Russian rock exists, by historical standards, not so long ago. Amateurs have been chronicling it since the 1960s, but attempts to “remove one to one” Western hits five years ago can hardly be attributed to independent creativity. Soviet amateur (if you will, independent) musicians began to perform more or less authentic pieces somewhere in the early 1970s. And already in the middle of that decade, the "Time Machine" thundered with might and main. The rock movement reached its peak in the early 1980s, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union, rock quickly turned into one of the genres of pop music with all its advantages and disadvantages.
It is worth noting that the rock movement in the USSR had the greatest scope during the period of the greatest ideological persecution. In large cities, the number of groups numbered dozens, and hundreds of people entered various rock clubs. And when “everything that choked us on a dusty night” disappeared, it turned out that there were not so many performers willing to work professionally. Russian rock is like football: even 20 teams are not recruited to the top league.
New genres appear in music almost every year, however, as in the West, the "oldies" are honored in Russia. Bands are still popular, whose members and fans were “mentored” for illegal concerts, and technicians and sound engineers were imprisoned for selling amplifiers or speakers. It is unlikely that “Alice”, DDT, “Aquarium”, “Chaif” or “Nautilus Pompilius”, if it is revived, will gather now, like Cord, more than 60,000 spectators at the stadium. However, these, and even younger groups, do not perform in front of empty halls. The history of Russian rock continues, but some interesting, funny or little-known facts can already be extracted from it.
1. The group "Time Machine" in 1976 won first place at the festival "Tallinn Songs of Youth-76", representing no more and no less than the Ministry of the Meat and Dairy Industry of the Russian Federation. The group at that time rehearsed at the Palace of Culture of this department, but it was impossible to go to the festival just like that, on its own. The festival is also notable for the fact that for the first time “Aquarium” took part in an official event.
"Time machine" on the eve of the rise of its popularity
2. Vyacheslav Butusov first came into close contact with rock music, when in 1981, as a correspondent for the institute newspaper "Architect", he covered the first Sverdlovsk rock festival. The event took place at the Architectural Institute where Butusov studied. He was instructed to interview Nastya Poleva and Alexander Pantykin from the Urfin Jus group. Talking with Nastya, Vyacheslav somehow overcame his shyness, but in an interview with Pantykin he asked to give someone from his colleagues, preferably a girl.
3. The first Soviet group to perform with a phonogram was the Kino group. In 1982, the band, which then consisted of two people - Viktor Tsoi and Alexei Rybin - did not have a drummer. Sound engineer Andrei Tropillo suggested that they use a drum machine - a rudimentary electronic device. The machine was still suitable for recording in the studio, but not for concerts - it had to be rebuilt after each song. As a result, Boris Grebenshchikov invited the guys to perform at their first concert to the rhythm of a drum machine recorded on a tape recorder. The sound of this car can be heard in the songs of the album “45”.
4. The landmark album "Nautilus" invisible, which included the cult song not only of rock, but of all late Soviet music, "I want to be with you", was recorded and mixed in Dmitry Umetsky's apartment in early 1985. The premiere took place at a disco in the dormitory of the Architectural Institute and practically failed. But among rock musicians, the songs made a splash. And for some, this sensation was sharply negative. Pantykin, six months ago told Butusov and Umetsky that they had nothing to catch in rock, after listening to "Invisible" he got up and silently left the room. Since then "Urfin Deuce" and its leader have not recorded anything sensible.
5. By the time the Chaif group was created in Sverdlovsk, they knew about Moscow rock that it was “Time Machine”, and about Leningrad rock it was “Aquarium”, Mike (Naumenko, “Zoo”) and Tsoi. The future guitarist of “Chaifa” Vladimir Begunov somehow found out that Mike and Tsoi were coming to Sverdlovsk for apartment concerts. As a policeman, he easily recognized the apartment where the Leningraders would arrive, and gained confidence in the owner by buying several bottles of vodka. Then, according to Begunov himself, Mike came with some "complete monster of an informal type of eastern nationality." This second also constantly got into the conversation, which finally brought Begunov out of himself. Only the mention of the name "Kino" and the association with either the surname or the nickname "Tsoi" helped Begunov to guess who the informal freak was.
Vladimir Begunov in his youth
6. Artyom Troitsky gave a great impetus to the development of rock music in the Soviet Union. As the son of a prominent diplomat, he was well within the circles of the then cultural elite and constantly arranged unofficial auditions and apartment concerts for rockers for representatives of the Soviet cultural establishment. Composers, musicians and artists could not influence the position of the party elite, but rock, at least, ceased to be a thing in itself. And help with recording studios and instruments was not at all superfluous for the poor in the vast majority of musicians.
7. When in 1979 the "Time Machine" actually collapsed on the crest of success, Vladimir Kuzmin could well be in it. At least, they say, Andrei Makarevich made such an offer. However, Kuzmin then played in the same group with Alexander Barykin and Yuri Boldyrev and, apparently, was already thinking about creating “Dynamics”. Later Makarevich denied the proposal.
8. The inscrutable ways of Russian rock are well illustrated by the song "Look from the Screen". Butusov got the line “Alain Delon does not drink cologne” on his tongue. Ilya Kormiltsev quickly sketched lines about a provincial fool, whose icon is a portrait of a French actor cut from a magazine. In Kormiltsev's view, the text was something like satirical ditties - well, how could a person who knows a dozen and a half languages relate to such provincial women? Butusov, having remade the text, made such a piercing song out of verses that Kormiltsev did not even think to defend the integrity of his text. Yuri Shevchuk drew the line under the history of the song. The bearded Ufa wanderer, who was brought to Sverdlovsk by incomprehensible winds, in the presence of Kormiltsev slapped Butusov on the shoulder and trumped: "You see, Slavka, you get much better songs with your lyrics!"
9. Guitarist of the “Chaif” group Vladimir Begunov worked for six years as an employee of the Patrol and Guards Service in Sverdlovsk. Once, at the end of 1985, Vyacheslav Butusov, who was peacefully walking to the next meeting of the Sverdlovsk rock club, heard a formidable roar from a police UAZ parked on the side of the road: "Citizen Butusov, come here!" By that time, rock musicians had so intimidated each other with the KGB surveillance that Butusov walked to the patrol car, like to Golgotha. The militiamen, headed by Begunov, had to solder him with a fair amount of port.
Runners are still a policeman
10. Until the mid-1980s, most Soviet rock bands had colossal hardware problems. This applied to instruments, amplifiers and speakers, and even a simple mixing console seemed a real miracle. Therefore, musicians were often ready to perform for free, if the organizers of the concert “rolled out the apparatus” - provided their equipment. However, to say that the organizers shamelessly profited from the performers is impossible - rock and alcoholic, and even drug intoxication walked arm in arm. In creative ecstasy, musicians could easily damage expensive equipment.
11. At the dawn of perestroika, in 1986, when it seemed to everyone that everything was becoming “possible,” composers Yuri Saulsky and Igor Yakushenko persuaded Andrei Makarevich to enter the Gnesinsky Institute. With all then nationwide fame and good money, this made sense - Makarevich did not receive royalties from the performance of his songs by other musicians. Contrary to the expectations of the naive Makarevich, the selection committee gave him a real beating. The culmination was the performance of the song. On the very first verse of "Snow" the leader of the "Time Machine" was interrupted: bad diction, it is absolutely impossible to make out the text. Only after that Makarevich turned around and left.
12. One of Vyacheslav Butusov's favorite songs "The Prince of Silence" was written by him on the verses of the Hungarian poet Endre Adi. On occasion, Vyacheslav bought a collection of works by Hungarian poets on the street (there were times - on what occasion can one buy an anthology of Hungarian poets in Russian today?). The poems themselves dictated the music to him. The song was included in the magnetic album "Invisible" and became the oldest on the first album "Nautilus Pompilius", released in 1989.
13. During the recording of the song “Farewell Letter” for the first full-fledged studio album of the “Prince of Silence” group, Alla Pugacheva worked as a backing vocalist. Much more significant was the contribution of the future Prima Donna to the technical support of the recording - it was Pugacheva who persuaded Alexander Kalyanov to provide his studio for recording "The Prince of Silence".
Alla Pugacheva and "Nautilus Pompilius"
14. In the early period of the activity of the Chaif group, its leader, Vladimir Shakhrin, was a deputy of the district council (suitable for age and working profession, nominated when he was on a business trip) and was a member of the cultural commission. After the first concert, the group was included in the banned list. The head of the committee was infuriated by the situation when the leader of the banned group was working under her supervision (Shakhrin did not attend meetings), but she could not do anything.
15. The absolute “know-how” of the Soviet rock scene was the so-called “Lithuanian” (approval) of texts. A special commission, which included both specialists and people who were completely far from music, and even from rock and even more so, people, checked the lyrics. Despite the fact that the lyrics were and are considered one of the hallmarks of Russian rock, on paper they often look clumsy and ridiculous. Therefore, the Lithuanian procedure sometimes resembled a skit: one of the commission members could demand to change “this one” rhyme, while others were intensely looking in the text for slander of the Soviet way of life (if there was nothing social in the text at all, they could blame for the lack of active position in life). After the Lithuanian purgatory, the song could be performed in public, but for free - the Lithuanian did not grant the musicians any official status. The jokers sometimes explained the insanity of some songs of “Aquarium”, “Kino” and other Leningrad groups precisely by the desire to painlessly go through the approval procedure. And for the group “Aria” the motto of the Italian fascists “Will and Reason” went like clockwork - sometimes, in addition to proletarian vigilance, a common culture is also needed. True, in "Aria" they did not know about the motto either.
16. In the fall of 1990, "Nautilus", already in a new lineup, without Dmitry Umetsky, traveled around Germany in its own minibus with a series of concerts. One day the minibus ran out of gasoline. Butusov with the guitarist Yegor Belkin and drummer Igor Javad-zade, who had just appeared in the group, went with cans to the nearest military unit. Six months earlier, the musicians, with the help of smiles, photographs and autographs, managed to get 10 tickets to the USA “for today” from the Aeroflot cashiers, which was incredible. The smiles did not go away with the officers of the Soviet Army - they had to give a concert on the instruments available in the unit.
17. In general, Germany is unlikely to evoke positive memories of the Nautilus participants. The group took part in a concert dedicated to the withdrawal of Soviet troops (a good reason, of course, to arrange a big concert). Having flown to the place on a military transport plane, the two musicians managed to get to the concert venue near the Reichstag in Berlin. There it turned out that the concert was being opened by the ensembles. Pyatnitsky and Aleksandrova, continues "Nautilus Pompilius" and Lyudmila Zykina, and ends the group "Na-Na". Hardly any of the Russian rockers had a chance to perform in such a hodgepodge in those years.
18. Perhaps the most famous song of the Chaif group, “Cry about him,” was written at a time when the group practically ceased to exist in 1989. “Chaif” fell apart for many reasons: finances, and the disorganization of the team, and, of course, endless drinking, into which the teetotal Shakhrin was gradually drawn into, played a role. This song - not her alone, of course - helped the band get back together. And already in a new, more professional quality.
"Chaif" on the eve of the collapse
19. In Soviet times, in order to get a rehearsal base, you needed connections or barter (I give you a room, and you give concerts on holidays). Then money began to decide everything. At the same time, nothing changed for the musicians - beginners had to grab any opportunity to get a room for rehearsals for free. So, Mikhail Gorshenyov aka "Pot" and Andrey Knyazev aka "Prince", who studied together at the restoration school, got a job at the Hermitage only because its employees were allocated housing out of turn, albeit in communal apartments. This is how the King and the Jester group was born in a room in a communal apartment.
20. There is a well-known thesis that the persecution of rock musicians was not inspired by the party bosses, but by the “official” composers - new authors directly threatened their income in the form of royalties. An indirect confirmation of this thesis is the popularity of rock musicians among filmmakers. Rockers were actively filming already in the 1970s, and their music was openly used in the form of musical accompaniment. For example, in 1987, in the midst of the persecution of rock, the leader of "Alice" Konstantin Kinchev starred in the film "Burglar". In addition to the songs of “Alice”, the film contains compositions of 5 more rock bands. And there are plenty of such examples. If the Central Committee of the CPSU were so worried about ideological rock saboteurs, they would not have been allowed to shoot at cinema, which, as you know, the Communists consider the most important of the arts.
