Get Back is a special song as it is the only Beatle song we saw the creation of from beginning to end. The song was created out of thin air on the morning of January 7th during the aptly named Get Back sessions. Paul was just strumming chords on his bass while a tired Ringo and George stared on. Eventually the lyric "Get Back" came out of Paul's mouth and the song was born. The lyrics "Get back" may have been inspired by George Harrison's song "Sour Milk Sea" which contained the lyric "Get back to the place you should be". Early lyrics of the song included a "No Pakistanis" version that parodied the anti-immigration sentiment that was building up. Particularly Enoch Powell who became infamous for his Rivers of Blood speech. This can be seen in action in the Get Back documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3obOF-rvwI.
After George left John and Paul worked on the lyrics more with John also taking over lead guitar duties. At Apple, after the arrival of Billy Preston, the song began it's final formation. With the song being worked on extensively on January 23rd.
The main body of the song came from a January 27th take. However in this take the band forgot to go into the ending coda, but it was deemed the best take. So for the released version the ending coda of a January 28th take was edited to the end creating the full song. Backed by Don't Let Me Down, Get Back was released on April 11, 1969 and was an immediate success staying at number 1 for 5 weeks. When Phil Spector did his version he left in the studio chatter for the beginning with some rooftop noise from the before the second take of "I've Got A Feeling" edited in as well. He also left off the coda instead opting for dialogue from the end of the rooftop concert to bookend the song.
I've tried to get each part as isolated as possible, but there is some bleed partly due to all the instruments being recorded near each other. The drums were isolated from the Glyn Johns mix so the bass drum can be heard somewhat by itself.
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Intro (0:00)
Ringo's Drums (0:23)
Paul's Bass (2:56)
Paul's Vocals (5:32)
John's Vocals (7:24)
George's Rhythm Guitar (7:40)
John's Lead Guitar (10:13)
Billy Preston's Electric Piano (12:48)
End of Take (15:19)
Coda Drums (16:09)
Coda Bass (16:43)
Coda Vocal (17:16)
Coda Rhythm Guitar (17:50)
Coda Lead Guitar (18:22)
Coda Electric Piano (18:55)
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Paul McCartney - Lead Vocals, Bass (1963 Hofner 500/1)
John Lennon - Lead and Rhythm Guitar (1965 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino), harmony vocals
George Harrison - Rhythm Guitar (1968 Fender Rosewood Telecaster)
Ringo Starr - Drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple)
Billy Preston - Electric Piano (1968 Fender Rhodes Seventy-Three Sparkle Top)
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