Hippies in the Baltic [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 157-176]

HIPPIES IN THE BALTIC
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thorough way. Even the labeling of this type of music, when used by Soviet
journalists, shows how unclear it was to the leadership, just how and what
to write sensibly about the subject. In practice, rock music was not called
rock music for a long time. The term rock-and-roll was basically used to
apply to a musical style of the late '50s and the early '60s, which is quite
justified, but they left out the generalizing meaning of the term. They
preferred to call rock music "big-beat" or "big beat music," "youth music";
the leading journalists called it "pop music," and those who really didn't
understand a thing about it, and that was the majority, called it moder
"stage music," or estrada.
One such official manifestation of rock music in the Soviet Union
was the existence of the above-mentioned official youth "vocal-instrumental
ensembles" (in translation: semi-rock groups). As we have already noted,
they had little in common with what we, having Western examples in mind,
understand by the term "rock music," and they were, rather, representatives
of what is called estrada in the Soviet Union. Such groups were, one and
all, official Russian ensembles, such as: ARIEL, SAMOTSVETY, GOLUBYE
GITARY, POYUSHCHIE SERDTSA, TSVETY, PLAMYA, etc.
The official "vocal-instrumental ensembles" of the Soviet republics
(usually one per republic) were somewhat better: CHERVONA RUTA from
Ukraine, PESNYARY from Belorussia, APELSIN from Estonia, ORERO
from Georgia, the Raimond Pauls ensemble MODO from Latvia. The first
three, also totally sharing all the defects of Soviet official ensembles, were
saved by the fact that they were based on national-folklore foundations,
and had texts in a frequently ill-understood language, which relieved one
of the necessity of understanding the imbecile texts of their songs. The
group PESNYARY from Belorussia sometimes achieved, in its compositions
based on folklore, a level which could be called folk rock and could be
compared, with a great deal of caution to be sure, with an English group
such as JETHRO TULL.
Among other official republics' ensembles it is worth citing the
Raimond Pauls ensemble MODO from Riga. Above all it was a Latvian group
and therefore, due to the relative freedom that existed in the Baltic area,
was more technically daring and skilled. Pauls himself was a veteran, if not
of rock-and-roll, at least of a somewhat heavier variation of estrada music.
He began his career in the '60s, and is a professional composer and a virtuoso pianist. In Latvia he is still famed as a national hero and a local superstar among wide circles, including Latvian hippies. This popularity is only
partially explained by the musical virtues of his performance-he is popular
as well because he is a Latvian. His songs ring out in Latvian and he appeals,
to a considerable degree, to the repressed national sensibilities. Paul's own
works comprise only fifty percent of the group's repertoire; the rest are
works by Western masters of soft romantic rock in Pauls' interpretationfor example, such as the music of Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder is black