December 30, 2010

"Boney M's Bobby Farrell dies on the same day and in the same town as Rasputin..."

"... the subject of one of the band's biggest hits."



Speaking of Boney M and death, I first heard of Boney M in the context of the near-death experience depicted in the movie "Touching the Void," where the memorable line is: "Bloody hell, I'm going to die to Boney M."

23 comments:

coketown said...

Oh my God! They're fantastic! Like negro Teletubbies!!! Look out iTunes, here I come!

michael farris said...

Do most Americans really now who they were? They were very big in Europe in the 70's but I don't remember them having any US hits.

My favorite of their songs were Ma Barker and Rivers of Babylon ... oh god, I just admitted I have favorite Boney M songs. I feel so dirty.

michael farris said...

Bahama Mama was fun too. I can't say I ever like Rasputin that much.

Anonymous said...

I don't have any opinions on Boney M., although I was familiar with this song, without knowing who had recorded it.

It would be interesting, though, to have a Rasputin thread. Michel Tournier dedicated his novel "The Ogre" to "the defamed memory of Starevitch Grigorii Yefimovitch Rasputin," murdered and slandered, according to Tournier, because of his opposition to WWI.

Big Mike said...

I liked their Christmas song.

Kevin said...

Boney M was hugely popular in the Soviet Union.

They still occasionally play "Rasputin" on the radio in Siberia (of course, Rasputin was the most famous Siberian of all time).

Kevin said...

...oh, and the last line of "Rasputin" is absolutely classic.

I still laugh when I hear it.

X said...

RIP Daddy Cool

Wince said...

Rasputin, was 47 when he his body was recovered from Neva River. He had drowned after being been poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and thrown in the river.

Coincidence?

ricpic said...

Charming? No. Grotesque. Only progressive white racists find entertainment and "amusement" in dreck, provided it's dreck dished by blacks.

MadisonMan said...

I hope he didn't die the same way Rasputin did.

The Crack Emcee said...

I was playing Led Zepplin's "South Bound Suarez" when I read the post and (being a Touching The Void fan) turned it down to hear "Rasputin". Big mistake. God, it's awful.

Oh well, it's also over.

Back to my world of superior-everything artsy.

dbp said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dbp said...

I am unfamiliar with any Boney M songs and in fact only became aware of their existence because a French post-doc in our lab had one of their albums by the lab's boombox.

Bruno, was flabbergasted that any American could be unaware of a group from their own country--when they were so popular that even most French knew of them.

Mr. D said...

I remember these guys. Never saw the videos back in the day, though. Late 70s were plenty weird. Another bit of strangeness from that era is "I Do the Rock" by Tim Curry.

Anonymous said...

"Rasputin, was 47 when he his body was recovered from Neva River. He had drowned after being been poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and thrown in the river."

About 30 years ago there was a item in the police blotter in our daily rag which described the condition of a corpse with the forensics almost exactly as above for ol' Gregori. The kicker was the last line of the item: "Police suspect foul play" Ya' think?

The Crack Emcee said...

dbp,

A French post-doc in our lab had one of their albums by the lab's boombox.

Bruno, was flabbergasted that any American could be unaware of a group from their own country--when they were so popular that even most French knew of them.


Wow - they were French and he died in the home of communism makes all the sense in the world:

My memories of "entertainment" in France's socialist hell hole is one of the reasons I have such a hard time sleeping today.

Clyde said...

White guys haven't been able to get away with wearing outfits like that since Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Clyde said...

Someone needs to do a photoshop composite of that picture of Farrell with the big 'fro and the picture of Rasputin with the big beard. That would be wack.

Matt Brown said...

I think the back-up singers stole my dog's food/water dishes, painted them gold, and wore them on their heads like hats.

Toad Trend said...

Allow me to register an 'Oh my God' as well.

Disco sucked, and still sucks.

I was there, in spirit, at Comiskey in 1979 for Disco Demolition night.

X said...

nobody is making any of you jackholes listen to Boney M against your will. you can go back to your ipod's regularly scheduled Kingston Trio, Cowsills, and Up With People.

Unknown said...

It wouldn't be completely true to say I didn't heard of them, but I must admit that I hardly heard their songs. I guess this is my loss that I'm going to catch up now. I checked few of their songs now at youtube and vaguely starting to remember them. Daddy Cool is pretty cool. :) I was shocked to see how much "views" they got. Many of their songs are close to the 20 mil. mark. Wow.
And about the death, it's one of those coincidences that conspiracy theorists like to think further. I'm not one of them and the information is noted as a strange fact.
Best wishes from Chris,
a Maritime Lawyer