| I wanted to present one of the most melodious Russian tangos and to extend "backwards" -- in time and in space - the story of the moving 'Jewish song' - "Where can I go ?" / "Vi Ahin Zol Ich Geyn ?", already presented on You Tube. The latter version became for Jews a moving complaint and a sort of a tragic meditation over Holocaust and all other events which during WW2nd led Jewish people through intense suffering to death. It is based, as it is said, on the first performance of Dutch Yiddish singer Leo Fuld, who was handed the song by some holocaust survivor. Leo Fuld added the English lyrics. I will venture, however, to add that originally this song is a Russian composition, first was conceived as a tango in early thirties by Oskar Strok, Riga, Latvia, where this Russian composer spent many years outside USRR due to political reasons. The song in Russian shape had many recordings and three of them I possess. "Golubye glaza" (Blue eyes) had also a Polish version, recorded in Warsaw, 1938 and, what may be the most interesting or even intriguing, Polish lyrics in refrain starts from the words which in English means exactly "Where can I go ?", a title with which this song -- in Jewish version -- emerged a few years later . Jewish version is based on a refrain/chorus part only. Rec. Columbia, London ca. 1933. |
