10:38 Back In The USSR (pt 1) Weird Al McCartney

Back In The USSR was the reason Ringo quit the Beatles, the only track to feature all three remaining members on bass AND drums and a sort of multilayered parody, channeling both on Chuck Berry and the band that plagiarised him – the Beach Boys.

Parody In Arrangement

Taking his initial inspiration from the UK government ad campaign “I'm Backing Britain” McCartney developed a fictional 1st person narrative (Ticket 70) - a Russian singing about how cool life is in an oppressive communist regime set to a rip-roaring US-style track. An uncharacteristically edgy, but unique angle (see Ticket 42).

I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And 'Back in the USA' was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there

It's tongue in cheek...'Georgia's always on my mind', there's all sorts of little jokes in it...We added Beach Boys style harmonies

The Beach Boys elements (which Mike Love claims credit for) manifest in the bridge and the all-American vocab like “gee”. There is a nod to “Beach Boys style harmonies” but it's caricature rather than careful pastiche – a Mike Love approved bass part, a single high wordless descant and the main melody. No dense Wilson richness, though the Beatles were certainly capable of that).

Parody In Lyrical Structure

Flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C.
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the USSR

Verse one is a really strong opening and sets the scene wonderfully with the positive feelings towards Russia being developed in the second verse (Gee it's good to be back home). But it's instructive to look at how McCartney developed the song in direct relation to the template Back In The USA. Because a great parody is not merely 'one song to the tune of another' poking fun at something, but in the hands of a true artist (like Weird Al) uses the lyrical shape and development to inform the lampoon (Ticket 71).

Back In The USA

Oh well, oh well, I feel so good today
We touched ground on an international runway
Jet propelled back home
From over the seas to the U.S.A.

Back In The USSR

Flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C.
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the USSR

Notice how Paul copies the first verse by opening with the plane landing

We touched ground on an international runway/Flew in from Miami Beach

expressing his emotional state

I feel so good today/Man, I had a dreadful flight

and naming his home in the last line.

From over the seas to the U.S.A./I'm back in the USSR.

The bridge meanwhile emulates Berry's (place) name-checking

Well 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

New York, Los Angeles, oh, how I yearned for you
Detroit, Chicago, Chattanooga, Baton Rouge...
From the coast of California to the shores of Delaware Bay

This was something of a Berry trope as he also did it on Sweet Little Sixteen

They're really rockin' in Boston, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Deep in the heart of Texas and round the 'Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis and down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with Sweet Little Sixteen

which is the track which Brian Wilson 'rewrote' as Surfin' U.S.A.

You'd catch 'em surfin' at Del Mar, Ventura County line
Santa Cruz and Trestle, Australia's Narrabeen
All over Manhattan and down Doheny Way
Everybody's gone surfin' - Surfin' U.S.A.

Which brings us full circle!

Almost.

Ringo never played Back In The USSR with the Beatles, but he did perform it with these guys...

More on Weird Al's songwriting here and here
Lennon With Chuck Berry
McCartney quotes are mostly from Many Years From Now via Beatles Bible and Beatles Songwriting And Recording Database For more on the Berry/Beach Boys plagiarism see Wikipedia

Johnny (Lennon) B. Goode

Next up on BSA is Back In The USSR which has strong ties with Chuck Berry and The Beach Boys. To whet your appetite here's John and Yoko jamming with Chuck in 1972 on the Mike Douglas Show.

10:7 Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

He liked it...he put a ring on it

there aren't many people who can claim to have written a pop song inspired by monkey sex but Paul McCartney is in that special minority. Having witnessed the simian version of doing the nasty in Rishikesh, Macca grabbed his guitar and penned this unforgettable track. Ringo, drafted in at the last minute, prevented it being a solo McCartney track but Lennon (who was next door adding the finishing touches to Glass Onion and Piggies with Harrison) was angry at not being invited. A good thing in my opinion, as at this stage John might have been tempted to make more of a 'statement' with it. As it is, it remained a bit of cheeky McCartney fluff, on a par with calling Her Maj “a pretty nice girl”.

Three Questions

I've realised most analysis on Beatles Songwriting Academy boils down to one of three questions. Why is this song so good? Occasionally, why is this song so bad? and rarest of all Why ISN'T this song bad?

Question 3 is the most relevant here.

Let's face it we have a straight 12 bar blues.The same verse repeated 3 times. A grand total of 3 chords and 14 words. It should be horrible, but it's not. Why?

First, it's hard to hate a song that lasts 1:41. A short running time will always cover a multitude of sins.

Second, there's a slight ambiguity to the lyrics. We all know what the 'it' is. Any songwriting 101 class would tell you to develop the concept in subsequent verses but the fact that Paul never spells it out sustains the mystery. Where would you go with it anyway? Why don't we do it in the shed? On the roof? In the bath?

Same But Different

But for me the prime cause of interest is the way Paul moves the phrasing of the main line. Generally vocalists will vary notes but not change the rhythm too much, other than to stretch the whole phrase out. But Paul does some odd but cool things to the main 8 beat (2 bar) phrase. Perhaps the simplest way to explain it is to look which words fall on the strong beats (the 1 and 3).

In the first three lines of every verse there's a rest on the first beat followed by the words don't, do and road falling on the third, first and third beats (give or take a few syncopated pushes).

(1) why don't we do it in the road

So we've pretty much got all the strongest words on the strongest beats (though you could argue 'it' is more important than 'do' in the phrase).

But at the end of the verse the whole phrase moves forward a beat, and now starts on the 1.

why don't we do it in the road

which gives a very off kilter feel.

On the very last line of the song the phrase is similar to the original one but squashed up and one beat shorter. The final chord lands on the one instead of the word 'road'.

(1) why don't we do it in the road (1)

This approach mimics the way a jazz instrumentalist might approach a solo, playing with the melody by displacing it. On a micro level you can hear it in some of the classic licks of Chuck Berry.

Grab some of your songs ideas, take a phrase and try moving it forwards or backwards a beat. It's a very arresting trick.

Other Stuff

There are other cool bits that make this an enjoyable track for me. Like the fake drum intro (McCartney is hitting his acoustic guitar) before the real drum fill comes in.

The way the 'band' stops for the opening phrase of every verse AND the very last phrase (ticket 30)

The primal 'four to the floor' feel of the bass and piano suits the 'animal' subject. And the funky bass fills on v3? Take a bow Paul.

I would never have expected to get two posts out of this slender tune, but I think the very fact this song exists has something really important to teach us about the working life of a songwriter. More on that next time.

12:45 Abbey Road Conclusions

Time to wrap up Abbey Road with some concluding thoughts.

First of all I still stand by all the observations I made in the introductory post Let It Be vs Abbey Road namely,

• Though Abbey Road is far better than Let It Be both albums reflect a songwriting partnership that could no longer work together and a dysfunctional band running out of ideas.


• The reason Abbey Road is such a good album is that in a sense it is George Martin's concept album where the 'concept' was simply to work in a businesslike fashion and make a well recorded, well constructed album.


• Whatever the intentions may have been, the medley isn’t really a unified piece of music at all. Judging each part in it’s own right most of the songs don’t really hold up.

Having analysed every song in detail, here's what I've learned

• Here Comes The Sun, Something, Come Together are classic songs. Others like You Never Give Me Your Money and I Want You have elements of greatness that they don't quite fulfil.

• Abbey Road represents Ringo and George's greatest moments as Beatles composers. John Lennon has one classic on here. Surprisingly McCartney is the only one not on top form. What sapped his creative energy? Let It Be, the lawsuits or the Long One? I think the positive critical response to the Medley (and to a lesser extent A Day In The Life ) harmed Paul's songwriting in that it encouraged McCartney to release many more 'patchwork songs' from Jet to much of the Memory Almost Full album. But apart from Live And Let Die I'm struggling to name any that have really worked. (Can YOU think of any?).

• Two songs start with lines blatantly ripped off other artists. Come Together nicks lyrics (and the vocal rhythm) from Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me and Something from James Taylor's Something In The Way She Moves. (Berry's publisher sued and won).

• In The Ballad Of John And Yoko/Old Brown Shoe I think we have the only example in the Beatles career of a single being far worse than anything on the album.

• There are moments on Abbey Road where you can hear the seeds of where the music scene would head in the next decade. There are hints of Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, The Who, Fleetwood Mac and Santana here. I'm sure that, had they continued, The Beatles would have survived and thrived in the stadium rock era.

• But that was not to be. Lennon was fading away. He was completely absent on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Here Comes The Sun and Her Majesty and contributed only backing vocals to Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and Old Brown Shoe.

Next time I'll put up an index of all the Abbey Road posts. Then we're movin' on people, movin' on.

Breaking The 12 Bar Blues Rules

For a band that played such a large amount of 12 bar blues songs in their early days, The Beatles wrote and recorded relatively few of their own. Often when they did they they departed in some small, but significant way from the standard pattern.

Here's a stock 12 Bar Progression

I  I  I  I

IV IV I  I

V IV  I  V

Which, in the key of C, would look like this -

C C C C

F F C C

G F C G

Compare that to the verse of Can't Buy Me Love

C C C C

F F C C

G F F C

Instead of V IV I V in the last four bars we have V IV IV I.

Subtle.

Delaying the root chord (C) keeps you hanging on and creates a bit of extra interest (because you weren't expecting it) and means the chords resolve on the word love rather than money.

Chuck Berry was a massive influence on the group, and Roll Over Beethoven (covered on With The Beatles) also adapts the 12 bar formula.

I     IV  I  I

IV  IV  I  I

IV  V   I  I

As well the IV substitution in bar 2 which is pretty common, he switches IV and V chords around in the 9th and 10th bar.

There's more where that came from, but for now try a 12 bar pattern with one bar altered in some way.

Thanks to 'Old Man' Taylor for corrections