Analogs of Vysotsky

[mulchortoast .]

All Anglo-American singer-songwriters mentioned here are first of all
accomplished musicians. Dylan is a very talented tune-smith and musical
innovator. After all he singlehandedly created the entire
hugely influential genre of folk-rock. Vysotsky's musical abilities as well
as his composing abilities were quite limited and he was mostly a "singing
poet" with his poetry dominating over music within a
song. Self-destructiveness and dark "chernushnyi" thematics do make him
slightly comparable to Waits, Cobain and Lou Reed. In terms of "nadryv" he
is also comparable to Senead O'Connor and Lhasa de Sela. But, again, all
these Anglo-Americans are/were musicians of very high level.
Vysotsky is probably more comparable to Latin American singer-songwriters
such as New Chilean Song movement hero Victor Jara and numerous Latin
American and American and European (like U2s Bono) musicians who fell under
Jara's artistic spell. (It is not impossible that Jara was influenced by
Vysotsky and Vysotsky by Jara.)


On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:52 AM, Sentinel76 Astrakhan <
thysentinel at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I'd love to hear the arguments for Marley.  I know next to nothing about
> him.
>
> So let's look at the following list:
>
> Dylan, Lennon, Morrison, Cash, Waits, Cohen, Marley, Springsteen
>
> Elvis, with the biggest popularity and impact of them all, IMO was never
> really considered a "serious artist / poet" AFAIK (feel free to correct
> me), which excludes him from this conversation (same as, say Michael
> Jackson).
>
> If I were to rank them IN TERMS OF POPULARITY AND IMPACT, would the
> ranking be:
>
> 1. *Lennon*.  Universal appeal.  I admit knowing very little about his
> solo career (I know his Beatles catalog very well).
>
> 2. *Dylan*.  Much more limited appeal, but his subject matters seem to be
> closer to Vysotsky's.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mabTnMHe8
>
> 3. *Morrison*.  Cumulatively (from the beginning and until today) he
> probably trumps Dylan, but he was never a solo artist, owning at least some
> of his success to his band, so I have to place him below.  Universal
> appeal, has the same "dark vibe" as Vysotsky, but was definitely more on
> the rock side.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSsnugCi_NQ
>
> 4. *Cash*.  More limited appeal, but seems similar in subject matters.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bwfm7-uNS4
>
> 5. *Springsteen*.  Universal appeal, but more on a rock side.  Was he
> "deep" enough to be considered a serious poet?
>
> 6. *Cohen*.  Know nothing about him.  From what I've heard, the energy
> and "power" is not there.  Please fill me in.
>
> 7. *Marley*.  Know nothing about him.
>
> 8. *Waits*.  See "Cohen."  Plus the popularity & impact aren't there.
> But his voice surely matches.
> ???
>
> I'd love to hear ALL reasoning (and some examples too).
>
> Yours truly,
> Vadim Astrakhan
> www.vvinenglish.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2014 17:03:48 -0800
> From: sbishop at WILLAMETTE.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] American Analogs of Vysotsky
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
>
> 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> 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.
> 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
>
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>
> --
> Sarah Clovis Bishop
> Assistant Professor of Russian
> Willamette University
>
> sbishop at willamette.edu
> 503 370 6889
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