Beatles WI: No Pakistanis/ "Get Back" Stays a Protest Song

[Emperor Norton I]

Originally, "Get Back" was supposed to be a protest song.

In the UK at the time, and in other countries certainly, there was a rise of anti-immigrant sentiment on the right with people like Enoch Powell (Britain for Britons and all that). Get Back was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek satire on that, talking about how people should "Get Back" to where they belong.

Original Get Back (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjBF1uj6Do)

The reason this was dropped was because it was feared people wouldn't get that it was satire and would take it at face value as racism. The song wasn't even heard until a bootleg surfaced in 1986.

So, what if Get Back was released as originally conceived as a tongue-in-cheek bigotry protest song?

[Dr. Luny]

Was it even finished in its protest form? If the song is released as it is on the Youtube clip I don't think it would go over nearly as well as the original, but if the lyrics are filled in well it might be a hit, though it will turn off many of their xenophobic fans, and some might not get that its a satire.

[Emperor Norton I]

Was it even finished in its protest form?
I think that bootleg is as far as it got as a protest song.

There is a fan thingy which purports to finish off the lyrics per whatever was planned for the final version as a protest song. I don't know if I believe it, but I'll link it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwtUnO0Xcq0&feature=related).

If the song is released as it is on the Youtube clip I don't think it would go over nearly as well as the original, but if the lyrics are filled in well it might be a hit, though it will turn off many of their xenophobic fans, and some might not get that its a satire.
I don't really think they had many xenophobic fans. They'd already long since left their mop top phase, and were already PO'ing the right wingers.

I think the biggest problem would be many people wouldn't understand it as satire and take it as racist Beatles.

[Thande]

I don't really think they had many xenophobic fans.

I think you underestimate how mainstream opposition to immigration was in 1960s Britain. It'd probably be about as controversial as when Lennon sent back his OBE.

[Elidor]

It'd be have the same effect as Dead Kennedy's "Kill the poor" a lot of people taking it at face value.

Then the Beatles would have to release another anti-xenophobic song, and this one should be without irony.