Grechka – Picture
About an unreachable goal or an unattainable desire. Something beautiful that will never be yours, or worse. As in this case with Гречка (or Grechka), which means buckwheat. Maybe that’s why she can’t achieve it.
Prikrasnaja kartina
A картина can be anything – an image, a photo, or a painting. “Picture” should cover it all, but Grechka still can’t reach it.
In the opening verse, it’s already mentioned that между нами дождь, и расстояние: between us, there is rain and distance. It doesn’t get much better in the chorus: Ты прекрасная картина, которой не увижу я: you are a beautiful picture that I will not see. Yet she knows it’s beautiful. And out of reach, above all. What will never happen (то, что никогда не произойдёт) is you and me (это ты и я).
Poor Гречка (buckwheat).
Studio version on
YouTube and
Spotify; this is in the studio at Авторадио (2019).
From Мы будто персонажи (We Are Like Characters), 2018.
Lyrics
There is also a
live version (with poor sound, 2017) and a
minute from the kitchen (2018).
Chords available on
5lad.ru and
mychords.net – spot the differences.
More about and from Гречка (born 2000) on Instagram, Spotify, VK, and Wikipedia (RU).
Corona
As a promoted footnote: at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, buckwheat (along with toilet paper) became a sought-after item in Russia. In the video below, Anna Strelkovskaia (
Russian from Russia) explains Russia’s love for buckwheat (гречка), and “why it’s one of the first things people stockpile when a crisis is coming.”
Toilet paper will always remain a mystery. Buckwheat and toilet paper at a low point in
Genius Russian YouTuber Spreads Coronavirus (March 11, 2020) from the outspoken NFKRZ.
Most of the music here is also in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of release).
See also
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
