Wednesday 13 November 2013

Back in the USSR


I am no authority on the subject of the former Soviet Union, neither am I an enthusiast, and my knowledge of it is largely abstract, fleshed out with a bit of anecdotal stuff, but nothing had me shouting in to my iPad like yesterday evening's flagrantly biased documentary on the BBC on The Cold War.
In the light of day I have to wonder why such a film has been made, why such a toad of a presenter was selected, and why such a sensationalist view of the red menace has to be dug up and resuscitated all over again as if we all hadn't been indoctrinated enough by James Bond. After all the Soviet Union collapsed twenty five years ago. Mind you, my students do seem to love going to Cuba.
Perhaps the BBC is worried about it's alleged bias, so swung itself mindlessly in the direction of a Daily Mail for effect, or perhaps on the other hand, something is genuinely up, that the powers that be are sincerely interested in the problem that Russell Brand might suddenly represent. Who knows?
The Beatles didn't know, and in their parody of the Beach Boys, 'Back in the USSR' is a shining example of parody. Those Ukraine girls might indeed knock us out, Joe Joe (Stalin) may always be on our mind, and in it's quirky jolity it even sounds like a Black Sea surfing song, that is if you can surf, which I doubt, in the Black Sea, and in doing so it makes a point, a singular rarity (in my opinion) in the whole Beatles back catalogue.

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