So in those lines (13,39 and 45) are you saying it foreshadows what's to come because Russia is great no more? Or because the proletariat rose up to kill Rasputin and then would rise up to build a communist state? (in theory it was the proletariat, at least) Or because "love is dead" in Russia?
I'm sorry I didn't come off as clear as I could have. What I meant was that the proletariat rose up and destroyed love -- figuratively -- and replaced it with communism. Russia became great after the first and second world war, long after Rasputin's death. What was lost however was Russia's greatest love machine, did they sacrifice something so fundamental to humanity to gain unity and power?
Lets discuss the seventies shall we? It was a time of sexual freedom, drugs, and just general living in the moment. Much like Rasputin.
The mantra of the song is: Ra Ra Rasputin, which I decipher as a call to arms, a cheering of sorts. It states that these people of the seventies can now level with this Rasputin fellow on multiple levels now, when before they could not. Now, in modern times, you could live like a king would have in the 1800s.
I believe the song was being generally favorable to Rasputin in that the people singing it had the same lifestyle as him.
redue of 1st verse translation
16 years ago
4 comments:
Ah, okay, that's much more clear now.
So they're making Rasputin into a hero because he epitomizes the lifestyle?
Or is it also tied in with the Cold War notion that communist Russia = evil, and pre-communism Russia (i.e. Rasputin) = good, glorious, and some sort of golden era (of sex)?
I would say they were going for both; although I believe the idolization of the lifestyle would be the main focus of the song, the cold war elements being more repressed.
Do you think by say he was a great love machine they are trying to show that communist are not all cold hearted people that dont love anything(the image that was shown during the time of the cold war by the goverement)?
Rasputin was murdered pretty much when Communism was coming into the foreground. So no, Russia in the context of this song is not still a love machine but far from it: a hate machine.
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