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In reply to the discussion: What songs do you like when you're feeling old and nostalgic? [View all]DFW
(54,356 posts)True story:
I was in a nostalgic old Russian Restaurant/cabaret on e time in Paris with a friend from the States. We were the only people in there under the age of 60 except for the musicians. VERY weird. There was a roving gypsy band playing sort or Hungarianized versions of old Russian folk songs, which I knew, but my colleague did not. He was getting very frustrated at knowing none of the music, and when the band came to our table and asked if we had any requests, he said, "why can't they play something I know, like 'Those Were The Days?'"
I told him, "you think you know so much about music? It just so happens that Those Were The Days is a commercial text plastered onto an old Russian Folk song." He thought I was giving him a hard time. I turned to the band and requested "Дорогой длинною."
It's pronounced "darogoi dlinnayu" and means "by the long road." The band immediately started playing Дорогой длинною, which my friend only knew as "Those Were The Days." He was, needless to say, dumbfounded.
Here is how the Russians do it when they want to put on a show:
Here is probably more what the melody sounded like where it originated:
Here are some 20th century lyrics to the original Russian song, translated into English:
You rode on a troika with sleigh bells,
And in the distance lights flickered..
If only I could follow you now
I would dispel the grief in my soul!
(Chorus
By the long road, in the moon light,
And with this song that flies off, ringing,
And with this ancient, this ancient seven-string,*
That has so tormented me by night.
But it turns out our song was futile,
In vain we burned night in and night out.
If we have finished with the old,
Then those nights have also left us!
(Chorus)
Out into our native land, and by new paths,
We have been fated to go now!
...You rode on a troika with sleigh bells,
[But] you've long since passed by!
(Chorus)
*Russian guitars have seven strings, so the "seven string" reference is to a guitar
Way back in my teen years, I once wrote a song whose lyrics I have long since forgotten. The chorus, though I still remember:
When you're young, you wonder how time is spent
When you're old, you wonder where it all went.