Start Wearing Purple

"Start Wearing Purple" is a song by gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, written by frontman Eugene Hütz. The song was packaged as a double single along with "Sally", and released as the band's second single in February 2006. It appears on their third album Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike. This version is a re-recording of the initial one which was featured in the band's first album, 1999's Voi-La Intruder. It also appears in the soundtrack for the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated, in which Hütz stars as Alex.

Music video

The video starts with Hütz wearing ladies shoes, and singing and dancing in the streets. Then we see images of the band and lots of people dancing around, while consuming copious amounts of alcohol.

Lyrics

Hütz said in an interview, "It's one of the very few songs I wrote for a girl. I just moved in with my girlfriend in New York. We had a neighbour: an old woman who was always dressed in purple head to toe. She was clearly bonkers. So whenever my girlfriend and I had an argument and she would start screaming at me, I would say: you might as well start wearing purple now".^[1] In another interview, he stated that the song was written around 1995.

Start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...

So yeah, ha

Start wearing purple wearing purple (he)
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...

I know you since you where at twenty, and I was twenty,
but thought that some years from now
a purple little little lady would be perfect
for dirty old and useless clown...

So yeah, ha

Start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...

So yeah, I know it all from Diogenes to the Foucault
from Lozgechkin to Passepartout
I ja kljanus obossav dva paltza - chto ty!
shto muzyka poshla ot "zvukov moo"

Start wearing purple wearing purple (da da da da da)
Start wearing purple for me now

Start wearing purple for me now!

All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time...

So Vio-Vio-Violetta! Etta! Va-va-va-vaja dama ti moja!
Eh podayte nam karetu, vot etu, i mi poedem k ebenjam!

So yeah, ah start wearing purple wearing purple
Start wearing purple for me now
All your sanity and wits, they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time!...

Cover versions

• Covered live by Vernian Process

Notes