"It Feels Good in America", song about emigration, recorded in 1949

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The song highlights the difference between life in America and life back home, in Europe. Unlike the songs that mention disappointment from the unfulfilled hopes in the United States, this piece shows work as a safeguard for higher economic status. America allows immigrants to lead a comfortable lifestyle, one of the attributes of which is a pocket watch. But the conflict of the song is built on the opposition of the wealth of the migrant and the poverty of his wife and children at home. Despite the economically comfortable life, there is a problem of emotional discomfort and a feeling of alienation from family and home.

Title:: “It Feels Good in America”, song about emigration, recorded in 1949
Source:: Recorded in 1949 in a village of Krushelnytsia, Skole district, from L.M., O.M., and T.M. Korchynsky.
Printed in:: Songs from Lviv area / Comp. by Yu.O.Korchynsky. Kyiv: Muzychna Ukrayina, 1988. 446 p.
Original language:: Ukrainian

It Feels Good in America

It feels good in America,
when you find a job around,
Then, you can dress well
And have a Saturday night out.

Your hands in the pockets,
and a fancy watch over there,
Wherever you look at it,–
There’s money to spare.

But I’m not happy,
to have all that coin,
when my woman and my kids
have it hard at home.

Oh my dear Lord,
I can’t help it,
I would fly back home,
but no wings take me.

I feel so much sad
all day and night along:
I have little joy
in my heart, no more.

Where are you staying,
my previous joy?
You stayed in my home land,
sitting on the stone.

You flourished by noon,
afterwards you faded,
all of my joy and cheer,
like a dew, did not make it.

There’s a birch tree on the hill,
swaying in the wind,
All of my joy is gone
writing a letter to send.

Taking pains to spell
writing like thin vine,
Whoever reads the note,
will not speak but cry.

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Image for The Great Migration of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: The Personal Experience of Eastern European Migrants in Folklore and Memories

The Great Migration of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: The Personal Experience of Eastern European Migrants in Folklore and Memories

The end of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century is known as the period of mass migration from Europe to other continents, when more than 55 million people changed their place of residence. In particular, this process captured the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, where a difficult economic situation, job shortages, and persecutions stirred various groups of the population to leave. Such groups included both Ukrainian and Polish peasants, and Jews from urban centers who were small-scale craftsmen or workers. Most often, they moved to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil, where labor was needed at factories or farms.

Worked on the material:

Research, comment: Vladyslava Moskalets
Translation into English: Svitlana Bregman

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“It Feels Good in America”, song about emigration, recorded in 1949

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Documents (7)

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Audio (3)

Related modules (1)

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