I’ve started thinking about my newsletter story for February. My inspiration this time is the Seekers song, The Carnival is Over.

When I looked up the lyrics to see if I’d remembered them correctly, I found out that Tom Springfield, who wrote the lyrics, had adapted a tune to a Russian song, written in the late nineteenth century, about a Cossack revolutionary and robber. In the original, the Cossack Stenka Razin is wedding a Persian princess, captured during a raid down through the Caspian Sea. After one night, his followers accuse him of allowing his woman to make him soft. So he picks her up and throws her into the Volga River in order to keep peace within his band.

What a chilling little tale as background to a lovely song!

See a video clip of the Seekers singing The Carnival is Over. For the original lyrics to the Stenka Razin song and a translation, scroll through the Wikipedia article, here.