Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Plagiarizer (Was: Boris Grebenshchikov)
From: verbit@brauer.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Date: 7 Jan 93 19:21:41 EST
Organization: Sozialistische Patienten Kollektiv

In article <1993Jan7.002827.176@news.nd.edu> alexei@cartan.math.nd.edu (Alex Strouwe) writes:
>
>I have just returned from Guatemala where I spent the Christmas break,
>so I probably missed some interesting postings in this newsgroup.
>Before I left, there was a discussion about some Russian rock bands.
>I would like to contribute.

	No, you have not missed much. The discussion died
	to make more space for foul language flames and
	Estonia discussion. 

>I like Aquarium and my favorite B.G. album is Ichthyology. 

	You've got a good taste :) My top 3 A. albums
	are 1. Taboo 2. Any of obscure flat sessions
	BG/Kussul'/Titov (with "Te, kto vlyublyon"
	and "Ya khotel by byt' ryadom s toboi" and
	"Kak stranno to, chto zatevayu ya")
	3. Ichthyology.

>But on the other  
>hand, most of his songs are just silly imitations of some western bands. 
>Listen to Jethro Tull. 

	Huh? I believe myself to be ultimate authority
	on Western rock :) especially Jethro Tull.
	But seriously, have you listen to them really
	close? Most of those "progressive" bands (incl. JT)
	are utterly primitive. There is nothing
	to steal from except common places.
	Surely, Romanov's flute *is* imitation
	(and not a good one, either) of Ian
	Anderson's. And what? Nobody ever
	claimed that Dyusha Romanov is a good
	flutist. He's a bad flutist, and
	Vassiliev is a bad bass player and 
	BG really cannot carry a tune.
	And Gakkel's approach to cello
	is like one of bodybuilder to
	the bodybuilding equipment.
	And Kussul' could not listen to what any
	other member of the group plays for all 
	goods of paradise :) He played as
	he was deaf. Listen closely.
	And Lyapin is the most abominable
	commercial guitarist, able on
	his best to copy Jimmy Hendrix
	licks. He never did anything
	but copied Hendrix or contemporary
	top 40 guitarists.

	The members of Aquarium were *never*
	supposed to know how to play music.
	Remember: "Aquarium is not a music,
	it's a way of life"? 

	But: the ability to play is a common
	place, really. Moreover, the good
	rock musicians are rarely able to play.
	In Pink Floyd of the first lineup
	all the guitars were tuned by
	Rick Wright (keyboard man), because
	the bassist (Waters) was (and remains :)
	tune deaf and guitarist (Barret)
	never cared about such a low thing.

	Pink Floys are supposedly "progressive"
	rockers. The later waves of rock
	(punk, industrial, techno) were
	openly hostile towards the smooth
	playing, and, as a rule, never
	cared for the ability to play.
	On the contrary, the chief
	songwriter for Sex Pistols (Glen Matlock)
	was fired up from a band, allegedly,
	for the ability to play bass guitar
	and because he liked Beatles.

	The ability to play characterizes
	commercial session players (like
	Jethro Tull became now), not the
	real thing.

	The real rock is characterized by the
	power, drive, emotions and the level of
	commitment. I challenge you to show
	that the Western rockers A. was oriented
	on (namely, Jethro Tull, Police,
	Talking Heads, Boy George and ilk)
	were better in this respect.

	Note that I say nothing about giants
	with whom Aquarium was surely acquainted
	(like Floyd, early Genesis, Joy
	Division or Bob Marley). Anyway,
	there was never much in common 
	between A. and those rockers.

	I guess that the major reason why
	the idea of Aquarium was so short-lived
	(only 15 years, after all :) is that
	they never copied anything besides
	common places (that's not so bad,
	by the way), but as a result they
	became too fond of those common
	places. In the end, A. sounded
	just like Jello Biafra said:
	like the most common American commercial
	rock.

>Didn't Bob steal anything from them. 

	Stole from whom? From commercial rock? 
	That's lowlife, really. Boy George.
	Jethro Tull. Phah!

>Most people agree that Equinox (Ravnodenstvie) was unsuccessful, but 
>many of them say that one of the songs of the album, Generation of 
>Yardkeepers (Pokolenie Dvornikov) is one of the best.

	I'd never say so. The Generation of Janitors 
	is a typical TV hit. I imagine Memorial members 
	weeping over that. Stale stuff, dead stuff. 
	I am ashamed for BG for writing that.

>I agree that the lyric is good, but listen to that song again and 
>than compare it to Hyacinth House by The Doors. There are the same melody. 

	And what? The melody is 4 notes on 2 chords :)
	And abused sitar thrown in.
	I agree that BG "borroughed" lots and lots from Doors.
	Anyway, he adapted what he borroughed 
	so it received a totally different meaning.
	IMHO, he's much less boring than Doors
	and A. music is even better ('cause Doors
	sucks from musical point of view as well 
	as A. does - both never cared of music).

	Misha.
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