Get Back

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GET BACK
 
 
“Get Back”  is a song recorded by the Beatles and written by Paul McCartney (though credited to Lennon-McCartney), originally released as a single on 11 April 1969 and credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”.  A different mix of the song later became the closing track of Let It Be (1970), which was the Beatles’ last album released just after the group split.  The single reached number one in the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Australia, France, West Germany, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium.  It was the Beatles’ only single that credited another artist at their request.  “Get Back” was the Beatles’ first single release in true stereo in the US.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
My bootleg album by the BeatlesKum Back turned out to be a remarkable piece of vinyl:  an early mix of their final album, Let it Be as recorded on acetate in August 1969 that was put together by Glyn Johns and with apparently minimal involvement by George Martin, who had produced virtually all of the other Beatles records.  (An acetate disk is a low-quality type of phonograph record that is normally intended only for temporary use; it wears out quickly if played repeatedly).  The title Kum Back I figure is sort of a takeoff on two 1969 Beatles singles, “Come Together” and “Get Back”; also, Get Back was the original working title for the Let it Be project, meant to be “a return to the Beatles’ earlier, less complicated approach to music” (as expressed in Wikipedia).  As an illustration of this, the photograph for the planned cover for Get Back was taken in the same location as the one on the Beatles’ first British album, Please Please Me, and the cover had a similar design.  
 
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As to the tracks on Kum Back that did not show up on Let it Be, besides “Teddy Boy”, a performance for just under a minute of a blues song by Jimmy McCracklin called “The Walk” (also known as “Can He Walk”) also does not appear on Let it Be.  The biggest surprise though is that one of the strongest songs made by the Beatles in their twilight years, “Don’t Let Me Down” – previously released in April 1969 as the b-side of the Get Back single – was also not included on Let it Be, though it was among the songs in the 2003 reissue, Let it Be . . . Naked.  With the inclusion of Don’t Let Me Down, two short tracks, “Dig It” and “Maggie Mae” (not the same song as the Rod Stewart classic, “Maggie May) were left off Let it Be . . . Naked.  Together, these two songs run just 1:30; honestly, you’d think there would be enough room on the CD for them, too (neither appears on Kum Back either, though Don’t Let Me Down does). 
 
(September 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021