Arkady Severny. Photo by Sergey Petrovich Sokolov. 1979/ Flickr
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
In one of the best poems by Andrey Voznesensky, Autumn in Sigulda, there is a line: “And on festive occasions, the hoarse bass filled the air from a vinyl in the style of criminal folklore.” The poem was published in 1962. The first recording of Arkady Severny appeared a year later, but nonetheless, if anyone was making hoarse bass sounds in the style of criminal folklore on every public holiday across the Soviet Union, it was definitely him. There were no vinyl records, of course; in fact, his first vinyl only appeared in 1991, eleven years after Severny’s death. However, in the 1970s, the strange mantra “Good morning, Aunt Haya, you have a package from Shanghai, and in the package, there are three Chinamen, three Chinamen dyeing eggs” was blaring out of every bobbin and tape recorder. No one really had a clue what the lyrics meant, but no one ever looked for meaning in Severny’s songs. Compared to Vysotsky and other poetically rich singer-songwriters, Severny represented clean and light musical fun. However, there actually was meaning in this chorus, though it is unclear if the singer himself knew about it. Dyeing eggshells has been customary in China for over 3,000 years; it is one of the traditions of a holiday that opens the season of Chunfen, the 4th solar term or spring equinox. During that period, the Chinese actually do dye eggs and try to place them in a vertical position to symbolize future good fortune. It is quite funny that the only reflection of this ritual in the European musical tradition was this very record in the style of criminal folklore.