Blog
Voices: Moscow, Vladimir Visotsky
Written by Moscow - Pavel
This is Abubilla Music on voices, providing some or our favourite Visotsky songs (and a couple influences) . Pavel will jump in and correct us, but then he would have to write a blog wouldn’t he?
First, sources. Here’s a great source on History of Russian Rock and on History of Samizdat Folk Songs. We quickly decided to cover a couple songs from Poland as well, as the protest music spread throughout Soviet Union and Eastern Music. Like Samizdat literature, Samizdat (essentially underground) music was a protest against the Soviet control of art and the government’s notion of social realism. The idea was to tell it like it is and as a result the artists were driven underground and relentless persecuted as dissidents. Vysotksy was a bit different though and while the Soviets never let him be pulished (his songs were spread around underground) they didn’t persecute him fully – and Russians celebrated his death, when he died during the Moscow Olympics in 1980. So with that, here’s a couple songs and the places these songs take you as you explore:
1. Vladimir Vysotsky (voice of Russian samizdat), Comrade Stalin:
2. Jacek Kaczmarski (Considered the Voice of Solidarity Movement), Mury. He based a lot of his work on Visotsky, who became the grandfarther of Solidarity in a way.
Covered by Habukuk. Vladimir was heavily influenced by Jacek who was playing similar protest songs. Mury means ‘Walls.’
So Habukuk, who cover Walls above, is a popular Polish Reggae band. So let’s included another song, which is a bit like UB40:
3. Высоцкий – В сон мне желтые огни. Absolutely love this:
4. Visotsky, I Don’t Love You
5. Georges Brassens, Les Passantes. They often compare Vladimir to Georges – so you can do…
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Well, there you go.
Jimmy