| "Dig It" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the song's sheet music | |
| Song bythe Beatles | |
| from the albumLet It Be | |
| Released | 8 May 1970 |
| Recorded | 26 January 1969 |
| Studio | Apple, London |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 0:51 (Let It Be version) 4:10 (Get Back mix) 8:20 (Full version) 15:05 (Jam) |
| Label | Apple,EMI |
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey |
| Producer(s) | Phil Spector |
"Dig It" is a song by the English rock bandthe Beatles from their 1970 albumLet It Be. The song is credited toLennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey, and is one of the few songs to be credited to all of the Beatles. This song and the 39-second "Maggie Mae" appear on theLet It Be album, but are excluded from theLet It Be... Naked album, instead being replaced with "Don't Let Me Down".Glyn Johns' May 1969 version of the album, then titledGet Back, had a four-minute excerpt of "Dig It", which was later reduced to the much shorter version in the final album.[1]
Several versions were recorded during theGet Back/Let It Be sessions, on 24,[2] 26,[3] 27,[4] 28,[5] and 29 January 1969,[6] atApple Studio. The 51-second version on the album is an extract taken from the 26 January version,[3][1] which was a 15-minute jam that evolved from a loose "Like a Rolling Stone" jam. A segment of the jam session, 4 minutes and 30 seconds in length, appears in the documentary filmLet It Be. The participants in that session areJohn Lennon on vocals and 6-string bass,George Harrison on guitar,Paul McCartney on piano,Ringo Starr on drums,George Martin on maracas andBilly Preston at the organ; also participating in the jam, but not heard on the released version, wasLinda Eastman's six-year-old daughterHeather. Eastman later became McCartney's wife.[3][7]
In the early part of the jam, Lennon sings the main lyric with interjections from Harrison. Heather adds wordless vocals, which in the 2021 miniseriesThe Beatles: Get Back, appear to be imitatingYoko Ono. As the performance winds down, Lennon exhorts the others to continue. McCartney adds abaritone backup vocal of "dig it up, dig it up, dig it up" and variations, and Lennon begins to repeat "Like a rolling stone", then, infree association manner, mentions "theFBI", "theCIA", "theBBC", "B.B. King", "Doris Day" and "Matt Busby".[3][8]
The excerpt on theLet It Be album fades in on Lennon's second "Like a rolling stone" and concludes with Lennon speaking in afalsetto: "That was 'Can You Dig It?' byGeorgie Wood, and now we'd like to do 'Hark, the Angels Come'". The second sentence of that line is cut off inLet It Be's film recording of the jam session. ("Wee Georgie Wood" was a 4'9"music-hall performer and child star.) The interjection actually comes from a different improvised jam recorded on the 24th.[2] The earlier jam was much different, described by Beatles bootleg scholars Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt as "sounding like a cross between the traditional 'Sailor's Hornpipe' and a slowed down rendition ofNeal Hefti's 'Batman', as played onslide guitar".[2] An excerpt from this jam (entitled "Can You Dig It?") can be heard on the "Fly on the Wall" bonus disc toLet It Be... Naked.[9]
