Vladimir Visotsky - aka, the Russian Tom Waits

I ended up doing a presentation on Vysotsky and all his little барды chums while I was at uni. Pretty interesting guy by all accounts. He was an actor by trade, appearing at the experimental Tanganka theatre and doing a bloody good job of being Hamlet apparently. The music was a bit of a sideline for him, but that's ended up being his legacy. Nonetheless, VV is so incredibly classic it's unreal. Hooray for seven-string guitars and roaring alcoholism!!

Oh, seriously. I played some of the Vladimir at my 21st birthday party, and it went quite well, o my brothers. Especially the song about how drunk he was yesterday, "Oi, Gde Ya Bil Vchera"

yeah my politologia teahcer in moscow used to tell bad ass tales of passing round samizdat cassette of visotskys stuff back in the day.
He is liek the prototype growling, pissed, and pissed off russian troubadour dude. his successor i think is widely believed to be Victor Tsoi, the lead singer of the band Kino, who were rockin the 80's, so maybe you should check out their stufff. should be easy to get on slsk or whatever...they are suyper huge in russia even now, like fucking massive. if you go to the arbat in moscow, there is one huge wall full of tributes to queen/freddie mercury (hmmm did they not work out he was gay!?), and another dedicated to Victor Tsoi. If you use ?????? ??? ???? as a search term in google that should bring up some stuff, albeit probably in Russian. maybe add mp3 or something.

Anyway, so yeah Visotsky, dont really know that much bout him. but his growly voice thing stems from a russian tradition of barked/shouted (usually pissed) folk tale 'singing' - which russians sometimes consider their own 'russkii rap', theres a name for this tradition, but i cant for the life of me remember it. helpful, moi?

I've checked out some of Kino's stuff, I like them all right. Apparently Tsoi became a legend in the country after a tragic untimely death (car crash?). As for Queen, it seems to be a Russian obsession. My mom was all about him (knowing full well he was gay) and I think being decadent and flamboyant was what made Queen popular in a country that saw little of either in the 70s under Brezhnev.

I wonder if Marc Almond covered anything by him on his recent Russian album, I'll have to double check.

Mmm... not too sure 'bout that Almond connexion, tho.

As per Võssotski, I must still have a half-dozen of his vynils somewhere, but haven't listened to them for at least twenty years or thereabouts.

Queen is huge all over Europe. I don't think it's about decadence/flamboyance as subversion so much as the weaker "authentic" rock tradition--Queen brings a more cabaret aesthetic, which they are very comfortable with.

Tom Waits is huge in RUssia as well, at least he was a few years ago. Clearly perceived as a bard, though there's a theatrical element there as well that must be appealing ot them. Vysotsky had no interest in exploring different musical styles as Waits does.

if he were the russian tom waits, wouldn't that imply that knowing russian was fairly integral to appreciating him? (as with jacques brel and french.)

I don't know how people who don't know Russian could listen to Vysotsky. It would be much less rewarding than Waits with no English. He's a bard, pure and simple--guitar and voice, text is everything.

"Russian Dance" off of The Black Rider=Tom Waits is the Russian Tom Waits.

(actually, to answer amateur!st, that track is almost entirely instrumental but it still sounds like Tom Waits)

Except TW's dubious vocal mannerisms, there is no comparision between Waits and Vysotsky. It is Veronika Dolina who is the actual living successor to the classic Soviet era bard tradition. This is the understanding in most bard circles and probably correct.

A bard is a singing poet, not necessary a singer/songwriter. To western ears, the music is heard as song, and they are songs in one sense. To someone who understands the Russian language the end result of bard is something quite different. The songs are heard as poetry. Cultural semantics? Maybe.

One Russian bard now living in the US who follows this tradition is Julia Vorontsova. She is on the new WFMU comp & worth checking out.

VG

It wasn't mean to be an actual comparison; I agree with you that it wouldn't work. It was more to provide a reference point for anyone who wasn't Russian and/or informed in the bardic tradition. Thanks for the tip about Vorontsova, though!

Advancement table:
Level From To
1 Rhymer 0 2000
2 Lyrist 2001 4000
3 Sonnateer 4001 8000
4 Skald 8001 16000
5 Racaraide 16001 25000
6 Joungleur 25001 40000
7 Troubadour 40001 60000
8 Minstrel 60001 85000
9 Muse 85001 100000
10 Lorist 110001 150000
11 Bard 150001 200000
12 Master Bard 200001 400000
13 400001 600000
14 600001 800000
15 800001 1000000
16 1000001 1200000
17 1200001 1400000
18 1400001 1600000
19 1600001 1800000
20 1800001 2000000
21 2000001 2200000
22 2200001 3000000
23 3000001 Over

The textual context is paramount indeed, probably more important than the music. So many of the bards seem to approach the guitar in the most languid of manner, almost to the point of complete abjection.

The cultural sterotype is then that every Russian who can strum a few chords on the guitar and has a campfire going (plus a few drinks in em') can probably perform an Okudjava poem or two.

Sort of the beauty of the form I guess...

vg

not to sidetrack completely, but i got a similar impression from kan mikami. i mean, i enjoy his work, but with pretty severe limits that i suspect would dissolve if i spoke japanese.

Vysotsky has also appeared in a bunch of films, starred in a hit TV serial about detectives, and married French actress Marina Vladi. That last point is significant: he has recorded some songs with a French backup band that actually place him in a more recognizable (for Western listeners) "chansonier" context. He even does two songs in an amazing, accented French; one of these, Le Vol Arrete, is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Viktor Tsoi has nothing to do with VV; sure, he's comparably famous, but that's about it. Tsoi was the leader of a Smiths- and Cure-inspired 80s band. (To some ears, they also sound like the Church; Tsoi's voice is reminiscent of no one so much as Richard Butler). Tsoi was half-Korean, with distinctly Asian features, and cultivated an interestng image: it was an equal mix betwen Robert Smith and Bruce Lee. His main fans are Russian goth kids, whose name is legion.

Hi. I'm Russian and the first time i heard Tom Waits i automatically thought Visotski. I'd say he's the best lyricist, i'd learn russian just to understand his stuff. I also think that a lot of his songs (faster ones) are very much like rap. He uses a lot of grammer and words, making some up, that are very reminiscent of how rappers tell their storys. Anyway, he rocks. I was acctually just transfering a treasured visotski album to a CD. The album i think is just called "Songs", released after his death in 1981. But darnit, i think 2 or 3 songs had skips and in the end the quality was hissy.

Try these songs also: (the first 3 are from the studio album i got, but theyre are also acaustic live versions a plenty)

A Summit (the studio version is.. MAN!)

Song of a Friend (Pesna O Druge) This song is famous to little kids cuz it was sampled in a famous Russian cartoon with a wolf and rabbit duo.

Lyric Song (Lyrechiskaya)

Oy Van' Smotri (Oy Van, Look!) I knew this song as a little kid cuz the main characters name is Vana/Van' same as me. Vana is also Evan and Ivan and John and Johan.

Tovarichi utchenye ( (one i just downloaded and fell in love with)

Get as much as you can pretty much, all his songs are awsome. He's very famous in Russia and there's no other song writer/muscician like him. I really think his lyrics and songs are one of the most clever and emotional. And he's so damn funny.

PS. I try to bump as much Visotsky as possible.

About having to understand Russian to appreciate Visotsky. He's such a good preformer that his performance alone is enough to blow you away. There's a lot of bands and artists that don't understand the words because i don't know their language and it doesn't make it less enjoyable for me; but that's just me. Examples are: PUffy AmiYumi(Japanese), Guitar Wolf (Japanese), Yeves Montand (French), Hannes Vader(German), Sigur Ros (Icelandik?) etc.

I'm a strong believer, too, of using other culture's music to open your mind to what's out in the world. You kinda get to feel what people in another country feel, and the music also reflects the enviorment that it was made in to a certain extent.

My overall point is that if the artist kicks enough @$$ like Visotski definetly does it's definetly not a waste of time giving anything a try even you can't understand the words. It's like... you can still recognize SKILL in music of other countries wether it by vocal skill or the playing of the instruments, we're not imune to good music just cuz we can't understand it. Chyee Chyee.

And with the first post i agree Miska e. is a great song, it's halarious too, very very funny, another i just downloaded.

HAppy Thanksgiving Everyone.

It could be a common misconception that ALL of Visotsky's song are just his voice and guitar. He made many songs with the Russian record label Melodia wich was a Monopoly in Russian during Soviet times. And these studio kick ass, trust me. Check these out if you can find them, they all have a full band some were even recorded in stereo.:

Kozla Atpuchenya - About of goat.
Song of a Friend (Pesnya O Druge)
07
Ships (Karabli)
He Didn't Come Back from the Battle - I've found 2 different studio versions.
Morning Gymnastics (Zaryadka)
A Summit
Movin of Souls - This song s one of my all time favorites of his.
Moscow, Odessa - I know there are acaustic versions of this, the studio one is awsome!.
Sons Leaving to Battle
Scary Dream/"(My)Gypsy Song" - Another favorite.
Rodniki (~Loved Ones,)
Hunting Wolves (Ahota Na Volkov) - How's that for a Radiohead-type title. Feel me?
Cliffclimber
Farewell to Mountains
Lyric Song (Lyrechiskaya)
Mi Rvem - this is a wierd one, it sounds like American NY 60's/70's punk to me.

I'm sure there's many more i don't know of, if anyone knows more, hoo it up.

I just wanted to say one more very important thing. It appears that he did not consider himself a "bard".

This quote can be found at Wikipedia, by searching for Vladimir Visotsky:
"I do not belong to what people call bards or minstrels or whatever."

I'd say that's pretty final. I never got what a bard was, i thought i was a guy going around the street singing to no one in particular. He had a normal Russian childhood and began making audio tapes at home. Reminds me of beck, the tape part. Peace ya'll.

i've heard a couple of remixes on viktor tsoi
i think they were by thomas brinkmann but i can't be sure - they got lost on my office computer when i left my job

pretty funny stuff!

i was kinda a fan of his KINO band, visited some of their concerts, and oh yes, they were and still are BIG in russia

some fans still wear t-shirts that say "tsoi's alive"

just like elvis

daaaaaaaaamn i was even at his grave in st.-petersburg, i just remembered. omg.