"For gays and people in love."

[muckefuck]

Last night after class, Mozhu (who, despite the Chinese name, is actually Russian) and I were sitting in Phở 777 discussing linguistics over the blare of shimmery disco. All at once, she looked up and we exchanged the are-you-hearing-what-I'm-hearing look?

Ra Ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen
They put some poison into his wine
Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine
He drank it all and said "I feel fine"

Ra Ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen
They didn't quit, they wanted his head
Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine
And so they shot him till he was dead.

It wasn't a dream, it was a Boney M song (which says nothing to me, but it may to you hip kids)--and thanks to the length of our visit and shortness of the tape, we got to hear it twice more. Remember, this is the place where I heard the trilingual "Feliz Navidad" at holiday time. AFAIK, their slogan isn't:

Come for the phở--stay for the music!

but sometimes I think it should be.

Comments

[teapot-farm.livejournal.com]

It was a *huge* hit over here in the 70s... that's how I remember it anyhow, I was a kid at the time.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I think I've died and gone to heaven. And I don't even believe in heaven.

[my-tallest.livejournal.com]

I've always loved Boney M. Some like the Boiled in Lead cover, but I find the original much more rockin'.

And now, without wishing it, I have "Brown Child in the Ring" going through my head.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm holding out for the t.A.T.u. cover!

[koffie-addict.livejournal.com]

you don't know The Rivers of Babylon? Daddy Cool? Ma Baker?

odd.

(yes i stalked you all the way to your own journal)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Maybe not by name. There are a number of disco tracks I've heard--and maybe even danced to--before, but I don't know a thing about them.

rwx

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

That's gotta be the highest Phở number I've heard of. Are they secure?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Really? It's the lowest on the street; walk a couple more blocks and you'll pass Phở 888 and Phở 999 (although not in that order of course).

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

Dang! in Atlanta, Greenville and DC they range more towards Phở 75, Phở 99, and Phở 19.

Must be a Chicago thing.

Rasputin and Youssopov.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

Of course, they should have included two more verses in which the ghastly old fakir, (or "starets" if you want to be picky) had his head bashed in and susequently died of drowning in the Neva...that's if Prince Youssopov's account is to be trusted ... which it probably isn't. I remeber the flambouyant old queen telling the story yet again on an Aussie chat show in the late sixties ...he was ANCIENT.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think performers have an artistic obligation to repeat the most colourful version of events, whether or not it's accurate.

Princess Youssopov.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

Performer? ...I never thought of it that way, but you'e absolutely right ... the old dear had been spinning his tale for nigh on a century. Have you seen a photo of him in his youth? ... as pretty as Hedy Lamarr, as fancily dressed as Princess Turandot and without doubt, the biggest swish in Chistendom... So he told, not so much a pack of lies, more a vivdly reimagined and heightened truth sort of thing, eh?

[kayiwa.livejournal.com]

Oh! WOW! That takes me back... and forces me to head to the iTunes Music store to search for some Boney M!

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

The first time I heard that song was in 1979 in a basement "disco" in the Polish Mission to the UN here in NY.

The funny sad thing is I quote the lyrics all the time.