BEATS OF FREEDOM - A HISTORY OF POLISH ROCK MUSIC

Yes, playing concerts behind the Iron Curtain hugely contributed to groups` popularity in Poland.


No, maf, Marillion and Leonard Cohen weren`t forgettable. And quite a lot of people knew and liked sea shanties - I was a water boy scout myself and we went to sailing camps in Mazury lakes so shanties were a must for us.

As for Marillion, they were a very popular group in Britain so it wasn`t purely Polish fascination. I still remember when in 1986 I asked my uni mate to lend me their cassette so that I could listen and copy Punch and Judy which I liked a lot. But generally theirs wasn`t my genre so I cursed like a soldier when Gaszyński played their progressive rock album instead of decent metal.

And they were aware of this popularity coz in 1987 they gave 6 concerts in Poland and made a film about it: Behind the Iron Curtain.

One foreign group whose popularity you may not have understood was British Classix Nouveaux. In Britain they didn`t go beyond club gigs while in Poland they had large audiences at big concerts. But they did come to Poland in mid 1980s so they were popular. And Polish TV promoted them - smooth soft pop/rock which suited the taste of an average viewer/listener very well. They even appeared in a Polish film.

Who was that again?

If you're into Canadian singer songwriters then Gordon Lightfoot drinks Cohen's milkshake.... (great lyrics and... he could actually sing)

And I can think of at least a half a dozen 1980s British groups that I prefer to Marillion's tuneless forgettable fleckering...

(the Smiths, The The, Echo and the Bunnymen, Jesus and Mary Chain, waterboys, prefab sprout, Beautiful South....)

Sea Shanties... I just don't even know where to begin.... I just.... no, I can't.... even.... (I'm disintegrating into verbless catatonia at the very thought...)

Gordon Lightfoot??? - never heard of him.

The only group you mentioned which I heard of was the Smiths and Jesus and Mary C. The rest is completely unknown.

Leonard Cohen was lucky because a Polish music journalist liked him and promoted Cohen`s music on the Polish radio. I liked it too.

You're in for a treat....

Here's an interesting song with lyrics "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" written a year or so after the tragic accident his lyrics still have an epic almost mythic feel....

"When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
'Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya'
At seven p.m., a main hatchway caved in, he said
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"

youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"

I listened to it. Nice but musically boring - it has 7 long stanzas and the tune, nothing special, is the same for each of them. The voice remains the same, too - no change at all. That`s what you called tuneless and forgettable before. hahaha

Sorry, if that is his best song, then Cohen is brilliant in comparison. :)

Cohen is a one trick pony as most of his songs can be reduced to 'poor me'... I'm reminded of the joke about a hippy being bit by a vampire... "Oh no! Now I'm doomed to forever linger in a cursed half-dead state.... like Leonard Cohen!"

I did like the use of some of his songs in the movie McCabe and Mrs. Miller (one of the greatest American movies ever made) but that's about it.

Lightfoot has a far greater emotional range (musically and lyrically).

The Edmund Fitzgerald is very good but it isn't his best song, I chose it partly as a counter to sea shanties.... (you should have picked up on that). The slightly monotonous feel is echoing the tragic inevitable fate of the crewmen of course....

You recommended a foreign song about a tragic accident with many casualties. Well, it didn`t appeal to me too much.

Probably because I have a better choice of Polish songs about accidents. This one by Gintrowski/Kaczmarski is about a tragic fire in a mental hospital. Soon it was adopted as an anti-communist song because of many allusive lines.

Listen to it and compare how expressive the music and vocal can be in a song about a tragedy. The lyrics are unforgettable, too.

And we don`t want to escape from here 1980

Original:

youtube=https:youtu.be/ubEvODY4j1M

Sang in a film by a famous bard, with amazing

youtu.be/R-7cWBBUedg

A cover by post-punk group Farben Lehre with anti-communist images in the background

youtu.be/-mWwa0kr4vo

Our big home is on fire.
The smoke circulates cord-like through the corridors.
It's a deep, really black night,
the burning rats run away from the basements.

I scream out of the window, I penetrate the pane with my forehead,
with a gulp of air I make a gap in the heat.
The one who hears me thinks I'm a madman.
He cries: "You bedlamite, what else did you dream of?"

[.......]

See more here:
lyricstranslate.com/pl/my-nie-chcemy-ucieka%C4%87-st%C4%85d-we-dont-want-run-away-place.html

Exactly!! That`s how most Poles felt in 1980s after the martial law! Cohen just hit the nail for Poles, hence his popularity. hahaha


I believe you but you would have to recommend one more song for me - this time, with attractive melody and vocals, please.


I thought so at first but wasn`t sure.


No, come on, the tragedy is happening and he sings with such a monotonous voice At seven p.m., a main hatchway caved in, he said "Fellas, it's been good to know ya" No, it isn`t music about a tragedy, it would better express melancholy at autumn time when you see leaves falling and generally nature is preparing for a long winter sleep and similar stuff.

Beats of freedom, sure. But if Gavrilo didn`t place a bullet in that Pferdinand nothing of it. Popes and Caisers would ride Poland and Poles even now.

It's called stiff upper lip.... resigned but with no self-pity.


You can look on your own if you're interested he's famous enough, but here's the superb singer songwriter Canadian sister act Kate and Anna McGarrigle who should have been 78 times better known than they were... they specialized in lyrics that were by turns dry and witty or deeply emotional (but very clear eyed)

youtube.com/watch?v=vlLbyUW-c6c

They were bilingual and also sang in French...

here's Cheminant a la ville (a French version of their song On my way to town).

youtube.com/watch?v=dQztQvlLXD8

Yes this is off topic I won't post any more non-Polish stuff in this thread... obiecuję

I see. Yet, I prefer more dynamic singing.
Look, when I defend Cohen, it doesn`t mean I collected his music at home. No, but at least when I heard him on the radio, I listened to the end and didn`t try to change the station. Powerful rock music was always my fav but soft slow ballads also appealed to me.

If there had been a Polish music critic/journalist who would have promoted Lightfoot like Cohen was on the Polish Radio in 1980s, Poles would know him more. But there wasn`t and now it is too late. hahaha


Till 1985.
When he came to give concerts here, he spread pro-Solidarity message in interviews or on stage and even met Wałęsa. In result, he was boycotted by communist media but his popularity even increased and remained high till his death.

OK guys.... enough already about two boring Canadian singers.......Leonard Cohen best song? "Suzanne".
Gordon Lightfoot best song? "Sundown"....both pretty boring....
Nah, forget all that old rubbish.
This is proper folk music... :-)

youtu.be/hp4endJMu1E

I like it but it is completely off topic. :)

Yeah, but what the hell.... ;-)

You like being unruly from time to time, don`t you? hahaha Typical Brit-Pole.

You are not wrong there.
I have always been a rebel....., you don't know the half of it :-)

Anyway, we call ourselves Anglo Poles and are we prone to be rebels?
I think we are.

So you must haver prefered punk rock, in fact. ha

Dezerter, the most famous classic punk group in 1980s. Never on the radio or TV. hahaha But I didn`t regret it, such rough music with hardly any tune and with harsh vocals was too tiring for me - I could never bear more than two, three songs. Also, those rebellious lyrics seemed a bit depressive to me .

Besides, I always had a vague feeling they copied too many ideas from original trend-setters like Sex Pistols etc.

All in all, I didn`t like classic punk rock.

Brothel 1982

youtu.be/DhHJyLpVgow

AAAAAA!

I'm dumb, I'm fu..ked in the head!
An earring in my ear, a chunk of stool up my ass!
Without end complaints are filed against me!
Without end I am in conflict with other people!

I'm I'm I'mma filthy bum! (2x)
AAAAAA!

I don't wanna work in no office!
I don't wanna wear a suit!
Ride a stuffed city bus!
And work under pressure!

Mommy,daddy I am different!
For this, will I get my filthy mug beaten in?
My brain is as if it were swollen!
I think maybe I'm fu..ked in the head!

No.
I was never a great fan of Punk.
The Stranglers were my favourite but like many bands at that time they were not really a Punk band, they just rode that wave.
I preferered Hard Rock, Metal and Electric Blues.

On the other hand punk is about the only rock I really like* not so much the British 1970s stuff (a mixed bag for me) but American 1980s punk is awesome and very diverse stylistically

Black Flag
Husker Du
Minutemen
Meat puppets
X
Misfits
Cramps (marginal but more punk than anything else)
Social Distortion
Tupelo chain sex.....

New Day Rising...

youtube.com/watch?v=-hRCwByLb-E

*I also like some gimmicky pop style stuff I'm kind of oddly fond of early 1970s british glam rock but hard rock, heavy metal.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Agreed. Went through a month long Stranglers revival in June, and replayed most of their songs. I was not a big fan of them in the 70s( probably because of Cornwell's tendency to eruct rather than sing) but some of their songs are brilliant 'Down in the Sewer and its keyboard riff..). Pity some of the lyrics are plain misogynistic and even flirting with paedophilia..

When I moved to PL in 2005, I discovered Dzem.. What a great band, went to see them several times in concert (Stodola in Warsaw..); even have memories of being drunk and singing Wehikul czasu late one night (or rather early one morning) with clients in Ustron :)

Talk of The Stranglers and I could not resist.....
The Stranglers - "No more Heroes".

youtu.be/2tfy8f9lDD0

This was a well done cover too, The Stranglers - "Walk on by".

youtu.be/uqqj9xpj130
I will end with this controversial one......
If you don't know this song, you might think that it is racist, when exactly the opposite is true.
For non Brits, W#g comes from Golliwog and is an insulting term for black people, a bit like N####r.
This is The Stranglers - "I feel like a W#g".

youtu.be/nfvLowM6Nkk

In the late seventies and early eighties I ran one of London's major Pirate radio stations.
Here are two songs we played a lot.
This one is apt, because London hit 38 degrees last week and we are expecting at least 37 degrees this weekend.
The Tom Robinson Band - "Long hot summer".

youtu.be/mJcRTNDcKG4

We also used to play this a lot.
This is obviously a left wing p#$$ take of right wing thinking.
But it failed miserably and so we played it anyway!
Another Punk era band that were not a Punk Rock band.

The Tom Robinson Band - "Power in the Darkness"

youtu.be/auN0ZLcuvXI

Hey, what about 'Dance me to the end of love'? Combined with amazing clip is one of my emotional songs :)

A nice tune, and yes, maybe his best.

I remember that a few years ago one of his other ones, 'My Secret Life', was very popular here, mostly among people who didn't understand the lyrics and how gloomy they are.

Oh.... gaaaaaaaad do I hate it... maybe his worst.... sentimental goop...

Again, I like the use of his songs in McCabe and Mrs Miller (best western ever, really, there's no discussion) but that's about it...

youtube.com/watch?v=1iYxrsd59-E

I also like "Everybody knows" but I like the cover by Concrete Blonde more than the original

youtube.com/watch?v=l5Fb4K8pNmg

it's the first time I know of someone who likes punk music but doesn't like metal

I like the.... style of punk more, the short bursts of weird intensity rather than the pseudo-grandiose arrangements of most metal.

I don't fully understand it either.... I will say that a lot of my fondness for 1980s American punk came from the people, I knew a bunch of punks and they were a lot of fun to be around.

I will say that the personality profile of American punks in the 1980s is very close to the personality profile of Polish young people who get into metal (smart, quirky, kind of alienated but working on it....)

American metalheads at the time were more simple - angry and frustrated and kind of dumb (though I was friends with a local gothish metal group who played at local punk shows).

This also benefited the Welsh band Budgie.
They were fairly well known in the UK but not massive, whereas they were pretty big in Poland.

what do you think of Faith No More then (if you ever heard them)

I liked "We care a lot" but from Epic on they were more of a power pop group (I liked their cover of Easy with the drag queens but I'd never consider buying anything buy them).

Faith No More a power pop group, hmm - it looks like you finished listening to them with Epic (and even Epic was not that pop either) - in this day you don't have to buy music to enjoy it: just educate yourself - there is youtube which is entirely free