yoko, get back home jojo yoko ! ! go back to where you beeeelong . . . "   ha2ha ha2ha

 ;sorry
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: emmi_luvs_beatles on October 23, 2009, 12:32:25 AM
I read in my book "A Hard Days Write: The Story Behind Every Beatles Song" that Paul said it was a "Political" song, he says that when people were immigrating to Britan, people were saying that they didn't 'Dig no pakistains taking all the people's jobs'
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 23, 2009, 01:47:15 AM
I read in my book "A Hard Days Write: The Story Behind Every Beatles Song" that Paul said it was a "Political" song, he says that when people were immigrating to Britan, people were saying that they didn't 'Dig no pakistains taking all the people's jobs'

i read that too . . .

emmi_luvs_beatles - no offense, but you sure know alot of beatles info for someone so young ! ! !  ;D

but the question still stands, do you think 'get back' has any subliminal reference to the yoke-ster?? ??  maybe even only in paul's subconscious? . . . . ha2ha



yeah, i said it . . . . "the yoke-ster" !  ha2ha ha2ha ha2ha
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: adaml223 on October 23, 2009, 02:38:12 AM
I always thought it was also a reference to them recording albums the way they used to.  Instead of doing all their studio wizardry they would "get back" to the basics.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: tkitna on October 23, 2009, 02:41:01 AM
I just always thought it was a song about the Beatles getting back to their roots with their music. Wasnt 'Get Back' suppossedly going to be the title of the film or album originally? (I forget which one at the moment and am to lazy to look it up).

I think John got paranoid or something.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: tkitna on October 23, 2009, 02:41:36 AM
I always thought it was also a reference to them recording albums the way they used to.  Instead of doing all their studio wizardry they would "get back" to the basics.

Yeah, this.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 23, 2009, 02:59:41 AM
oh yeah, that's right

i think paul even wanted to get back to their roots by playing small venues on a tour
also, i think the photo on the red and blue albums that recreates the please please me cover was intended for get back - again revisiting how they were as a group


. . . . . but i still think paul may have had "go back where you belong" floating around in his subconscious - the song can have many meanings i guess . . . . . paul's lyrics are underrated
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: An Apple Beatle on October 23, 2009, 07:50:01 AM
I read in my book "A Hard Days Write: The Story Behind Every Beatles Song" that Paul said it was a "Political" song, he says that when people were immigrating to Britan, people were saying that they didn't 'Dig no pakistains taking all the people's jobs'
This is what I gathered over the years. Subliminally you could say it was about Yoko because it's also about tolerance.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: Bobber on October 23, 2009, 08:27:03 AM
There is of course a difference between the song Get Back and the album Get Back, that was later named Let It Be. The song is most probably about what Paul McCartney states, the album as a whole was meant to 'get back' to the roots of Beatles music and leave the overproduction of Sgt Pepper and the White Album behind.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: An Apple Beatle on October 23, 2009, 09:05:31 AM
I'v said it before on these forums...Masters of ambiguity. "Let the people interpret." heheh.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: Bobber on October 23, 2009, 09:39:25 AM
I'v said it before on these forums...Masters of ambiguity. "Let the people interpret." heheh.

Oh yes. Still it was not uncommon to name the album after the main single of course. They already did that in earlier years: Please Please Me, A Hard Day's Night, Help! ha2ha
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: eroz0 on October 23, 2009, 10:10:11 AM
2) paul's original lyrics for get back were about a 'paki' coming to england and taking british people's jobs . . . so there is a precedent about the song's meaning being . . 'anti foreigner' . .
But the song wasn't 'anti-foreigner', in fact it was anti-'anti-foreigner'. He was satirising the policies suggested by Enoch Powell.

TBH, I think John was just being paranoid in this case.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: An Apple Beatle on October 23, 2009, 10:37:06 AM
But the song wasn't 'anti-foreigner', in fact it was anti-'anti-foreigner'. He was satirising the policies suggested by Enoch Powell.
;yes
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: cassNJ on October 23, 2009, 10:48:39 AM
;yes

I don't have the book right now but in Sulpy's book (about the Get Back sessions) weren't John and Paul both playing around with the lyrics to the song while they were in the studio?  It was Paul's song but he hadn't finalized the words.  It was one of the times where they seemed to be having fun.

Yep, I'd chalk this one up to John's paranoia.  Anyone who could think that "Ah, we believe that we can't be wrong" from Back Seat of My Car is an insult has got to be off the deep end.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 23, 2009, 02:45:32 PM
then how do you explain the original lyrics to Blackbird ? :

" . . . Yoko sitting in a studio chaaaiiiiiiir . . . . . get up off that chair and go away . . . . i hate your voice . . . . i am only waiting for the moment that you leave . . . . (chorus) yooookoooo goooo . . . . yoooookooo gooooo . . . . . . into the traffic of abby road . . . "
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 23, 2009, 03:22:42 PM


 somebody slap me !  ha2ha
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: eroz0 on October 23, 2009, 04:50:38 PM
then how do you explain the original lyrics to Blackbird ? :

" . . . Yoko sitting in a studio chaaaiiiiiiir . . . . . get up off that chair and go away . . . . i hate your voice . . . . i am only waiting for the moment that you leave . . . . (chorus) yooookoooo goooo . . . . yoooookooo gooooo . . . . . . into the traffic of abby road . . . "
ha2ha ha2ha ha2ha
I'd give anything to hear that demo.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: cassNJ on October 23, 2009, 04:51:32 PM
I think you created a new sub-genre of Beatles Literature: Paul McCartney's Subconscious Lyrics!
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: Mairi on October 24, 2009, 01:24:24 PM
2) paul's original lyrics for get back were about a 'paki' coming to england and taking british people's jobs . . . so there is a precedent about the song's meaning being . . 'anti foreigner' . .

It should be noted that these lyrics were satirical. The song was originally going to be called "Don't Dig No Pakistani" but they feared that people would not get the humour.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 24, 2009, 02:33:50 PM
But the song wasn't 'anti-foreigner', in fact it was anti-'anti-foreigner'. He was satirising the policies suggested by Enoch Powell.

TBH, I think John was just being paranoid in this case.
It should be noted that these lyrics were satirical. The song was originally going to be called "Don't Dig No Pakistani" but they feared that people would not get the humour.
----------------------------------------------------
that's good to know because it seemed very out of character . . . it did have me wondering because i found a few scenes in Help belittling towards Indian people . . . and yes I know the Beatles didn't write the film and those were different times

all the same . . . even as a satirical lyric it suggests a connotation to the phrase "get back" in the song's conception that is along the lines of "go away unwanted foreigner" - that made me give a second thought to john's claim that it was an anti yoko song

i've since read a few things speculating who the Jo in 'jojo' was based on . . . but i started this thread because i had just seen paul do get back on the david letterman show and it struck me that 'jojo' sounded like 'yoko'

thanks for responding to my thread everyone
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: sgt. peppie on October 24, 2009, 05:31:39 PM
technically, yoko is foreign
and she did avant garde in america.
(oh, and why did she start recording songs when she clearly has no experience? she should stick to the art)
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: BlueMeanie on October 24, 2009, 05:36:08 PM
(oh, and why did she start recording songs when she clearly has no experience? she should stick to the art)

So you can't record anything if you have no experience? Bit Catch 22 that isn't it. Where do you think The Beatles started?
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 24, 2009, 05:44:43 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Crocker1.JPG)

LEAVE YOKO ALOOOOOONNNNNNEEEEE

ha2ha ha2ha ha2ha ha2ha ha2ha
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: cassNJ on October 25, 2009, 12:10:29 AM
I didn't see this myself, so I can't vouch for its accuracy, but somebody told me that Jo Jo Laine (Denny's wife) claimed that SHE was the Jo Jo in the song.  Apparently she was a big fan of Paul's and wrote him lots of letters, but I'm not sure if she claimed to have met him back then or not.  Maybe someone here knows more about this?
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nyfan(41) on October 25, 2009, 12:26:04 AM
this was from 'beatle songfacts' :

There was speculation that the character "JoJo" was based on Joseph Melville See Jr., Linda McCartney's first husband, who was from Tucson, Arizona. McCartney denied this, explaining in his 1988 autobiography Many Years From Now, that he and Linda were on good terms with See, who used the first name Melville, and that "JoJo" was "an imaginary character, half-man and half-woman." See never remarried, and in 2000 he killed himself in Tucson.

half man half woman, huh? . . . . . .

so john + yoko = jojo  ha2ha ha2ha

the more i understand it, the more i believe that paul was greatly emotionally affected by yoko's involvement in john's life and the beatles.
. . . . it's like he subconsciously wrote a song saying "go away, go away" because that was the unexpressed emotion running through him
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: TomMo on June 07, 2012, 04:15:56 AM
Oh-oh! My two cents again.

Sometimes John and Paul created a song title and wrote a song around it, i.e., "Eight Days A Week". It is possible that Paul started with the concept of the album, "Get Back", and wrote a song to include the title, whether it had anything to do with getting back to basics or not.

When Eric Carmen left the Raspberries, his first solo single and album were titled, "All By Myself". Clever. The song was about being alone, but it fit the idea of his going solo very well.

As for John, every reaction by Paul and George regarding Yoko triggered paranoia. Remember his rant about his "beast friends"? According to John, George was even nastier to and about Yoko.
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: nimrod on August 20, 2021, 01:12:45 AM
 ;D

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSJ7eKcVR/ (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSJ7eKcVR/)
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: Moogmodule on August 20, 2021, 09:28:40 AM
 ha2ha
Title: Re: is 'get back' about yoko?
Post by: Normandie on August 20, 2021, 05:19:55 PM


 ha2ha  That was much better than the TikTok clips my daughters send me.