A Cheerful Mortuarial (Веселая покойницкая)
"A Cheerful Mortuarial", Vladimir Vysotsky, USSR, 1970 Vysotsky had many topics that focused on certain themes, and death is no exception. The topic of death is treated very ironically sweetly in this song: indeed, the very title means that this is a cheerful song about the deceased. Furthermore, in this particular performance, Vysotsky adopts a soft, higher-pitched, almost cloying tone of voice, giving a lightness to his words that contrasts with the morbid topic. And indeed, this is a morbid song. Vysotsky begins by talking about how, no matter what your mode of transportation is, it's hard to live life through to the end in this modern abundance of cars. He then describes an accident where three, traveling (presumably in a hearse) to intern someone, crashed and were mangled: only the deceased escaped injury. At the funeral, hired women weep through clenched teeth, the deacon misses high notes, and the copper trumpets play the wrong notes - again, the only one that doesn't slip up is the deceased. A former boss (presumably of the deceased), who is secretly a rogue, kisses the deceased's forehead and spits in disgust. Everyone kisses each other... except, once again, the deceased, who never kisses anyone back. Thunder crashes, and presumably it begins to rain (can't be helped, the forces of nature don't care about speeches). Everyone scatters for cover under slabs and roofs... except, once again, for the deceased. An obvious pattern has emerged in this song: at the funeral of the deceased, all sorts of things go wrong, all sorts of mishaps and mayhem occur, and everyone's affected in some way by the silly trivialities of life... everyone, except for the deceased (every stanza ends with some variation of this line). Instead of continuing to detail this funeral, Vysotsky moves into the second stage of his song, where he praises the deceased way of life and uses it to comment on our own lives. He now expands on this topic of the deceased being unaffected: indeed, what is rain to our deceased? He's no worse off for it. Vysotsky sardonically criticizes the living for not being as toughened as the dead: the deceased, those former people, are brave people, and we're no match for them! No matter how we rush, "sticky labels surpass [us], like a mark on [our] forehead[s]" (that is, our reputations precede us, gossip surpasses us, etc.). But when you're in a oaken coffin, nothing troubles you. Separate coffins, shared coffins - it matters not: the housing problem doesn't concern the dead. Indeed, this very same deceased is quite the fine fellow: he doesn't demand any extra effort! In the afterlife, the "kingdom of shadows" - there's no danger or anxieties - but in our lives, we're all in God's hands, anything can happen - only the dead are exempt. In this second stage of the song, Vysotsky has seemingly constantly glorified death, where all anxieties and troubles are gone, and societal problems cease to exist. Vysotsky hears those who say "He glorifies the deceased!" and replies "Oh no, I'm in resentment towards our fate." In other words, the praise for death is just a tool to express his frustrations with the fate of the living: after all, some day, we'll all be run over by someone... again, with the exception of those, who are in a coffin. The last verse in this performance of the song, according to v-vissotsky.ru, is only present in the original performance of this song: Vysotsky turns further towards the morbid: he states that massacres work briskly and reliably: they're always ready when you need them. Therefore, everyone's potentially a deceased person... again, with the exception, of those who already are! The motif of this song (the final lines to many of the stanzas being statements that essentially say "the dead don't have to deal with this") is clear. I will leave further interpretation open, although I will say this: Vysotsky's other songs about death are also mostly cheerful and light-hearted: his "Song about the transmigration of souls" / "Song about reincarnation" and "My funeral, or the scary dream of a very brave person" are worth listens if you find this light-hearted treatment of death to be fascinating. As stated in the video, some alternate titles are: «Про покойника» ("Proh pohkoyneekah") - "About deceased" / "About A Deceased Person" «Веселая кладбищенская» ("Vyesyolahya klahdbeeshyenskaya") - "Cheerful cemetary" / "Cheerful Cemetary" «Об аварии» ("Ohb ahvahree") - "About accident" / "About an Accident"
