Artist: YulyaLP: Journey Into RussiaSong: "White Nights (Belyie Nochi)"[ listen ] As my mother always used to say, "When the chips are down, a Russian woman is willing to give up just about everything but her hat—for she would be naked without it." According to my translator, the song I've selected here outlines the entire plot of this [1985 Taylor Hackford film]. Here are some notes and review quotes from the back of the record:
"...Russia spreads out widely..." — this is a line from the popular
Soviet song, Far Away, Far Away, that opens this album. Yulya
takes you as your personal guide on an exciting musical
journey through Russia.
You will start your journey from Moscow where Yulya herself was
born after the revolution and spent the biggest part of her life.
And in the song, Love In Moscow, with words and lyrics written
by Yulya herself, you will walk with her in the Gorky Park of Culture
and Rest, down Gogol Boulevard, and in other places well known
to Muscovites. The broad and fertile Ukraine will be your second
stop and there Yulya will take you back to the troubled times
of the civil war and you will watch together the mad ride of a
young machine gunner with his red-maned horses as Yulya sings
Tachanka, a famous Russian song arranged by her in a rhythm not
unlike the twist. Odessa—fabulous seaport on the Black Sea, home
of some of the greatest musicians of the world, will welcome you
next with the tender and wistful ballad, Golden Lights. And from
there you will board a ship and sail across the Black Sea while
listening to an old and famous Russian sailor song in waltz
rhythm—Broadly Stretches the Sea.
Your first port of call on this voyage will land you in the country
of the Kuban cossacks—the North Caucasus—where you will be
entertained by a famous Soviet humorous love song from the postwar
cinema, The Kuban Cossacks. The song's title is Such As You Were.
And then—with the first song of the second side of the album—
you will proceed on to legendary Georgia where Yulya will introduce
you to the story of the young Georgian lover who is seeking his
beloved—the song Suliko.* From warm and sunny Georgia you
will fly all the way across Russia to Lake Baikal to follow the
musical story of the lucky escape of a young prisoner from exile
in the mountains of Akatui—a folk song entitled Holy Baikal which
dates from prerevolutionary times, outstanding for its beautiful
melody line. And, next, on to Western Siberia where you will
proceed on a slow and painful march beside a column of pre-
revolutionary Russian exiles led by prison guards and chanting
their mournful song, Clink-Clank, in a rhythm to the clinking of
their chains. Then comes a complete change of pace—a fast
joking song about a lovesick girl from the northern Urals,
entitled Beyond the River Kama.
Further west again you will find yourself on the famous Volga
River—at the city of Gorky where a beautiful waltz called On the
Broad Volga will carry you away on its wings.
And the last stop before you leave Russia—mysterious and
romantic Leningrad, where you will wander in the white nights
beside June lovers along the rolling Neva River and through
the slumbering summer garden of the Tsars, a popular public
park. This song, for which Yulya herself wrote both music
and lyrics, is entitled White Nights.
Yulya chose the repertoire of this album from among hundreds
of Russian popular and folk songs beloved by all the people of
Russia written about those places to which she takes you in the
course of this record. It is her own very personal choice—intended
to leave with the listener a vivid impression of the rich cultural
variety and musical heritage of the Russian land. Yulya's arrangements
for this particular album blend, like Yulya herself, East and West.
They combine the depth and richenss of the Russian soul with the
dymamic, rhythmic style of modern Western European
and American popular music.
The exciting story of fascinating and provocative Yulya, in private
life Julie Whitney, is told in the recently published book by her husband,
Thomas Whitney, entitled Russia In My Life (Reynal and Co.).
Yulya was born in Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution, raised
under the Stalin regime, got a thorough musical education in the
Soviet capital, and achieved early recognition in Russia during
World War II as a young and talented composer and singer. Her
musical career in Russia was cut short when she met and
married her American foreign correspondent husband. It took
nine years for the Russian-American couple to get permission
for Yulya to leave her own country. Their romance and plight
had become an international cause-celebre. The news of their
release, after Stalin's death, at the insistant urging of the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow, was a frontpage story.
Though Yulya spent all her life in Moscow until 1953, when she
first came to the United States, she is now a thoroughly sophisticated
New Yorker and declarees she feels as if her beloved Manhattan
had always been her home.
[ *"Suliko" is a Georgian word meaning darling. ]
* * * * * * *
"Yulya is superb; her husky, intimate voice...raises visions of small,
smart sad little boites. This record is solid and highly satisfying
entertainment." --High Fidelity
"...An excellent voice spiced with an exotic flavor..."
--Variety
"Yulya is a real discovery..." --Hugh A. Mulligan, AP
"...relaxed assurance... She sings in a low-keyed, slightly
breathless manner that is effectively expressive and quite
winning in its simplicity and directness."
--John S. Wilson, The New York Times
* * * * * * *
This recording will never be obsolete. You may play it on all
33 1/3, long-playing phonographs and high-fidelity systems,
regular or stereo.
During my recent obsession with actress Luise Rainer, I rented the 1936 film THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, a biopic in which William Powell plays the great entertainer/producer/glorifier-of-the-American-girl Florenz Ziegfeld. Previews on that DVD included two other MGM films about Ziegfeld and his follies, ZIEGFELD GIRL from 1941 and ZIEGFELD FOLLIES from 1946.
A collection of unrelated musical, comedy and dance pieces reminiscent of Florenz Ziegfeld's stage productions from the early 20th century, ZIEGFELD FOLLIES quickly became one of my favorite film oddities with its wildly fantastical sets, lavish costumes and tons of MGM talent from the mid-1940s. This spectacular movie includes many wonderful segments that showcase the beautiful and the bizarre: Lucille Ball whips a litter of dancing black kittens into shape; Virginia O'Brien presents a horse-riding parody of the Ziegfeld Girl (pretty much forgotten nowadays, O'Brien first impressed me with her weird and hilarious bit in The Marx Brothers' 1941 film THE BIG STORE, see here); Judy Garland gives a dazzling press interview for her upcoming biopic (the critics are all in accord, she's gonna' win the next Academy Award); Lena Horne sings all about "Love" in a smokey Southern cantina; Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer dance together even as they drift apart on hidden conveyer belts moving in opposite directions; Esther Williams performs an underwater ballet while somehow grinning the entire time and the finale involving Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Grayson and large clusters of airborne soap suds is out of this world. While it's true that the film screeches to a halt during some horribly dated comedy routines by Red Skelton, Fanny Brice and others, even those are so completely over-the-top and fascinatingly unwatchable that my eyes were glued to the screen. Anyone who enjoys the music and fashions of the 1940s should see this film, pronto. Here are some nice ZIEGFELD FOLLIES stills I've stolen from Carline's terrific Hollywood Musicals blog:
[ Lucille Ball is the icing on the cake. ]
[ Lucy's got a kitty whip and she's not afraid to use it. ]
[ "Line up!" bark the eyes of Lucille Ball. ]
[ Virginia O'Brien, devoured by chiffon while riding side-saddle. ]
[ Esther Williams briefly entangled in red MGM seaweed. ]
[ Esther Williams is wearing waterproof makeup. ]
[ Marion Bell sashays down a heavenly corridor lined with debonair gents. ]
[ Blair Witch 3: Dance of Shadows ]
[ Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire dance together... gaily. ]
[ Fred Astaire is sometimes Asian. ]
[ Judy Garland at one of the "Friends of Dorothy" board meetings. ]
[ Cyd Charisse on tippy-toe with tutu. ]
[ A spectacular, sensational, slippery finale. ]
[ Florenz Ziegfeld, circa 1910 ]
Artist: Raja
According to reliable sources, this 1980 LP from Lebanon's Raja is a favorite among Hezbollah Party leaders. In fact, the very tracks I've posted here have been used to drive Israeli forces out of south Lebanon and back across the border into Israel.
[ warming up for the next take ]
[ Liz enjoying a moment of clowning with recording engineer Jim Malloy ]
Artist: Los Tres Caballeros
Artist: Yulya
Artist: Tammy (Faye Bakker)
Artist: Antonello Venditti
Artist: Melina Mercouri
Mercouri was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role in one of my favorite films of the 1960s, "Never On Sunday," directed by her husband, Jules Dassin. Most of the songs on this LP are in French, but the last track sounds like Greek to me. I've included that one here, along with one of the nice French songs. You can read about Melina Mercouri's life and career [here] and [here] and see a complete list of her films [here]. Mercouri's first film, Michael Cacoyannis' "Stella," is available on DVD and lots of fun to watch. The "L'œillet Rouge" LP folds out to reveal lyrics to all the songs and two nice pictures of Melina Mercouri recording in the studio.
I saw some ducks yesterday, spring must be around the corner. On this one I've mixed in songs from some of the relatively recent releases I've been enjoying.
Artist: Pilita
Artist: Gary Buck
Artist: Beverly Laine
Artist: Paul Jabara
Jabara's 1986 "Poperetta" concerns (according to the cartoons on the back of the LP) a set of female octuplets that were stolen from a hospital at birth. Now they're all grown up and of course they've landed in the sex industry. The octuplets' names all begin with the letter "D" and they've gravitated toward cities and towns that also begin with a "D"... well, sort of: "De Bronx?" From a poster on the back of the album: "A devious scheme divided each tot from city to city, a "D" marks the spot. 8 million dollars, that's the reward—deliver the daughters and the money is all yours. FIND THEM!" Good luck. the song I've posted above should provide some leads.
I'm afraid I can't wholeheartedly recommend this mix, since it was the result of an experiment. I've got a pretty big collection of 7" singles (started collecting when I was 11, in early 1982) so thought I'd make a mix by closing my eyes and randomly plucking singles from the bins. That's how tracks 1-11 on each side were selected, though of course the order on the mix isn't random. The last two tracks on each side are also from 7" singles, but I picked them with my eyes open to get songs that fit well into the mix and didn't run off the end of the tape.
