Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 22, 23 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Ken Scott
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, backing vocals, bass, piano, electric guitar, drums, handclaps
John Lennon: backing vocals, electric guitar, drums, handclaps
George Harrison: backing vocals, electric guitar, six-string bass guitar, drums, handclaps
Available on:
The Beatles (White Album)
Love
The opening track on the White Album, Back In The USSR was written by Paul McCartney and inspired by Chuck Berry's Back In The USA and the Beach Boys' California Girls.
The song was intended by McCartney to be a parody of Chuck Berry's 1959 hit.
It's tongue in cheek. This is a travelling Russkie who has just flown in from Miami Beach; he's come the other way. He can't wait to get back to the Georgian mountains: 'Georgia's always on my mind'; there's all sorts of little jokes in it... I remember trying to sing it in my Jerry Lee Lewis voice, to get my mind set on a particular feeling. We added Beach Boys style harmonies.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Back In The USSR was written in Rishikesh, India, while The Beatles were meditating with the Maharishi. Another member of the party was the Beach Boys' Mike Love.
I was sitting at the breakfast table and McCartney came down with his acoustic guitar and he was playing Back In The USSR, and I told him that what you ought to do is talk about the girls all around Russia, the Ukraine and Georgia. He was plenty creative not to need any lyrical help from me but I gave him the idea for that little section... I think it was light-hearted and humorous of them to do a take on the Beach Boys.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Two other influences found their way into Back In The USSR: Hoagy Carmichael's Georgia On My Mind, and the pro-industry 'I'm Backing Britain' campaign led by British prime minister Harold Wilson. According to Ian MacDonald, the song's original title was I'm Backing The UK, then I'm Backing The USSR.
The song caused an anti-Beatles conservative backlash in America, led by the John Birch Society which charged the group with encouraging communism. Back In The USSR did become a favourite song of The Beatles' Russian fans, who heard it through tapes smuggled into the country.
In the studio
Unusually, the drums on Back In The USSR were recorded mainly by McCartney, with contributions from Lennon and Harrison, after Ringo Starr had temporarily walked out of the group.
According to Barry Miles, Starr left when McCartney criticised him for messing up a tom-tom fill. With the atmosphere in the studio already often tense, the altercation was enough for the normally amenable Starr to reach his limit. He left London and spent a fortnight on Peter Sellers' yacht in the Mediterranean.
I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn't playing great, and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider. I went to see John, who had been living in my apartment in Montagu Square with Yoko since he moved out of Kenwood. I said, 'I'm, leaving the group because I'm not playing well and I feel unloved and out of it, and you three are really close.' And John said, 'I thought it was you three!'So then I went over to Paul's and knocked on his door. I said the same thing: 'I'm leaving the band. I feel you three guys are really close and I'm out of it.' And Paul said, 'I thought it was you three!'
I didn't even bother going to George then. I said, 'I'm going on holiday.' I took the kids and we went to Sardinia.
Anthology
The recording of Back In The USSR was completed in just two days. On the first, 22 August 1968, McCartney played drums, with Harrison on lead guitar and Lennon on bass. They taped just five tracks, the last of which was the best.
The next day they added two more drum, bass and lead guitar tracks, a piano part, lead vocals from Paul McCartney and backing vocals from Lennon and Harrison. All three Beatles contributed handclaps.
Back In The USSR was mixed on the same day, during which they added the sound of a Viscount aeroplane taking off and landing. The effects came from Abbey Road's collection, and had previously been recorded at London Airport.
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: Back In The USSR
- Recording: Back In The USSR
- Good Day Sunshine
- Hold Me Tight
- And Your Bird Can Sing
I have a great book on the Beatles-- "Beatlemania Forever"--- and I read that John was notified about the ultra-conservatives' charges of the Beatles being pro-Bolshevik. He was told that some were saying Beatles music was un-American. John's response? "That's very observant of them."
We can always seem to count on Lennon for the perfect defense.
Maybe because I'm from the east, I don't resent the lyrics at all. And this is a great song due to the tune and chords and all the stuff which makes it rhythmic
Who plays the solo? Do you think it is george? It sounds like paul?
It's Paul.
Both? I doubt that. George probably did the first, paul did the second.
You're as always free to express your doubts and believe in what you think is "probably" right.
That doesn't make it true, of course.
The solo has excactly the "show off" feeling Macca usually has in his solos. Also the way he plays, it sounds not as clear and precise as George, but more "spectacular".
Anyway, I don't know where this "second" solo is supposed to be. It's Paul's song, he plays drums and guitar and piano - and most of the bass is John and George (I thought all of it).
I hate to reference the rock band video reconstruction but I guess that might be an accurate depiction of who plays what guitar (with George doing the first and Paul playing and singing over his solo on the last verse. If you notice Paul makes sure that anytime there is a solo that he played he makes sure that the rock band studio scenes show him playing them (even if he is playing another instrument for the rest of this song).
Again, I said "probably". Not for sure, unlike Mr. Iknoweverythingthatpaulmccartneyhaseverdone here I don't know. And what I'm talking about is the fast alternate picking.
Simply one of the best pop songs ever made. McCartney at the top of his craft!
After having spent two years in the hazy dreamscapes of Pepperland, the Beatles were serving notice they were back on the ground, rock & roll-wise.
No drowsy Mellotrons, no trippy backwards tapes, no eerie distorted vocals, this time they were leading off with screeching (airplane) tires, pounding piano, thudding drums, screaming guitars and Paul McCartney doing his best Elvis-meets-the Beach Boys impersonation.
Dude, don't diss Pepperland like that.
I don't think he was trying to diss anything. Just that The Beatles went from a 50s Rock and Roll/R&B influenced sound, to doing a lot of experimental stuff, and then "BACK" to the Rock and Roll sound with "Back in the U.S.S.R."
The harmony vocals clearly resemble the Beach Boys, but were new to Paul's work. He use's a similar background vocal for "Jet", my guess is he realized they work well in the upbeat songs that play off their own intensity.
One of my favorite Beatles tunes. Knowing they were condemned by the Birchers makes it even better.
It was an honour to be condemned by the John Birch Society.
they were using elvis and the beach boys (americas greatest at the time) as a politial parody (a la marx bros) (communism vs capitalism) and they conquer!!! pure pop for the then people!
helter scelter and manson put this song under the radar, yeah yeah yeah!
More like Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys.Paul's song reads like Chuck's Back In The USA.
Listening to the isolated drums on Back in the U.S.S.R. tells me Paul had no right to tell Ringo he messed up anywhere.The drums sound like your Uncle had a try at your drumkit and someone accidentally recorded it. And then people insist paul did the drums on Dear Prudence's finale??? All of a sudden he's doing a fairly decent Ringo impersonation on drums when he can barely come out of a drumfill or do rolls and stay in beat with the song?? Right. I'm pretty convinced now that Ringo does the finale of Dear Prudence, he just never got credited for it.
Paul wasn't the only drummer on Back In The USSR - it was a composite featuring him, John and George.
Yes, it was a composite. Apparently, they needed to reassign instruments during the recording to get it properly recorded. Thus, you frequently will notice that the drums are following the song rather than driving it.
is there any confirmation that John and George played drums with Paul on this? For some reason, I thought Paul was the only skilled drummer (besides Ringo) to take drumming responsibilities when Ringo temporarily left
d'nicholson - I wouldn't exactly use the word `skilled' to describe Paul's drumming! I've always thought the drumming on this track was the weakest element. Aside from that this a great recording, excellent way to open the album.
If you mess with the balance on your stereo, you can hear one drum track on one side (Paul) and an entirely different drum track (John and George)on the other. The drums are pretty terrible, although the rest of the recording is so good, you don't really notice or care
Nice info.
I thought the plane sound was Paul's distorted whistle, as I heard on a Bootleg.