Notes
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(1) "07" = long-distance telephone call. Vysotsky and his (last) wife, 
also an actress (and a foreign one to boot, albeit of Russian descent), 
had to spend most of their time apart, in different cities.

(2) "Life is as pretty and sweet as a rose" is a very loose paraphrase 
of the Mayakovsky quote used in the original. The opponent's name should 
be pronounced Russian-style ("buh-REES bood-KEH-yev").

(3) The first two verses refer to the mythical story of Antaeus, son 
of the Earth goddess, Gaia. Hercules fought him, and ran into trouble -- 
because Antaeus kept drawing strength from her, via his feet. Eventually, 
Hercules realized this, so he lifted him up and strangled him in mid-air.

(4) In the original, the last two lines are (almost exactly) the first 
two lines of an extremely well-known (to Russians) poem by Pushkin. (One 
correspondent has suggested fully anglicising this song by replacing "Blok" 
and "Balmont" with "Blake" and "Byron" -- and also, presumably, "three 
roubles" with, say, "ten dollars" -- but I'll leave it as is, for now.)
 
(5) From a 1979 NYC (or Toronto?) concert. The last two songs were 
performed in their entirety; for three of the other five, I've added 
translations of the missing verses (in italics).

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