'Fantastic' Beatles song that made Ringo Starr leave the band
Tensions were running high among the Fab Four as they recorded 'The White Album'
As their sound evolved in the second half of the 1960s, The Beatles' recording sessions saw creative differences come to the fore. 1966's 'Revolver' saw The Beatles move further away from their early rock and roll sound and they became increasingly experimental, with 1967's psychedelic 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' changing popular music forever.
But John Lennon famously disliked 'Sgt Pepper', taking aim at the album - which was primarily Paul McCartney's brainchild - after he left the band. But it was the sessions for 'The White Album', which was released in 1968, which really saw the fractures within the band begin to dominate.
Each member of The Beatles wanted to put their stamp on their work and express themselves creatively. About that period of recording, Paul said: "There was a lot of friction during that album. We were just about to break up, and that was tense in itself" and John later added: "The break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album."
The recording of the double album's first track was famously tempestuous and saw one member of the band walk out. Paul began writing 'Back in the USSR' in early 1968, with it originally called 'I'm Backing the UK', as part of a national patriotic campaign.
However, inspired by Chuck Berry's 1959 hit 'Back in the USA', Paul changed the idea for the song to be about a Soviet spy returning home after a mission in America. In a 1984 interview with Playboy, he said he had written it as a Beach Boys parody.
Source: Dan Haygarth/liverpoolecho.co.uk
