California Girls vs Russian Girls.

Well, well, well, Christine, the owner of the Pizza Place I perform during Tuesday Date Night, wants me to feature this next Tuesday as a Beatlemania Tribute, singing lots and lots of Beatles songs. Her favorite song is, “Here Comes The Sun,” by George Harrison, also one of my favorites. I imagine a top favorite for any guitar player grounded by the beautiful chord structure throughout the verses. To place a bit of praiseworthy honor upon my independent contractor employer, every time I sing her chosen song, I rephrase the line “Little Darling” with, “Pretty Christine.” A touch of sentiment she highly adores.

Happy Hour Music begins after the day shift at 5:30 pm and continues till 8:00 pm. I take no breaks, just play the full two-and-a-half-hour duration non-stop. I plan on singing only Beatles material, however, if someone requests another artist’s tune, I’ll gladly break the chain, as long as I’m capable and familiar with their wish. For example, Leah, the head waitress has two favorite songs close to her heart, “Runaround Sue” and “Brown Eyed Girl.” However, just last week she heard me sing “Dear Prudence,” and mentioned how much she loves that song. So, rest assured right after I sing, “Back In The U.S.S.R.”, I’ll proceed with, “Dear Prudence,” just like the playlist on the album/CD.

I always get a bit on edge when singing, “Back In The U.S.S.R.,” via my parents expressed much dismay in my choice of listening pleasure and the admired influence those Beatles had on their sixteen-year-old son once they heard the lyrics. A lasting adverse memory stuck inside my mind since 1968. The song is such a great rocker and can get an audience moving on the dance floor, but many times I play at Sun City events, and when portions of the older crowd tower my age at least twenty years, I wonder if rattled nerves will surface. Out of respect for veterans’, I purposely never perform it at Assisted Living facilities.

What was Paul thinking when he penned the chorus, (I’m back in the U.S.S.R., you don’t know how lucky you are boy, back in the U.S.S.R.). Let’s take a look. For starters, if you read my last post, John articulated the whole Beatle shebang was tongue and cheek, they didn’t take anything seriously, including themselves, especially away from the pulled in reigns of Mr. Epstein.

Such an occasion occurred when the fellows departed their manager and headed for Rishikesh, India to study the benefits of Transcendental Meditation. It just so happened, Mike Love, lead singer of the Beach Boys had also joined the attendees, and that got the ball rolling. You see, Paul knew Chuck Berry songs and thought it was clever how Brian Wilson and Mike Love borrowed from Berry’s, “Back In The U.S.A. and Sweet Little Sixteen” to compose, “Surfing U.S.A.” Although both Paul and Mike never formed a true close friendship, each respected the enormous talents of one another and could appreciate the leaps forward their competition recordings had turned gold and caused many great original composed tunes to climb the pop charts.

One morning at the Maharishi retreat, Paul came down to the breakfast table with his guitar and said, “Hey, Mike, listen to this,” and started strumming then began singing the verse to “Back In The U.S.S.R.” Right away, Mike suggested Paul sing about the girls around Russia just the way “California Girls,” had lyrics about East Coast girls, Southern girls, Northern girls, and Mid-West farmers’ daughters. Paul was impressed with the idea and molded the new song into a Beach Boy sound-a-like homage.

Ironically, this is the very song why Ringo quit the band. Three days in a row, Mr. Starr arrived at the studio on time and waited hours mulling around or reading the newspaper without a single word from the other three. On August 22, 1968, after a few run-throughs, Paul tried to show his drummer how better to play the instrument for this new hot rocking number, pushing Ringo to his limit, and without remorse, he walked out claiming he’s through with the Beatles. Paul took over the drums for the night and again the next evening to record, “Dear Prudence.” I’m not sure if Ringo’s timing hit the bulls-eye, or the other busted-up band members avoided the back-beat flair provided by their percussionist, but for the next two weeks, overdubs and mixing pre-recorded takes filled the lads’ agenda lacking a need for drums.

Finally, after apologies and notes assuring Ringo was the best rock drummer in the world, he returned to his spot in the studio and found loads of flowers covering the drums and a flashy welcome back sign.

The first song after rejoining the band, which had microphones stationed around the drum set and tape machines rolled to capture every thump, clang, and pizazz Richard wowed the staff assembly, took place on September 9, 1968. Believe it or not, “Helter Skelter” won the honor. . . the very song Ringo yells at the end, “I got blisters on my fingers.”  One wonders, did the weeks off cause poor Ringo’s musical hands to go soft, and out of practice? No, the true reason weighs on the number of takes our lads ran up before getting it right. The session began at 7 pm and ended at 2:30 am the next morning. Just the one song played for seven and a half hours starting with take 4 – take 21. No doubt, blisters developed. Ringo sat out the next night and on September 11, managed to play 34 takes of Glass Onion. Luckily John shortened the complete song length to under two minutes.