The Russian bard
When it comes to introducing Vladimir Vysockij to a Western audience, there often is a strategy of namedropping and comparisons. Depending on the point of view, he is said to be the Russian Serge Gainsbourg, the Russian Paolo Conte, the Russian Leonard Cohen, or - why not? - the Russian Tom Waits (at least his voice can sound rough enough for justifying this comparison). But all these references do not do away with the necessity to listen to Vysockij - he is a phenomenon beyond comparison.
Most of the Vysockij recordings were circulating in the samizdat, most of them recorded and copied with amateur equipment. The merit of the album Natjanutyj Kanat, which I posted here, is that it provides excellent recordings and great band arrangements - these recordings were made in 1979 by Virgin France, and the two last tracks on it are sung in French as well.
Tracklist:
1. Dialog U Televizora (Dialogue Near TV)
2. Protopi Ti Mne Banku Po Belomu (Heat Me the Bathhouse Without Smoke)
3. Ballada O Pravde I Lzhi (Ballad About Truth and Lie)
4. Kanatohodec (Rope-Walker)
5. Ballada O Detstve (Ballad About Childhood)
6. Dve Sudbi (Two Destinys)
7. Tot, Kto Ranshe S Neu Bil (That, Who Was with Her Before)
8. Beg Inokhodca (Run of Ambler)
9. Na Bolshom Karetnom (On Big Karetniy)
10. Rien Ne Va, Plus Rien Ne Va
11. La Fin du Bal
For more information about Vysockij see here:
The English Wikipedia says about him:
"Vladimir Vysotsky was born in . His father was an army officer and his mother a translator. His parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he was brought up by his stepmother of descent, whom he called "aunt" Yevgenia. He spent two years of his childhood living with his father and stepmother at a military base in in the Soviet-occupied section of post- (later ). In , Vladimir enrolled in the , but dropped out after just one semester to pursue an acting career. In , he started acting at the where he had mostly small parts.
Vysotsky's first wife was Iza Zhukova. He met his second wife, , in . They were married in and had two sons, Arkady and Nikita.
In , on invitation from director , who was to become his close friend and mentor, he joined the popular . He made headlines with his leading roles in 's and 's . Around the same time, he also appeared in several films, which featured a few of his songs, e.g., ("The Vertical"), a film about . Most of Vysotsky's work from that period, however, did not get official recognition and thus no contracts from , the monopolist of the Soviet recording industry. Nevertheless, his popularity continued to grow, as, with the advent of portable tape-recorders in the USSR, his music became available to the masses in the form of home-made reel-to-reel audio tape recordings, and later on cassette tapes. He became known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which incorporated social and political commentary into often humorous street vocabulary. His lyrics resonated with millions of Soviet people in every corner of the country; his songs were sung at house parties and amateur concerts.
After his divorce, Vysotsky fell in love with , a French actress of Russian descent, who was working at on a joint Soviet-French production at that time. Marina had been married before and had 3 children, while Vladimir had two. Fueled by Marina's exotic status as a Frenchwoman in the USSR, and Vladimir's unmatched popularity in his country, their love was passionate and impulsive. They were married in . For 10 years the two maintained a long-distance relationship as Marina compromised her career in France in order to spend more time in Moscow, and Vladimir's friends pulled strings in order for him to be allowed to travel abroad to stay with his wife. Marina eventually joined the Communist Party of France, which essentially gave her an unlimited-entry visa into the USSR, and provided Vladimir with some immunity against prosecution by the government, which was becoming weary of his covertly anti-Soviet lyrics and his odds-defying popularity with the masses. The problems of his long-distance relationship with Vlady inspired several of Vysotsky's songs.
By the mid-1970s, Vysotsky had been suffering from for quite some time. Many of his songs from the period deal – either directly or metaphorically – with alcoholism, insanity, mania, and obsessions. This was also the height of his popularity, when, as described in Vlady's book about her husband, walking down the street on a summer night, one could hear Vystotsky's recognizable voice coming literally from every open window. Unable to completely ignore his musical phenomenon, did release a few of his songs on vinyl in the late 1970s, which, however, constituted only a small portion of his creative work, which millions already owned on tape and knew by heart.
At the same time, Vysotsky gained official recognition as a theater and film actor. He starred in a hugely popular TV series about two cops fighting crime in late 1940s Stalinist Russia. In spite of his successful acting career, Vysotsky continued to make a living with his concert tours across the country, often on a compulsive binge-like schedule, which, it is believed, contributed to the deterioration of his health. He died in Moscow at the age of 42 of heart failure, which was possibly triggered by his drinking habit. [...]
The poet accompanied himself on a , with an intense voice singing ballads of love, peace, war, and everyday Soviet life. He had the ring of honesty and truth, with an ironic and sometimes sarcastic touch that jabbed at the Soviet government, which made him a target for surveillance and threats. In , he has been compared with French singer . In Russia, however, he was more frequently compared with , in part because they were the same age and died in the same year; however, their ideologies, biographies, and musical styles are very different. Vysotsky's lyrics and style greatly influenced , a songwriter and singer who touched on similar themes.
The songs—over 600 of them—were written about almost any imaginable theme. The earliest were . These songs were based either on the life of the common people in Moscow (criminal life, prostitution, and extreme drinking) or on life in the . Vysotsky slowly grew out of this phase and started singing more serious, though often satirical, songs. Many of these songs were about war. These were not written to glorify war, but rather to expose the listener to the emotions of those in extreme, life threatening situations. Most Soviet veterans would say that Vysotsky's war songs described the truth of war far more accurately than more official "patriotic" songs.
Nearly all of Vysotsky's songs are in the first person, although he is almost never the narrator. When singing his criminal songs, he would adopt the accent and intonation of a Moscow thief, and when singing war songs, he would sing from the point of view of a soldier. In many of his philosophical songs, he adopted the role of inanimate objects. This created some confusion about Vysotsky's background, especially during the early years when information could not be passed around very easily. Using his acting talent, the poet performed his role play so well that until told otherwise, many of his fans believed that he was, indeed, a criminal or war veteran. Vysotsky's father said that "War participants thought the author of the songs to be one of them, as if he had participated in the war together with them." The same could be said about mountain climbers; on multiple occasions, Vysotsky was sent pictures of mountain climbers' graves with quotes from his lyrics etched on the tombstones.
Many film soundtracks, especially those featuring the singer, incorporated Vysotsky's songs. One of the most notable examples is .
Not being officially recognized as a poet and singer, Vysotsky performed wherever and whenever he could - in the theater (where he worked), at universities, in private apartments, village clubs, and in the open air. It was not unusual for him to give several concerts in one day. He used to sleep little, using the night hours to write. In his final years, he managed to perform outside the USSR and held concerts in , , and .
Despite Vysotsky's anti-establishment bend, The Soviet leader Brezhnev (who was alleged to be a fan of Vysotsky, himself) allowed Vysotsky to perform live on Soviet television. This was the first time something or someone so cynical towards the regime was allowed on Soviet TV. One of the songs he played was "I do not like," which he would later perform on American television in an interview with 60 Minutes.
With few exceptions, he wasn't allowed to publish his recordings with "", which held a monopoly on the music industry. His songs were passed on through amateur, fairly low quality recordings on vinyl discs and magnetic tape, resulting in his immense popularity. even took his music on cassette into orbit. [...] "
Link:Â Â (58 MB; mp3; 192 kb/s)
