[MUSIC] Boney M, "Rasputin"
Apr. 30th, 2008 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI was dancing at Zipperz very early Monday morning with Jerry when Boney M's 1978 hit song "Rasputin" came on. The dance floor erupted in cheers.
I first heard "Rasputin" in Grade Canada's intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The charismatic Grigori Rasputin, Mr. Morrison said, helped contribute to the breakdown of the Russian Empire and to the rise of socialist radicalism all over the world, including Canada, hence his choice of this background music.
He wasn't half-wrong. As pointed out at the BBC's h2g2 site, while the awkwardly phrased the song's lyrics were actually reasonably accurate.
The song is pure cheese, of course, with the aforementioned awkward lyrics and the Boney M choruses and the Frank Farian disco music which, it turns out, was pirated from the folk songs of the Ottoman Empire. Some of the characteristic melodies of "Rasputin" are recognizable in Eartha Kitt's "Uska Dara."
Still, why shouldn't Farian have done this? If anything, our era is one of bricolage. What's wrong with enjoying whatever products we enjoy? It is interesting how Boney M makes use of southeastern European/Anatolian folk music to describe Russia. The Orientalization of Russia, perhaps?
I first heard "Rasputin" in Grade Canada's intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The charismatic Grigori Rasputin, Mr. Morrison said, helped contribute to the breakdown of the Russian Empire and to the rise of socialist radicalism all over the world, including Canada, hence his choice of this background music.
He wasn't half-wrong. As pointed out at the BBC's h2g2 site, while the awkwardly phrased the song's lyrics were actually reasonably accurate.
There lived a certain man in Russia long ago
He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
He could preach the bible like a preacher
Full of ecstacy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher
Women would desire
[. . .]
He ruled the Russian land and never mind the czar
But the kasachok he danced really wunderbar
In all affairs of state he was the man to please
But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze
For the queen he was no wheeler dealer
Though she'd heard the things he'd done
She believed he was a holy healer
Who would heal her son
The song is pure cheese, of course, with the aforementioned awkward lyrics and the Boney M choruses and the Frank Farian disco music which, it turns out, was pirated from the folk songs of the Ottoman Empire. Some of the characteristic melodies of "Rasputin" are recognizable in Eartha Kitt's "Uska Dara."
Still, why shouldn't Farian have done this? If anything, our era is one of bricolage. What's wrong with enjoying whatever products we enjoy? It is interesting how Boney M makes use of southeastern European/Anatolian folk music to describe Russia. The Orientalization of Russia, perhaps?
