Porque te vas vs The Last Time

The happy times when cover versions freely roamed the world!

Here is the Soviet version of the international hit Porque te vas - Because You Go. It was released in the late 1970s (1978) by the group called Jolly Fellows (Весёлые ребята). The soloist is Lyudmilla Barykina (Людмила Барыкина).

In its time it was the hottest, sexiest number all over the vast Soviet Union. And those who, like myself, remember those times will have misty eyes while listening.

I put here two versions of the song. One, for the value of the contemporary film footage of young people dancing away, and the second, for the photos of Barykina, who sports an Angela Davis afro in some.

The lyrics in Russian, by Vladimir Lugovoy (Владимир Луговой) run, roughly, as follows: 'Time will pass, and you'll forget all that was between us, that last time, that last time. No, I am no longer waiting for you, but know that I was in love then for the last time, the last time — posledniy raz.'





And here is the original hit by Jeanette (1976) — Porque te vas

The Football March.

(Russian football musical theme)

At a football match in Russia.

All British football fans know the Match of the Day musical theme. In fact, every British knows it. It is so ubiquitous, so well known that it is associated with football in general. Match of the Day, the BBC TV programme itself is one of the longest running. It's begun over fifty years ago, in 1964. The musical theme, however, was composed only in 1970 especially for Match of the Day by Barry Stoller.

Russians have their own football theme called the Football March ("Футбольный марш", wikipedia in Russian). It was composed in 1938 by Matvey Blanter, one of the most prolific Soviet musicians. The march is in E-flat major. It opens with a vibraphone (similar to xylophone) jingle, that is often used separately on radio and TV, and then the full brass orchestra steps in triumphantly.

The melody is still used throughout the former Soviet Union, not just Russia herself. Blanter is, perhaps, most famous for the iconic 'Katyusha', also composed in 1938. According to chess grand-master and musician Mark Taimanov, in his study, Shostakovich, who was the first to listen to the Football March, had a Blanter's portrait hanging next to the one of Beethoven. 

Read Tetradki post about Match of the Day in Russian here.

Alexander Yakovlev's 1968 photo (©) 

shows Dynamo Moscow's legendary goalkeeper 

Lev Yashin and the captain of Dynamo 

at the time Viktor Anichkin 

(first from right, no relation to the editor of Tetradki). 

Republished by permission.

Watch a Russian TV programme about the Football Match story here, in Russian,  in Russian with vintage footage.

Here is the full version of the Football March, followed by a 1955 animated film 'A Marvelous Match' ("Необыкновенный матч") with a version of the Football Match theme played from 9:55 minutes into the film.



Football March theme is at 9:55 min into the film —

Novella Matveyeva and her Greensleeves.

Novella Matveyeva. Photo by Al Silonov.

Greensleeves in Russian.

Bard (бард) is the Russian term for singer-songwriter, a folk singer who writes their own lyrics and sings, usually to acoustic guitar. I understand that the English word bard is now archaic and never used to describe a modern singer or poet. In Russian it is still in circulation. (Wikipedia on bardy, with a list of the best known names.)

The term appeared in late 1950s - 1960s at the same time as Russian poetry was having a phenomenal renaissance that coincided with the folk-song revival in the US. Another Russian name for this genre is author's song (авторская песня). 

Bards (барды) often performed on stage alongside 'proper' poets to packed audiences, including full stadiums. They sometimes became well-known and had their songs sung all over the Soviet Union, in tiny kitchens and by the bon-fires, well before their songs were broadcast, released on records or published. 

The new striking feature of the bards' output was the Bob Dylan-like blend of the deeply personal with that of  'great social and political import.' Some of them were fiercely patriotic, others were anti-regime dissidents.

One poet singer stands out in that great generation — Novella Matveyeva (Новелла Матвеева, wiki about her), whose piercing romanticism and inimitable child-like voice I can only roughly compare to Kate Bush. She started writing and singing in the 50s and her songs were all over the country with people not even knowing who the author was. Her first LP record only came out in 1966. She now has dozens of records and poetry collections behind her.

Matveyeva, who will be eighty next year, is still working. It is reported that she is preparing her version of Shakespeare's sonnets in Russian.

One of her best known songs is the ballad  'A Girl from the Tavern' ("Девушка из таверны"), better known for its opening line "Любви моей ты боялся зря" ('You shouldn't have been scared of my love' .) The music is a slightly changed Greensleeves tune. The first stanza practically goes as a quote from Greensleeves but on the second the melody scatters and stumbles in a typically 1960s folk-song manner. И если ты уходил к другой, she starts, and then continues или просто был неизвестно где as though it is one extended line that disregards the rhythm.

The lyrics is a reverse version of Greensleeves, it's not a song of a man's longing but a young girl's bitter but contented lament about the man who she loved and who apparently ignored her. 

'And when you left to see someone else, or simply were no one knows where,

For me, it was enough that your raincoat hang on the nail.'

Then he leaves for good and

'I was just happy to see the nail in the wall where your raincoat used to hang.'

This is not the end,

'Something terrible happened at home, they pulled out that nail. 

Well, I was just happy that from the nail a small mark was left there.'

These lines are simply heart-breaking. (My literal translation)

Full Russian and English texts of the song are here. I am publishing extracts below the video. It is not clear who translated the ballad into English. Matveyeva's lyrics are all over the internet but I am not sure about the copyright, so I put only two opening stanzas and the last one here.

In the first YouTube clip Matveyeva sings 'A Girl from the Tavern.' And in the next is a 1965 video of her singing another popular ballad 'Once There Was a Little Boat' ("Жил кораблик")

Sponge Blues. (Mochalkin Blues)

Jamie Olsen posted in The Flaxen Wave about Chukovsky’s children’s classic “Moydodyr” (had Chukovsky ever had anything non-classic?) with a parallel analysis of Timur Kibirov’s parody. It’s illuminating and fun, and I highly recommend the analysis.

Here, a small and — hopefully — amusing point on the meaning of the word мочалка (mochalka - a scrubber, a loofah or luffa, or a sponge). In Russian it has long had a slang meaning, i.e. a girl who wants fun and is not much interested in anything else.

Don’t ask me to explain the etymology. I’ll just say that a traditional Russian ‘mochalka’ is a mop of stringy thin strips of the underlay of lime-tree bark used to scrub yourself clean in a steam-house, a banya.

In Sergei Soloviev’s 1980s cult film “ASSA” there is a song “Mochalkin Blues”, which plays on exactly that meaning of the word. 

The illustration above is a 'footnote' from "ASSA" explaining the meaning of 'mochalka'. Here’s a video from the film with Sergei 'Afrika' Bugayev singing:

Later on, the young ‘mochalka’ falls for the young singer nicknamed Afrika.