It's nearly impossible to walk anywhere around the city centre in Moscow without seeing/hearing street musicians, aka buskers. Their favourite spots are plazas/malls and pedestrian walkways, and they're usually accompanied by over-zealous friends who almost chase after you, begging for contributions to be placed in disturbingly dirty hats. It's possible to be harrassed for your cash even when there is no music forthcoming, so I decided to write a song about these characters. Here it is:

The Buskovite – by Sandy Higgs

Notes:
Perekhod = pedestrian underpass
Roublyay = plural of rouble
Dyengi = money
(Sung in an appropriately Russian folk-ballady style, ie mostly sad, but gets more upbeat in the bridge)

I am the Moscow busker
I sing a sad refrain
Just stop awhile and I will try
To make you feel my pain
I’m singing in a minor key, I find it works the best
At keeping you depressed

I am the Moscow busker
I’m in the perekhod
I like the reverb in here
But I find it very odd
Some people will not linger, they just hurry on their way
Without dropping roublyay

Bridge
So I’ve got two friends to help me
Accost the passers-by
“Give money to the muso”
Is their repetitious cry
They’re pushy, they’ll get in your face
And they won’t give a shit, After all…
It’s now a 3-way split

I am the Moscow busker
Now please don’t get me wrong
I don’t care if you don’t like it
Or don’t even know the song
It’s dyengi that I’m after, and what you’ve got I’ll take
Even when I’m on a break

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