Analogs of Vysotsky

Mon Feb 10 16:27:47 UTC 2014

Just to be pedantic, Sinead O'Connor is Irish
AM

Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:07:12 -0500
From: toastormulch at GMAIL.COM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Analogs of Vysotsky
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU

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 BishopAssistant Professor of RussianWillamette University
sbishop at willamette.edu

503 370 6889

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