The game of beads in front of pigs

Album Record

After a conflict with official authorities in late 1985, Letov’s closest ally Konstantin Ryabinov (Kuzya UO) was sent to the army, and he himself was forcibly placed in a mental hospital. After leaving there, he, according to him, was faced with the fact that receipts were received from his acquaintances that they would have nothing to do with Letov ^[2] . Evgeny Filatov offered his help in the recording. The result was a record June 1, 1986 in the laboratory of Omsk State University ^[3] . On the records Letov played bass and acoustic guitar, while Evgeny Filatov played along with harmonica and percussion . The recording is rather atypical in Letov’s discography, he characterized it as “funny, albeit very high quality” ^[4] . Most of the songs on this record were covered in a tougher manner in the electric “ Red Album ” (“Optimism” and “He saw the sun” were covered in “ Totalitarianism ” and “ Mousetrap ”, respectively). The only exception is the short composition “Killer” with a single line: “Ivan Govnov - the killer of grass” (which will be included later in the song “Ivan Govnov” from the album “The Mousetrap”) and a song called “KBG-ROCK”, the text of which almost entirely consists of citations by Boris Grebenshchikov , leader of the Aquarium group.

Song "KBG-ROCK"

In the verse of this composition (not to be confused with the song “KGB Rock” from the album “ Necrophilia ”), the phrase from Boris Grebenshchikov’s song “25 to 10” is played out: “But if I could choose myself, I would be Grebenshchikov” (with Boris Grebenshchikov) “But if I could choose myself, I would become myself again”). Letov commented on this phrase:

This song is a mocking one, but it has nothing to do with Grebenshchikov himself. This is a parody of our former director, my friend, who was so turned on the work of this author that he spoke in any simple life situation with purely quotes from him. About this and the song.

- From the answers to questions on the official website of "Civil Defense". ^[5]

In May 2007, Boris Grebenshchikov, when asked by a reader of the Russian BBC service , spoke of the song as follows:

Question: Yegor Letov in one of his songs sings: “If I could choose myself, I would be Grebenshchikov. What is this: a compliment, a joke, an insult? ”

Boris Grebenshchikov: Of course, a compliment. You can probably turn in another way, but it's beautiful. I also recommend, yes. I myself would say the same thing. Honestly, I would not want to swap places with anyone.

- Answers to questions from readers of BBCRussian.com, May 2007. ^[6]

Official Discography Place

Prior to publishing on the Chorus label , Letov attributed the album to bootlegs , referring to it as the acoustic Red Album. It was officially published only in 1999. The album’s title was given by the refrain of the song “Bead Game”, where Letov plays up the saying “throw beads in front of pigs” and the mythical “bead game” from Hermann Hesse 's novel “ Bead Game ” ^[7] . ^[8] When the discography was reissued in 2005-2007, the album was not released, and all songs were included with bonus tracks in the album “ Good !! ".

Words and music of all songs except No. 13 Egor Letov .

Recorded 1.06.86 in the laboratory of Omsk State University by Evgeny Filatov.

• Egor Letov - voice, guitars, bass, drums
• Evgeny Filatov - bongos, harmonica

Design: Egor Letov and Kuzma Ryabinov .
Photo: V. Rozhkov and someone else.
Translated and restored in June 1995 by Egor Letov and Kuzma Ryabinov.
Thank you: Maxim Khasanov and Kirill Perederey.

• The album "The game of beads in front of pigs" on the official website of the group. (unspecified) . Date of treatment July 12, 2010. Archived February 17, 2012.