The Bodhisattvas of Babylon

Russiablues (Скорбец )

Various versions, with video. See Boris do the mystical egg-laying bird dance. See the beautiful, bountiful babe. See the old man. Love the old man. I looooove that old maaaaaaaaaan...!

First released in 1999.

Review by Dzhon

With impressive-even-for-BG perversity, this single constitutes the only studio versions of this song ever released...never mind that it was one of his best lyrical and musical efforts of the late 90's. And now that it's a new millennium, Boris has officially announced that he won't be including any songs written in the last millennium on future albums.

Oh. Of course not. That would be wrong! Clearly.

However, the single-averse (count me among them: I absolutely hate putting on a disc in order to listen to just one freakin' song) can take heart: "Скорбец" is also to be found on BG's live solo set Prayer & Fasting in a smokin' acoustic version that actually puts all three of the variants to be found on this single to shame. So put that in your insense-burner and smoke it.

A word about the translation of the song title: As Boris explains to the audience of the Prayer & Fasting set, he and (the noted writer) Tatiana Tolstaya came up with the noun Скорбец from the Russian verb скорбеть ("to mourn") in an attempt to create a Russian word that would be the exact equivalent of the English idiom "the blues." Bodhisattvas of Babylon believes one good coinage deserves another.

P.S. This also contains the only officially available artifacts of collaboration between Boris and uber-cool St. Pete rockers Tequilajazzz. Unless, of course, you get Dzhrew to play you his legendary tape...