I used to listen to the Smiths when I considered myself to be a disaffected youth (in fact, I was an over-privileged student). I was reminiscing a few months ago and looked up "How Soon is Now?" - the bands anthem for lonely teenagers - and was surprised to see that it had been covered by a Russian band called t.a.T.u. Johnny Marr, the Smiths' guitarist, apparently thought it silly, but Morrissey, the singer, liked it and when he heard that the band were "a pair of teenage Russian lesbians" he apparently said "aren't we all?"
Anyway, I looked the band up and was surprised to see that one of the pair, Lena, had actually performed a song called "Yugoslavia", that according to what I read was related to a concert that was planned in Moscow to protest against the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. The song and a translation can be found here.
At the time, I don't think I considered the bombing to be anything but the right thing to do. And I don't remember a lot of protests against the bombing in the west, though Google suggests that they did seemingly happen. At any rate, I don't think it was on the scale (at least in the UK where I was living) of the anti-Gulf war protests of the early 1990s.
It is a fairly touching song somehow. I guess I'm touched as somebody who, a long time after the fact, and for reasons that have nothing to do with the war per se, has some sympathy towards Serbia, or at the very least knows a bit more about it than most Westerners. It's also interesting as it touches on one of the very ancient relationships (Russia/Serbia) that nothing seems to diminish. Somehow I think it is probably for the best that Russia didn't start World War III over Serbia, but it is reassuring to know that there were some people who didn't like the bombing, probably for the right reasons.
Anyway, I looked the band up and was surprised to see that one of the pair, Lena, had actually performed a song called "Yugoslavia", that according to what I read was related to a concert that was planned in Moscow to protest against the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. The song and a translation can be found here.
At the time, I don't think I considered the bombing to be anything but the right thing to do. And I don't remember a lot of protests against the bombing in the west, though Google suggests that they did seemingly happen. At any rate, I don't think it was on the scale (at least in the UK where I was living) of the anti-Gulf war protests of the early 1990s.
It is a fairly touching song somehow. I guess I'm touched as somebody who, a long time after the fact, and for reasons that have nothing to do with the war per se, has some sympathy towards Serbia, or at the very least knows a bit more about it than most Westerners. It's also interesting as it touches on one of the very ancient relationships (Russia/Serbia) that nothing seems to diminish. Somehow I think it is probably for the best that Russia didn't start World War III over Serbia, but it is reassuring to know that there were some people who didn't like the bombing, probably for the right reasons.
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