The Beatles’ “White Album” opener might be a quintessentially Fab Four track now, but in its earliest stages of invention, the song was an amalgamation of the Beatles, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and Soviet-era spies. (All in a day’s work for Paul McCartney’s fantastical songwriting techniques.)
Videos by American Songwriter
While the iconic Beatles track might have started as a parody, it became a bona fide, straightforward rocker in its own right.
The Beatles Track Inspired By Chuck Berry
If the “Soviet-era spies” tidbit didn’t tip you off, the “White Album” opener we’re talking about is, of course, “Back in the U.S.S.R.” The 1968 track is one of the Beatles’ more tried and true rock ‘n’ roll songs compared to the trippy psychedelia of the band’s previous Sgt. Pepper’s and Magical Mystery Tour releases. Considering where songwriter Paul McCartney found his inspiration, it’s unsurprising that the song would turn into a classic rock tune. After all, Macca was thinking of the Father of Rock and Roll when he wrote it.
As McCartney explained in a 1984 interview with Playboy, the Beatles’ song pretty clearly took inspiration from Chuck Berry’s “Back in the U.S.A.” “It kinda took oil from there,” the former Beatle said. “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. They like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do. And that, to me, is very important for the future of the race.”
During a 1968 radio interview, McCartney said he wrote the song from the perspective of a soldier returning to his home country. “It’s a very American sort of thing, I’ve always thought,” he said (via Far Out Magazine). “In my mind, [this song] is about a spy who’s been in America a long, long time. He’s very American. But he gets back to the U.S.S.R., you know, and he’s sort of saying, ‘Leave it till tomorrow, honey, to disconnect the phone,’ and all that. ‘Come here honey,’ but with Russian women. It concerns the attributes of Russian women.”
How The Beach Boys Helped Shape The Fab Four Track
Speaking of attributes of women of certain geographical locations—Chuck Berry wasn’t the only iconic musical act from the States to inspire the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” The Beach Boys were another heavy influence on the Beatles’ “White Album” opener. And indeed, the similarities are easy to see. Rather than singing about California girls, like the Beach Boys, McCartney sang about women from the Soviet Union. The Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the West behind. And Moscow girls make me sing and shout that Georgia’s always on my…mind.
During his 1984 interview with Playboy, McCartney called “Back in the U.S.S.R.” a “kind of Beach Boys parody.” However, the Beatle wasn’t parodying the West Coast pop band to be funny. McCartney had been a long-time fan of the Beach Boys and their primary songwriter, Brian Wilson, by the time he sat down to write the “White Album” opener. Macca has often cited the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” as his all-time favorite song, which is no small accolade coming from such an iconic musician in his own right.
McCartney once said that song was “one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It’s really just a love song. But it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian Wilson. I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down. It was just too much to stand there singing this song that does my head in and to stand there singing it with Brian.”
Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.