Gogol Bordello – Mussolini vs. Stalin

[another_liberal]

This song has been on my mind all day. It's about a Russian dictator and a fascist dictator, and it's sung by a Roma Ukrainian. Seems fitting for our time:

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[Warpy]

1. Love Gogol Bordello. they've been at the top of my hit list

for a couple of years now. I see they finally sobered up enough to do a new CD, so I'll be popping over to order it later.

What this song brings up is that many people, especially in eastern Europe, think this choice between totalitarian madmen is the only one out there. We got lucky in the US and a lot of us remember the good old days before the Kochs bought the government out from under us (aided by some of their John Bircher billionaire buddies).

I learned about some of this from my mother, who had a brief flirtation with the Communist Party back in the 30s when they were the only organized anti fascist group around. As people discovered what Stalin was about (she, included), they began to drift away and by the time Joe McCarthy started to grandstand for fascism, it was largely disbanded.

She also told me to think twice and thrice about signing anything. She spent the McCarthy hearings white knuckled, waiting for some little shit of an ex beau to denounce her.

Eugene Hutz might be borderline nutso (he'd fit in my family just fine), he does hit on the truth more often than not in his lyrics.

[another_liberal]

2. I got to see them live about two years ago.

Hands down, one of the top three or four stage bands I've ever had the great good fortune to see. It was like having a spell cast on you. A wild and wonderful spell at that. I do not dance often, really hardly at all, but that night I danced like a gypsy madman, for hours on end!

[Warpy]

3. Santana is like that, too

Saw them live here in NM, sort of a home town crowd, and the show was stellar. I didn't sit down once and I'm a rheumatoid arthritis gimp.

He's letting other guitarists do some of the heavy lifting these days and his bass player did things that I've never heard done on a bass guitar before, but the concert is super high energy and he's still great.

[another_liberal]

4. He was actually at Woodstock, right?

Some people never get old. I hope he lives forever.

[another_liberal]

5. Since you are clearly a Gogol Bordello fan . . .

You may have already seen these live videos of Eugene and the band, but just in case you haven't . . .

This is one of an early incarnation of the band doing what is likely my favorite song of theirs:

The following two are of just the core of the band, Eugene, Yuri and Sergey doing a couple of other live offerings:

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[Warpy]

6. Thanks!