The frequently whimsical, though percussive, instrumentation contrasted with Vysotsky’s heavy vocals in interesting ways. Artistically, Vysotsky seems to lean into the roughness of his voice as he sings. This makes songs like “Morning exercises” rather humorous, since Vysotsky pronounces bits such as “tri, chetyre” with a jocular sort of bounce. It almost sounds like he’s reciting some kind of nursery rhyme, which is wonderfully entertaining.
The lyrics of “Morning exercises” were very interesting to me because they were describing a very common scene in daily life of a person. And yet, they describe the events with a suprising amount of gusto and excitement, and Vysotsky sings them with a similar sense of flamboyance. In fact, many of his lyrics describe common events in the lives of common people, and all paint these happenings as not mundane, but as epic and sometimes even a bit heroic.
Perhaps, Vysotsky’s work is paying respect to the lives of average, or proletariat, people. His style and subject matter both seem ooze commonality as much as the ooze character. I recall in some previous class discussions that Russian poetry in the soviet age began to move towards a form more reflective of the Russian proletariat, away from lofty subject matters glorifying the natural world. Perhaps, Vysotsky’s work partakes in this movement.
I also thought it was interesting how the song glorified the proletariat by portraying their everyday actions as heroic. In their simple actions of getting up to exercise, the common man shows discipline and bravery; they are described as “triumphant and beautiful”. The evocation of life and death in this piece illustrates the resiliency of the proletariat who fully dedicate themselves to the simple task of exercise to exhibit their strength and health. These actions also serve as an equalizing force, singing that they are: “all equal as we run in place”. I think the instrumentals also accentuate this through percussive elements and upbeat tune accompanied by Vytosky’s deep and robust voice. The piece serves as a testament of the strength of character of the proletariat.
Ethan, your notes on the lyrics of “Morning exercises” were astute, and I agree also that the piece is great because of its elevation of the “every day man.” I think back to the theme of the superfluous man that we talked about at the beginning of the semester, and how Soviet cultural production attempts to destroy that trope. In the CCCR, no one is superfluous, every worker deserves to be exalted as in this song. However, history tells that in the reality of the Soviet Union these praising culture productions were only a veil covering real mistreatment of people.
I also found it interesting how much “gusto and “excitement, as you put it, was put into singing the lyrics of “Morning exercises” which is a song that explains relatively mundane tasks. However, as Brennon points out, those are the vary tasks and values that Soviet society embraces! In Soviet society emphasis was placed on uniformity and that uniformity was grounded in the tasks and realties outlined in “Morning exercises”.
Great discussion! A quick comment on Vysotsky in general and then one on “Morning Exercise.” On Vysotsky in general: in his songs, he very often adopts a fictional persona. In other words, he becomes a character, often one with whom he himself has little or nothing in common; his poems (songs) tell that character’s story, in his own words, in his own style. Vysotsky is brilliant at creating these characters and the specific language with which they speak (sometimes employing prison jargon, military jargon, etc.). Obviously, lots of this nuance gets lost in translation, unfortunately.
Secondly, on “Morning Exercise.” In keeping with what I just explained about Vysotsky in general, we cannot necessarily take the positions espoused in his songs for positions that he himself shares or believes in. Often, his own attitude to his speaker is tongue-in-cheek or overtly critical. Often, he is presenting, for instance, a typical Soviet proletariat “everyman” so as to implicitly critique him. In the case of “Morning Exercise,” every Soviet apartment had a radio feed that came straight from the wall (something like in 1984). You couldn’t change the channel; all apartments had the same radio feed. And every morning, that feed broadcast a program of morning exercises, and so presumably, all across the entire 11 time zones of the USSR, every morning, every citizen would do the exact same exercise routine in their identical apartments in their identical clothing (due to lack of consumer choice). Vysotsky’s song describes this absurd, conditioned, forced synchronicity with the superficially bright (juvenilizing) idiom of official propaganda–which here takes the form of morning exercises. (Think of the ridiculously upbeat cheerfulness with which the gas mask drill was organized in “Burnt by the Sun.”) The final two lines about everyone being equal AS WE RUN IN PLACE should be understood in this context. This is highly satirical! No one is getting anywhere, society is not progressing, but at least there is the empty semblance of equality, which is actually uniformity and lack of freedom or individuality.
So, you can see that Vysotsky’s message above the stifling effects of uniformity and replicability is actually very much like the message of Brodsky’s essay, which we discussed yesterday in class (as exemplified by the absurdly uniform stripe in all official buildings across the nation).