Description
Digipak
On May the 24th of 2003 Paul McCartney took the stage in Moscow’s Red Square and proceeded to rock the socks off of Vladimir Putin and 20,000 other Russians. The show was the first time a Beatle had ever set foot in or played in Russia. During Soviet era, The Beatles and other popular artists from the US and Europe were banned and treated as Western propaganda. And by all reasonable measures, The Beatles were Western propaganda, whether or not they wanted to be. Russian rocker Sasha Lipnitsky claimed that The Beatles were the “first hole in the iron curtain” and that their music had introduced many Soviets to the idea of democracy. When government restrictions on Western music were tightened, it only inspired youths in the Soviet Union to go to even greater lengths to obtain the music they so coveted. Throughout the course of the Cold War many Soviets would spend a lot of their hard earned money, sometimes up to half of their monthly income, to obtain a Beatles record that they would then copy onto modified x-ray film for their friends. In many ways the influence of a seemingly imminent nuclear war was dwarfed by the power of rock n’ roll. So when Paul McCartney finally came to Moscow in 2003 it was a big deal. From the first note of the historic concert, Russians young and old screamed, laughed, cried, and sang every lyric to every song in a unanimous display of joy that would make one think they had just achieved world peace. Seriously, the looks on their faces were the definition of pure, unbridled euphoria. Watch Paul and his band rip through Back In The USSR and for 15 seconds you can catch a glimpse of Vladimir Putin attempting not to smile like a child who just got all the toys he wanted for Christmas. Putting all the politics aside for a moment, the spectacle of Paul McCartney leading over 20,000 Russians through Back In The USSR is fucking awesome. Vladimir Putin’s covert Beatles fanboy status and his support for the 2003 Red Square concert, despite over 100 Russian state deputies protesting it, shows us that certain things, like music, are so universal that even iron-willed, James Bond villain-esque dictators embrace them. The legacy of The Beatles in the ex-Eastern Bloc is so strong that to this day streets named after Vladimir Lenin are ocassionally renamed after John Lennon. One town in Ukraine even renamed its town center formally known as Soviet Square to John Lennon Square. The Soviets may not have lasted, but The Beatles certainly have. So when you watch and enjoy this concert then think that at exactly the same time, in a world mired with violence, political strife, and bad music, there’s a good chance that Vladimir Putin is dancing around the Kremlin in a Sergeant Pepper’s costume while singing along to Hey Jude.
Track list:
1. Show Open
2. Hello Goodbye
3. Jet
4. All My Loving
5. Getting Better
6. Let Me Roll It
7. Lonely Road
8. Your Loving Flame
9. Blackbird
10. Every Night
11. We Can Work It Out
12. You Never Give Me Your Money / Carry That Weight
13. Fool On The Hill
14. Here Today
15. Something
16. Eleanor Rigby
17. Here, There And Everywhere
18. Ive Just Seen A Face
19. Calico Skies
20. Two Of Us
21. Michelle
22. Band On The Run
23. Back In The USSR
24. Maybe Im Amazed
25. Let Em In
26. My Love
27. She’s Leaving Home
28. Can’t Buy Me Love
29. Birthday
30. Live And Let Die
31. Let It Be
32. Hey Jude
33. The Long And Winding Road
34. Lady Madonna
35. I Saw Her Standing There
36. Yesterday
37. Back In The USSR (Reprise)
38. Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band / The End
39. Photo Gallery