In today’s edition of “good songs”—a personal anthem to me as the biggest musical slowpoke.
I’ve already written about how much I love the work of Vasya Oblomov, whom most people only know for a single song—”Edu v Magadan” (“I am travelling to Magadan”). But at the beginning of his career, he had a band called “Cheboza,” and together they recorded the song Vasilki (Cornflowers). It’s written as a fan letter to Dima Malikov, a Russian singer.
On New Year’s Eve in the 2004 show Negoluboy Ogonyok, Cheboza performed it together with Dima Malikov, where he sang “his own part.” And I loved this song like crazy. It has been playing on repeat in my playlist of favorite songs for years.
So why am I a slowpoke? Because only yesterday, thanks to my beloved wife and eldest daughter, I finally realized why the chorus “V chistom pole vasil’ki…” (In the open field, cornflowers…) always reminded me of some well-known song. I’m sure 99% of people would have immediately recognized what it sounds like. Forget “reminds”—it’s practically a slightly altered version of Eminem’s Stan, in which he used the chorus from a completely separate song by Dido. And Cheboza’s lyrics? They’re almost an adaptation of Stan rewritten for Russian realities.
When I realized this yesterday, the only words I had for myself were unprintable. Because years ago, I had thoroughly enjoyed both Eminem’s song and Dido’s album, from which he “borrowed” the chorus (which, by the way, made Dido a globally recognized artist).
And so, for all this time, I had been listening to the Russian song, not even realizing that I loved it not just for its cool lyrics but also because it was a song from my distant youth—back when I didn’t fully understand English yet.
If there are any other slowpokes like me out there, here are both songs. I won’t include Dido’s original here.
