The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7574   Message #4220964
Posted By: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
15-Apr-25 - 09:20 PM
Thread Name: Origins/lyrics: Hey Zhankoye
Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Hey Zhankoye
We may be up to five (5) Ruth Rubin albums and one of them might just be that missing Oriole #1. The other four (and still counting) are looking like the typical Asch-Stinson fugace bootlegs. More on People's Songs take:

“...Six sides resulted from the session, the most famous of which was probably “Zhankoye,” a song that came out of Russia in the 1920s during the period of collectivization. Rubin introduced it into leftist folk-song circles through Pete Seeger, and it later became the source of a debate in the pages of People's Songs Bulletin on the subject of translation. Mrs. Rubin objected to the way in which Seeger had translated the song and particularly the addition of a verse that added a political dimension altogether out of keeping with the spirit of the original song. Others predictably defended Seeger's reworking of the song by insisting that folk songs were always malleable and often pressed into service in ways that had not previously been intended or even imagined.”
[Ruth Rubin interview with author, Making People's Music, Moe Asch and Folkways Records, Goldsmith, 1998]

The Asch-Rubin recording session was in November '44 one month before the split/buy-out with Stinson Trading. It reads like Moe Asch gave Ruth Rubin the Norman Granz Jazz at the Phil treatment.

Bumped: Ruth Rubin - recordings on ORIOLE