Fired up after sharing the stage at the Concert for Bangladesh, Ringo and George raced back into the studio to record this single.
Co-written and produced by George, “Back Off Boogaloo” was inspired by a turn of phrase from T. Rex’s Marc Bolan and works itself up into an appropriately glam-rocky lather. Then George gets all Duane Allman.
Ringo described Bolan as “a dear friend who used to come into the office when I was running Apple Movies, a big office in town, and the hang-out for myself, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon”.
Over dinner one evening at Ringo’s home outside London, in 1971, Bolan had used the word “boogaloo” so often that it stuck in Ringo’s mind, after which the beat and melody for the song came to him overnight.
“Bolan was an energized guy. He used to speak: ‘Back off, boogaloo … ooh you, boogaloo.’ ‘Do you want some potatoes?’ ‘Ooh you, boogaloo!'”
Ringo also recalled having to take the batteries out of his children’s toys that night, in order to power a tape recorder and make a recording of the new song.
