1: 1961--1968
In 1961, The first Soviet rock ‘n’ roll band, The Revengers, began to play in the capital of Latvia, Riga. Modest instruments like homemade bass which used piano wires for its strings and electrical guitars from Czechoslovakia were used. Like all subsequent 1st generation Soviet rock bands, the songs they performed are mostly covers of rock ‘n’ roll standards. at college dances, The Revengers played music by Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and small Richard, and that they sang in bastardized English.
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| The Revengers |
The first Russian to perform their original tunes of rock ‘n’ roll music was singer and composer Alexander Gradsky. Gradsky, is closely connected with the history. In 1963, at the age of thirteen, he sang his 1st concert at the International Club of Moscow State University, with a Polish student band known as Tarakany (The Roaches) as his backing band.
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| Alexander Gradsky |
The first actual Russian band, Brat’ia (Brothers), was shaped in Moscow in 1963 and disbanded once taking part in for fewer than a year. It had been followed by Sokol (Falcon), that existed from 1964 to 1969. Basically their act covering The Rolling Stones' famous hits and also the Monkees at later time. Also notably was Slaviane (The Slavs), additionally shaped in 1964, performing covers of Beatles’ songs. Gradsky joined this band as lead vocalist.
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| Sokol |
At about the same era, some bands were also established in Leningrad: the primary one was The Wanderers (in 1964), followed by Lesnye Brat’ia (Forest Brothers) and Argonavty (The Argonauts).
This was a amount of the difference of Western rock genres and designs that, within the starting, was restricted to performing covers of Western songs and learning the specified musical techniques. throughout now, Soviet authorities didn't read this new music with a good degree of suspicion, seeing nothing wrong in youngsters taking part in some foreign songs with undecipherable lyrics at college dances, and in clubs and cafes.
In 1966--67, Alexander Gradsky was operating with 3 bands, Slaviane, Los Panchos and Skify (the Scythians). However, a robust rift developed between him and his initial band Slaviane over the foremost elementary inventive dilemma Soviet rock was facing at the amount. Gradsky felt strongly that Russian rock had to be performed within the native tongue, and needed to introduce original compositions in Russian, whereas the remainder of the band believed, as did several different Russian rock musicians of the time, that their language wasn't appropriate for rock songs which such compositions were doomed for failure.
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| Skify |
As a results of this dialogue, in 1967, Gradsky creates his own band, Skomorokhi (Jesters), that became the primary Russian cluster to play original songs in Russian. Since 1968, Skomorokhi has performed solely in Russian, turning into a trailblazer and developing a awfully enthusiastic following in Moscow and throughout the country. In his look for the simplest way of achieving the ‘Russification’ of native rock, Gradsky successfully explored Russian own legacy of national folkloric. This was a daring initiative at a time when Russian folks music wasn't modish with kids, who mistrusted the ‘folksy’ tradition that was for therefore long usurped and tainted by Soviet propaganda and only suitable for the mature composers and musicians and probably older audience.
(...to be continued)
