The Story Behind the Satirical Homage That The Beatles Paid to The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry

A vast number of The Beatles’ songs are fairly misunderstood, as public interpretation has tainted and/or completely misconstrued the head meaning the Fab Four intended. Their most famous song that fell victim to a reshaped narrative was “Helter Skelter” due to its association with Charles Manson. It’s difficult to say what other song is the next one up, but if it were up to us, we’d say the No. 2 of that vast number is “Back In The U.S.S.R.”

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Released in 1968, The Beatles’ jovial anthem about the U.S.S.R. raised some eyebrows among those in opposition to it. Those against the Soviet Union believed the song to be an attempt to inundate the West with romantic communist ideals in hopes of establishing further support for the U.S.S.R.’s cause.

People will always deduce their meaning from something and sometimes be right, no doubt. However, in this instance, the people with the politically cunning reading were wrong in viewing the song as a piece of propaganda. The Beatles were smart, but not in that way. In reality, The Beatles’ song was a parody based on The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry.

Western Ideals Against a Bleak Backdrop: What Inspired McCartney

If you read the lyrics to “Back In The U.S.S.R.”, one can tell that McCartney imposed Western stereotypes onto the Eastern backdrop. Furthermore, that isn’t us deducing the meaning of the song, as McCartney acknowledged that as a piece of inspiration for him.

Regarding the inspiration, McCartney said in The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four that he “wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody, and ‘Back in the U.S.A.’ was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there.” “I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know.”

McCartney admitted to trying to touch into communist culture, but instead of taking the culture out of the East and sowing it into the West, he wished to do the very opposite. “It was also hands across the water, which I’m still conscious of. Cuz they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do.”

There is certainly room to view the lyrics as politically charged, and while not the case, one can think whatever they like. Though the reality is that this song is a massive joke aimed towards two of the greatest rock acts of all time: The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry.

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