The Russian Red Army Choir and the Leningrad Cowboys

From Sippican Cottage, via Ace:

This is the greatest concert I've ever heard of. It makes Woodstock look like Monday night in a Chinese restaurant lounge in Milford, Mass. Don't ask me how I know what that's like.

This video gets pulled from YouTube faster than I can keep up with it. The video quality in this one is set on Etch-A-Sketch through a periscope, but you get the idea. The whole thing is sublime.

The main performers are a spoof. More to the point, they are a metaspoof. There's layers to it. They are pretending to be Russians who are pretending to be American. They're actually Finnish. If you know anything about Finland, you know how extraordinary this performance is. The concert in the video is from 1993....



UPDATE: In the comments, Stone Soup offers this link to Sweet Home Alabama.



The Fins. Remember Steve 'n' Seagulls?



I'll have to go there someday just to check out the music scene. And hey, apparently, Steve 'n' Seagulls has a new album out:


5 comments:

Grim said...

The climax of this story about Iggy Pop also happens in Finland. As you say, there must be a huge music scene up there.

Eric Blair said...

Finns are just weird. Or not.

Remember, Tolkien's inspiration was the Kalevala, which is Finnish. Coincidence?

I think not.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

One of the ironies is that was not an official top-flight Russian orchestra, but after the fall of communism, they needed jobs, and this gig with the Finns paid. They survived better than some ensembles with bigger names.

Unknown said...

My favorite clip of the Leningrad Cowboys and Red Army Choir is this one - showing unbridled exuberance: Sweet Home Alabama - https://youtu.be/Jrg0X9H6FGU

I was thinking of this clip when I read about some whiny progressives in a US supermarket somewhere getting the vapors when this Lynyrd Skynyrd song played over the store's sound system - shrieking about how "racist" it was. Suck it up, buttercups!

Tom said...

Excellent! Thanks for posting it.