Genre: Folk Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs) Key: Am Tuning: aDGBD Difficulty: Intermediate
Posted by jeremywokka, updated: 1/20/2024
Download: PDF | PDF | GUITAR-PRO 5 | MIDI [Play] [Download] | MIDI [Play] [Download]
Notes: A Soviet folk song that became emblematic of the struggle against fascism in the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The lyrics tell the story of a Soviet woman who misses her beloved, keeping her love true to him while he fights for the motherland.
The Soviet BM-13 multi-rocket launcher was known as the Katyusha. (It was also known as "Stalin's Organ," because the word "organ" works for puns in Russian just as well as it does in English).
As this song is in the key of A minor, a non-standard tuning was necessary. However, after arranging it in aDGBD, I tried a different arrangement in gCFAD, and I cannot decide which one I like more. So I've included both, although only the first version contains the chord notations and the Russian lyrics transliterated for English speakers. (I've done my best on that front -- it's quite difficult because of the large phonemic differences between the languages, so if you're going to sing it I'd suggest checking out some of the many, many recordings on YouTube).
I'm sure someone will see my upload of a Russian song as grounds for an argument, but let's remember the words of a bluegrass legend about how music overcomes political and ideological divisions: "I can almost hear it now, when we pick the Wildwood flower // and Congress sings a good ole country song // Khrushchev wouldn't be so bad, Lord he wouldn't get so mad // if we let him bring his balalaika 'long" --Jimmy Martin
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