One of the most famous “Founding Fathers” of the Russian rock music, Boris Grebenshchikov (“BG” as Russians call him) is a true legend of Russian rock music. His contribution to the development of the Russian culture is hard to overestimate and his legacy will definitely live for decades. He is also said to be one of the most “Russian” contemporary musicians: he managed to capture the uniqueness of Russian mentality, the profoundness and sophistication of the Russian culture and philosophy. His songs and music are a colorful and eclectic mixture of tradition, philosophy, metaphoric images and amazing talent.
Boris Grebenshchikov started his career as a musician in 1972 when he co-founded a rock band “Akvarium” together with one of his friends, Anatoly Gunitsky. They were both fond of the Western rock music and wanted to create something similar in the Soviet Union. However, at that time Western music was prohibited in the Soviet Union and all songs were thoroughly checked by censorship organs. It was a truly risky business to make independent rock music in the USSR, nevertheless, the two musicians did not fear the possible consequences.
In 1974 they released their first “full” album, “The Temptation of the Saint Akvarium” which can be considered the first attempt to create independent and conceptual music in the Soviet Union. The quality of the record was very bad, as BG also confirmed himself. In one of his letters he wrote:
“This album was a perversion of two idiots, making some kind of a surrealistic “Ummagumma”: weird stomach sounds, some knocks and clatter, pieces of poetry, lyrics and phrases. An extremely hilarious thing but the recording quality is very bad”.
This album was a real experiment of various sounds and techniques and it paved the road to the future success of the band.
Until the beginning of the 1980s Akvarium’s work was not structured properly and lacked cohesion. BG and the other band members (who often changed) were trying to pursue the American hippies’ way of life in the USSR: they played apartment jams, took drugs and drank cheap port wine and gave some small underground gigs in remote places. Their recordings were unprofessional since there was no chance to record such type of music with the official label at that time. However, everything was about to change soon.
The 1980s was a decade of radical changes not only for the Soviet political system but also for BG and his band. In 1980 Akvarium participated in the first legally sanctioned rock festival in Tbilisi (organized intentionally to have all Soviet rock bands under the KGB control and also channel the Party ideology through them). Their performance was unusual and shocking compared to most “normal” Soviet “rock” bands. During the performance Grebenshchikov made some provocative movements while playing the guitar and behaved in a very “rock’n’roll” way. As a result, the band was accused of promoting homosexuality (the guitar actions) and indecency and was banned from the further performing.
Nevertheless, their music finally reached big audiences and became very popular among young people due to the sophisticated lyrics combining Oriental philosophy, religion and mysticism and the unusual music itself; Akvarium became a symbol of protest and freedom for the whole generation (not to mention that during this time BG was also a sex symbol for many Soviet women…Girls collected his photos wherever they could get them and some even compared him to David Bowie…well, understandable :D)
However, the KGB didn’t share those warm feelings towards Grebenshchikov and his “band of shenanigans”. After the festival their performances were prohibited, BG was expelled from the Youth Communist League (“Komsomol” as it was called in the USSR) and lost his job. So, the band went underground again for the next 7 years. One of the most interesting albums during this period was “The Blue Album” (1981). It was the first “official” samizdat album in the history of the Soviet rock music. Another album, “The Day of Silver” (1984) is considered one of the best Akvarium albums. It was inspired by M. Glinka work and included several experiments with classical instruments such as violin. These albums were still not official, of course.
The second half of the 80s was a “Going Westwards” period for BG as a result of Perestroika. The first person to export Akvarium music abroad was Johanna Stingray, an American singer, who almost fell in love with the “underground” Soviet rock music. During 1980s she travelled to Leningrad and met the unofficial leader of the Soviet rock, Boris Grebenshchikov, and other famous musicians. They spent a lot of time together and became very good friends. She was really impressed by their work and decided to release their songs in the United States. I should mention that at the time it was illegal to take any Soviet works of art abroad (especially those that were illegal…), it was considered a theft. However, Johanna managed to take a tape with a bunch of recordings with her to the United States. In 1986 the Los Angeles-based indie label Big Time Records released an album based on this tape called “Red Wave: 4 Underground bands from the Soviet Union” which featured unofficial recordings of Akvarium as well as other bands: Kino, Alisa and Strannye Igry “Strange Games”.
Album cover
The consequences of Johanna’s actions affected her life a lot: Soviet authorities accused her of stealing of the Soviet property (even though there was no direct evidence), and the next time Johanna travelled to the USSR she was followed by the KGB agents everywhere. However, it also helped Akvarium and other rock bands to emerge from the underground since the Soviet authorities didn’t want the West to know about the political censorship in the USSR. Moreover, it was Perestroika time and Gorbachev decided to give a “green light” to these musicians. So, soon after the American release, a Soviet record label “Melody” (the only one at that time) released their first official album in 1987. The band’s popularity in the USSR was becoming really huge.
This friendship between the American singer and Soviet rock musicians has become a symbol of the end of the Cold War. Recently, Johanna has published hundreds of her photos together with BG and the other musicians, Leningrad/Red Wave Period, 1984-1989 . In my opinion, now it is very interesting to see how this Soviet-American friendship emerged and developed during the Perestroika period in the USSR; it shows the other side of this fundamental change in the Soviet system…But enough with this, let’s come back to BG and Akvarium 🙂
Already in 1989 BG released an album in the United States called “Radio Silence” in English (and partly in Russian). It was the first contract between a Western record label and a Soviet musician. To introduce BG to the American audience, there was also created an advertisement film about Grebenshchikov and the new album itself. It wasn’t though a huge success since BG put a greater emphasize on the lyrics and meaning which wasn’t fully understood in the United States at that time. So, after this experience, Grebenshchikov returned back to the Soviet Union determined to go back to Russian roots.
1991 was the year when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and and so did the “old” Akvarium, as if it could live only within the system. However, together with a new Russia a new Grebenshchikov has emerged as a “champion” of the Russian culture and philosophy. He records a new “Russian Album” together with his new “BG Band” in 1991 which becomes the first Russian album devoted to Russian history, legends, orthodox religion and traditional culture. In 1993 BG creates Akvarium 2.0 though it’s understood that the new Akvarium is BG + those who play with him. From this time up till today Akvarium has changed many times both quantitatively and qualitatively: its composition and style developed from art-rock to dark folk and folk noir and then to reggae and rock’n’roll style. The most significant albums that I would recommend are: “Sister Chaos” (2002) (Live recording – album presentation), “Reggae” album (2005) which is a first full experiment with reggae genre, “White Horse” (2008) and, of course, the last solo album of BG, “Salt” (2014) which is so far one of my favorite ones. This album is an essence of what he was trying to say during all those years, it’s what he sees nowadays after all those turbulent 90s and hopeful 2000s – no progress, no change and a very slight hope for a brighter future. The songs are filled with his personal anxiety, disillusionment and even anger, as well as hope and appeal for the self-improvement.
Who is Boris Grebenshchikov now? As one of the most famous Russian music critics, Artemy Troitsky, said: “He broadened the minds of the whole generation of Soviet people. He created a whole new dimension of the Russian culture which went far beyond its national borders”. He is a poet, a philosopher, a singer, a writer and a source of inspiration for millions of people in Russia.
Since the early 1990s Grebenshchikov has had a very deep interest in buddhism. He travelled through the Orient countries and in 2006 he met an Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy who had a very significant impact on his character and his work; he also gave him a buddhist name – “Purushottama” which means above and beyond borders. Together with his support BG organized a concert in Albert Hall in London and a concert in the UN in 2007. Grebenshchikov translated several Buddhist and Hinduism texts to Russian since he wanted to make a better version of translations which are more understandable for people. At the same time, he has a profound interest in the Orthodox christianity and usually attends Orthodox masses. Orthodox motives can also be found in many of his songs though he also combines them with buddhist elements. His devotion to the spiritual world is perfectly reflected in his interviews: his answers are always philosophic and abstract, he avoids giving judgements to anything which makes him even more mysterious for people.
BG also has his own Radio program called “Aerostat” since 2005. The main idea and intention of the program is to promote music that is not usually played on radio stations and is well-known only among few people. It is mostly independent music which, as BG says, otherwise would not be played at all. He also believes that music should be available to everyone, thus, all his songs can be downloaded legally from from the crowdfunding website kroogi.com where people can pay as much as they want. His idea is that music can’t belong to one person, it is created for people, so, it should belong to people. To promote this idea even further, he has recently initiated a series of free concerts in underpasses, subway and just on the streets of various Russian cities. His attitude is always the same: I work for people and I care about people.
BG will live forever in the Russian culture, he is something that is beyond time and space, and, in my opinion, this is a true definition of a pure genius. He has always been a mystery for people, he is beyond politics and conflicts disrupting our world every day (“I am interested in people, not in social-political things: honestly speaking, I always mix up everything…”), he is beyond religion in our common understanding, he can be an Orthodox christian and can be a buddhist at the same time. His main philosophy is love and peace and that’s what he believes in.
Long live BG and long live his music!
Peace & Love
P.S. The very last link – one of my favorite acoustic concerts of Boris Grebenshchikov in Russia with a very warm atmosphere and a very positive music video for his new song “In The Morning”
russian gёrl blog 