They were writing and rehearsing for a live concert, so no overdubs. Preston was coincidentally in town, so was invited to sit in on keyboards. He was in the position of a session musician.
Paul married Linda Eastman, an American (his current wife is also American). Linda went to college is Tucson, Arizona. The Beatles loved American rock and roll, especially by black artists.
Billy's keyboard solo, and overall playing, was incredible and completely CLASSIC! So...he did get to specialize with his talent on this one, as a matter of fact.
They were down in the studio fighting and getting ready to break up when Billy Preston joined them, lightened up the mood and got them to stage an Impromptu concert on the roof. The Beatles called Billy Preston the 5th Beatle. There is a documentary somewhere about this... They played four songs I believe it was, And there's a great story (50 years later) in there about the poor young rookie policeman that is forever known as the bad guy copper sent to break up the rooftop concert or arrest them. All 4 songs are great by the way.
In the late 60s the Beatles had become more of an American styled band, reducing their British origins in their music. This was a period were they made some of their best tunes. Although it was also a time when they stopped playing in front of live crowds. They also became more of a hippie rather than pop band. Preston came aboard not long before the Beatles broke up, and is in the film 'get back', which chronicled the band's last live performance on top of a building. It was a suprise performance which was cut short by the police.
To me, the Beatles can do no wrong. With the addition of Billy Preston's mad skills, it's the cherry on top. ps I have loved the Beatles since that fateful night in February, 1963!! ❤❤❤❤❤
They said California grass. They wanted to get some weed from California. Paul’s wife, Linda was from Tucson, Arizona which he mentions. There are connections in their lives to everything they write about. They were incredible! Now the two still alive, Paul and Ringo, are still making music!
After the war British kids were raised on American music, the Beatles' heroes were Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Elvis, Motown, Little Richard and McCartneys' biggest bass influence was James Jamerson of the Funk Bros. at Motown.
The video clips were from a special they were calling "Get Back". It was to show them rehearsing new stripped down rock songs (no big production) for a big concert they were gonna do for TV or something. With some tensions in the band and etc the whole thing devolved into them just doing a concert on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters. The film was edited for a movie called "Let It Be" and the music was also made into an album of the same name.
@ericwillia 5:57 ms1031 in the Get Back Documentary by Peter Jackson, we actually see Paul coming up with this song out of thin air in the documentary. As a side note, yes, it was the rooftop at the end of January in London. Their fingers were freezing. I would imagine they were freezing, period.
Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields are both places in England Many of there songs refer British culture They grew up obsessed with American R&B, Rock & Roll, and even country. So I think it’s only makes sense that they mention American things in there songs John Lennon Lived in the USA from 1969 until his death in 1980 He loved America
Billy Preston had never heard this song before - he just sat down and improvised and took this song up to another level. Musical prodigy. I think he’s 20 at most here.
plus they grew up and loved the "grandfathers of rock and roll" as in Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Elvis, Carl Perkins (they became great friends with Carl) Gene VIncent, and also some country, Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins (Carl started out as strictly country but then did more "Rock-a-billy" and straight out rock and roll. Carl was the one who wrote and sang "Blue Suede Shoes" before Elvis did. The Beatles covered 3 of Carl Perkins' songs on their early albums: "Matchbox," "Honey Don't" (Ringo sang those two) and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (George sang that one) Besides those 3 they sang 3 more Perkins' songs in additon, in their "before--they-were-famous" period during their local gigs and gigs in Hamburg, Germany. Those 3 were "Glad All Over," "Lend Me Your Comb," and "Sure To Fall (in Love With You) " THIS one Ringo actually covered it on his 1981 solo album "Stop and Smell the Roses" So they had a LOT of early influences .
George Martin was the 5th beatle. But after this and abbey road lennon wanted Preston to become a full member of the Beatles if they’d have continued. He’s even mentioned in the credits originally when the single was released ‘the Beatles with Billy Preston’ Nobody else was credited in that way on any songs by the Beatles
The British were bombarded by American culture. The rest of the world knows far more about us than we know about them. Our movies were played in their theaters and our music on there radio stations. Yes they know a great deal about us. Including the good,bad,and the ugly.
The whole British Invasion thing was the British rockers taking American Blues and coming up with their British version of rock. Then they 'invaded' the US with that music in the 60s. American culture has gone around the globe for 100 yrs at least, especially since the UK lost power (and many colonies) due to WWII. And those British bands all came to the US to make it big. Paul married an American and they lived in Arizona. Ringo also married an American actress & John Lennon was a long time resident of NYC until his death. Paul has lived in both the UK and the US for decades, now, having homes in both places. And of course California & Hollywood was a big thing to the British & all over the world. It's not strange at all.
The Beatles did concert tours in the U.S. in 1964, 1965, and 1966. They were not strangers to America. What’s wrong with making reference to cities abroad?
The British and black American Blues musicians have a much deeper and stronger connection I think than white American musicans do (to black blues musicians). British have a huge respect for the blues and blues musicians and played a big part in putting blues back on the map in America. It basically started in the 1930s and followed on through WW2 - the British also got on really well with the black American soldiers stationed in Britain, something white American soldiers despised. Idk, as a Brit myself, I can say I personally love American blues and we as a nation, for some reason (maybe there’s a historical reason in terms of hardship and struggle) really connect to the blues and have a deep respect for the amazing and soulful black American blues musicians. Eric Clapton and John Mayall being two of the biggest examples of Brits who pay homage to American blues their entire careers. So it’s a little insulting actually when I hear you say you take issue with British people singing about ‘American’ things. It’s because we feel a connection with the music, unlike white Americans.
Billy Preston rocked out with the Beatles and The Stones. Wanna see and hear some crazy shit? Check out The Rolling Stones official promo “Hey Negrita” Billy Preston on keyboards getting crazy. He and Mick are hilarious together. EDIT: never mind… you did that already. So cool. Right on!
Paul's wife Linda, an American, met her husband, Joe See, in Tucson Arizona. That verse is Paul telling Joe, to "get back, Joe. Go home!" I'm not sure why he references California in the lyric, but the Beatles were certainly men of the world by then.
@@patriciaedwards5183 Yeah, but CALIFORNIA grass? That's basically local weed. I'm sure Paul was getting better weed than that. Acapulco Gold, Hawaiian, Jamaican... Even Mexican pot was better than anything grown in the US at the time.
@@debjorgo Well they're his lyrics not mine and he was talking about JoJo going after California grass not himself if you know or just listen to the lyrics.
@@patriciaedwards5183 "know or listen to the lyrics". I did that in 1969. I don't think Joe See moved to California, so I think that part of the lyric was just thrown in for a lark. All I'm saying is Paul knew JoJo wasn't going to score the primo stuff in California, so I can't answer Mugnity's query on why he used California in the lyric.
John moved to New York, Paul married an American woman, they loved Elvis, they went to San Francisco to find out about the Flower Child movement... but were disappointed.
You should check out a Beatles documentary. They're very complex band that went on to produce their own recording label. One of the first to ever attempt this. The rooftop concert was them playing on the top of their building Apple records. And as for the American topics in England in the 1960s, the US was the center of the entertainment arts especially rock and roll. Also, Americans were just weren't interested in British tavern ballads. Pink Floyd takes on British topics such as emotions and feelings associated with the British people after second world war
@@jesseturnipMy one uncle and two of my aunts were pretty big Beatles fans. The 3 of them would grab anything they put out as soon as it was released. My dear sweet mom (their slightly older yet,very,very hip sister) was a high schooler when Beatle Mania first hit the states. And she was/is more partial to their earlier "Love Me Do" era material. I was hatched in 72' and remember watching their "Yellow Submarine" cartoon every week on TV. It wasn't as cool as Land of the Lost or Hatchy Mallachty (my 2 favorites at the time) but it was still cool. I never really thought too much about it. Until the year my mom gave me a new stereo for x-mas. I think I was 13. I only had 1 album to play but that didn't matter to me. And I kept that S.O.B. spinning, full blast, 24/7 over and over! I'm not sure but, I suspect. This drove my mother nuts 🤯 in fairly short order. Her first thought probly was to take it back to place she bought it,ASAP. And understandably so! 🤡 But how do you justify taking a gift back when you realize that all your misery has been self inflicted?! My poor mom painted herself into a corner. Naturally her next move (hail mary) was to send out an S.O.S./MAYDAY to her 7 sisters. Which would almost always produce a fairly decent solution for whatever problem was at hand. All I know is when new years eve rolled around that year. My 2 Beatles loving aunts both gifted me their entire record collections. Which built mine from a single one album x-mas day. To close to 600 that new years eve!
The American connection here (apart from musical style influence obviously) is that Paul's other half Linda had lived in Arizona with first-husband Joseph Melville See (Jo-Jo in the song) a geologist who too often "left his home in Tucson Arizona" on research trips and left Linda home alone. He didn't "get back to where [he] once belonged" one time too many and they divorced.
It's so funny to me( as a Hispanic man) to believe that Black folks still think as MJ superior to the Beatles. The Beatles wrote all of their music, yet it took MJ an entire team to write an album. The Beatles also outsold him,they're the biggest selling artist in popular music.
Don't forget that as well as being steeped in American rock n roll and other genres of American music, from which all UK music artists drew heavily back then, the Beatles visited the US many times and Paul McCartney had married an American woman, Linda Eastman, who was actually from Tucson, Arizona. So he would have been very familiar with these places he mentions - I don't think he was including the references just to please their American audience. Actually the Beatles led the way in incorporating their natural Liverpool accents (so shocking at first!) and local references (eg Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever) into their music, as well as such diverse sources as English folk, circus and music-hall traditions. After the Beatles opened those doors, everyone did it; so it became the norm. But, in this song, and the documentary movie that went with it, here at the tail end of their time together as a band, having broken down so many new creative doors over that time, casually inventing genres as they went along, they were deliberately 'getting back' to their first love: American-style rock n roll.
They kind of show how the lyrics about Tuscon and California come about in the Get Back movie. They just needed words that sounded good told a short story about...nothing really. Also this was 1969. These guys had been regulars in the US since 1964 at this point.
That archaic recording equipment that you were musing about was the state-of-the-art at the time of this. That's the same Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded most of their music, and where the soundtracks of some of the greatest movies of all time have been recorded, including Star Wars and others too numerous to mention. The real shame of this video is that it cuts off the last minute or so of the song. Listen to the studio single and you'll hear the whole thing. One of the best uptempo Beatles songs of all time. Their Rooftop Concert is legendary. Read up on it. You really should watch the documentary film "How the Beatles Changed the World." It'll help you understand why they stand head and shoulders above all other recording artists before or since. They did things no one has ever done before and haven't done since. The film is on UA-cam. Watch it.
British bands learned rock& roll which is a totally American music form from listening to American music from the 50s and early 60s and maybe you do not realize being American the influence the USA has on cultures all over the world . Please do not make the mistake of culturizing music . In the 60s California was the place of grass and the drug culture so referencing it as a place to go get high makes complete sense . If they had sang going to get Bristol or Leeds in England to get grass it would not make sense as you would think she going to buy Sod
Cool man. Brother of Mankind here. Old white guy with many friends of many colors, religions and nationalities, including US and South African black leaders. Signed - an old white guy Veteran from Wyoming, the Equality State.
Mugnify, the deal with American references in songs by British artists is this: Rock and Blues (and Jazz) comes from America. The Beatles cut their teeth on American Rock & Roll in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, when they weren't writing their own songs. That said, the song "Get Back" is a very rootsy, bluesy (with a little country-flavor thrown in) song. Paul McCartney was not going to write a bluesy Rock song, in an old-school style, and try to match the music with Anglo-centric/British-culture themes. If you are going to "get back" to American Rock&Roll roots, then you are going to want to sing it in that same style and the lyrics flow from that. Does that make sense?
All the English bands wrote through the American consumer because they knew they could sell many more records in America then they ever occurred in England
You can't "stay true" to any culture. Culture is an ephemeral thing, always changing. Every experience we have, every learning event, every new insight, changes our cultural outlook. If we learn and grow, we change our culture. The best we can do is try to learn about multiple cultures, adopt the best elements from whatever cultures we know, and discard the destructive and false elements of them.
The Beetles like many British bands grew up listening to and covering African American blues from the 40's 50's and 60's more so than US bands of the day this turned into the so called British invasion of America which was basically two waves The Beatles, Stones, The Kinks, The Animals followed latter By King Crimson, Moody Blues, YES, Genesis, ELP, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin and Deep Purple, they spent a lot of time in the US and like many great artists found influence for their lyrics and music from many sources not just the US but Europe, the middle east, Asia, Carribean and north Africa but also from previous genre such as Medieval, Folk, Classical, Jaz, Blues, Soul, Funk, skiffle and Gospel.
Preston brought his skills to the studio and livened up songs like this one. Which helped out a lot. Favorite songs from the album, which is a bit dominant McCartney, were not the 3 hits. I liked Two of Us & I Got a Feeling. But all in all it was another solid Beatles album.
You have to understand at this time in their lives they'd been all over the world and were very familiar with what was happening in the United States including California. Lol!!
How is American music relevant to British culture? Here's how. The Beatles were from Liverpool, same as me, a major port in the UK in the '60's. Everybody in Liverpool knew a merchant seaman back then and they'd always come home with gifts for the family. Amongst those gifts were blues and early rock and roll records. These had a big influence on The Beatles, in fact on most teenage kids back then.
This was late 1969. The Beatles had been the biggest stars in the world for 5-6 years and had been to America TONS, both on tour and just promotional work for albums. And frankly it's also just weird that you think that music should only be autobiographical, and writing about other people or places is somehow wrong, or Brits appropriating American culture.
The reference to California grass is the stuff you smoke and Tuson Arizona if you watch the get back documentary Paul writing the lyrics and it was the only thing that made it sound okay And they were influenced by American jazz and rhythm and blues when American seaman visited Liverpool and brought the music records with them
Britain had become such a minor country, after the end of the British Empire, that it had little choice but to start moving its identity over to America.
This clip neglected to show how Paul wrote this song and was stuck on the arrangement until Billy walked in. You should see the smile on Paul’s face when Billy starts playing!
Paul wrote the song one morning when John was late turning up to the studio session. The whole songwriting process was recorded on camera in the Get Back documentary where we can see Paul gradually create a song out of nothing in a few minutes.
The Beatles were big fans of American culture and big shapers of it too. The Peter Jackson movie is called "Get Back" in large part because the footage it uses traces the writing of that song from its inception to its delivery at the rooftop concert. The song begins with Paul McCartney goofing around in the studio making up riffs and throwing out silly lyrics and talking about things he saw on television, primarily a racist man yelling at foreigners to go back to where they came from and a cowboy western of some sort, probably Gunsmoke. I don't recall how Sweet Loretta Modern came out of that, but one of my mother's sisters is named Loretta and my dad used to draw out the "Get back, Loretta" line to tease her with back when I was a kid and this song was still new. Culture is over-rated, seriously. There's nothing half so sacred about it that it needs additional policing beyond the commodification applied to it already.
I love their comedy, why they had to buy their own studio. Studio time was so expensive and they wanted to do it their way. Maybe Joe was not from England. Thanks for the shout out but I think it belongs to someone else lol.
They played on the roof because they had to play in public, per their contract. They were afraid of the fans so playing on the roof kept them safe from the fans and satisfied their contract. Ironic since John was killed by a fan and George was stabbed by a fan after she broke into his home. I guess being a star ain't all it's cracked up to be.
It was American blues musicians that had a huge influence on British kids. There is a definite connection.
It's hard for black people to make bad music.
AND R&B, AND country and western.
And their own English music.
Yes they wrote it. They loved Rock n Roll, the Blues, country. All these things came from America
Nearly EVERY Beatles song is different. That's one of the main reasons they're the best group ever.
billy preston was just the tonic the Beatles needed at that time.
They were writing and rehearsing for a live concert, so no overdubs. Preston was coincidentally in town, so was invited to sit in on keyboards. He was in the position of a session musician.
There were vague plans for the Beatles to continue after abbey road. Lennon wanted Preston to become a full member of the Beatles.
@@Andytheashton What are your SOURCES for those claims?
Paul married Linda Eastman, an American (his current wife is also American). Linda went to college is Tucson, Arizona. The Beatles loved American rock and roll, especially by black artists.
At one time Paul owned property near Tucson. George Harrison got married in Tucson.
You don’t need sophisticated recording technology if the music is THAT good. Timeless. ✌🏽❤️
The recording technology and production WERE sophisticated.
How man multiple tracks do "Rappers" and "Hip-Hop" have? And their content is still trash.
Billy's keyboard solo, and overall playing, was incredible and completely CLASSIC! So...he did get to specialize with his talent on this one, as a matter of fact.
the Beatles were universal
There's nothing to get, it's just music ENJOY IT!
They were down in the studio fighting and getting ready to break up when Billy Preston joined them, lightened up the mood and got them to stage an Impromptu concert on the roof. The Beatles called Billy Preston the 5th Beatle. There is a documentary somewhere about this... They played four songs I believe it was, And there's a great story (50 years later) in there about the poor young rookie policeman that is forever known as the bad guy copper sent to break up the rooftop concert or arrest them. All 4 songs are great by the way.
Pretty dope, as usual. ❤😂
In the late 60s the Beatles had become more of an American styled band, reducing their British origins in their music. This was a period were they made some of their best tunes. Although it was also a time when they stopped playing in front of live crowds. They also became more of a hippie rather than pop band. Preston came aboard not long before the Beatles broke up, and is in the film 'get back', which chronicled the band's last live performance on top of a building. It was a suprise performance which was cut short by the police.
To me, the Beatles can do no wrong. With the addition of Billy Preston's mad skills, it's the cherry on top.
ps I have loved the Beatles since that fateful night in February, 1963!! ❤❤❤❤❤
@marleneobstnash5517 I THINK you mean February 1964.....am I right? SAME HERE for ME!
They said California grass. They wanted to get some weed from California. Paul’s wife, Linda was from Tucson, Arizona which he mentions. There are connections in their lives to everything they write about. They were incredible! Now the two still alive, Paul and Ringo, are still making music!
After the war British kids were raised on American music, the Beatles' heroes were Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Elvis, Motown, Little Richard and McCartneys' biggest bass influence was James Jamerson of the Funk Bros. at Motown.
Their last live concert was this concert on the roof.
Mr Preston and Ringo displaying mad skills 💃
Good to see Billy Preston. just great.
You know America was a British Colony.
So we speak English because of the British.
So America is England's child.
You think Britain just emerged and existed from the beginning of human history with no colonisation here either? lol
Every post-war european kid had a fascination with "America". You can see it everwhere, even in Godard's films.
The video clips were from a special they were calling "Get Back". It was to show them rehearsing new stripped down rock songs (no big production) for a big concert they were gonna do for TV or something. With some tensions in the band and etc the whole thing devolved into them just doing a concert on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters. The film was edited for a movie called "Let It Be" and the music was also made into an album of the same name.
@ericwillia 5:57 ms1031 in the Get Back Documentary by Peter Jackson, we actually see Paul coming up with this song out of thin air in the documentary. As a side note, yes, it was the rooftop at the end of January in London. Their fingers were freezing. I would imagine they were freezing, period.
Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields are both places in England
Many of there songs refer British culture
They grew up obsessed with American R&B, Rock & Roll, and even country.
So I think it’s only makes sense that they mention American things in there songs
John Lennon Lived in the USA from 1969 until his death in 1980
He loved America
*1971-1980
And not just anywhere in England; those places are in Liverpool.
The lyric references “Tucson, Arizona” - Paul might have already bought his ranch near Tucson at this time.
Billy Preston had never heard this song before - he just sat down and improvised and took this song up to another level. Musical prodigy. I think he’s 20 at most here.
Bro it's 3 chords calm down.
You got your remark backwards….it was a high mark of approval for MJ to be associated with the likes of Macca.
Another great Texas musician - Billy Preston from Houston.
Paul singing about California grass is about pot, jazz cigarettes. Mary Jane weed
That roof top concert was the last time the band performed live together.
The Beatles grew up on the blues,the blues had a huge influence on them greatest band ever 🍻
plus they grew up and loved the "grandfathers of rock and roll" as in Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Elvis, Carl Perkins (they became great friends with Carl) Gene VIncent, and also some country, Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins (Carl started out as strictly country but then did more "Rock-a-billy" and straight out rock and roll. Carl was the one who wrote and sang "Blue Suede Shoes" before Elvis did. The Beatles covered 3 of Carl Perkins' songs on their early albums: "Matchbox," "Honey Don't" (Ringo sang those two) and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (George sang that one) Besides those 3 they sang 3 more Perkins' songs in additon, in their "before--they-were-famous" period during their local gigs and gigs in Hamburg, Germany. Those 3 were "Glad All Over," "Lend Me Your Comb," and "Sure To Fall (in Love With You) " THIS one Ringo actually covered it on his 1981 solo album "Stop and Smell the Roses" So they had a LOT of early influences .
This tune also features John Lennon on lead guitar. George had quit for several days and missed most of the rehearsals for this song.
The entire Let it Be album was recorded with Billy in on the sessions. He plays on a bunch of stuff in that album.
John Lennon looks like John Lennon. Robin Gibb looks like Robin Gibb.
The "Bee Gees" came several years AFTER "The Beatles".
Billy made big contributions to the album.
Top selling musicians of all time.
Billy Preston, one of several “ 5th BeaTles”
Billy Preston was the "5th" Beatle. Peace out.
George Martin was the 5th beatle.
But after this and abbey road lennon wanted Preston to become a full member of the Beatles if they’d have continued. He’s even mentioned in the credits originally when the single was released ‘the Beatles with Billy Preston’
Nobody else was credited in that way on any songs by the Beatles
The British were bombarded by American culture. The rest of the world knows far more about us than we know about them. Our movies were played in their theaters and our music on there radio stations. Yes they know a great deal about us. Including the good,bad,and the ugly.
Paul McCartney had (or maybe still has) a ranch outside of Tucson, AZ, hence the reference.
It's where Linda passed away. I think he still owns it.
The whole British Invasion thing was the British rockers taking American Blues and coming up with their British version of rock. Then they 'invaded' the US with that music in the 60s. American culture has gone around the globe for 100 yrs at least, especially since the UK lost power (and many colonies) due to WWII. And those British bands all came to the US to make it big. Paul married an American and they lived in Arizona. Ringo also married an American actress & John Lennon was a long time resident of NYC until his death. Paul has lived in both the UK and the US for decades, now, having homes in both places. And of course California & Hollywood was a big thing to the British & all over the world. It's not strange at all.
The Beatles did concert tours in the U.S. in 1964, 1965, and 1966. They were not strangers to America. What’s wrong with making reference to cities abroad?
The British Invasion's music is all based on American music. They heard Elvis,
Chuck Berry, Little Richard on records which started it all.
@@THEPATRIOT1000 as well as Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers in their harmonies.
@@TheDivayenta indeed, and
Jerry Lee Lewis
And American r&b too including girl groups, Smokey Robinson, etc.
The British and black American Blues musicians have a much deeper and stronger connection I think than white American musicans do (to black blues musicians). British have a huge respect for the blues and blues musicians and played a big part in putting blues back on the map in America. It basically started in the 1930s and followed on through WW2 - the British also got on really well with the black American soldiers stationed in Britain, something white American soldiers despised. Idk, as a Brit myself, I can say I personally love American blues and we as a nation, for some reason (maybe there’s a historical reason in terms of hardship and struggle) really connect to the blues and have a deep respect for the amazing and soulful black American blues musicians. Eric Clapton and John Mayall being two of the biggest examples of Brits who pay homage to American blues their entire careers.
So it’s a little insulting actually when I hear you say you take issue with British people singing about ‘American’ things. It’s because we feel a connection with the music, unlike white Americans.
Dripping with Funk
Billy Preston rocked out with the Beatles and The Stones. Wanna see and hear some crazy shit? Check out The Rolling Stones official promo “Hey Negrita” Billy Preston on keyboards getting crazy. He and Mick are hilarious together.
EDIT: never mind… you did that already. So cool. Right on!
Paul's wife Linda, an American, met her husband, Joe See, in Tucson Arizona. That verse is Paul telling Joe, to "get back, Joe. Go home!" I'm not sure why he references California in the lyric, but the Beatles were certainly men of the world by then.
He says going to California for some California grass. Aka weed. Paul loved him some grass.
@@patriciaedwards5183 Yeah, but CALIFORNIA grass? That's basically local weed. I'm sure Paul was getting better weed than that. Acapulco Gold, Hawaiian, Jamaican... Even Mexican pot was better than anything grown in the US at the time.
@@debjorgo
Well they're his lyrics not mine and he was talking about JoJo going after California grass not himself if you know or just listen to the lyrics.
@@patriciaedwards5183 "know or listen to the lyrics". I did that in 1969. I don't think Joe See moved to California, so I think that part of the lyric was just thrown in for a lark. All I'm saying is Paul knew JoJo wasn't going to score the primo stuff in California, so I can't answer Mugnity's query on why he used California in the lyric.
John moved to New York, Paul married an American woman, they loved Elvis, they went to San Francisco to find out about the Flower Child movement... but were disappointed.
Rooftop show was their last live performance. Completely unannounced, cops didn’t know what to do. Should watch the full let it be rooftop session!
Billy had a huge solo in this. What are you talking about?
I know. It was all caught on camera, too. How did he miss this!
The Beatles, like most of the rock n roll bands that came out of England in the early 60s, were completely inspired by American music.
@@bluesrock1 yes, I love how they dressed back then. I think the Beatles as fashion icons is not talked enough.
My flavourite Beatles song.
They're wearing some bitchin' threads. That red raincoat that Ringo is rocking on the roof, and George's Hari Krishna boots are stylin'.
Far out,rock solid and right on man!
You should check out a Beatles documentary. They're very complex band that went on to produce their own recording label. One of the first to ever attempt this. The rooftop concert was them playing on the top of their building Apple records. And as for the American topics in England in the 1960s, the US was the center of the entertainment arts especially rock and roll. Also, Americans were just weren't interested in British tavern ballads. Pink Floyd takes on British topics such as emotions and feelings associated with the British people after second world war
@@jesseturnipMy one uncle and two of my aunts were pretty big Beatles fans. The 3 of them would grab anything they put out as soon as it was released. My dear sweet mom (their slightly older yet,very,very hip sister) was a high schooler when Beatle Mania first hit the states. And she was/is more partial to their earlier "Love Me Do" era material. I was hatched in 72' and remember watching their "Yellow Submarine" cartoon every week on TV. It wasn't as cool as Land of the Lost or Hatchy Mallachty (my 2 favorites at the time) but it was still cool. I never really thought too much about it. Until the year my mom gave me a new stereo for x-mas. I think I was 13. I only had 1 album to play but that didn't matter to me. And I kept that S.O.B. spinning, full blast, 24/7 over and over! I'm not sure but, I suspect. This drove my mother nuts 🤯 in fairly short order. Her first thought probly was to take it back to place she bought it,ASAP. And understandably so! 🤡 But how do you justify taking a gift back when you realize that all your misery has been self inflicted?! My poor mom painted herself into a corner. Naturally her next move (hail mary) was to send out an S.O.S./MAYDAY to her 7 sisters. Which would almost always produce a fairly decent solution for whatever problem was at hand. All I know is when new years eve rolled around that year. My 2 Beatles loving aunts both gifted me their entire record collections. Which built mine from a single one album x-mas day. To close to 600 that new years eve!
The American connection here (apart from musical style influence obviously) is that Paul's other half Linda had lived in Arizona with first-husband Joseph Melville See (Jo-Jo in the song) a geologist who too often "left his home in Tucson Arizona" on research trips and left Linda home alone. He didn't "get back to where [he] once belonged" one time too many and they divorced.
It's so funny to me( as a Hispanic man) to believe that Black folks still think as MJ superior to the Beatles. The Beatles wrote all of their music, yet it took MJ an entire team to write an album. The Beatles also outsold him,they're the biggest selling artist in popular music.
Don't forget that as well as being steeped in American rock n roll and other genres of American music, from which all UK music artists drew heavily back then, the Beatles visited the US many times and Paul McCartney had married an American woman, Linda Eastman, who was actually from Tucson, Arizona. So he would have been very familiar with these places he mentions - I don't think he was including the references just to please their American audience.
Actually the Beatles led the way in incorporating their natural Liverpool accents (so shocking at first!) and local references (eg Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever) into their music, as well as such diverse sources as English folk, circus and music-hall traditions. After the Beatles opened those doors, everyone did it; so it became the norm. But, in this song, and the documentary movie that went with it, here at the tail end of their time together as a band, having broken down so many new creative doors over that time, casually inventing genres as they went along, they were deliberately 'getting back' to their first love: American-style rock n roll.
It's called story telling.
Preston jamming
They kind of show how the lyrics about Tuscon and California come about in the Get Back movie. They just needed words that sounded good told a short story about...nothing really.
Also this was 1969. These guys had been regulars in the US since 1964 at this point.
Or as Paul asked John in the documentary, 'does it sing good?'
That archaic recording equipment that you were musing about was the state-of-the-art at the time of this. That's the same Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded most of their music, and where the soundtracks of some of the greatest movies of all time have been recorded, including Star Wars and others too numerous to mention. The real shame of this video is that it cuts off the last minute or so of the song. Listen to the studio single and you'll hear the whole thing. One of the best uptempo Beatles songs of all time. Their Rooftop Concert is legendary. Read up on it. You really should watch the documentary film "How the Beatles Changed the World." It'll help you understand why they stand head and shoulders above all other recording artists before or since. They did things no one has ever done before and haven't done since. The film is on UA-cam. Watch it.
Are you sure that's not the basement studio they built into the building so they could record themselves playing together on the roof?
British bands learned rock& roll which is a totally American music form from listening to American music from the 50s and early 60s and maybe you do not realize being American the influence the USA has on cultures all over the world . Please do not make the mistake of culturizing music . In the 60s California was the place of grass and the drug culture so referencing it as a place to go get high makes complete sense . If they had sang going to get Bristol or Leeds in England to get grass it would not make sense as you would think she going to buy Sod
Cool man. Brother of Mankind here. Old white guy with many friends of many colors, religions and nationalities, including US and South African black leaders. Signed - an old white guy Veteran from Wyoming, the Equality State.
The California Grass reference was to do with Linda McCartneys X husband living in California...
Mugnify, the deal with American references in songs by British artists is this: Rock and Blues (and Jazz) comes from America. The Beatles cut their teeth on American Rock & Roll in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, when they weren't writing their own songs. That said, the song "Get Back" is a very rootsy, bluesy (with a little country-flavor thrown in) song. Paul McCartney was not going to write a bluesy Rock song, in an old-school style, and try to match the music with Anglo-centric/British-culture themes. If you are going to "get back" to American Rock&Roll roots, then you are going to want to sing it in that same style and the lyrics flow from that. Does that make sense?
I’m Loretta, so I’ll Get Back!
Best Band of all time flip a golden album Beatles on one side Led Zeppelin on the other
♥
Billy was a sparkplug.
You have to do a reaction to The Specials. The best and most influential ska band from the UK.
So was this band popular in the USA too?
One love bro
All the English bands wrote through the American consumer because they knew they could sell many more records in America then they ever occurred in England
This song, Rocky Raccoon, and Don’t Let Me Down really appeal to me. But I like most of their music.
2 of my favs as well along with Norwegian Wood and Here Comes the Sun.
@@lalapo5304 😊yes, for sure!
You can't "stay true" to any culture. Culture is an ephemeral thing, always changing. Every experience we have, every learning event, every new insight, changes our cultural outlook. If we learn and grow, we change our culture. The best we can do is try to learn about multiple cultures, adopt the best elements from whatever cultures we know, and discard the destructive and false elements of them.
You said Billy Preston didn't contribute much to this song but you missed Billy's electric piano solo in the middle of the song .... 😬
that comment comes from not knowing
Billy saved the Beatles
MJ called Paul hoping to connect and make some music. Not the other way around.
one my fav
McCartney range - yes! Check out “Oh Darling” …
The Beetles like many British bands grew up listening to and covering African American blues from the 40's 50's and 60's more so than US bands of the day this turned into the so called British invasion of America which was basically two waves The Beatles, Stones, The Kinks, The Animals followed latter By King Crimson, Moody Blues, YES, Genesis, ELP, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin and Deep Purple, they spent a lot of time in the US and like many great artists found influence for their lyrics and music from many sources not just the US but Europe, the middle east, Asia, Carribean and north Africa but also from previous genre such as Medieval, Folk, Classical, Jaz, Blues, Soul, Funk, skiffle and Gospel.
Preston brought his skills to the studio and livened up songs like this one. Which helped out a lot. Favorite songs from the album, which is a bit dominant McCartney, were not the 3 hits. I liked Two of Us & I Got a Feeling. But all in all it was another solid Beatles album.
Sounds like a lap steel guitar?
British Bands had to leave England because of the crazy tax rates, top earners were taxed at 90 percent or more.
You have to understand at this time in their lives they'd been all over the world and were very familiar with what was happening in the United States including California. Lol!!
Watch the roof concert bro 😎
Okay let me put I another way
' England was Anericas ''Baby MaMa'.
How is American music relevant to British culture? Here's how. The Beatles were from Liverpool, same as me, a major port in the UK in the '60's. Everybody in Liverpool knew a merchant seaman back then and they'd always come home with gifts for the family. Amongst those gifts were blues and early rock and roll records. These had a big influence on The Beatles, in fact on most teenage kids back then.
They had become world citizens at that point.
Check out Billy Preston 'I Wrote a Simple Song' and 'Outta Space'.
This was late 1969. The Beatles had been the biggest stars in the world for 5-6 years and had been to America TONS, both on tour and just promotional work for albums. And frankly it's also just weird that you think that music should only be autobiographical, and writing about other people or places is somehow wrong, or Brits appropriating American culture.
The reference to California grass is the stuff you smoke and Tuson Arizona if you watch the get back documentary Paul writing the lyrics and it was the only thing that made it sound okay And they were influenced by American jazz and rhythm and blues when American seaman visited Liverpool and brought the music records with them
Britain had become such a minor country, after the end of the British Empire, that it had little choice but to start moving its identity over to America.
This clip neglected to show how Paul wrote this song and was stuck on the arrangement until Billy walked in. You should see the smile on Paul’s face when Billy starts playing!
Paul wrote the song one morning when John was late turning up to the studio session. The whole songwriting process was recorded on camera in the Get Back documentary where we can see Paul gradually create a song out of nothing in a few minutes.
A lot of the Beatles early musical heroes were Americans. Little Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers...it's a long list.
❤❤
There is at least one California in the UK
The Beatles were big fans of American culture and big shapers of it too. The Peter Jackson movie is called "Get Back" in large part because the footage it uses traces the writing of that song from its inception to its delivery at the rooftop concert. The song begins with Paul McCartney goofing around in the studio making up riffs and throwing out silly lyrics and talking about things he saw on television, primarily a racist man yelling at foreigners to go back to where they came from and a cowboy western of some sort, probably Gunsmoke. I don't recall how Sweet Loretta Modern came out of that, but one of my mother's sisters is named Loretta and my dad used to draw out the "Get back, Loretta" line to tease her with back when I was a kid and this song was still new. Culture is over-rated, seriously. There's nothing half so sacred about it that it needs additional policing beyond the commodification applied to it already.
Loretta MARTIN, NOT "Modern" lol
"The Beatles" were INSPIRED by American music.
Listen to "Oh Darling" Paul tears it up!
I love their comedy, why they had to buy their own studio. Studio time was so expensive and they wanted to do it their way. Maybe Joe was not from England. Thanks for the shout out but I think it belongs to someone else lol.
The British bands brought the American music back to America that the white public had been ignoring.
They played on the roof because they had to play in public, per their contract. They were afraid of the fans so playing on the roof kept them safe from the fans and satisfied their contract. Ironic since John was killed by a fan and George was stabbed by a fan after she broke into his home. I guess being a star ain't all it's cracked up to be.