Can you guess the lyrics to the Soviet March theme?
The Russian Lyrics in Red Alert 3
by Nick Laviers, Red Alert 3 Audio Director
I wrote a short section in my previous blog on the Red Alert 3 libretto (or lyrics). Since we released the game we’ve noticed a lot of discussion on YouTube on what the lyrics actually mean, especially by Russian players!
Check out these YouTube videos to revel in the mystery of the Soviet March theme lyrics before I reveal it below!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lDQ7hXMLxGc
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=798HhYw1TQs
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rda1Uq9ATig
So, this post is to explain in more detail the meaning of the lyrics and how we went about recording them to sound authentic.
We decided that the best way of representing the Soviets musically was to use a male voice ‘Cossack’ choir. As many of the Russian listeners of the game picked-up-on this was not a bunch of Cossacks but in fact a San Francisco based choir (see video above), although they did frequently sing in Russian (in fact they had been performing in a Russian opera the night before we recorded). There are many reasons why we didn’t choose to go with native Russian singers, time and cost were definitely two of the main ones, but with the choir we had we were very keen to get the singing as authentic as possible. The keys to this were writing a set of Red Alert 3 themed lyrics in Russian and using a Russian translator at the session to ensure that the pronunciation of the lyrics could be understood. The Command and Conquer team are a very cosmopolitan crew and we have Russian people in our number! So writing a set of RA3 themed Russian lyrics wasn’t as difficult as you might think! The lyrics were written first in English by one of our producers Greg Kasavin (also responsible for many of our ingenious unit profiles in the factions section). Once we’d ensured the lyrics were silly enough, he then took them to his dad who translated them into Russian. The lyrics were primarily written to be used on our main theme the ‘Soviet March’ but snippets can be heard on many of the other Soviet-themed tracks including Frank’s ‘Hell March 3’ and ‘Grinder 2’.
Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March
Наш Coветский Союз покоряет весь мир
Как огромный медведь на Востоке.
Овцы бродят безцельно, без всяких забот
А Советский медведь на охоте.
Наше братство - хорошая жизнь,
Наша щедрость ни с чем не сравнится.
Все кто с нами - сильны
Все кто против, держись
Чтоб нам всем не пришлось потрудится.
Все народы, не стоит того
Что бы мы превратили вас в пепел.
Благодарны вам, низкий поклон,
От самой могущеcтвенной nation.
Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March – Literal translation from the Russian
Our Soviet Union subjugates the whole world
Like a gigantic bear from the East.
The sheep wander aimlessly, without any cause,
Yet the Soviet bear's on the hunt.
Our brotherhood's a good life, Our generosity is without compare.
All those with us are strong,
All those against us, beware.
It'd be a shame if we had hardships.
To all those around us, it's not worth your while
If we were to turn you to ashes.
We thank you profoundly, and bow to you deeply,
From the mightiest nation in all the world.
It’s a shame to post this and put an end to all the speculation and discussion on what the lyrics actually mean. But if you still want a challenge maybe you can all try and work out which snippets of this we used in all the other Soviet tunes in the game! OR you could start trying to decipher the Japanese faction lyrics. Maybe I’ll post on that next.
To close, I thought people might be interested in seeing a snippet of the music we gave the choir to sing. For this purpose we used a phonetic version of the Russian which was also written by Greg’s dad.
