“Smoke of menthol cigarettes” vs “Your dress of chintz”. Who inspired whom?

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“Smoke of menthol cigarettes” vs “Your dress of chintz”. Who inspired whom?

#video #culture #Russia #Ukraine

06.07.2024

The melodies and lyrics of the two songs are so similar that the borrowing version seems unquestionable.

Mark Beygelzimer, PhD, systems analyst and project manager of the Trust but Verify project, looked into the situation.

Facts

The song “Smoke of Menthol Cigarettes” is a hit and the calling card of the pop-rock group “Nancy”. It became the title track of the group's first album, released in 1992. The frontman of the group, Anatoly Bondarenko, is officially recorded as the author of the music and lyrics.

“Your dress of chintz” is a Ukrainian romance of the early 20th century. The author of the music and poetry is unknown, so the romance is considered folk. In a waltz wedding version (“And I know another”), this romance was recorded in 1991 by the Ukrainian group “Barvi” [1].

“Smoke of menthol cigarettes”. Music and lyrics by Anatoly Bondarenko.
Performer is the band "Nensi". Source - NENSI MUSIC [2]

"Your dress of shintz". Ukrainian folk romance. Source - Volodymyr Khilko [3].

The English text below is a verbatim, not a literary translation of the Russian and Ukrainian poems

Smoke from menthol cigarettes
. Drunken stupor shakes.
You look into the eyes of another,
who caresses you.

And I found another,
Although I don’t love her, I kiss her.
And when I hug her,
I still think about you.

Your lips are like poppies,
You wear a dress according to fashion.
You will give yourself away to him,
but you don’t want to know me.

And I found another,
Although I don’t love her, I kiss her.
And when I hug her,
I still think about you.

Tomorrow I'll be at home,
Tomorrow I'll be drunk.
But I will never forget
how I touched my cheek with my lips.

And I found another,
Although I don’t love her, I kiss her.
And when I hug her,
I still think about you

Better forgive me,
Leave me and come back to me,
Sorry for leaving with someone else,
Sorry for leaving you too.

And I found another,
Although I don’t love her, I kiss her.
And when I hug her,
I still think about you.

Your dress of chintz
I dream about at night.
My mother won’t allow
me to marry you

And I know someone else,
I don’t even like her, but I kiss her.
When I embrace them,
I remember only one for you

Your lips are poppies,
your smile is clearer than the sun.
You don’t want to love me,
well, you want to be friends with me.

And I know someone else,
I don’t even like her, but I kiss her.
When I embrace them,
I remember only one for you.

Soon you will find
yourself surrounded by family.
You won’t remember about me,
you’ll forget about me.

And I know someone else
, I don’t want to love her, but I kiss her.
When I embrace them,
I remember only one for you.

The girl came out,
gave her heart to another.
And my heart’s wounds
cannot be healed by anyone.

And I know someone else,
I don’t even like her, but I kiss her.
When I embrace them,
I remember only one for you.

Anatoly Bondarenko himself does not hide the fact of borrowing: “Back in 1995, I explained everything to Ivan Demidov on the ORT channel in the MuzOboz program! That I am the co-author of the song and the creator of the turnkey hit! I finalized the lyrics, changed the music by 75%, and completely rewrote parts of the hit. The soundtrack is 100% mine! This romance was sung even before the 1917 revolution! In our case, this is a re-release of the song for the 1990s” [4].

Conclusion

The Nancy group borrowed the composition from the Ukrainian people.

Information sources

1. Channel I want to sleep. https://youtu.be/Fo5hg24-JfY

2. NENSI MUSIC, January 28, 2013.https://youtu.be/F8ZnJ7DhWW0

3. Channel Volodymyr Khilko. https://youtu.be/0m9BuPAHGXM

4. Menthol and chintz. The story of the group's main hit "Nancy".https://dzen.ru/a/XajotDXKMQCsPcAB

Cover image: source - Dzen

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