Leningrad Cowboys and Red Army Chorous boom out "Sweet Home Alabama"


Finnish new wavers The Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Chorus teamed up to perform this rousing rendition of Sweet Home Alabama, all booming, brassy and high-hair. Musical highlight of the week, for sure. Link (Thanks, Jinny!)

Discussion

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#1 posted by Skep , April 1, 2008 12:25 AM

Isn't this from an old MTV Awards show at Radio City Music Hall?

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I was just thinking that. I remember watching it when it was first on and thought it was great then. I think it's great now too!

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That choral bit at the end sounded a tad like something off the Volga Boat Song.

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#2: YMMV, I thought it was mostly painful then. Now I don't have the heart to watch.

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This is from the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards hosted by Roseanne Barr (yes Barr). I was 13 when this aired and my mind was blown. I taped it when they replayed it and watched at least once every three months for about 4 years.

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#6 posted by Skep , April 1, 2008 1:44 AM

"This is from the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards hosted by Roseanne Barr (yes Barr). I was 13 when this aired and my mind was blown. I taped it when they replayed it and watched at least once every three months for about 4 years."

I remember back then, when only the Soviet Union was bankrupt, not the US (ah, to be only a few trillion in debt...) To bad we couldn't have learned some lesson from them about trying to sustain an occupation in the Middle East being financially devastating...:-p

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When we first saw this on MTV we couldn't stop laughing.

They did an album called Happy Together, it's great.

Isn't one of the Leningrad Cowboys an Executive at Noikia?

LBalsam

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Free Birdsky!!!

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I really hate it when these Finish and German bands go around masquerading as Russians.

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#10 posted by haaz Author Profile Page, April 1, 2008 6:15 AM

That is really incredible... and the Red Army Chorous is about half the size their powerful voice suggests that they are! And.. they look... so... happy..... wow. That was great.

It seems the Leningrad Cowboys weren't terribly concerned with accurate transliteration. The Russian letter N looks quite like the English letter H; while that backwards in is more of an "ee" sound. Ah, Wikipedia makes it all make sense. Faux_Cyrillic! The Leningrad Cowboys appear on there too. 8-)

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#11 posted by richlb , April 1, 2008 6:37 AM

I love how they rock the Russian mullet - Perestroika in the front, Communist Party in the back.

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#12 posted by Andreas Author Profile Page, April 1, 2008 7:09 AM

I suggest anyone to get a couple of buddies, a decent amount of alcohol and the Total Balalaika Show DVD, which features the 1993 performance with the full 160 strong choir in front of a crowd of 70,000 in Helsinki. The resulting combination of humor and booming magnificence is brilliant.

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Absolutely. Total Balalaika Show is one of the best music DVDs ever.

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#14 posted by Lex10 Author Profile Page, April 1, 2008 9:28 AM

Here's more, and a bonus - it's not from a right-wing resource!
http://easydreamer.blogspot.com/2008/03/this-weeks-my-new-favorite-band.html

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Definitely - Total Balalaika Show is wonderful.

But describing them as "new wave"? Surely not!

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Hugely recommended by Soubriquet is the movie "Leningrad Cowboys go America", by director Aki Kaurismäki.
A crazy rock band from the steppes leave their tractors behind to tour America, with their deep-frozen permafrosted guitarist in a pine box on the car roof.
And the village idiot following....

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The Red Army Choir also covered "Sex Bomb", originally by Tom Jones. Sadly the track is hard to get one's hands on. It was released (only?) on the "Triple M Musical Challenge V.3" in Australia:
http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Musical-Challenge-V-3-Lucky/dp/B00007M58Y

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The St. Paul Pioneer Press BULLETIN BOARD column got a hold of this yesterday, and they published this same link in today's paper. I looked them up on YouTube and found some even better videos that I turned around and suggested back to BB this morning. It's all so circular, don't yeah know. I think I like their version of 'Delilah' even better then 'Sweet Home Alabama', and their 'My Way' threw in a little 'Cabaret' as well, for good measure.

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