The Projekt Volodia concert with Mirosław Baka was a kind of performance in which the leading role was played by Vladimir Vysotsky, present in the texts and songs. Baka presented short stories describing this unofficial idol of the Soviet Union. Janusz Kasprowicz – bassist of the Wrocław group “Przyjaciele Stefana” and the concert’s originator – added anecdotes connected with the songs being performed.
Friendship, freedom, a love of flying airplanes and social gatherings generously seasoned with vodka were most often described by Vysotsky in his songs, and most of the concert consisted of such pieces. But the first song performed was “Tattoo” – the story of the great, unrequited love of two friends for a beautiful woman: “We did not divide you between us at all, we simply loved and went to the bottom out of love. I carry your bright profile in my soul, Valya; Alyosha had it tattooed on himself.”
Mirosław Baka performed Vysotsky’s song “About a Friend” at the concert. The piece was written especially for the film “Vertical”, whose story takes place in the mountains. The song describes a test of a true friend: “When someone appears in your life who looks like a decent fellow, take him into the mountains, up a steep slope. Do not leave his side there for a moment,” Vysotsky advised in his song.
Vysotsky’s popularity in the Soviet Union was enormous. From the stories told by Baka and the songs performed, an unyielding hero emerged—popular without advertising, listened to without official concerts and robbed of his work by the state.
Baka told the extraordinary story, by today’s standards, of the release of a record with Vysotsky’s songs in flagrant violation of all copyright laws. The record was produced exclusively for export by the Soviet label “Melodiya”. More than 14 million copies of the disc were sold abroad. Vysotsky was not even informed that the record had been produced.
That was probably why Vysotsky valued bums, petty pickpockets and social outcasts more—in a state that robbed Soviet citizens in broad daylight. He did not bow to the regime; he mocked it and drank. That is why vodka could not be missing from the concert. Janusz Kasprowicz invited one of the audience members for vodka and pickled cucumbers. Mirosław Baka sang to the men and drank with them. The song spoke of the difficulties of being the life and soul of the party in the USSR: “I was the life and soul of the party, and the company was bad; why be the soul of a company that is entirely soulless…”
The bard died on July 25, 1980, in the middle of the 22nd Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. On the day of his death, nobody was interested in the Olympics, and a ten-kilometre queue formed to his coffin. Apparently, one communist dignitary said that Vysotsky had caused trouble for the system during his lifetime and, after his death, had spoiled the government’s showpiece event as well. The Olympics organized in Moscow during the Cold War had propaganda significance for the USSR government.
The concert, received extremely warmly by the audience, ended with an encore—the song “Horses”:
So here it is: one always arrives at God’s place in time
But why does the angels’ singing hurt my heart so painfully?
Could it be that the little bell is lamenting and moaning?
Or am I shouting at the horses to keep them from tearing away with the sleigh.
A little slower, slower, horses!
A man still wants to live.
He would still gladly sing...
I still have a little strength.
I’ll still give the horses something to drink.
And I’ll finish singing my song.
Since I am still here.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)