This is not a praise of Kiril Marichkov, may God forgive him.
He doesn't need anything like that, simply because he built himself an unmade monument a long time ago. I can't stop the soundtrack in my head, led by "Hamlet" while I'm sad. Here I would like, through a short memoir, to reflect on his contribution as a staunch democrat, apart from as a musician whose work has been embedded for decades in the hearts of at least two politically damaged generations. And for which he ached.
He made living in that crap kind of bearable
We have talked at length about the relative failure of the democratic community, especially since 2001, when a simple cop-oligarch scheme brought to power the first real opportunists, led by their quasi-monarchical banner. Or, if you will, the humble Mephistopheles of the nostalgia game, who never knew what time it was.
Marichkov did not pretend to be a thinker. Like any bassist, he was always slightly depressed or dysthymic - rock musicians will get the joke. But at the expense of that, until the end he wondered where and how exactly "our" Lib Dems have lost the reins. I last saw him by chance on "Shipka" with his wife a year ago. Beyond the pleasantries, he said something important: "We didn't break the back of the communists, and no one is interested in the topic anymore, but you go ahead."
And this from a man who, with his songs, made forced living in that stupidity somehow more bearable.
Leninism vs. Leninism
OK, "Crickets" they will hardly pass for rock and roll rebels against the authorities. They, de facto, caught the gradual thaw after the end of the 70s, when they made us adore them, but for an older generation, since the "Bandaraks", they were what I call "Leninism against Lennonism". For part of that generation of our parents, Leninism through Marichkov has obviously won.
Imagine "youthful fun" in Sofia in October 1969. He himself had even told me about something similar: "Beatles" they have even already disbanded, but nobody here knows yet, after the Prague Spring the Czechs banned Valdemar Matushka and Karel Krill, but the "Crickets" perform English covers. At the same time, the cops are openly and vigilantly on the lookout for anyone who gets "emotional" too much, and he dawns in the district. By the way, before the latch clicked, exactly in 1969, the "Beach Boys" visited Prague. and Mike Love dedicates the song "Break Away" of Dubcek, who is in the audience in the "Lucerna" hall. And here's another thing from Kiril - they were very offended that in the troubled Czech Republic at the time, something was possible, but not in our country. You can only sympathize with him - this is the man who brought Western music to a generation crippled by (Western) information.
With real talent.
Rock music as a threat to the regime
I also remember how we used to play the song "Wild Honey Pie" together. and "Oath". The story of how he was amazed when the "White Album" of the Beatles in 1968.
And here immediately context, for younger readers: rock music in the communist era was not just an unwanted cultural distraction, but an ideological, and hence an existential threat to the very nature and structure of the regime. It was beyond the orthodox interpretation of the Marxist theory of "Basis und Überbau", or "base and superstructure".
According to Marx "the base" represents the basis of economic activity in a society, including the means of production and property relations. The relationship between employers and employees in the division of labor ultimately determines the very nature of society and its "superstructure" - the collective set of activities that any society needs to function, from political structures and forms of government to education and health, language culture and the arts. Furthermore, Marx argued that between the "base" and the "upgrade" there is a "dialectical relationship" in which the means of production influence the character of society, and society in turn influences the character of the means of production. In short, the way you live determines the way you work and vice versa. This particular interface is especially important in societies that are transitioning from capitalism to communism, ergo - from function to pure stupidity.
Great albums released in difficult years
And why am I reminding him? Because "Crickets", thank God, were never banned, like Klaus Renft's East German group, which had to give way to the Gederei stage of the official "Pudis". They did not fall under the blows of the Ceausescu repressions, as happened with "Olympic '64". In that sense, we have been lucky in a way that the Polish punks of the 1980s - Lady Pank or Grzegorz Markowski's Perfect - or even Czeslaw Niemen in the Czech Republic were not. "The Crickets" have the political luck of the Hungarians Locomotiv GT, who, even before we heard of them here, wrote a whole rock opera in the style of "Jesus Christ Superstar". It's called "Fictitious Report On An American Rock Festival" and of course, it is banned immediately.
At the same time, Marichkov, Peci Gyuzelev, Valdi Totev and Zhoro Markov released at least three great albums in my opinion - "XX century" (1980), "The Taste of Time" (1982) and "The Horseman" (1985). They contain probably their greatest songs - from the "XX century" itself. and "Two Traces", through "The Taste of Time" and "Magic Color", to "Rock in the Past Time" and "Hamlet (Whither)". Not to mention that they played for the unforgettable Gosho Minchev in one of our greatest pop achievements - "White silence".
Okay, well, I'm stopping! I won't even talk about the Gederei punks "Pankov", provocatively named after the neighborhood where the communist elite lives.
Just a smart and talented person
There is no need for melodrama in the style of "but he will forever be by the river with the poplars", "the troubadour of our youth" and such nonsense. He was the absolute democrat, joking about himself and the contribution of the "Crickets" ("Well, we couldn't be the Stones, we weren't that good", he really was "just human"). From my last conversation with him, I only remember how he complained that Bulgarian pop and rock music never produced anything world-class, although - at least according to him - we had wonderful examples. Without coughing and pointing at himself.
Just a smart and talented guy of the pre-9/11 strain who produced at least 10 remarkable songs. It is also important to remember the magnificent poet Volen Nikolaev, without whom we would not be singing "Hamlet" or anything.
No narcissistic ego. As far as I knew him, he wouldn't want to be cried over. It would be: Come on, that's enough, let's play something.
But in a political sense, he left with his eyes open - his dream of one day crushing post-communism did not come true. He said: Now it is difficult to like each other, we seem to hate each other, I have never lived in such an environment. We loved each other, but I think we lost this gift of love, we became different.
Let's remember him as a wonderful voice and musician outside the social context. Because Marichkov, without wanting to, became - along with the FSB - the man who provided the soundtrack to our urge to be different.