# What was the story with Loretta Martin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-with-loretta-martin/419942>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 21, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-with-loretta-martin/419942 "2007-09-21T01:47:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-with-loretta-martin/419942/1 "2007-09-21T01:47:19Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman  
> But she was another man  
> All the girls around her say she’s got it coming  
> But she gets it while she can

I always thought Paul was supposed to be the straight forward one. But I have no idea where he’s going here. Is Loretta a transvestite or something? I’m assuming the third and fourth lines are supposed to imply she’s a little wild and the other girls look down on her because of it. But I could be wrong. Adding to the confusion are the deleted lines about Pakistanis and the frying pan intro.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-with-loretta-martin/419942/2 "2007-09-22T16:47:37Z")

</div>

A bump. And a realization that I was pretty unclear myself in the OP. This question is about the song “Get Back” by Paul McCartney from the Beatles’ _Let It Be_ album (which was originally going to be titled _Get Back_).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-story-with-loretta-martin/419942/3 "2007-09-22T18:41:57Z")

</div>

Sometimes the Beatles used lyrics because they sounded good, not because they made sense. (Paul still can’t explain the “Hey Jude” line “The movement you need is on your shoulder.” He has no idea what it means, but kept it in because John said that didn’t matter.)

Also, Paul wrote “Ob La Di, Ob La Da,” so transvestism isn’t exactly new to his lyrics. But I think in that case it was just changing the names of the characters around for fun.