![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/The-Beatles-Get-Back-Let-It-Be-Sessions-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
Fri 14 August 2026 15:51, UK <\/p>\n
In April 1969, The Beatles<\/a> released a song that was supposed to prefigure their return to the rock and roll roots that first took them from Liverpool to London via Hamburg and on their way to global fame. <\/p>\n \u2018Get Back\u2019 turned out to be the only song released from the project, apart from its B-side \u2018Don\u2019t Let Me Down\u2019, until two final singles were released alongside the album Let It Be a year later, without Paul McCartney\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n The Beatles didn\u2019t dwell on their unfinished project, though, swiftly moving on to their next recording sessions for their tenth studio LP,\u00a0Abbey Road. The single they\u2019d released stood on its own terms as a tale of two characters struggling to define their identity. <\/p>\n The title of \u2018Get Back\u2019 may also be a subtle allusion to the incitement of nationalist fervour and racial hatred<\/a> propagated in Britain at the time by Tory MP Enoch Powell. After all, a few days before McCartney famously entered the studio with the bare bones of the song, Powell had appeared on television spewing some of his darkest, headline-grabbing remarks. <\/p>\n So, it stands to reason that McCartney was inspired to craft a ferocious satirical retort. However, a mystery remains as to who exactly the two characters in the song are based on. Was \u201cJojo\u201d, the man \u201cwho thought he was a loner\u201d, a real person? And who is the cross-dressing \u201cLoretta Martin\u201d, \u201canother man\u201d who \u201cthought she was a woman\u201d supposed to be?<\/p>\n The most obvious inspiration for Jojo was the first husband of McCartney\u2019s new wife, Linda. She\u2019d already divorced Joseph Melville See Jr prior to meeting McCartney, and the two remained on good terms. And so, it wasn\u2019t long before Linda introduced the Beatle to her previous spouse, whom she was dating.<\/p>\n See lived in Tucson, Arizona, just as the song describes, where he worked as an academic at the University of Arizona. He and Linda had lived together in the city while they were married, and the stories she told McCartney about her time there likely inspired his lyrics.<\/p>\n On the other hand, John Lennon was convinced that the song referenced him. He believed that McCartney\u2019s increasing frustration with his desire to forge his own artistic path away from The Beatles led to the composition. According to this theory, McCartney believed that Lennon\u2019s idea of himself as a \u201cloner\u201d artist without the rest of the band \u201ccouldn\u2019t last\u201d, and The Beatles would soon rekindle the camaraderie they\u2019d shared in days gone by. He would, in effect, be brought back into the fold.<\/p>\n Yet, in light of the Powell situation and the evident wider political bent of the progressive anthem, this seems like a rather self-indulgent conclusion for Lennon to have come to. <\/p>\n So, what about \u201cLoretta Martin\u201d?<\/p>\n If Lennon thought he was the person behind \u201cJojo\u201d, then he naturally assumed that \u201cLoretta Martin\u201d was his wife, Yoko Ono. He even suggested that there was real hostility insinuated in McCartney\u2019s lyric \u201cGet back to where you once belonged\u201d, which he felt implied Ono should leave the recording studio and go back to Japan. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery time he sang the line in the studio, he\u2019d look at Yoko,\u201d Lennon later told interviewer David Sheff. \u201cMaybe he\u2019ll say I\u2019m paranoid.\u201d Or perhaps he was utilising the line as a jab, but it wasn\u2019t truly about her?<\/p>\n An alternative theory, which better explains the name of the character, posits that \u201cLoretta Martin\u201d is in fact a reference to Lauretta Sullivan, the wife of British comedian Marty Feldman. McCartney, who would have socialised with the couple in swinging London establishments such as the Bag O\u2019Nails, is said to have been making fun of Sullivan\u2019s masculine appearance with his lyrics. A fairly troubling quip if true.<\/p>\n The man himself denies both theories. \u201cI had no particular person in mind,\u201d he claimed to Beatles biographer Barry Miles. \u201cAgain it was a fictional character, half man, half woman, all very ambiguous.\u201d In any case, Loretta does seem to have been one of the first references to a trans person in popular music, predating The Kinks\u2019 single \u2018Lola\u2019 by over a year.<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/John-Lennon-Yoko-Ono-Bill-Wyman-Charlie-Watts-Brian-Jones-Keith-Moon-Eric-Clapton-1968-Rock-Roll-Cir.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n