It is the shortest song on Let It Be. Barely fifty seconds long. Most people skip it, or they treat it like a weird little palate cleanser before the title track kicks in. But the dig it beatles lyrics are actually a fascinating, messy window into the final days of the world’s biggest band. It wasn’t a "song" in the traditional sense. Not even close. It was a fragment of a massive, sprawling jam session that lasted over twelve minutes, and by the time it hit the record, it was chopped down to almost nothing.
John Lennon is just riffing. He’s improvising. He’s naming things that were floating around in the cultural ether of 1969.
The Chaos of the Glyn Johns Mixes
To understand why the lyrics are so disjointed, you have to look at how Let It Be was stitched together. The band was falling apart. George Harrison had already walked out once. Paul McCartney was trying to lead a group that didn't want to be led. Amidst that tension, they just started playing. The original version of "Dig It," recorded on January 26, 1969, featured Billy Preston on keyboards and even George Martin on shaker.
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It was a groove. Just a simple, repetitive G-C-D blues-style vamp.
Glyn Johns, the original engineer tasked with making sense of the "Get Back" sessions, actually included a much longer version of the track in his early prototypes for the album. In those versions, you get a better sense of the dig it beatles lyrics because they aren't just a sudden burst of names. They’re part of a hypnotic, almost mantra-like rhythm. Lennon’s "Like a rolling stone" ad-lib at the end of the album version is actually a callback to the fact that they had been jamming on Dylan-esque vibes for ten minutes straight.
Breaking Down the Name-Checking
When Lennon shouts out names, he isn't being poetic. He's being a collage artist. He mentions the FBI. He mentions the CIA. Then he moves to the BBC. It’s a rhythmic list of the institutions that defined the era.
Then comes the "B.B. King" shoutout.
Then "Doris Day."
Then "Matt Busby."
If you aren't a fan of 1960s English football, that last one probably makes zero sense. Sir Matt Busby was the legendary manager of Manchester United. Lennon, who wasn't even a big football fan, threw it in because it fit the meter. It’s a purely percussive use of language. The dig it beatles lyrics function more like a drum kit than a poem. He’s testing how the syllables bounce off the bassline.
Why Phil Spector Cut It to Pieces
When Phil Spector took over the "Get Back" tapes in 1970 to create the Let It Be album, he had a problem. He had hours of aimless jamming and very few finished songs. He used "Dig It" as a bridge. He took a tiny slice from the January 26 take—the part where Lennon gets particularly enthusiastic—and faded it out just as it started to get interesting.
Many fans hate this. They think it robs the song of its context.
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If you listen to the Let It Be... Naked version released in 2003, "Dig It" is gone entirely. Paul McCartney notoriously disliked these "filler" tracks. He wanted the album to be a lean, professional rock record. But by removing it, you lose the "fly on the wall" feeling that makes the original 1970 release so unique. The lyrics are the sound of the Beatles trying to find their mojo in a cold rehearsal space at Apple Studio.
The "Queen Mary" Connection
There’s a weird moment in the full-length jam where Lennon starts singing about the "Queen Mary." He isn't talking about the ship, necessarily. He's just playing with phonetics.
"Dig it, dig it, dig it..."
It’s infectious. Heather McCartney (Linda’s daughter) was actually in the studio during some of these sessions, and you can hear her vocalizing in the background of the uncut tapes. It was a family affair, a chaotic mess, and a brilliant bit of spontaneous composition all at once.
The lyrics mention "That's it, that's it." That was Lennon signaling to the band that the jam was over. Or maybe he just ran out of words. With John, it was often both.
What This Tells Us About 1969
The Beatles were tired of being "The Beatles." They didn't want to write "Yesterday" anymore. They wanted to be a garage band. When you look at the dig it beatles lyrics, you see a man stripping away the artifice of songwriting. There are no metaphors here. There is no hidden meaning behind Doris Day and the FBI. It’s just noise. It’s "I Dig a Pony" but even more raw.
It represents the "back to basics" movement that defined the end of the sixties. After the complexity of Sgt. Pepper and the White Album, they just wanted to "dig it."
The mention of "Rolling Stone" is also a double-entendre. It’s a nod to Bob Dylan, but it’s also a nod to their rivals, The Rolling Stones. In the late sixties, the two bands were constantly feeding off each other's energy. Lennon’s delivery is snide, almost mocking, but also deeply respectful of the groove.
Comparing "Dig It" to "Maggie Mae"
On the Let It Be album, "Dig It" is paired with "Maggie Mae," another short, tossed-off fragment. Both serve the same purpose: they prove the Beatles were still a band that could just play.
While "Maggie Mae" is a traditional Liverpool folk song, "Dig It" is a Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey original. It’s one of the few songs credited to all four members. That’s rare. Usually, it’s Lennon-McCartney. Seeing all four names on a songwriting credit usually means the song was born out of a jam where no one person brought the melody. It was collective consciousness.
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The Technical Side of the Recording
The take used on the album was recorded at 3 Savile Row. The acoustics were notoriously difficult. They had moved from the cold, cavernous Twickenham Film Studios to their own basement, and the vibe changed instantly. You can hear it in the warmth of the bass.
Lennon’s vocals were captured through a Neumann U67, which gave it that gritty, immediate presence. He’s not singing "into" the microphone; he’s shouting across the room.
If you ever get the chance to listen to the Get Back documentary by Peter Jackson, watch the "Dig It" segment. You see the joy. For a few minutes, they aren't arguing about legal contracts or Allen Klein. They’re just four guys from Liverpool digging the rhythm.
How to Truly Appreciate Dig It
To get the most out of this track, stop looking for "The Beatles" and start looking for the "Silver Beetles." Listen to it as a garage band rehearsal.
- Listen to the 12-minute version: Search for the bootlegs or the 50th-anniversary box set. The album version is a trailer; the full jam is the movie.
- Focus on the Bass: Paul’s bassline in "Dig It" is incredibly fluid. He’s anchoring the chaos while John wanders off lyrically.
- Notice the Transition: Pay attention to how the song fades out. Spector intentionally faded it into "Let It Be." The contrast between the nonsense lyrics of "Dig It" and the profound, spiritual lyrics of "Let It Be" is one of the most jarring and brilliant sequencing choices in rock history.
- Contextualize the Names: Research Matt Busby and Doris Day. Understanding who these people were in 1969 London helps make the word-salad feel like a time capsule.
The song isn't a masterpiece. It isn't even a song. It’s a polaroid. And sometimes, a blurry polaroid tells you more about a moment than a professional portrait ever could. That’s the real secret of the dig it beatles lyrics. They aren't supposed to make sense; they're supposed to make you feel the room.
Check out the Let It Be 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition to hear Take 31. It’s the definitive way to experience the track's evolution from a simple "Can we play something?" to a piece of history. Compare the 1970 Spector mix with the 2021 Giles Martin mix to see how modern technology brings out the grit in Lennon's voice.