Smerichka - Tumblr Posts
"Chervona Ruta", 1971 So, I've been obsessing over this 1971 Ukrainian musical so much that I decided to reanimate my tumbler account and create this little video extract with English subtitles. I would love to share this with the Internet mostly because I find this movie absolutely legendary, for multiple reasons. The film's name is Chervona Ruta ("The Red Rue") and it was inspired by one of the most famous Ukrainian song of the same name written by an iconic composer Volodymyr Ivasiuk. "Why is he iconic?", you might ask. Well, first of all, he made such a huge impact on Ukrainian music like no other composer ever did. His songs were inspired by popular Western music and Ukrainian ethnic motives, primarily by Hutsul culture. Together with an ensemble "Smerichka", and some other really cool composers of the time, he played a tremendous role in saving Ukrainian culture in the time of Soviet oppression. Moreover, he always composed in Ukrainian, which was very sassy for that moment in Ukrainian history, for a lack of a better word. He wasn't a political activist, like many other Ukrainian creators of the time, who were repressed for their worldview, yet he did a lot only using his own tool - music. Soviets knew that his impact is huge so, as it is widely stated today, he was murdered by them.
However, his death can only be a subject of much more professional investigation, not a post on tumbler. So, let's go back to "The Red Rue". The song itself was a huge success at the time and became a hit sung all over the Soviet Union. The lyrics, inspired by the legend of the red rue, a flower which brings love and happiness to one who finds it, is probably the most widely known text in the modern Ukraine. So the film was kind of a spin-off for this song, which is a masterpiece on its own. The plot of the film is fairly simple: a miner and musician Boris (played by Vasyl Zinkevich) from Donetsk (by the way, the city has been occupied by Russians since 2014) meets a singer Oksana (played by Sofia Rotaru) from the Western Ukraine on his way to the Carpathian Mountains. The couple fall in love with each other, but get departed after arriving to Yaremche, a famous town in the Carpathian Mountains which remains a popular tourist attraction to this day. The music, however... You guys, the music is perfect. I honestly believe that there are no fitting words to describe the beauty of the music in the film. Every song is an absolute treat to one's ears, very well written and wonderfully performed by lead actors and different ensembles of the time, including Smerichka, Karpaty and Rosynka. Even Ivasyuk gets a cameo in the movie. If you are in anyway interested in Ukrainian culture, art or music, I highly recommend watching this film, as it is available on the Youtube. There are no English subtitles, but I assure you, all of the songs are understandable whichever language you speak, if one listens to them with their heart. And don't mind the quality - the equipment that the crew possessed was far from perfect and the version you see on the Youtube is one of the few versions which survived, as most of the copies of the film were destroyed after Ivasyuk's death. Still, it's a wonder, but it's watchable and gives off this perfect retro vibe. Here's the link to the musical - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av3FZVui6fQ&t=598s
Breathtaking Vasyl Zinkevich in a ukrainian musical film "Chervona Ruta" (1971), performing Volodymyr Ivasyuk's song "The yellow leaf" Let me offer you my amateur translation of the lyrics:
The evening is coming. A lonely leaf, swept by the wind, Is flying past me. He won't return here anymore, and, probably, neither will I. Why would I? My love is just like this yellow leaf - It can fall only at your feet. I don't know whether I will ever come back here, but instead of myself, I'm leaving those flowers which I found in the garden for you. And, maybe, tomorrow, you'll pass this place, Where the wind rocks the petals. Just know, that I left my happiness here. I left it here.
Here is the link to the film itself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av3FZVui6fQ&t=743s
Why do I appreciate Bob Dylan so much? Well, here are some random thoughts:
My brain literally melts in pleasure when I listen to song by Smerichka, a Ukrainian kind of rebellious (as their music was a complete opposite of what soviet union wanted people to listen to) ensemble from early 70s and realise there's the sound of the guitar which was popularized (if not invented) by Bob Dylan in 1965-66 on his Bring It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde albums.
Like Dude.
Dylan, an American performer and songwriter, created a mixture of American folk and Rock-'n'-roll music which was so iconic that it somehow even got to the Soviet Union despite Bob Dylan's music being prohibited there. Ukrainian Mustache Funk (yes, it's an actual name of this genre) was heavily influenced by the folk motives specific to the Western Ukraine and it's particularly amazing that you can hear the influence of American folk-rock in their music too. It's like a perfect fusion of everything I have always loved and it's only possible because this son of a gun ones invented it and held on to it despite the criticism.
Btw, I was reading BD's biography by Howard Sounes and tried to immerse into the story through re-listening to his albums appropriate to the periods of his life I was reading about, and at some point when I was listening to his debut album I heard his iconic performance of the House of The Rising Sun I started crying like a baby. Why? Well, I realised that, according to the book, even though this particular arrangement of the song was created by Dave Van Ronk, it was Bob Dylan who first recorded it in this sound. This song in this particular arrangement performed by Bob Dylan was so popular, that the Animals made their famous recording of the song being inspired by that specific recording by BD. The song became so famous that somehow it got to the USSR where someone once performed it, some guy from my hometown heard it and learned how to play it, my father heard that someone singing this song (having 0 idea what the original song was like,who first recorded it, who arranged it and so on), learned how to play it himself and many years after taught me how to play it on the piano. So, to cut a long story short, this is one of the first songs I have ever heard in my life and the first song I learned to play, and it is so damn nostalgic to me, and I love it so much, and I have so many warm family memories connected to this song and all this because this little smelly Jewish boy once decided to record it for his debut album in 1962 in Greenwich village so far away from my home. The song is so amazing and timeless that my father who was born 5 years after this song was released on Bob Dylan and legitimately fell in love with it and decided to pass this love to his children. Just how fucking amazing is that ffs