Birobidzhan: Stalin thought you should want to live there and this song agrees.
UPDATE: Somebody asked me for a sing along version, so here it is, the recording is still from "I Can't Complain" at Bandcamp
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggfnBJ7RUiG2MvgdsFNvLwh_55orAE40KMkeCeVFySFQL8fk7WZ6E9oX_4sGXCmRzSzCeLz8mLu2uR8-_14TPEWIYjvRqEOIZGsjk_bEAzeWKfT3IQrpstCa-moAF9xIHu8e2qx2qA7xY/s320/birobidzhan-button.jpg)
![Yiddish song Birobidzhan original sheet music](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzw0-BSKLDD-hjSejxbrtlrbOznhJvGmwWqfeEIPyq4osEumEvSvIG34JXxSCfU_5R348wANuDyE_7T_CSGxAiXkQx4-ElpNVr3XXHrJDB7vFo_qyurSVJ-O7gf-fpSBVnrT_nS-yEzIc/s1600/birobidzhan-v.jpg)
There is also a cute song in the book called The Biro Bidzhan Freylekh. I can only assume Ben Yomen sincerely believed Birobidjan could be a good place for Jews to settle.
I was very startled to see this sheet music, because it's so different from what I learned - somewhere along its way to me the melody morphed into something quite different. I've never heard a recording of the song: I learned it from a pianist who had learned it from a cassette (which he can't find for me now).
Click below to hear the version Aviva and I recorded (and buy the sheet music of our version, if you like it):
![]() |
This is the video Aviva and I made at our first concert together:
Later we recorded this and it's on I Can't Complain (But Sometimes I Still Do).
Here's the version Roger Lynn Spears and I did this past weekend: Birobidzhan
Labels: emigration, making a living (poverty), songs for sale
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home