RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on...
Sounds familiar? Only a handful of songs can claim to have survived the ravages of time and retained its original fame, especially with the onslaught of new bands and emerging trends in music, and Rasputin by the Boney-M tops the list. Maizie Williams, one of the original four member Boney M troupe, is in town for the week and spoke to ‘Express’ on Wednesday. “This Valentine’s Day, I will be performing in Kochi. I recently performed at Chennai and I look forward to the experience here. The audience turnout and the hospitality has all been great. It is very gratifying when you still receive appreciation for a piece even after all these decades,” said Maizie Williams, on whom the decades seem to have sat lightly.
As sprightly as she was during the peak of the pop disco band’s fame, Maizie says that their songs are still a huge draw in this age of EDM madness. “Our songs have a bit of everything from blues, rock, pop and what name you. They have the beats that the youth like so much. Even so, we have some remixes and introduced some electronic grooves into some songs to vamp it up and make it more jumpy,” she said.
The group had disbanded in 1986 and the original members had all gone their separate ways. Williams had started performing with her troupe under the outfit Boney M feat Maizie Williams. When asked whether there is a chance to see the remaining members get together for another gig, she smiles. “I don’t know. No one knows what will happen in the future I do not have an answer for that at this point. It would be nice though. Liz is touring and Marcia is doing shows with her husband who is also a musician,” she said. Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett are the other two original members of the band. “As the original members of the band, we have had the privilege to have done well with the name Boney M,” she added.
She gave us a sneak view of the songs that can be expected at her performance. “I will be playing ‘Daddy Cool’, ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ and ‘Rasputin’ among several other hit numbers. There will be ‘Rivers of Babylon’ of course,” she says, laughing.
Among all the hit numbers, ‘Rasputin’ is the one that would have the most emotional resonance for the pop star. Apart from growing into one off their biggest hits over the years, their band member Bobby Farrell died mysteriously on the same day and same place as the subject of their song. ‘Rasputin’ was a Russian monk and one of the most scandalous figures in Russian history, who was claimed to have mystic powers of healing. “What happened to Bobby was very unusual. He still remains alive in our hearts. I have done a solo for him as a tribute. But when I perform a song and when I get emotional about Bobby, it is ‘Rivers of Babylon’,” said Maizie.
She will be doing new songs as a solo performance, but not as Boney M. “If you can’t better what you have already done, better not touch it. I am not saying its not possible. Someone could come up with a new song for Boney M. But I believe when you have done the best, then it is better to leave it alone. If all the original members were together may be something new could have come up in the name of Boney M,” she said.
She reminisces the decades spent as a performer after the original Boney M disbanded. “It has been one big adventure in a lot of wonderful ways. You have the ups and downs throughout the years. We have had a wonderful career, a blessed one, with God’s grace. We just keep doing what we enjoy,” she said.
“We will go back to UK after the show in Kochi. Afterwards, we will be going to places like Russia. But we hope to come back to India someday for a larger tour,” she said.
What has changed with the audience? “We have our fans from the 70’s and then there is their children and their children,” she says.