馬庭正 ([info]r_ness) wrote,
@ 2008-05-13 14:30:00
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(I meant to post this two weeks ago, when it would actually have been timely.)

(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we're gonna do

(Go West) Sun in wintertime
(Go West) We will feel just fine
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we're gonna do
(1979/1993)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K22ZD1HUV4g (Красная площадь)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39KZ2afBtLU

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[info]latvianchick
2008-05-13 06:58 pm UTC (link)
Oh man. I remember growing up with this song, still in the Soviet Union. It was that and the Wind of Change, and it was so breathtaking...

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[info]thespian
2008-05-13 07:23 pm UTC (link)
I've alays wanted to ask someone this, so I'm going to plunge in; the song was originally about going to San Francisco, and being able to be gay and out. Even the cover in 1993 was about that; it was only the video that introduced Soviet imagery to it (and indeed, it seemed to imply that a flood of Russians would be bad). I've known for a decade or more now that it was used as a song of freedom in the USSR, but I've been curious if it was with an awareness or the subtext and the repurposing of it.

(I've never run into anyone who was of an age to answer that, so forgive me if I'm being odd. The original meant a lot to me as a bisexual kid in the early 80s, and so I just welcomed the Pet Shop Boys cover as a much more to my taste version)

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[info]latvianchick
2008-05-13 09:05 pm UTC (link)
To the best of my knowledge, there was no awareness of the original meaning. In fact, it just occurred to me today what it must have meant here (I think today was the first time I heard this song since the early 1990s)!

There are several reasons, I think. First, of course, "West" in the Soviet Union meant "West of the Iron Curtain," which was a single mental space. Second, there was precious little awareness of homosexuality, and to the extent that there was awareness, it was viewed extremely negatively, so, a song about freedom (good) couldn't possibly be about being gay (bad). Russia is still a very homophobic society, sadly. Finally, and perhaps somewhat trivially, people didn't know English that well, so it's questionable how much of the lyrics they actually understood, aside from "together" and "go west." I certainly understood very little.

And you weren't being odd at all =)

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