Speaker 1: Pushkin. At the height of the Cold War, with the.
Speaker 2: Closing of the border, Soviet divisions in East Germany were
Speaker 2: on the move, with combat forces brought into strategic positions
Speaker 2: 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, Flumy beat Ze. I'm Formuldau. I'm a poet,
Speaker 1: a lover of not only the lyric poem, but the
Speaker 1: song lyric view. Over the past several years, I've got
Speaker 1: to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters of
Speaker 1: our era.
Speaker 3: And will you look at me? It's happened. I'm going
Speaker 3: on 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: She I'm a songwriter. My God, will that that crypt homie?
Speaker 1: This is McCartney a life in lyrics. It's a masterclass,
Speaker 1: a memoir and an improvised journey with one of the
Speaker 1: most iconic figures in popular music in this episode back
Speaker 1: in the USSR.
Speaker 2: Mobilization efforts during the last months of nineteen sixty one
Speaker 2: brought the United States Army to a strength of over
Speaker 2: a million men, subsequently increasing our 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 eight 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 5: Chuck Berry wrote a song called Back in the US,
Speaker 5: which we were very familiar with, and so I kind
Speaker 5: of thought it was it was kind of cool. It
Speaker 5: was obviously a serviceman returning home, right, going back into
Speaker 5: the UX, going back into his home 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 from glassing over the
Speaker 1: struggles of the American civil rights movement at the time.
Speaker 1: Berry's song is a celebration of capitalism and the economic
Speaker 1: boom of the nineteen fifties, of drive ins and sizzling Hamburgers.
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney and the Beatles loved Chuck Berry, and they
Speaker 1: loved this upbeat, celebratory anthem. But not a decade had best.
Speaker 1: The Vietnam War was a total failure, and the world's
Speaker 1: love affair with American culture had started to wear off.
Speaker 3: It was a little bit.
Speaker 5: Two pro us because we were in the UK, so
Speaker 5: I could pokephone on it in my own way, and
Speaker 5: when I saw that US SR was kind of similar,
Speaker 5: then I realized I could sit back in the US.
Speaker 5: I could do a little parody on Chuck's idea of
Speaker 5: being back, and I would have a Russian guy who'd
Speaker 5: come from America and was glad to be back in Russia.
Speaker 3: And it comes from Miami.
Speaker 5: On BOAC British Overseasys Corporation.
Speaker 2: BOAC, He's our standing contribution to the second generation of
Speaker 2: 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 Cloud.
Speaker 1: The standard is so high the passengers can easily this
Speaker 1: way themselves. But the VIP.
Speaker 5: One medium drive vodka, my team mixed.
Speaker 1: Like you said, who is this man? It's easy to
Speaker 1: imagine him as a kind of suave jet setter, fluent
Speaker 1: in many languages, lots of charm, maybe like a James
Speaker 1: Bond type. The Prime Ministers talked to Moscow.
Speaker 5: They're saying it was an accident during a routine training exercise.
Speaker 6: Governments change the lies, except he wouldn't be reporting to
Speaker 6: MI I six or Dame 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 unions bed.
Speaker 3: Wesbian.
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 it to meditate Mike love Off the Beach Boys
Speaker 1: was there too. He is even claimed 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 5: Well, there were big influences run about the time. So
Speaker 5: this as I'm doing a parody of Chuck.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing it.
Speaker 5: I'm doing it American, but it's it's a Russian guy
Speaker 5: having all the sentiments. So I'm using stuff from the
Speaker 5: Beach Boys for the parody. So when I'm going Ukraine,
Speaker 5: girls really knocked me out, I'm thinking, California, you girls
Speaker 5: will knock me out. West beyonds make me saying shall
Speaker 5: I think I was very lucky, as I say, when
Speaker 5: I hit this little humorous vein. It seemed to just
Speaker 5: sort of flow. So I hear, I know what I'm
Speaker 5: doing now, I'm it's in the middle. So now I'm
Speaker 5: going to go into detail about the countries and the territories.
Speaker 5: So we got Ukraine, and we've got and we got Georgia. Well,
Speaker 5: if I say Georgia, I think of the old American
Speaker 5: song Georgia on my mind, which I would be thinking
Speaker 5: of the Ray Charles Georgia on my.
Speaker 3: Mind, George Georgia, the.
Speaker 1: Ray Charles Homestead of Georgia is suddenly transformed into the
Speaker 1: Soviet satellite nation of Georgia. And now the joke is complete,
Speaker 1: leaving behind the sun and fun of Miami and old
Speaker 1: sweet Georgia. We break through the wall, eager to get
Speaker 1: back into the USSR on board r B Oac Jet.
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever understood at the time that
Speaker 1: Boac was in the first line.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if I ever I understood what it was. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that horrifying you. No, not at all.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm still finding things in these lyrics, but
Speaker 5: I do sometimes think, I mean, particularly about this one,
Speaker 5: how amazingly ancient all the ideas are. Now there isn't
Speaker 5: a USSR anymore.
Speaker 3: There isn't a.
Speaker 5: BOAC, and I often wonder, like you didn't get it.
Speaker 5: I don't think the kids get it. I'm not sure
Speaker 5: they know what USSR was. It's just it's a rock
Speaker 5: and song. But I mean, obviously the joke is that
Speaker 5: Identic split.
Speaker 3: It up back in the US. Back in the US,
Speaker 3: back in the USSR had well beyond.
Speaker 1: While 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 5: You know, it was always gray. So I mean, when
Speaker 5: I'm writing this song, it's very much tongue in cheek.
Speaker 5: I'm not really thinking there's anything for this guy to
Speaker 5: go back to. I mean, I remember when we first
Speaker 5: went to Berlin and to look 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 5: To me, I just knew there was like a vast
Speaker 5: gray expense that was beyond this wall, and that we
Speaker 5: were all in.
Speaker 2: Technical people in Eastern Germany continue to risk their lives
Speaker 2: to escape to the free world.
Speaker 5: Everyone in Russia who goes back to the Beatles period
Speaker 5: remembers having to smuggle records or it was all very
Speaker 5: you know, little rooms where you could play and you
Speaker 5: didn't want people to know. You didn't want the authorities
Speaker 5: to know that you were listening to this forbidden group,
Speaker 5: which really we loved the idea of that that we
Speaker 5: were getting smuggled along with Levi Jeans. This was like
Speaker 5: 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 Puttin, then serving
Speaker 1: his first term as president. There's actually a new clip
Speaker 1: of the occasion and you see Puttin 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? No,
Speaker 3: he's missing.
Speaker 7: Yes, it was extremely popular it was like a velp
Speaker 7: of freedom. Your music was like an open window to
Speaker 7: the world.
Speaker 3: It was it was bound by the authority.
Speaker 7: Sure it was considered that this time a propaganda of
Speaker 7: some 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 closing 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.
Speaker 3: Art is dangerous to some people.
Speaker 5: We always thought that we were on the right side,
Speaker 5: that if we were dangerous, we were dangerous to the
Speaker 5: Russian authorities.
Speaker 3: And to us that said, they're not that good.
Speaker 5: It's sort of that was how we felt, and I
Speaker 5: think it was true to a large extent that they
Speaker 5: were trying to suppress this Western influence.
Speaker 3: And it goes on.
Speaker 5: You know, I know there was a perioden you thought, oh,
Speaker 5: it's all clear enough, but it's actually suppression is back
Speaker 5: big time.
Speaker 3: You know. It's sort of many countries now and.
Speaker 5: It's sort of been given a free pass, and everyone's
Speaker 5: kind of stimied and sort of saying, no, please, don't
Speaker 5: do that. But I mean, God knows what the politics
Speaker 5: and the realities are behind it for any rate. So
Speaker 5: for me, it's kind of nice to just escape into
Speaker 5: a song like this.
Speaker 6: Bluey by Miami beat us.
Speaker 3: To bed last night.
Speaker 5: On a way of Paper, Beatles on my kneed man,
Speaker 5: I had a tapley.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna.
Speaker 4: Don't you.
Speaker 6: Back in the.
Speaker 4: Uss A.
Speaker 6: Been away on Holy neon.
Speaker 3: Of Gee, it's good to be back home.
Speaker 6: He even do Moto doing back by.
Speaker 1: Case back in the US s R from the nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight record titled The Beatles, also known as the
Speaker 1: White Album. In the next episode, Paul McCartney tells us
Speaker 1: about how his late mother visited him in a dream
Speaker 1: and gave him some words of wisdom.
Speaker 3: Seeing beautiful kind face was very confident. I immediately felt
Speaker 3: at ease and.
Speaker 1: Loved one of the Beatles' last hits, Let It Be
Speaker 1: is an answer to the band's inner turmoil and to
Speaker 1: Hamlet's age old question to be or not to be?
Speaker 1: McCartney A Life in Lyrics is a co production between
Speaker 1: iHeartMedia NPL and Pushkin Industries