Exemplary boy

The song “Exemplary Boy” was written by Igor Talkov until 1987 as an autobiographical. At first, the song had no fame, and was noticed after Talkov transferred this song to Valery Leontyev, a popular singer of the Soviet stage at that time. In 1990, Leontiev sang this song as part of his concert program, and then published it in his studio album “Delo Taste” , after which the song gained popularity.

The song was also performed by Igor Talkov as part of his own concert programs, but in secondary roles. The first studio editions of the song “Exemplary Boy” performed by Igor Talkov happened only in 1993, after the death of the poet .

Researcher of song poetry Igor Talkov, Doctor of Philology Ilya Nichiporov called the Illustrative Boy Igor Talkov confessional poem, imbued with self-irony. In it, according to the author, the reflection on the poet’s own life and creative path acquires the character of generalization with the fate of the generation, which was formed in an atmosphere of public lies and hypocrisy. The consciousness of most of Talkov’s contemporaries, deformed by Soviet pedagogy, turned out to be knocked down and devoid of existential landmarks, their fate was refracted in the history of growing up and the internal formation of the lyrical “I”. For this reason, the spiritual search for the hero, his desire for personal freedom, self-identification, as well as forms of social protest (at the same time “not such” books, rock and temple) have a very contradictory expression ^[1] .

The literary critic Heinrich Mitin notes that in 1987 , just before the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, Talkov’s song “Exemplary Boy” did not go on the air due to the words “rock” and “temple”. But as early as the next year, Talkov was invited to a mass concert at the Sports Palace in Luzhniki precisely for the performance of this and only this “song” ^[2] .

Archpriest Mikhail Khodanov, who studied the work of Russian poets of the 20th century, wrote that Igor Talkov, protesting with the song “Exemplary Boy” against “scoops” and “godless socialism”, Soviet routine and “depersonalization”, expresses his civic indignation and spiritual rejection of what is happening sympathetic to Church, but does it in a somewhat naive form, combining, according to the author, the incompatible: Church and rock ^[3] .

Literary critic Vladimir Bondarenko expresses the opinion that Talkova was taken to the wide stage as the author of Chistye Prudy or, in extreme cases, The Model Boy, as a young shoot, a naive boy who had only served in the army and was tuned to a lyrical elegiac mood ^[4] .

Igor Talkov’s song “Exemplary Boy” was performed in 1990 by the popular singer Valery Leontiev, which brought her first fame. The song was included in Leontyev ’s album “A Matter of Taste” .

In Valery Leontiev's discography

• “A matter of taste” ( 1990 )

In the discography of Igor Talkov

• “I'll be back” ( 1993 );
• "Lifebuoy" ( 1996 );
• “Calling” ( 2001 );

In 1988 , when the concert “Looks Introduces!” In Luzhniki, organized by the program “Looks” , the song “An Exemplary Boy” was approved as permitted for performance by Talkov. But Talkov deviated from the program and in fact performed the unresolved songs “Kremlin Wall” , “Stop, I think to myself!” And “Enemy of the people” ^[5] at the concert, which ended in scandal and prohibition of Talkov from ever participating in the program “Glance” " . This situation was also described by Talkov in his book "Monologue" ^[6] .

During the performance of the song “An Exemplary Boy” by Talkov on October 5, 1991 , the day before the murder, the singer performed alone with an acoustic concert at a technical school in Gzhel , and a string broke during his performance on his guitar ^{[7] [8]} , which was considered in journalism and journalism as "a bad omen for any musician." Parallels were also drawn that the string broke exactly one astronomical day before the singer’s murder ^[9] .