Everything goes according to plan (song)

The text of the song “Everything is going according to plan” in the book of poems published in 2003 by Yegor Letov is dated 1986 . He faces an epigraph , which later became the track “Once”, in the albums “ Everything goes according to plan ” and the re-release of “ Nausea ” immediately before the song. ^[one]

Letov recalled that he wanted to write a song on behalf of the “simple Soviet” “drunk, tired man, completely lost, who came home, his wife left, something else ...”. The song was supposed to be a stream of consciousness - what this person sees while he drinks and watches the news program of Central Television , and what he thinks about it. Letov himself turned on the TV and began to record everything that he sees, as if he was this person; then he wrote down what he received “not in his own style”, reworking “mockingly”, “exaggerating certain things -“ the good was the leader, ”“ the grandfather Lenin ”, etc., as he never would have said. This turned out more than 20 verses, of which the most interesting were selected. The rest remained in draft copies and were destroyed around 1990 during one of the “general clean-ups". ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Egor Letov, in his own words, first recorded the song at the very beginning of 1988 in Omsk . ^{[5] The} recorded song got into the album of the same name .

Studio

1. " Everything is going according to plan " (1988). First version. The recordings were attended by Kuzma by chance , Ryabinov and Manager Sudakov : “during the onset of general musical anarchy, [Yegor] chanted his early poem about punks, Manager recited fragments from Platonovsky “ Pit ”, and Kuzma was scared swore, galloped around the room and knocked on the floor with various objects. ” ^[6] All of this should have emphasized the ironic nature of the song. ^[2] 16th track; 04:59.
2. "Russian field of experiment "(1988). Acoustics of Egor Letov; recorded in December 1988 at the home studio of Sergei Firsov. 8th track; 03:05
3. “ Songs of Joy and Happiness ” (1989). With the reprint of 2007, a track appeared (10th; 04:50), recorded in February 1989 in Novosibirsk and mixed on October 14, 1989 in Grob Studios. In addition to the band (Yegor Letov, Kuzma Ryabinov , Arkady Klimkin), bassist Igor Starovatov took part in the recording. Prior to the reissue of 2007, this track was on the album " War " (1989) (9th) ^[7]
4. " Nausea " (1989). The main track (the 22nd, until the reissue of the 18th; 05:20) was assembled and put together on the night of May 24-25, 1989 in “Grob Studios” (that is, in Omsk, at the home of Letov) after the rest of the tracks that were recorded on May 21. According to Letov, “differs from the original version by the additional“ reverse ”of all parts, approximately from the middle of the song superimposed on the original by shielding the erasing head” of the tape recorder. This option is also present on the 1992 vinyl collection, "Everything goes according to plan." ^[eight]

Concert

1. " So steel was tempered " (1988). Completes (track 25; 04:29) the 2007 re-release of the "live" version of "Everything is going according to plan," recorded at a concert at MPEI in early 1988. Previously included in the collection "Cock over your shoulder: unique rarities and beauty." ^[9]
2. "Light and chairs." The song completes the two concerts that make up the album.
   • The promotion "Next stop Rock`n`Roll" (Moscow, October 1, 1989). The concert was interrupted due to riots on the song “Everything is going according to plan”, which as a result was not fully completed.
     • " Nausea " (1989). The 2007 re-release in the form of a bonus concludes the concert on October 1, 1989 in Moscow at the action “Next Stop Rock'n'Roll” (32nd track; 01:19).
   • The 2nd rock festival in Novosibirsk (Palace of Culture named after Chkalov, April 14, 1988). “Everything goes according to plan” comes after the song “Country of Fools” and is preceded by a cry: “It’s good to live in the Country of Fools, it’s quiet and warm. In the Land of Fools, everything always goes according to plan. ” The line “there [under communism], probably there will be no KGB ” was added to the lyrics of the song itself (the most politicized songs were performed at the concert).
3. “Music of Spring” (collection of acoustic tracks of 1989–1994). 2 options.
   • March 7, 1990, Irkutsk . Track 14, 03:09.
   • March 8, 1990, Irkutsk. The 39th track, 03:10.
4. “ Last concert in Tallinn ” (April 13, 1990, “Linnahall”, Tallinn ). 13th track.
5. "Concert in the hero-city of Leningrad" (acoustics of Yegor Letov June 2, 1994). 12th track.
6. " Russian breakthrough in Leningrad " ( LDM , June 3, 1994). 10th track
7. " Concert " (" Wings of the Soviets ", Moscow, July 4, 1997). The song was not recorded to the end, breaking off on “under communism everything will be fucking, it will come soon ...” - simply because the sound engineer forgot to change the DAT-cassette in time . ^[10] 13th track.
8. "Acoustics. Landfill ”(acoustics of Egor Letov on May 24, 1997 in the rock club“ Polygon ”in St. Petersburg). 3rd track 2nd cassette.
9. "Egor Letov, GO. Polygon "(a collection of tracks from concerts at the rock club" Polygon "in St. Petersburg). This track is from an electric concert on December 8, 2001. 12th track.
10. “Concert in O.G.I.” (brothers Egor and Sergey Letov, November 26, 2002, the OGI Project club). 23rd track.
11. “ Speech at the Rock City Club ” (Novosibirsk, May 17, 2004). 21st track.
12. “ XX years. DK Gorbunova 13.11.2004 . In addition to the group (Yegor Letov, Alexander Chesnakov, Natalya Chumakova, Alexander Andryushkin) and Igor Zhevtun (who jumped into the crowd of spectators) who played the whole concert with her, Vadim Kuzmin , "Kuzma" Ryabinov and Evgeny Kokorin took part in the song. ^{[11] [12] The} 24th track.
13. “ Orange. Acoustics ”(acoustics of Yegor Letov on February 12, 2006 at the rock club“ Orange ”in Moscow). Published in 2011, the 8th track of the 2nd CD, 03:09.

The word “fucking” was sometimes replaced by Letov with “good” or “fucking finally”, “wait” with “wait”, “shit” with “shit”, “assholes” with “fools”. In the original version of the text, the last verse sounded like this (this version of the song is present on the bootlegger "Yegor Letov - Recording by Yulia Sherstobitova (11/15/1987, Omsk)"):

And under communism, everything will be fucking
He will come soon, you just have to wait
Everything will be free there, everything will be high
There will not be every day to fight
And betray your father and son to survive yourself
There probably won't be a KGB at all
I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that
Everything goes according to plan

According to Yegor Letov, politics in his songs is “not a politician at all ... in any case, not a politician in the full sense of the word,” he used “totalitarian categories and realities are images, symbols of eternal, metaphysical totalitarianism , inherent in the very essence groups, any area, any community, as well as in the world order ”. ^{[13] [14]}

Letov noticed that “Everything goes according to plan” is not correct, they understand “badly”: this is a terrible song that bears a “tragic ironic character”, “and it doesn’t“ cheers ”in it”; perceive it literally, and on its behalf, and not “an ordinary Soviet person”; that it did not work in the sense in which he wanted. ^{[2] [3] [15] [16]}

Hints on the meanings of individual phrases

Letov's answer to the question “Is everything going according to plan now?”:

Everything always goes according to plan. For what only? Another thing is how we understand it and how we treat it. Of course, everything goes according to some plan. Therefore, religions arise and die. ^[17]

"There, probably, it will not be necessary to die at all ..."

From the film " Chapaev ": - The war will end, life will be great. Do you know what life will be? It is not necessary to die ... ^[18]

After the revolution, Andrei Platonov walked through the villages - and there he was told that now, after the revolution, there would be no more death. And when some grandfather died, everyone realized that something was wrong ... ^[19]

“Everything goes according to plan” quickly became the most popular and recognizable song of the group ^{[20] [21] [22]} , even more famous than the author ^[23] . Journalists called it “the anthem of a generation” ^{[24] [25]} , “a hit of all times and peoples” ^{[10] [26]} , “a folk nettle” ^[27] , a “favorite pioneer of all times and peoples” ^[28] , an “epochal " ^[29] ," almost Russian folk " ^[30] , etc.). The song has spread among the" yard "guitarists and street musicians, even far from the work of Egor Letov. ^{[25] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]} As a result, many of them begin to get acquainted with the work of a musician. ^{[36] [41]} He himself once called her popularity "unhealthy." ^[42] Time Out magazine “Everything goes according to plan” is placed in the list of “100 songs that changed our lives” ^[43] .

“Everything is going according to plan” was one of the “program” songs and was performed at most of the group’s concerts and Yegor Letov’s solo concerts, therefore it is present in all the released concert albums, with the exception of Freedom and Orange. Electricity . " Letov was sympathetic to the fact that viewers want to hear (demand) her, especially if they came to the concert for the first time. According to him, good songs “always play nicely and do not bother,” especially since they always have “extensive improvisations”. ^{[44] [45]} “Everything goes according to plan” usually sounded in the final part of the performance, and sometimes the last one: in this case, after the chorus, repeating the line “Everything goes according to plan…” several times, a cry “Everything!” Followed.

The fact that many of his songs, including “Everything goes according to plan”, began to be perceived after the collapse of the Soviet Union from the other side, right down to the opposite, in the opinion of Letov himself, did not allow them to become obsolete. ^{[2] [46]} Journalists noted that despite the change in the political system, “in reality there were no changes in relations between people”, there was dissatisfaction with the world around, and therefore Letov’s songs of the Soviet period, including this one, remain relevant . ^{[25] [47]}

By the people, the people invented additional couplets, in particular, about politicians ( Gorbachev , Sobchak , etc.). Letov told me that he had heard up to 20 such verses performed by street musicians on Arbat and Nevsky Prospect . ^{[48] [49]}

The most famous couplets:

I walked past the Mausoleum
From the window I see a cock -
This is us comrade Lenin
Blowing a kiss.

And my police protects me:
First he plants, and then he shoots.
I grunt blood and bathe in shit -
Sweet life in the Soviet Union.

The first of them even got into the official album. At the concert of “Civil Defense” and Yanka Dygileva on February 17, 1990, an unknown person climbed into the MEI during improvisation on the theme “Everything goes according to plan” and grabbed the microphone and declared a ditty. It is true that the organizer of the concert clamped his mouth on the last words, after which he announced the end of the event. This “number” did not make it into the publication of the concert ^[50] , but in 1996 it entered the collection “War” ^[51] as the last bonus, and in 2007 it was included as the last bonus in the re-release of the album “ War "" The Mystery of Sound . "

• According to Letov, if he wanted to shoot videos, he would do it as much as possible with the Residents group approach. For example, the clip of the song “Everything goes according to plan” would be accompanied by gestures and grimaces corresponding to the realities occurring in the song. ^[44]
• The " Cartoons " group once, when visiting the orphanage, played "Everything is going according to plan" at the request of the children. ^[52]

It is noted that “Everything goes according to plan” is a difficult song for the manifestation of some kind of creative work, due to the very strong author's performance, you should not take it up for rehashing with no less than a brilliant idea ^[53] .

• At the first tribute of Civil Defense (2002), “Everything is going according to plan” is present in the form of a bonus “ techno version”, which is a fundamentally low-budget remix of Alexei Shulgin made using “ PC 386 DX , Creative 16 Bit, Windows 3.1 ” and speech-generating programs ^{[26] [54] [55]} . According to critics, it sounds “fiercely” ^[26] , “very far from the original in form, but very close in essence” ^[56] , “the most soulful track of the album” (irony) ^[57] , the author of the remix “let down the intuition” “The only genre in which he is really strong” is an interview ^[58] , it is hardly possible to withstand listening more than once ^[55] , “it is impossible to imagine worse” ^[53] , it is possible to envy the buyers of audio cassettes, since there were no bonuses ^[59] .
• At the second tribute (2003) the song was performed by the group “Dwarf Nose”. According to critics, the cover is “an average formatted jolly”, reduced to “stupid mockery” ^[60] , “negroid distorted pronunciation sounds like a roller on rails” ^[53] , “you want to yawn” ^[54] , “it's just boring” like and most of the songs on the compilation ^[61] .
• On the Internet, we got going: a video recording of the performance “Everything is going according to plan” by Yuri Klinsky at his birthday party in 1996; the 2003 spoof of Noize MC and his early group Protivo Gunz, dedicated to the current situation in Russia; video of the rehearsal “Everything goes according to plan” performed by the famous collaboration with rock musicians of the Globalis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Konstantin Krimets , the author of the arrangement is Anna Staroverova, the song was performed on March 7, 2008 on the stage of the Olympic Sports Complex at the award ceremony Chart's dozen ”, which Yegor Letov received posthumously in the nomination“ Legend ” ^[62] .
• During the opposition rally on May 6, 2013, on the Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, journalist Oleg Kashin sang Letov’s song ^{[63] [64]} instead of a capella , explaining after the performance that “this song has destroyed the Soviet dictatorship in many respects” and “it’s about that internal freedom always triumphs over the plan by which the totalitarian state lives ” ^[65] . This performance was included in the movie “ Deadline ”, which caused dissatisfaction on the part of Letov's heirs, and in July 2014, access to the film on the YouTube site was terminated ^{[66] [67]} . Later in 2014, Kashin performed the same song, as well as a chapel, especially for Mikhail Gorbachev ^[68] .
• Bristol trip-hop group Massive Attack performed at a concert in Manchester on July 4, 2013, a cover version of the song “Everything is going according to plan”, “Civil Defense” and the song “My Sorrow is Light” by Yanka Dyagileva ^{[69] [70]} . On June 24, 2019, a video was published on YouTube with the performance of the song “Everything is going according to plan” by the Massive Attack group and the release of this composition was announced on an X-ray film ^[71] .
• The Rowan Tower group (Geese-Geese) recorded a cover version of the song, however changing the text: they retold the contents of the Bible in a humorous manner ^[72] .
• The Distemper band recorded a ska-punk cover version.
• In 2017, the Russian cello quartet VesperCellos released the single “Everything goes according to plan” with the performance of the melodies of three “Civil Defense” songs on cellos ^[73] .
• In September 2017, Alexander Pushnoy released a cover version on his Youtube channel ^[74] .

• The text of the song with chords on the official website of the group (in the discography section of the old albums you can listen to the song)
• “Everything is going according to plan” on the Rock Songs: Interpretation website (including several video recordings from concerts)