Talk:Back in the U.S.S.R.

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Contents

[edit] Lyrics

I can't find anything in the lyrics for most of those references... Anthony DiPierro 05:12, 20 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Mike Love

Mike Love is hinted to cowrite this song-especially the "Well the Ukraine Girls" part. How come there is no mention of him, even if he didn't?J. M. 13:52, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Because that would seem to be an unsubstantiated rumor...nothing I've ever read on the song says that anyone but McCartney had a hand in the composition. Compare "Helter Skelter" on the same album: a Who-like song with no Who involvement. --Stlemur 18:13, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
Actually nearly every Beach Boys documentary I've seen has Mike Love re-telling the story that he had a conversation with Paul in India and suggested to him that he sing about the girls in different regions. He doesn't claim to be a co-writer, just that he made a suggestion which influenced the song. I was surprised not to see any mention of this. 74.65.6.62 03:30, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] McCartney never performed the song live until he headlined at Glastonbury 2004?

I mentioned this to some friends of mine & most of them seem to remember Paul playing this at a gig in Red Square, years before Glastonbury 2004.. Can anyone confirm? Vanky 16:22, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I can at least say that he performed it in 2002 during his "Back in the US" tour. That can be verified by the live album from the show. The Glastonbury thing seems slightly dubious to me.

I went to one of his concerts in 2002 too, and I remember him performing it there. Andrea Parton 16:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of anagram line

I took the liberty of removing the line that dealt with an anagram of the title being "sick sunbather". This is rather arbitrary as there are literally thousands of anagrams that can be drawn from these letters. For instance: "rehab sick nuts". I refered to the Internet Anagram Server for this.

[edit] i've got blisters on my fingers

according to the article on Helter_Skelter, this was said after the 18th take of that song, nothing to do with Back in the USSR.. that one is referanced, this one isn't, so i'm removing it. atleast have some consistancy please wikipedia! feel free to revert if some more compelling reasoning is found..

Please sign your posts on talk pages per Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages. Thanks! Hyacinth 06:13, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Superior beauty of Soviet women

Why does this article uses the line "the "superior" beauty of Soviet women" and not ""the superior beauty of Soviet women"? Where they only joking when they wrote it (?), cause Ukraine actualy has some really good looking woman (Yulia Tymoshenko, Ruslana and my friend Lyudmyla). If nobody comes up with proof Paul McCartney meant it as a parody I will remeove the ""'s. Cause I find it a bit insulting and arrogant otherwise...that's not what Wikipedia is about! Mariah-Yulia 00:56, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

  • Agreed. My initial thought when I read that was that it was sarcastic, as if either the song used it sarcastically or the editors of this article disagreed with the notion that Soviet women could be superior (which wouldn't matter as this isn't their opinion for which we're looking, but rather the song's message). UnKnown X 03:20, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
I'd say considering it's basically a surf rock song singing about the Soviet Union, it probably is a joke. But even if it is, the joke isn't implying that "Moscow girls are ugly" or whatever. The parody is in the fact that in the context of this style of music, you'd be expecting them to be singing about beach girls or California girls, as opposed to girls in Soviet Russia. Think of it as if the song was called "Back in Nazi Germany" and singing about "the Aryan girls" and such. --Foot Dragoon 06:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drums?

Is there any evidence supporting that George and John recorded drums for that one as well? As far as I know the only one playing drums (and lead guitar) was Paul.

[edit] 'Georgia on My Mind' refers to the US state?

In this article it is stated that 'Georgia on My Mind' refers to the US state, but on the Georgia on My Mind article I find the following:

While the song's namesake is popularly mistaken as the State of Georgia, it was actually written for Hoagy's sister Georgia Carmichael.

This seems somewhat inconsistent. Dash 06:47, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Allright, so Im unsure of how reliable of a source this is, but if you've ever seen the movie "Ray" about Ray Charles life, they make it apparent that "Georgia on My Mind" is a response to Georgia's banning him from playing in there state because of his refusal to play at racially segregated venues. I assume it to be a reliable source, in which case the song would deffinately be about Georgia the U.S. state.

RickO5 03:12, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

It's a pun, and a great one. Paul is referring to the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, but is calling out the song "Georgia on My Mind". Truly genius. This song is fantastic lyrically. Very clever and funny. Kingturtle (talk) 21:02, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Ray Charles may have covered the song for that reason, but he didn't write it, Hoagy Carmichael did. 206.21.141.61 (talk) 20:55, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Soviet Invasion to Czechoslovakia at 1968

I've heard that the song was created as a reaction against Soviet Occupation of Czechoslovakia at 1968 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring#Occupation). It was recorded only seven days after the Invasion of five armies of Warsaw Pact - it's quite interesting, isn't it?

Please, if you have got a chance, can't you look the background of this song up? For example, Bill Harry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Harry#Books_written_or_co-written_by_Bill_Harry) has written some Beatles encyclopedias...

Thank you very much

[edit] Helter Skelter connection

If Ringo was absent from the sessions for recording this song, which no one disputes, how can Ringo's "I've got blisters on my fingers" at the end of Helter Skelter possibly have any connection with the recording sessions for "Back in the U.S.S.R," as asserted on the page? MicroProf 19:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:The White Album.jpg

Image:The White Album.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 03:52, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drums, bass and lead guitar parts

Lewishon said the drums were performed by John, Paul and George, and probably the final drum trakc is a composite part. Just Paul is most likely, but not confirmed. The same goes for the bass part (George played the 4-string bass and John the 6-string bass for sure) but is not confimed that Pual played bass, but he played lead guitar along with George. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.40.0.34 (talk) 19:13, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Does anybody here understand irony?

As McCartney says, this isn't a 'tribute' to the songs it imitates. It is a parody or a pastiche, and at that a rather acerbic one, particularly the ludicrous, screeching falsetto of the middle eight "California Girls" section. People still take the lyrics at face value too easily in the same way that the braindead McCarthyites who tried to ban it did. McCartney wasn't so stupid as to eulogize the Soviet Union. Only a few months before this song was cut Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia. Gunstar hero (talk) 18:28, 31 May 2008 (UTC)