Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hi, everyone, it's Paul muldoon. Before we get to
Speaker 1: this episode, I wanted to let you know that you
Speaker 1: can binge all twelve episodes of McCartney A Life and
Speaker 1: Lyrics right now, add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.
Speaker 1: Find Pushkin Plus on the McCartney A Life and Lyrics
Speaker 1: show page in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm
Speaker 1: slash plus. At the height of the Cold War, with.
Speaker 2: The closing of the border, Soviet divisions in East Germany
Speaker 2: were on the move, with combat forces brought into strategic
Speaker 2: positions for the contest over the status of Berlin.
Speaker 1: At a time when two halves of the world were
Speaker 1: separated by an iron curtain. On the brink of nuclear war,
Speaker 1: the Beatles released Well, a strange kind of rock and
Speaker 1: roll song, you bet I'm formal doing. I'm a poet,
Speaker 1: a lover of not only the lyric poem, but the
Speaker 1: song lyric. Over the past several years, I've got to
Speaker 1: spend time with one of the greatest songwriters of our era.
Speaker 1: And will you look at me?
Speaker 3: It's happened. I'm going up to I'm actually a performer.
Speaker 1: That's sir Paul McCartney. He and I worked on a
Speaker 1: book together, looking at the lyrics of more than one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many
Speaker 1: hours of our conversations.
Speaker 3: Actually, I'm a songwriter.
Speaker 1: My god, well that that crypto. This is McCartney a
Speaker 1: life in lyrics. It's a masterclass, a memoir, and an
Speaker 1: improvised journey with one of the most iconic figures in
Speaker 1: popular music in this episode.
Speaker 2: Back in the USSR, mobilization efforts during the last months
Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty one brought the United States Army to
Speaker 2: a strength of over a million men, subsequently increasing our
Speaker 2: troops strength throughout Europe.
Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine just how puzzling it would have
Speaker 1: been in nineteen sixty eight to hear a song about
Speaker 1: somebody being happy to leave the West and go back
Speaker 1: to the Soviet Union. Only a few months before, Russian
Speaker 1: tanks had rolled into Prague to crack down on protests
Speaker 1: against Soviet control. This nineteen sixty at report from ABC
Speaker 1: News highlights the extent of the operation.
Speaker 4: Russian tanks and infantry, aided by troops from East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Speaker 4: and Bulgaria, have occupied Czechoslovakia and have crushed the new
Speaker 4: and relatively liberal leadership of that small country.
Speaker 1: The way this song turns the cultural and political world
Speaker 1: order on its head is what makes it the joke
Speaker 1: of an era. As was often the case for McCartney,
Speaker 1: he drew inspiration from what was happening in the wider world,
Speaker 1: as well as from the songs that were playing on
Speaker 1: his radio.
Speaker 3: Tuck Berry wrote a song called Back in the US,
Speaker 3: which we were very familiar with, and so I kind
Speaker 3: of thought it was its kind of cool. It was
Speaker 3: obviously a serviceman returning home, going back into the ux
Speaker 3: going back into his own civilization.
Speaker 1: Chuck Berry had come back from a trip to Australia
Speaker 1: where he had witnessed the dismal living conditions of the
Speaker 1: indigenous population, and he wrote this song as a kind
Speaker 1: of anthem to his glorious USA.
Speaker 4: From the can of the Delaware.
Speaker 1: Be glossing over the struggles of the American civil rights
Speaker 1: movement at the time. Berry's song is a celebration of
Speaker 1: capitalism and the economic boom of the nineteen fifties, of
Speaker 1: drive ins and sizzling Hamburgers. Paul McCartney and the Beatles
Speaker 1: loved Chuck Berry, and they loved this upbeat, celebratory anthem,
Speaker 1: but not a decade at best. The Vietnam War was
Speaker 1: a total failure and the world's love affair with American
Speaker 1: culture had started to wear off.
Speaker 3: There was a little bit two pro us because we
Speaker 3: were in the UK, so I could pokephone on it
Speaker 3: in my own way. And when I saw that US
Speaker 3: sr was kind of similar, then I realized I could
Speaker 3: sit back in the US. I could do a little
Speaker 3: parody on Chuck's idea of being back, and I would
Speaker 3: have a Russian guy who had come from America and
Speaker 3: was glad to be back in Russia. And it come
Speaker 3: from Miami. On BOAC British Overseas Ways Corporation BOAC.
Speaker 2: He's our standing contribution to the second generation of jet airliners.
Speaker 1: The speaker of the song, the protagonist flies back to
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union with the glamour of modern jet travel,
Speaker 1: like that showcased in this nineteen sixty four ad for BOAC.
Speaker 2: In the economy class, the standard is so high that passengers.
Speaker 1: Can easily persuade themselves. But they're VIPs traveling.
Speaker 4: But one medium drive Vodkom a team mixed like you said.
Speaker 1: So, who is this man? It's easy to imagine him
Speaker 1: as a kind of suave jet setter, fluent in many languages,
Speaker 1: lots of charm, maybe like a James Bond type. The
Speaker 1: Prime Minister's talked to Moscow.
Speaker 3: They're saying it was an accident during a routine training exercise.
Speaker 1: Governments change the last except he wouldn't be reporting to
Speaker 1: MI I six or Damn Judy Dench rather the KGB.
Speaker 1: He's flying home from Miami. He's just been to sunny Florida,
Speaker 1: maybe hanging out on the beach, which gets us to
Speaker 1: the bridge. If the verse is setting up a joke,
Speaker 1: the punchline is the bridge when our protagonist starts listing
Speaker 1: the territories of the former Soviet Union.
Speaker 5: Wesban.
Speaker 1: The harmonies of the Bridge were inspired by the Beach Boys.
Speaker 1: In fact, when the Beatles went to India in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight to meditate Myke love Off, the Beach Boys
Speaker 1: was there too. He is even clear in several interviews
Speaker 1: that he gave McCartney the idea for that part of
Speaker 1: the song where the Beach Boys fit into this.
Speaker 3: Well, there were big influences round about the time. So
Speaker 3: this as I'm doing a parody of chuck and I'm
Speaker 3: doing it. I'm doing it American, but it's it's a
Speaker 3: Russian guy having all the sentiments. So I'm using stuff
Speaker 3: from the Beach Boys for the parody. So when I'm
Speaker 3: going Ukraine, girls really knocked me out, I'm thinking, Californi,
Speaker 3: your girls will knock me out.
Speaker 1: Wesbian.
Speaker 3: I think I was very lucky, as I say, when
Speaker 3: I hit this little humorous vein, it seemed to just
Speaker 3: sort of flow. So I hear, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: Now it's in the middle. So now I'm going to
Speaker 3: go into detail about the countries and the territories. So
Speaker 3: we got Ukraine, and we've got Moscow, and we've got Georgia. Well,
Speaker 3: if I say Georgia, I think of the old American
Speaker 3: song Georgia on my Mind, which I would be thinking
Speaker 3: of the Ray Charles Georgia on my mind. Georgia, Georgia, the.
Speaker 1: Ray Charms homestead of Georgia is suddenly transformed into the
Speaker 1: Soviet subtle light nation of Georgia. And now the joke
Speaker 1: is complete, leaving behind the sun and fun of Miami
Speaker 1: and old sweet Georgia. We break through the wall, eager
Speaker 1: to get back into the USSR on board R BOAC.
Speaker 1: Yet I don't think I ever understood at the time
Speaker 1: that BOAC was in the first line. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if I ever quite.
Speaker 3: Understood what it was. Yeah, that does that to horrify you, No,
Speaker 3: not at all. I mean I'm still finding things in
Speaker 3: these lyrics, but I do sometimes think, I mean, particularly
Speaker 3: about this one, how amazingly ancient all the ideas are.
Speaker 3: Now there isn't a uss R anymore. There isn't a BOAC,
Speaker 3: and I often wonder, like you didn't get it. I
Speaker 3: don't think the kids get it. I'm not sure they
Speaker 3: know what USSR was. It's just it's a rock and
Speaker 3: roll song. But I mean, obviously the joke is that
Speaker 3: I then split it up back in the US, back
Speaker 3: in the US, back in the USSR.
Speaker 1: Why the song has an upbeat, rock and roll energy.
Speaker 1: The subtext of the lyrics is certainly more bittersweet. The
Speaker 1: Soviet Union at the time was a totalitarian state with
Speaker 1: strong censorship in place.
Speaker 3: You know, it was always gray. So I mean, when
Speaker 3: I'm writing this song, it's very much tongue in cheek.
Speaker 3: I'm not really thinking there's anything for this guy to
Speaker 3: go back to so, I mean, I remember when we
Speaker 3: first went to Berlin and to looked over the.
Speaker 2: Wall, aware of their special responsibilities on this trouble spot
Speaker 2: between the free and communist worlds. American soldiers of the
Speaker 2: Berlin Garrison are combat ready and alert.
Speaker 3: To me, I just knew there was like a vast
Speaker 3: gray expense that was beyond this wall, and that we
Speaker 3: were all in.
Speaker 2: Technical people in eastern Germany continue to risk their lives
Speaker 2: to escape to the free world.
Speaker 3: Everyone in Russia who goes back to the Beatles period
Speaker 3: remembers having to smuggle records or it was all very
Speaker 3: you know, little rooms where you could play and you
Speaker 3: didn't want people to know. You didn't want the authorities
Speaker 3: to know that you were listening to this forbidden group,
Speaker 3: which really we loved the idea of that that we
Speaker 3: were getting smuggled along with levi iteens. This was like
Speaker 3: true cultural arrival.
Speaker 1: A little over a decade after the fall of the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union, McCartney really did arrive when he was invited
Speaker 1: to give a concert on Red Square in Moscow, and
Speaker 1: when he played back in the usas R he felt
Speaker 1: the whole crowd rise and join in the song. During
Speaker 1: his time in Russia. This was two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: McCartney got to meet a young Vladimir Putin, then serving
Speaker 1: his first term as president. There's actually a news clip
Speaker 1: of the occasion and you see Putton and McCartney sitting
Speaker 1: across from each other like two statesmen. And then Paul
Speaker 1: McCartney pops the question.
Speaker 3: You were growing up, did you listen to the Beatles?
Speaker 5: Nossing yes, It was extremely popular. It was like a
Speaker 5: gulp of freedom. Her music was like an open window
Speaker 5: to the world.
Speaker 3: It was. It was bound by the pothology, sure by us.
Speaker 5: It was considered at this time a propaganda of some
Speaker 5: alien ideology.
Speaker 1: It would have seemed unimaginable then that twenty years later
Speaker 1: the same man would order Russian troops to invade Ukraine,
Speaker 1: an act of war unparalleled in Europe since the end
Speaker 1: of the Second World War, cracking down on any protest,
Speaker 1: arresting journalists, assassinating political enemies, jailing young women for singing
Speaker 1: in churches. Once again the window to the outside world.
Speaker 1: My conversation with Paul McCartney took place before the current
Speaker 1: war in Ukraine, but during our time together we often
Speaker 1: spoke about the subversive nature of art and how throughout
Speaker 1: history music has served as a beacon of freedom. Art
Speaker 1: is dangerous to some people.
Speaker 3: We always thought that we were on the right side,
Speaker 3: that if we were dangerous, we were dangerous to the
Speaker 3: Russian authorities and to us that said they're not that good.
Speaker 3: It's sort of that was how we felt, and I
Speaker 3: think it was true to a large extent that they
Speaker 3: were trying to suppress this Western influence and it goes on.
Speaker 3: You know, I know there was a periodly thought, oh,
Speaker 3: it's all clear enough, but it's actually the suppression is
Speaker 3: back big time. You know. It's sort of many countries
Speaker 3: now and it's sort of been given a free pass,
Speaker 3: and everyone's kind of stimied and sort of saying, no,
Speaker 3: please don't do that. But I mean, god knows what
Speaker 3: the politics and the realities are behind it for any rate.
Speaker 3: So for me, it's kind of nice to just escape
Speaker 3: into a song like this by Miami bat U a
Speaker 3: CD last night on a way the paperbag was on
Speaker 3: the need. I had a ball away only new face. Gee,
Speaker 3: It's good to be back home.
Speaker 1: Back in the USSR from the nineteen sixty eight record
Speaker 1: titled The Beatles, also known as the White Album, In
Speaker 1: the next episode, Paul McCartney tells us about how his
Speaker 1: late mother visited him in a dream and gave him
Speaker 1: some words of wisdom.
Speaker 3: Seeing her beautiful, kind face was very confident. I immediately
Speaker 3: felt at ease and loved.
Speaker 1: One of the Beatles' last hits, Let It Be, is
Speaker 1: an answer to the band's inner turmoil and to Hamlet's
Speaker 1: age old question to be or not to be? McCartney
Speaker 1: A Life in Lyrics is a co production between Hartmedia
Speaker 1: NPL and Pushkin Industries.