the beatles helped bring down the berlin wall!

8/10/2019 THE BEATLES helped bring down The Berlin Wall!

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THE BEATLES HELPED BRING DOWN THE BERLIN WALL!

By Alan L. Chrisman (updated version)

This Nov. 9 is the 25 th anniversary of the coming down of the Berlin Wall. Butnot many people and Beatles fans may know just how important The Beatles andtheir music were in helping to bring that about and the downfall of the SovietUnion.

I didnt either until I met Yury Pelyushonok, Russian/Canadian Beatles fan at the first Ottawa,Canada Beatles Convention which I organized in 1995. And this was to be quite a MagicalMystery Tour for Yury and us, his friends and close supporters.

He told me some amazing stories about what it was like trying to play banned Beatles music ,growing up in the Soviet Union. And I suggested at that time that he write it down. He did, bytwo years later, and gave me one of the original copies of his book, STRINGS FOR A BEATLE

BASS, of anecdotes and personal experiences, such as having to make his own guitar and usingold X-rays to record, etc. Upon reading it, I thought it would make a great movie.

At our 2 nd Beatles Convention the next year, he was interviewed by the Ottawa Citizen abouthow in the 8os, Soviet sailors (he was a medical doctor in the Russian Navy ) had smuggled aPaul McCartney LP out of Russia and traded them for even cars in the West. He had writtenthis first story down in a tiny booklet called the Golden Disc. And a couple years later, he


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had gotten a Canada Council grant to publish a fuller book about his theories and experiencesgrowing up as a Beatles fan and musician (he had made his own guitar) in Russia. He presentedme with one of the original, only 147 copies of, STRINGS FOR A BEATLE BASS, which hadbeen translated into English by his wife. Upon reading it, I thought it would make a great

movie. He was going to London, in April, 2000, and I suggested he leave a copy with theBeatles manager, Neil Aspinall (the BBC lady had given me his contact at the Connecticutconvention in94). Yury did leave a book there and upon returning, he called me one morningand said hed had a dream, that Neil Aspinall had called me. Id always wanted to meet Aspinallbecause he had been there since the beginning and was their closest confidant. And the verynext day Yury calls me back and says , Guess who just called? I said Who? He says, PaulMcCartneys personal assistant, Geoff Baker!

The Beatles record company, Apple, would also call back for more copies for George andRingo. Yury approached me about finding some musicians for some songs he had written to go

along with the book for a CD he wanted to make. I suggested John Jastremski (from TheMustards) and Al Findlay, (from The Ground) who had also played my 96 convention; theywere both Beatles fans and songwriters. Yury had already written the first song ,Yeah YeahVirus and three others in 2000 and together they wrote and recorded four more songs in2003. Yury went back to the Beatles Apple headquarters in London a couple more times todiscuss the possibility they would publish his book. Neil Aspinall told him in advance that PaulMcCartney was to play in Red Square in May, 2003 ; it was to be a world event. Yury had takena lot of flak for suggesting that the Beatles could have helped bring down Communism. ButYury was interviewed in N.Y. on ABC- TV BEATLES REVOLUTION in 2000 with several

celebrities who agreed, including Czech director Milos Forman and Keith Richards (Whatbrought it down, in the end, was blues jeans and Rock N Roll). And there was soon to begrowing evidence that what Yury had first said, was indeed true.

Yury was contacted by Leslie Woodhead, a BBC director who had read Yurys book and wasplanning a film on the Beatles influence there. Mr. Woodhead had actually shot the onlyfootage of the Beatles at the Cavern, which was known to exist, in 1962. On a hot August dayin 2007, a handful of us gathered in Yurys backyard in Ottawa to have him interviewed andthen to film his song ,Yeah Yeah Virus. Later, Mr. Woodhead would take Yury back to Russiawith him to recreate his experiences and reunite with his teenage band. Mc Cartney was onceagain to perform in Russia at that same time. Yury had grown up in Minsk, and his friends therehad been shown how to make amplifiers by the guy whom had worked with and knew LeeHarvey Oswald, when he had defected there in the early 60s.

Yurys book and experiences were to partly inspire BBC film director, Leslie Woodhead s film,HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN . As I said, Yury had told us these interesting stories


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and his, and what seemed at the time hard to believe, theory that The Beatles and their musichad somehow helped to bring down the Soviet Union. In 2013, Mr. Woodhead released a bookof the same title, chronicling the making of his film, including a whole chapter on Yury and thevisit to Ottawa to film the interview with him and the video shooting of his song, Yeah YeahVirus in 2007. Finally in 2009, the film was completed and shown on PBS in the States and CBC

in Canada, in conjunction with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 89 Sure enough,the film and idea got write-ups in the L.A. Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, etc. Yury wasinterviewed again by the Ottawa Citizen. And the film has since been repeated several timeson both PBS and the CBC. A new book by Mr.Woodhead about this with a chapter on Yury (including about the day we shot the video and both Tony and I are described in it) wasreleased in 2013 Yury returned to Minsk in 2010 because his doctors accreditation wasntrecognized in Canada (and left me in charge of his book and Cd masters). But Yury returned toOttawa for a visit in May, 2013 though and we reconnected. I knew how the Beatles hadaffected the West and had changed my life, but I had no idea just what Eastern Block kids hadhad to do just to listen to and participate in Beatles music or the profound role it had on itsculture and Communism itself. And Yury had written it down first.

And Mr. Woodheads film and book substantiates what Yury had first told us and written down.For Mr. Woodhead has spent the last 25 years tracking down and documenting this story. Andwhat a journey it s been! Mr. Woodhead had shot the only known footage of The Beatles atthe Cavern in 1962 and met the Fab Four before they were the Fab Four. Before that, Mr.Woodhead had been a cold war snoop (he has a previous book My LIFE AS A SPY), stationedin Berlin listening in to the Russians, which first developed his special interest in the SovietUnion. He has made many trips there over the past several years and has developed manycontacts there. With these Russian connections and his involvement in also meeting andfilming many British and American rock stars (he also did The Brian Jones memorial film concertby The Rolling Stones , for example), he is the perfect person to capture these two seeminglydifferent worlds, rock n roll and politics, and show their strange intersection in the SovietUnion.

He shows that the various Soviet leader were afraid , even as far back as the 30s, of outsideWestern music such as jazz. Yury had quoted in his book that Khrushchev had said, its only asmall step from saxophones to switchblades. So in that sense this theory that later Beatlesmusic could have had such a role does make sense. Mr. Woodhead interviews many of the

Beatles Generation in the Soviet Union from musicians to record producers to journalists tohistorians to even politicians (including the Russian Defense Minister and Putins deputy, whosaid he learned English from Beatles songs). A curious fact is that most of the Russian rockstars and Beatles fans , were the sons of the Communist Party elite. Of course, they were oneof the few who would have had access to the West. Yury, although not of the elite class, hadopportunity because he was a doctor in the Russian Navy and was to sail around the world. Butall of these consistently backed up Yurys belief that somehow Beatles music had this profoundeffect on the Soviet Union. I think perhaps there was an especially Russian character aspect to


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all this. They spoke of this Beatles Effect as almost having a quasi -religious part to it,something thats hard for us to imagine in the West. Of course , Beatles music changed ourlives in the 60s and a whole counterculture developed in the West along with it. But in therepressive and isolated Soviet Union, it took on a whole other meaning, and The Beatlesperfectly represented both the forbidden fruit and an artistic and spiritual freedom. And

because of that Soviet youth found very resourceful ways indeed to get around the statesdisapproval and banning of it.

In fact, in the chapter on Yury, Mr. Woodhead describes how it is even today in Belarus (wherehe took Yury back to reunite with his teenage band in 2008). It sounds like something out of aMarx Bros. film, but with a leader like North Korea s absurd but dangerous current dictator(which gives some idea of how it must have been growing up in that earlier time all across theSoviet Union). Yury actually moved back to Minsk in 2010 , because his Russian Navy doctorsaccreditation was not recognized in Canada, where he had immigrated in the early 90s. Yuryhad left me in charge of the masters of his book and accompanying CD when he returned there,but in May, 2013, he visited Ottawa again and we reconnected and he talks of perhapsreturning to the West and trying again to get recognition of his doctors skills.

Mr. Woodheads book documents quite a life journey (including meeting with Yoko inLiverpool) and the mindbogling but now proven theory that my friend Yury had first proposedto us-that The Beatles could have had such an effect on another, even more oppressive system.Mr. Woodhead ends his book with the occurrence where the Russian Punk band PU SSY RIOTis arrested by the Putin government in 2012. On July 7, 2013, Paul McCartney played in Ottawa(the first time a Beatle had performed here) and during Back in the U.S.S.R., Paul told the storyhow high ranking officials had told him they had learned English from banned Beatles music ,when he played Red Square in 2003. During that song, flashed on screen was FREE PUSSYRIOT. My Russian Beatle friend , Yury, had written for his book, how A Yellow Submarine hadlanded in Red Square and I had outlined in my own book a similar feeling of almost like analien spaceship (Yellow Submarine) landing in my small Midwestern town in the U.S. growing upin the 60 s, with these talented, witty, fun beings offering us joy and hope. Ironically, it hadtaken these four working-class Liverpool lads from a far away mythical land of Robin Hood andknights to reintroduce us to American rocknroll which had in turn inspired them. And howthat would encourage us to maybe go on and create our own magical music and stories.

Mr. Wo odheads fascinating book and film and Yurys book show it w as to have an even deepereffect half way around the world. I was interviewed before the McCartney concert by CBC

radio as to why he and the Beatles were still so popular a half a century later, and I mentionedhow they had influenced me to not to go fight in the Vietnam war and come to Canada, butalso, as Yury would often say, they were, Beatles: the cultural event of the 20 th Century. Itwas one of those few times in history when it helped create an almost social revolution whichwas universal in scope. Also as my friend Tony said, they also wrote some of its best popularsongs. And for all these reasons, they will be remembered. The Beatles and music changed theworld and they still do. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.


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Leslie Woodheads book, HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN (2013), is highlyrecommended. Mr. Woodhead is as good a writer as he is a filmmaker; he makes you feel as ifyou are right there.

Alan Chrismans book, ITS A LONG WAY HOME (& How Beatles Music Saved My Life) ,chronicles his own life and Beatles influences . Available www.rockthistownproductions.com

YEAH YEAH VIRUS

While in the West the Beatles stepped on all the rules The 60s beat was echoing through all the Soviet schools.Every Russian schoolboy wants to be a starPlaying Beatles music , making a guitar.

Teachers looked upon this as if it were a sin,We were building Communism but the Beatles butted in.Nyet to Beatles music. Da the students s aid.Even Comrade Brezhnev sadly shook his head (1)

(1) Yeah Yeah Virus , Yury Pelyushonok-Olga Sansom, c. PLY Publishing 2000

See below YURYs Yeah Yeah Virus, video, shoot, Ottawa, Canada, 2007:

http://youtu.be/2dChyNNAmV4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dChyNNAmV4

YURYS REVOLUTIONARY PREMISE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

THE BEATLES MUSIC HELPED BRING DOWN COMMUNISM!
http://youtu.be/2dChyNNAmV4http://youtu.be/2dChyNNAmV4http://youtu.be/2dChyNNAmV4


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AFTER SPENDING BILLIONS AND THE THREAT of DOOM, WHAT DESTROYED IT INTHE END,WAS BLUE JEANS AND R n R

- KEITH RICHARDS (agreeing with Yury!),

THE BEATLES REVOLUTION, ABC-TV, 2000

Below Paul McCartney Plays Back in the U.S.S.R., Red Square, Russia, 2003:

http://youtu.be/_JbLsYoL3ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JbLsYoL3ug

LENNON WALL, Prague Photo by Karen McCollum
http://youtu.be/_JbLsYoL3ughttp://youtu.be/_JbLsYoL3ughttp://youtu.be/_JbLsYoL3ug


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YURY PELYUSHONOKS BOOK, STRINGS FOR A BEATLE BASS, 1998 and 2004 EDITIONS


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Alan suggests to Yury in95, he write it all down-he does, then leaves his book atBEATLES HEADQUARTERS, London, 2000

Yury gets call back from Paul McCartneys office for more copies


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YURYS CD OF ORIGINAL SONGS TO ACCOMPANY HIS BOOK,

YOU CANNOT WHISPER ROCKN ROLL, 2005


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Yurys CD


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YURYS YEAH YEAH VIRUS video shoot, Ottawa, 2007 , for:

HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN, BBC FILM 2009

& book by director, LESLIE WOODHEAD, 2013

(Leslie Woodhead had also shot the only known footage of TheBeatles at the Cavern, 1962)

Alan Chrismans book, ITS A LONG WAY HOME (& How Beatles Music Saved My Life) ,chronicles his own life and Beatles influences . Available www.rockthistownproductions.com


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the beatles helped bring down the berlin wall!

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