Like hell it was.
May 27, 2008
Communist band opens for Obama
'How many of 75,000 came to hear music?'
A hip rock band that features the Soviet national anthem and communist-inspired lyrics was on stage to open for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his record-breaking Portland, Ore., rally that attracted 75,000.
The Decemberists, a Portland-based group with a large local following, also closed the May 18 event.
The Decemberists typically begin their concerts with a Russian-language recording of the USSR's national anthem.
A YouTube video shows the Decemberists beginning an April 31, 2007, concert at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., with the anthem.
"Decemberists" refers to an uprising at Senate Square in St. Petersburg Dec. 14, 1825, when a group of Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in protest as Nicholas I assumed the throne, after Czar Alexander died without an heir.
The Decemberists have posed for publicity photos in period Russian costumes with the red flag of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 waving behind them.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=65510
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The Soviet National Anthem / Гимн СССР
English translation (of the 1977 version)
Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!
Through tempests the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,
Along the new path where great Lenin did lead.
To a righteous cause he raised up the peoples,
Inspired them to labour and valourous deed.
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!
In the victory of Communism's immortal ideal,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/sounds/lyrics/anthem.htm
From the Decemberists' website:
See May 16, 2008, "Decemberists to play Obama rally in Portland"
http://www.decemberists.com/news.aspx
YouTube video of Decemberists concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCCTe87IxfU
Quite ballsy actually.
Barky loved it.