today's guest post is by my friend Will. this record has been sampled by mysterious estonian hiphop group Apasnõi Luk.
The Detectives
Prologue
"Sister Carrie"
A musical after T. Dreiser's novel
C60-12355-6
Music: Raimonds Pauls
Texts: J. Peters
Arranged by G. Rozenbergs
Latvian composer and keyboardist Raimonds Pauls is arguably the most famous post-war Soviet pop songwriter. Pauls' has a gift for pairing music with texts in a way that formally justifies his use of modern western styles to the listener and notorious Soviet cultural censors. Sister Carrie, with its negative portrayal of modern capitalism, was an excellent text to adapt for a western-style musical in 1978. Soviets loved the musical; Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar proved irrepressible in the early 70's soviet era. To soviet censors, songs about dirty capitalists were a fine excuse to use rock guitars. In fact, 1978 was the disco era, and the major struggles over western music were over; jazz, rock, and musicals had received official sanction as long as the state controlled them. Soviet authorities felt that disco wasn't a vessel for subversive political messages, and didn't fight it in the same way. I like the proto-hip-hop moody loopz and frantic orchestral disco arrangement (by trumpeter Gunars Rozenbergs) of Prologue. To me it evokes the bustle of the city. I also like jazzy scatting by Pauls' protege Mirdza Zivere on "Carrie's Ditty", and the singing and electric instrumentation on "The Detectives". I feel like Pauls also captured Drouet's character quality well with his dixie jazz-meets-pop musical motif. Anyways, its no secret why the theme of Sister Carrie appealed to Soviet authorities. The album notes read something about how sister carrie's story is bigger than her, it is the story of markets rising as stars ride, then crashing into the puddles in the street.
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