Эдуард Хиль: 1934 - 2012 [ And The Controversy Of The Trololo Song ]

Эдуард Хиль (Eduard Khil), a recently deceased (June 4th) Russian singer, who enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the last few years because of the interest surrounding a video on Youtube, where he mimes his version of a popular Soviet song, "Я очень рад.." ("I Am Glad..."). Fondly known as Mr. Trololo.

Everyone loved Mr. Trololo, even if that love was sometimes in a mocking fashion. When the Trololo video first sprung up on the internet, people didn't really know what to make of it. It seemed so bizarre and surreal. A vintage video of a robot looking man entering the frame and continuing to mime a song without lyrics. It was this dream like quality, and similarity to the sound of the internet meme "trolling", that captured peoples imaginations.

With the passing of Khil, there is once again interest in the reason the song is without lyrics. Jeff Jarvis tweeted a link [ria.ru] suggesting that the song was a victim of Soviet censorship because the original lyrics were about the "Wild West" of America and therefore completely contraband in the Soviet Union. I had read a different version some time ago, about a conflict between the song writer and lyracist, so I replied to him suggesting this version of events. I included a Wikipedia page link, which I thought was better than the original Russian article [rg.ru], as it included a translation in English from the original text. I got the feeling Jeff is dubious of anything on Wikipedia though.

Perhaps one should read between the lines of what Mikhail Ostrovsky said in that Russian article; perhaps there was indeed political sub-text to the omission of lyrics. That would seem odd however, because unlike their American counterparts at the time, the USSR did not always share in this same hyper-fear of "all things from the other side" (not to be mistaken with Soviet paranoia, however). It was often the Communist notion of Internationalism that the West found most frightening.


A still from Limonádový Joe (1964), a well loved socialist Czechoslovakian comedy Western'

Without the full lyric sheet at hand, it's hard to decifer why lyrics about American cowboys would prove so contravercial, since the USSR had no problem making films based on the "Wild West". They also loved importing American Westerns for public consumption. It's true that there were sometimes a political slant to these socialist Red Westerns, the Indians were often the "good guys", for instance (I know, what an absolute evil thought), but no different than a Red-Scare flick from Hollywood.

But what of politics, the man is dead and it was the music that he was known for, so lets hear the song one more time. Take it away, immortal robot Eduard Khil! 

One wonders what will happen when Boxxy dies...