Back in the U.S.S.R: Back to the future

[luisam]

"Back in the U.S.S.R." was released in the 1968 double-disc album The Beatles known as The White Album. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney.

The song opens and closes with the sounds of a jet aircraft flying overhead and refers to a "dreadful" flight back to the U.S.S.R. from Miami Beach in the United States, on board a BOAC airplane. The lyrics tell of the singer's great happiness on returning home, where "the Ukraine girls really knock me out" and the "Moscow girls make me sing and shout" and are invited to "Come and keep your comrade warm". He also looks forward to hearing the sound of "balalaikas ringing out".

The title parodied Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A.," while the chorus and background vocals were a humorous take on the Beach Boys' "California Girls". Paul McCartney wrote the song while the Beatles were in Rishikesh, India, studying transcendental meditation and Mike Love of the Beach Boys also attended the retreat at the same time; he has stated in interviews that, in order to make the song sound more like a Beach Boys number, he encouraged McCartney to "talk about the girls all around Russia, the Ukraine and Georgia" in the lyrics. In 2013, Love noted, "I was at the breakfast table when Paul McCartney came down with his acoustic guitar playing "Back in the U.S.S.R.". I said, "You ought to put something in about all the girls around Russia," and he did.

The song also contains an allusion to the song "Georgia on My Mind", but pertains to the now ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia ("and Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind") right after "the Ukraine girls" and "Moscow girls." McCartney thought that when he listened to the Beach Boys, it sounded like California, so he decided to write a song that "sounded" like the U.S.S.R.

In his 1984 interview with Playboy, McCartney said: "I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And "Back in the U.S.A." was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there. I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also hands across the water, which I'm still conscious of 'cause they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids from there do. And that to me is very important for the future of the race."

McCartney is also primarily responsible for the drum parts because tempers flared during the recording session of "Back in the U.S.S.R." on 22 August 1968, and Ringo Starr walked out and announced that he had quit, so the song was recorded without Starr,

"Back in the U.S.S.R." prompted immediate responses from the far-right, who claimed the group were "pro-Soviet". As further evidence of the Beatles' supposed "pro-Soviet" sentiments, the John Birch Society magazine cited the song. The line "You don't know how lucky you are, boys" left many anti-communist groups stunned.

As reference, "Back in the U.S.A." is a song written by Chuck Berry that was released in 1959 and was a top 40 hit. A cover version in 1978 by Linda Ronstadt was also a hit. The song's lyrics were supposedly written based upon Berry returning to the USA following a trip to Australia and witnessing the living standards of Australian Aborigines: as Berry's biography on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website states, with "Back in the U.S.A" "Berry saluted such everyday pleasures as the drive-ins and corner cafes 'where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day/Yeah, and a jukebox jumping with records like in the U.S.A.'". Take note that Chuck Berry is dubbing this video.

 

"Back in the U.S.A" was afforded its greatest impact when Linda Ronstadt remade the song for her 1978 album Living in the USA (the album's title coming from the song's lyrics). Ronstadt had heard the Berry original while being driven around Los Angeles by Eagles member Glenn Frey who had once been in her band, the track being on a "home-made" cassette Frey had playing in his tape deck. Ronstadt recalls that she'd been reminding Frey "'how we used to sit around the Troubadour Bar and go: Oh it's so horrible and I can't get a record deal. We were so broke and so miserable and we'd feel so sorry for ourselves and we were so precious about it.' Then all of a sudden I looked at him and I went: 'Boy, life's really tough. We're going off to ski at Aspen with all this money in our pockets, we're going to have a good time, and we've got great music on the tape player.' Just then 'Back in the U.S.A.’ came on and I went: 'Boy that would be a great song to sing. I think I'll do that one.'"

 

 

The paradox is that during the 1960s, the Beatles were officially derided in the USSR as the "belch of Western culture" and in the 1980s McCartney was refused permission to play there." He finally made it to Russia almost four decades after he wrote Back in the U.S.S.R. He got to play the song at his Back in the World Tour in Moscow's Red Square in May 2003, "the crowd went wild". McCartney rocked Red Square with 38 songs: Beatles classics like "Back in the USSR," "Hey Jude," "The Long and Winding Road" and "Eleanor Rigby" and many of his own songs, for nearly three hours, capping his first trip ever to Russia, where his music flourished during the '70s and '80s despite being banned by the communist government. Beatlemania spread through the Soviet Union even though the music was banned by the government. McCartney told his concert audience he has been told by many Russians that they learned English by listening to Beatles albums bought through the black market.

During the 1980s -- in the days of Glasnost -- McCartney released a rock oldies album solely in the Soviet Union called "Choba V CCCP," which is loosely translated as "Back in the U.S.S.R."

He became the first Beatle to play in Red Square though not the first in Russia. The first Beatle to play in Russia was Ringo Starr who toured Moscow and St. Petersburg with his All Star Band in 1998.

Even tickets costing up to $300 - three times the average monthly wage - didn't stop Russians from coming to the concert. You could buy a ticket to Stockholm for this price but talking about McCartney, it didn't seem that expensive for Russians.

When asked about the song before the concert McCartney said he had known little about the Soviet Union when he wrote it. "It was a mystical land then," he said. "It's nice to see the reality. I always suspected that people had big hearts. Now I know that's true. Finally we got to do that one here."

McCartney spoke Russian several times during the show, although his words in English were translated into Russian on video monitors for the audience, which included former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. McCartney met with Gorbachev just before the concert.

Before the show, McCartney and his wife heather met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and found out the ex-KGB agent is, and was, a big fan. Putin, who was not expected to attend, arrived about halfway into the show while McCartney was singing "Calico Skies," an anti-war song recently released on a charity album benefiting Iraqi children. Earlier in the day, McCartney sang "Let It Be" for Putin during a private meeting. Putin told McCartney that he was a big fan of Beatles music which he said brought "a taste of freedom, a window on the world" to Soviet citizens. McCartney later told reporters he and Putin talked about everyday things such as their families. He said that he and Putin shared working class backgrounds.

By the way, I couldn’t find on YouTube any original Beatle video with Back in the U.S.S.R. If you can provide one, feel free to post the link.

 

 

[virge]

What's with the huge font size?

[luisam]

20 minutes ago, virge said:

What's with the huge font size?

 

Copy/paste from Word. Board has some issue with changing font-size of pasted text, text gets messed up. Anyway, I hope you can read it.