July 25, 2015

I'm Vysotsky: The Legend of Russian Songwriting


I'm Vysotsky: The Legend of Russian Songwriting

July 25 marks the 35th anniversary of the death of legendary Russian songwriter, singer, and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. Below, fellow songwriter Yury Kukin recalls what it was like being in the presence of a legend.

We met in Moscow, in the wings at a joint concert of singer-songwriters [April 5, 1966] hosted by the Polytechnic Museum. It was all very simple – a short conversation over a handshake.

“I’m Vysotsky.”

“Kukin. I know your songs.”

“And I’ve heard yours.”

In January 1967, Vladimir Vysotsky arrived in Leningrad to give a concert at the Vostok song club. Three of us went to meet him at the Moskovsky train terminal: me, Boris Poloskin, Anatoly Yakhnich, plus Misha Kryzhanovsky came separately.

Volodya [Vysotsky] came out of the train car with Oleg Strizhenov, who was rather drunk. “Just listen to how Oleg reads Gorky’s fable!” Vysotsky said to us right there on the platform.

And so Strizhenov read for us: “…not to his death did he fall, but to his untying!..”

(Interviewer’s note: Gorky’s “Song of a Falcon” goes “… not to his death did he fall, but rather laughed…”)

We drove off with Vysotsky to the Astoria Hotel, where a suite was reserved for him, while Strizhenov headed off toward Oktyabrskaya Hotel on his own two feet.

An elevator took us up to the correct floor. Volodya liked his rooms, and was amazed by the bedroom alcove – he’d never had a hotel room with anything like it.

We had brandy and snacks with us, but Vysotsky refused to drink.

“I won’t have any,” he told us, “but don’t let that stop you. I love it when people drink around me – I get such a kick out of it!”

So we drank, we sat, we talked. “Yura, I’ve also written a song about the races,” Vysotsky told me. “And listening to you, even started writing fairy tales!”

(He must’ve heard my song “The Little Old Gnome.”)

“Sing for us, Volodya!”

He had a guitar with him, an expensive, recently-purchased performance instrument. But instead he accompanied himself on the one we’d brought with us, a simple little thing.

“In a kingdom where all is peace and quiet…”

[…]

I performed with Vysotsky several times, both here in St. Petersburg and in Moscow.

There was a concert at the “Mailbox 936” research institute, organized by Viktor Solomatin, who was an engineer there. When we were young, we used to play together in the Dixieland in Petrodvorets. So he asked me to perform there – “with Vysotsky.”

“I’m game,” I said. “And I’ll talk to Volodya.”

[…]

His response was uncompromising:

“I will play first – I’ve got a rehearsal right after!”

“So you’re telling me you’ll stoke up the audience, and then leave me to finish the job, is that it?”

On stage, he announced to the audience that, since he was in a hurry, he would sing for exactly 80 minutes. There was a glitch with the microphone, and he was asked to hold off for ten minutes.

“Fine,” he said, “but that’ll cut in to the 80 minutes.”

He suggested that the performance be structured as a concert of requests. “Since I’m in such a hurry,” he told the audience, “you tell me what to sing, and I’ll sing.”

Someone from the audience called out: “‘Sail’!”

“There’s no more ammo for the guns…”

I also sang for 80 minutes. It’s always hard to perform after Vysotsky. But after the concert people came up to me and said, “It’s fine, at least you talked to us. But Vysotsky, he did the whole thing mechanically – like a grammophone!”

Translation by Eugenia Sokolskaya. Source: http://otblesk.com/vysotsky/kukin-.htm

Image source: http://x3m-slider.org.ua/stories/online/content/vladimir-vysotskii-vladimir-visotsky-biografiya

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955