How can the Polish working people contribute to the overthrow of bourgeois governments in the United States? Polish communists let themselves be persuaded that there was only one solution. Polish shipbuilders and miners must immediately start listening to rock'n'roll!
When Władysław Gomułka came to power in Poland, it seemed that something would finally change. The state loosened the screw a bit, which was evident at almost every step in the field of censorship regulations, control and repression, and in the field of culture. Of course, it was only a temporary smokescreen. Fortunately, there was a man who had enough cleverness and insolence to take the opportunity to bring rock'n'roll to Poland.
Rotten epidemic
"Godfather" of Polish rock'n'roll (in the full sense) Franciszek Walicki.
The Polish authorities had a hard time to crack. The plague began on the coast, and from there it spread throughout the country. Ships from the rotten West called at the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia, and whole suitcases of vinyl with crazy hits and new ideas were on their decks. It was the music of youth and rebellion. Jazz and rock'n'roll at its best. The working people of towns and villages should not listen to something like that!
Maybe the People's Republic of Poland did not have any "anti-rock and roll" act, but harassment and confiscation followed anyway. Fortunately, before the party concrete fought the interest in new trends in music, a certain Franciszek Walicki entered the action. He was a journalist of "Głos Wybrzeża" with a sailing career in his biography. That godfather of Polish rock'n'roll turned out to be on four feet a forged, sly fox, who managed to lead the party officials astray into ideological ways.
The authorities could not cope with the enthusiasm of the youth. Banner warning for participants of the Final of the Spring Festival of Teen Music in Gdańsk (1966).
Walicki was an outspoken and quite influential man. He started using his contacts in the party in connection with rock'n'roll. He did the impossible. He managed to convince the authorities that rock'n'roll was, in fact, an expression of rebellion ... against capitalism.
We are all Negroes!
The article is based on the book "Big-beat" by Marek Karewicz and Marcin Jacobson (SQN Publishing House 2014).
In detail, it was as follows. With a stony face, Walicki began to explain to decision-makers that jazz and rock'n'roll were Negro music. And what about it? Well, the fact that although America is the greatest evil and the heart of the darkness of rotten capitalism, masses of oppressed blacks are in fact the local counterpart of the working people of cities and villages! And if so, their music should be played and listened to in the People's Republic of Poland, as an expression of support and encouragement from the social class.
After all, in a moment, in a few months, maybe in a year, the American black proletariat will grab bricks, attack the barricades and overthrow this whole musty system! If something can help him in this, it is listening to Polish shipyard workers and rock'n'roll miners!
As Marek Karewicz and Marcin Jacobson, authors of the book "Big-beat" (SQN 2014) write:
The conviction of decision-makers that jazz and blues are the music of exploited blacks, so it should be ex officio supported by the people's government, was a masterpiece explaining the miracle that we managed to do so.
A hard blow ... against bourgeois exploitation!
Following the blow, Walicki decided to create the first Polish big-beat group. He could not simply call it rock'n'roll so as not to tempt fate and get into further discussions with politicians. For the authorities, even an argument about Negroes fighting for freedom would not be enough to accept the American name. It was blowing too much rotten West.
Walicki had to come up with his own term for wild rhythms on the Vistula. In the French press, he dug up the term big-beat, used only on the Seine, translated as "hit hard". That sounded good. And on top of that, it matched perfectly with what Polish musicians were doing.
Blue and Black were another "prodigy" of Walicki. He had a nose for music like nobody else!
Polish People's Sailors? The best rock'n'rollers!
Having already had a name for the music and a silent consent to its dissemination, Walicki moved to the next stage. Someone had to play it. He didn't look far. He saw quite a specific potential on the coast, and he would not be himself if he did not take advantage of it. Well picked up the best musicians ... the Navy Representative Orchestra "Flotilla"!
This article has more than one page. Please select another one below to continue reading.Attention! You are not on the first page of the article. If you want to read from the beginning click here.
Young, talented and handsome men were fascinated by jazz and swing, and it was not far from here to rock'n'roll sounds. They did not have original scores and were disturbed by the language barrier, but they quickly adapted the hits played on foreign radio stations and listened to from imported albums to their own fashion.
The article is based on the book "Big-beat" by Marek Karewicz and Marcin Jacobson (SQN Publishing House 2014).
The band Rhythm &Blues, because that was how Walicki called the band he created, played for the first time in public in Gdańsk, at the Rudy Kot club. It was March 24, 1959 and this day is considered the beginning of the Polish variety of rock'n'roll. The band became very popular very quickly.
Wild beats from the waiting room
Young people raged at his concerts just like at the Beatles, to such an extent that the enthusiastic crowd got out of hand. After one of the performances in Warsaw, the buzzed youth, as the authors of the book "Big-beat" write, put a tram off the rails and marched to the American embassy to manifest their love for rock'n'roll .
Rhythm &Blues in action (1959).
Another time, enthusiastic fans even stormed the Mazowsze cinema at ul. Jerozolimska in Warsaw, where the Rhythm &Blues concert was to take place. The tension was increasing, and people wanted to force themselves into the already full room. As Antoni Malewski recalls:
In the confusion it was possible to pick out the residual sounds of strange, wild rhythms from deep in the room. The waiting room was boiling, shouting "Rock'n'roll!" Rock'n'roll! ". […] After a while someone from inside opened the door and, carried by the crowd, I found myself in the very center of the raging hall.
The instrumentalists playing on the stage kept a stoic calm, and the audience was literally boiling, throwing coats, whistling and squealing. […] U I attended the first concert in my city where professional musicians played forbidden rock'n'roll ...
Although the authorities finished the Rhythm &Blues band after some time with administrative decisions (due to "public safety" they could not play in halls with more than four hundred people), the inadvertently released wave could not be stopped.
And only Gomułka was not amused…
In community centers, universities, clubs, workplaces and all other places where young musicians could gather together, new bands were springing up like mushrooms after the rain. We humming some of their songs to this day.
The American Negroes fighting capitalism deserve thanks. Even if they never existed!
Source:
- Marek Karewicz, Marcin Jacobson, Big-beat , SQN Publishing House, Krakow 2014.
Click here to go to the bookstore…
Announcement for party members:
All photos used in the article were made available by the SQN publishing house (well, except for the orange-painted banner; it's the author's work).
The book "Big-beat", on which we relied, can be purchased at the LaBotiga bookstore for PLN 50.90. And you better buy it, otherwise we won't write about rock'n'roll anymore ...