1969 VIDEO: Beatles speak out on immigration

Because some things never change, we offer up a bootleg of the Beatles singing about immigration. Brought to you by Harvey Dickson, of The New York Times.

Dickson even manages to mention Tom Tancredo in his blog.

Dickson writes:

It’s not so much a song as it is an extended improvisation during the interminable “Get Back” studio sessions in 1969 (in fact, some theorize that “The Commonwealth Song” is a prototype for “Get Back”). “Commonwealth” name-checks Enoch Powell (the Tom Tancredo of his day, or Thilo Sarazin, if you prefer a German reference), who had delivered his anti-immigrant “Rivers of Blood” speech the previous year. “Commonwealth” was Paul McCartney’s mocking response.

Here, a link to the lyrics, which include:

Immigrants. Wilson Health said to the immigrants
you better get back to the commonwealth homes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I said Get back home. Now Enoch
Powell was said to the folks color of his skin. He
said don’t care. So he said you better get up. He
said he said to Enoch Powell. You better go home.