Soviet Consumerism Music
Three songs from the magnitizdat tradition, the underground tape recordings that circulated outside official Soviet channels. Arkadii Severnyi's "Roast Chicken" carries forward a 1920s NEP-era ballad about food scarcity into the late-Brezhnev years. Aleksandr Galich's "Ballad of Surplus Value" satirizes the gap between Marxist economic theory and the Soviet shopper's daily life. Vladimir Vysotsky's "Trip to the City" follows a village man dispatched to Moscow to fulfill an impossible shopping list from his fellow villagers.
Aleksandr Galich: Ballad of Surplus Value (1968)
Баллада о прибавочной стоимости (Ballad of Surplus Value). Music and lyrics by Aleksandr Galich, 1968. Performed by Aleksandr Galich, self-accompanied on guitar.
Arkadii Severnyi: Roast Chicken (1970s)
Цыплёнок жареный (Roast Chicken). Music and lyrics: traditional, c. 1918–1920; specific authorship disputed. Performed by Arkadii Severnyi (magnitizdat recording, 1970s).
Vladimir Vysotskii. Trip to the City (1969)
Поездка в город (Trip to the City). Music and lyrics by Vladimir Vysotsky, 1969. Performed by Vladimir Vysotsky, self-accompanied on guitar.