American Analogs of Vysotsky

[Melissa T Smith]

Springstein, yes. What about Paul Simon? I was introduced to Simon an Garfunkel as poetry in 10th grade English, and they did the sound track of "Th Graduate," which was an icon of my generation.  Later, Simon organized several world cause events.


Melissa Smith

________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Laura Kline <klinela at COMCAST.NET>
Sent: Friday, February 7, 2014 8:24 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] American Analogs of Vysotsky

Again, not American, but the Beatles. Or, if just one person, John Lennon, who also died tragically young.

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Sarah Bishop
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 8:04 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] American Analogs of Vysotsky

He's not American, but I've used Bob Marley as an analogue to Vysotsky.

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 4:50 PM, Sentinel76 Astrakhan <thysentinel at hotmail.com<mailto:thysentinel at hotmail.com>> wrote:
Dear All, I have a question for discussion

In the process of explaining my "Vysotsky in English" project to Americans, I frequently have to explain who Vysotsky is and what is his place in the Russian culture.  Many times I have heard the term "Russian Dylan" thrown around.  In my opinion, there are more differences than similarities.

Both Vladimir Vysotsky and Bob Dylan were exceptional singer-songwriters, who rose to fame in the 60s, played guitar, and brought on social change with their tremendous body of work.  Both wrote highly intelligent and politically charged poetry.  But in my opinion this is where the similarities end.

Vysotsky destroys Dylan in terms of sheer impact and popularity:  even though both can be reasonably called "Voice of Their Generation," Vysotsky was also one of five most important cultural figures in 20th Century Russia, while Dylan never really reached that level. As far as I can tell, Dylan mostly awed American intellectuals, while Vysotsky was adored by everybody, from President Brezhnev to the last bum in the street.  And, of course, Dylan was no match for Vysotsky's performing skills:  Vysotsky would blow him off the stage without breaking a sweat.  Vysotsky also gets a benefit of not having the "tail end of a career" that many rock musicians fall victim to.

Naturally, I think it's wise to limit this discussion to their respective countries to even the playing field (otherwise, Dylan's English language makes him far more international than Vysotsky).

So is there anybody in American culture who would match Vysotsky's

a.  Songwriting skills
b.  Performing skills
c.  Success
d.  Cultural status

?

Would it be correct to rank the podium of *relevant* American music as
(1) Elvis
(2) Dylan
(3) Cash?
Or would Springsteen and Morrison crawl in there somewhere?

What do you think?

Vadim Astrakhan
www.vvinenglish.com<http://www.vvinenglish.com/>
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--
Sarah Clovis Bishop
Assistant Professor of Russian
Willamette University

sbishop at willamette.edu<mailto:sbishop at willamette.edu>
503 370 6889
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