whyvern

close [x]

"Soldiers aren't born... they just fucking die."

Ever since my friend died, I think about this song alot. We used to sing it on the porch of this one punk house together all the time.

He was from the Ukraine and we bonded over a shared love of Soviet Punk... something which is apparently pretty rare for Americans to have. I took 8 years of Russian in school and was pretty eager to practice my Russian with him. So we became really good friends over a shared language, shared musical taste and many many cases of Stroh's Beer.

When we found out that Egor Letov died, all the punks drank a beer. No matter how much he ended up sucking in the end of his life he still did a lot for punks everywhere. It's really inspiring to think that someone can travel through the Soviet underground play these songs of resistance and stay punk even after the KGB sends you to a mental institution then it puts our problems as American punks into perspective for sure. Ya it sucks that the cops keep evicting our friends and people get busted for shit all the time, but damn, none of us will ever have to be tortured for being a punk. I guess you could argue that the police brutality that we're all subject to for just living and being freaks might be torture, but it pails in comparison to what the fucking KGB would do to us. People like Egor Letov, the punks of Medillin, Columbia and the punks in Khatmandu, Nepal have always been really inspiring to me. Knowing that we're not the only ones out there helps me stay punk and be proud that I'm a punk. We talked about punk all over the world, and then we started singing. Me and Andrew sang 'Soldatami Nje Rozhdajucza' as loud as we could. I wonder what Egor Letov would have thought of us. A Ukrainian and American punk singing his song, together in the belly of the American Conservative Consumerist Empire that we've all fought so hard against. It was one of those moments in my life that was truely beautiful. Not just the song; the whole setting. Surrounded by friends, Lookout Mountain looming in the background, the city lights of Chattanooga as bright and daunting as ever, and the fucking Moon, the brightest moon that entire Winter.

I think about that whenever I hear this song. It's so loaded. Mostly though, I think about Andrew and then I think about the war that we're all fighting now, the war than Andrew taught me so much about.

The fascists are gaining ground now and....

SOLDIERS AREN'T BORN / THEY JUST FUCKING DIE.