Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, it's justin Richmond. Over the last year
Speaker 1: I've been working on an absolute dream project over here
Speaker 1: at Pushkin, making a podcast for the one and only
Speaker 1: Sir Paul McCartney. The show's called McCartney A Life in Lyrics.
Speaker 1: It's available everywhere today and it's full of insightful conversations
Speaker 1: between McCartney and his friend, the poet Paul mull Doom.
Speaker 1: The two of them taped years of conversations digging into
Speaker 1: Paul's lyrics and songwriting process, and because it's hard to
Speaker 1: separate the art from the man, a lot of his
Speaker 1: personal life gets revealed too, like his relationship with his
Speaker 1: family in Liverpool, the success and breakup of the Beatles,
Speaker 1: his time with Wings and so much more. McCartney A
Speaker 1: Life in Lyrics dropped with two episodes today, one on
Speaker 1: eleanor Rigby and the one I'm presenting to you here
Speaker 1: now on Back in the USSR. If you love music
Speaker 1: and songwriting and have ever wanted the chance to be
Speaker 1: a fly on the wall for a conversation with the Beatle,
Speaker 1: then McCartney A Life and Lyrics will not disappoint to
Speaker 1: binge all the first season right away subscribe to pushkin
Speaker 1: Plus on Apple Podcasts and all twelve episodes will be
Speaker 1: there waiting for you. In the meantime, here's Paul mldoon
Speaker 1: and Paul McCartney on Back in the USSR for their
Speaker 1: new podcast, McCartney A Life and Lyrics enjoy At the
Speaker 1: 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 3: At a time when two halves of the world were
Speaker 3: separated by an iron curtain. On the brink of nuclear war,
Speaker 3: the Beatles released Well, a strange kind of rock and
Speaker 3: roll song, be sing I'm formal dou I'm a poet,
Speaker 3: a lover of not only the lyric poem, but the
Speaker 3: song lyric might be. Over the past several years, I've
Speaker 3: got to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters
Speaker 3: of our era.
Speaker 1: And will you look at me?
Speaker 3: It's happened.
Speaker 4: I'm going up to I'm actually a performer.
Speaker 3: That's sir Paul McCartney. He and I worked on a
Speaker 3: book together, looking at the lyrics of more than one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many
Speaker 3: hours of our conversations.
Speaker 4: Oh she I'm a songwriter.
Speaker 5: My God will that that cryptor homie.
Speaker 3: This is McCartney, a life in lyrics. It's a masterclass,
Speaker 3: a memoir, and an improvised journey with one of the
Speaker 3: most iconic figures in popular music in this episode. Back
Speaker 3: in the.
Speaker 2: USSR, mobilization efforts during the last months of nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: one brought the United States Army to a strength of
Speaker 2: over a million men, subsequently increasing our troops strength throughout Europe.
Speaker 3: It's hard to imagine just how puzzling it would have
Speaker 3: been in nineteen sixty eight to hear a song about
Speaker 3: somebody being happy to leave the West and go back
Speaker 3: to the Soviet Union. Only a few months before, Russian
Speaker 3: tanks had rolled into Prague to crack down on protests
Speaker 3: against Soviet control. This nineteen sixty at report from ABC
Speaker 3: News highlights the extent of the operation.
Speaker 6: Russian tanks and infantry, aided by troops from East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Speaker 6: and Bulgaria, have occupied Czechoslovakia and have crushed the new
Speaker 6: and relatively liberal leadership of that small country.
Speaker 3: The way this song turns the cultural and political world
Speaker 3: order on its head is what makes it the joke
Speaker 3: of an era. As was often the case for McCartney,
Speaker 3: he drew inspiration from what was happening in the wider
Speaker 3: world as well as from the songs that were playing
Speaker 3: on his radio.
Speaker 4: Chuck Berry wrote a song called Back in the US,
Speaker 4: which we were very familiar with, and so I kind
Speaker 4: of thought it was. It was kind of cool. It
Speaker 4: was obviously a serviceman returning home, going back into the
Speaker 4: ux going back into his home civilization.
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry had come back from a trip to Australia
Speaker 3: where he had witnessed the dismal living conditions of the
Speaker 3: indigenous population, and he wrote this song as a kind
Speaker 3: of anthem to his glorious USA.
Speaker 4: From the.
Speaker 3: Delaware, glossing over the struggles of the American civil rights
Speaker 3: movement at the time. Berry's song is a celebration of
Speaker 3: capitalism and the economic boom of the nineteen fifties, of
Speaker 3: drive ins and sizzling Hamburgers. Paul McCartney and the BS
Speaker 3: loved Chuck Berry, and they loved this upbeat, celebratory anthem.
Speaker 3: But not a decade at best. The Vietnam War was
Speaker 3: a total failure, and the world's love affair with American
Speaker 3: culture had started to wear off.
Speaker 4: There was a little bit two pro us because we
Speaker 4: were in the UK, so I could pokephone at it
Speaker 4: in my own way. And when I saw that US
Speaker 4: SR was kind of similar, then I realized I could
Speaker 4: sit back in the US. I could do a little
Speaker 4: parody on Chuck's idea of being back, and I would
Speaker 4: have a Russian guy who'd come from America and was
Speaker 4: glad to be back in Russia, and he'd come it
Speaker 4: come from Miami on BOAC British Overseasys Corporation.
Speaker 2: Badman kind of Bia to the second generation of jet airliners.
Speaker 3: The speaker of the song the protagonist flies back to
Speaker 3: the Soviet Union with the glamour of modern jet travel,
Speaker 3: like that showcased in this nineteen sixty four ad for BOAC.
Speaker 2: In the economy class, the standard is so high that
Speaker 2: passengers can easily persuade themselves.
Speaker 3: But they're VIPs traveling.
Speaker 7: First one medium drive, vodkom Ma team mixed.
Speaker 3: Like you said, So, who is this man? It's easy
Speaker 3: to imagine him as a kind of suave jet setter,
Speaker 3: fluent in many languages, lots of charm, maybe like a
Speaker 3: James Bond type. The Prime Minister's talked to Moscow.
Speaker 4: They're saying it was an accident during a routine training exercise.
Speaker 7: Governments change the lasted, except he wouldn't be reporting to
Speaker 7: MI I six or Damn Judy Dench rather the KGB.
Speaker 3: He's flying home from Miami. He's just been to sunny Florida,
Speaker 3: maybe hanging out on the beach, which gets us to
Speaker 3: the bridge. If the verse is setting up a joke,
Speaker 3: the punchline is the bridge when our protagonist starts listing
Speaker 3: the territories of the former Soviet Union Girls Wesbians, saying
Speaker 3: the harmonies of the bridge were inspired by the Beach Boys.
Speaker 3: In fact, when the Beatles went to India in nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty eight to meditate My Love Off, the Beach Boys
Speaker 3: was there too. He is even claimed in several interviews
Speaker 3: that he gave McCartney the idea for that part of
Speaker 3: the song.
Speaker 1: For the Beach Boys fit into this, well.
Speaker 4: They were big influencers round about the time. So this
Speaker 4: as I'm doing a parody of Chuck, and I'm doing it.
Speaker 4: I'm doing it American, but it's a it's a Russian
Speaker 4: guy having all the sentiments, So I'm using stuff from
Speaker 4: the Beach Boys for the parody. So when I'm going
Speaker 4: Ukraine Girls really knocked me out, I'm thinking California, your
Speaker 4: girls and knocking me out West beyond.
Speaker 8: Say and Show.
Speaker 4: I think I was very lucky, as I say, when
Speaker 4: I hit this little humorous vein, it seemed to just
Speaker 4: sort of flow. So I hear, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: Now it's in the middle. So now I'm going to
Speaker 4: go into detail about the countries and the territories. So
Speaker 4: we got Ukraine, and we've got Moscow, and we've got Georgia. Well,
Speaker 4: if I say Georgia, I think of the old American
Speaker 4: song Georgia on my Mind, which I would be thinking
Speaker 4: of the Ray Charles Georgia on my.
Speaker 9: Mind, Georgia, Georgia.
Speaker 3: Ray Charms Homestead of Georgia is suddenly transformed into the
Speaker 3: Soviet satellite nation of Georgia. And now the joke is complete,
Speaker 3: leaving behind the sun and fun of Miami and Oh
Speaker 3: sweet Georgia. We break through the wall, eager to get
Speaker 3: back into the USSR on board r BOAC. Yet I
Speaker 3: don't think I ever understood at the time that BOAC
Speaker 3: was in the first line. I'm not sure if I ever.
Speaker 4: Quite understood what it was. Yeah, that does that horrifying you? No,
Speaker 4: not at all. I mean I'm still finding things in
Speaker 4: these lyrics, but I do sometimes think, I mean, particularly
Speaker 4: about this one, how amazingly ancient all the ideas are.
Speaker 4: Now there isn't a USSR anymore. There isn't a BOAC,
Speaker 4: and I often wonder, like you didn't get it. I
Speaker 4: don't think the kids get it. I'm not sure they
Speaker 4: know what USSR was. It's just it's a rock and
Speaker 4: roll song. But I mean, obviously the joke is that
Speaker 4: identified back in the US.
Speaker 10: Back in the US, back in the USSR.
Speaker 3: We one song has an upbeat, rock and roll energy.
Speaker 3: The subtext of the lyrics is certainly more bittersweet. The
Speaker 3: Soviet Union at the time was a totalitarian state with
Speaker 3: strong censorship in place.
Speaker 4: You know, it was always gray. So I mean, when
Speaker 4: I'm writing this song, it's very much tongue in cheek,
Speaker 4: I'm not really thinking there's anything for this guy to
Speaker 4: go back to. You know. I remember when we first
Speaker 4: went to Berlin and to look over the.
Speaker 2: Wall, aware of their special responsibility is on this trouble
Speaker 2: spot between the free and communist worlds. American soldiers of
Speaker 2: the Berlin Garrison are combat ready and alert.
Speaker 4: To me, I just knew there was like a vast,
Speaker 4: great expense that was beyond this wall and that we
Speaker 4: were all in.
Speaker 2: Technical people in Eastern Germany continue to risk their lives
Speaker 2: to escape to the free world.
Speaker 4: Everyone in Russia who goes back to the Beatles period
Speaker 4: remembers having to smuggle records or it was all very
Speaker 4: you know, little rooms where you could play and you
Speaker 4: didn't want people to know. You didn't want the authorities
Speaker 4: to know that you were listening to this forbidden group,
Speaker 4: which really we loved the idea of that that we
Speaker 4: were getting smuggled along with Levi Jeans. This was like
Speaker 4: true cultural arrival.
Speaker 3: A little over a decade after the fall of the
Speaker 3: Soviet Union, McCartney really did arrive when he was invited
Speaker 3: to give a concert on Red Square in Moscow, and
Speaker 3: when he played back in the US s R. He
Speaker 3: felt the whole crowd rise and join in the song.
Speaker 3: During his time in Russia, this was two thousand and three,
Speaker 3: McCartney got to meet a young Vladimir Putin, then serving
Speaker 3: his first term as president. There's actually a new clip
Speaker 3: of the occasion, and you see Puttin and McCartney sitting
Speaker 3: across from each other like two statesmen. And then Paul
Speaker 3: McCartney pops the question.
Speaker 4: You were growing up, did you listen to the Beatles?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 8: Missing, Yes, it was extremely popular. It was like a
Speaker 8: velp of freedom. Her music was like an open window
Speaker 8: to the world.
Speaker 4: It was it was bound by the authority Shires.
Speaker 8: It was considered at this time a propaganda of some
Speaker 8: alien ideology.
Speaker 3: It would have seemed unimaginable then that twenty years later
Speaker 3: the same man would order Russian troops to invade Ukraine,
Speaker 3: an act of war unparalleled in Europe since the end
Speaker 3: of the Second World War, cracking down on any protest,
Speaker 3: arresting journalists, assassinating political enemies, jailing young women for singing
Speaker 3: in churches, once again closing the window to the outside world.
Speaker 3: My conversation with Paul McCartney took place before the current war,
Speaker 3: but during our time together we often spoke about the
Speaker 3: subversive nature of art and how throughout history music has
Speaker 3: served as a beacon of freedom.
Speaker 4: Art is dangerous to some people. We always thought that
Speaker 4: we were on the right side that if we were dangerous,
Speaker 4: we were dangerous to the Russian authorities and to us
Speaker 4: that said they're not that good. It's sort of that
Speaker 4: was how we felt, and I think it was true
Speaker 4: to a large extent that they were trying to suppress
Speaker 4: this Western influence and it goes on. You know, I
Speaker 4: know there was a pear when you thought, oh, it's
Speaker 4: all clear enough, but it's actually suppression is back big time.
Speaker 4: You know. It's sort of many countries now and it's
Speaker 4: sort of been given a free pass and everyone's gonna
Speaker 4: stimied and sort of saying no, please, don't do that.
Speaker 4: But I mean, God knows what the politics and the
Speaker 4: realities are behind it for any rate. So for me,
Speaker 4: it's kind of nice to just escape into a song
Speaker 4: like this.
Speaker 11: Blew Me by Miami bt b u Ecto bed last
Speaker 11: night on the way the paperbag was on the knee.
Speaker 6: Man, I had a bad ball.
Speaker 11: I'm us being away on hardly you place.
Speaker 3: Gee, it's good to be back home.
Speaker 11: Either doing back back.
Speaker 3: Case back in the U.
Speaker 8: S s R.
Speaker 3: From the nineteen sixty eight record titled The Beatles, also
Speaker 3: known as the White Album. In the next episode, Paul
Speaker 3: McCartney tells us about how his late mother visited him
Speaker 3: in a dream and gave him some words of wisdom.
Speaker 5: Seeing her beautiful, kind face was very confident. I immediately
Speaker 5: felt at ease and loved.
Speaker 3: One of the Beatles' last hits, Let It Be, is
Speaker 3: an answer to the band's inner turmoil and to Hamlet's
Speaker 3: age old question to be or not to be? McCartney
Speaker 3: A Life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia
Speaker 3: NPL and Pushkin Industries.