Recordings of “Time Machine” at the State House of Radio Broadcasting and Sound Recording

Changes in composition

Records were made over four years, as new material appeared in the group's repertoire. During this period, its leader Andrei Makarevich graduated from high school and entered the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1971, and in 1974, for the formal reason of “untimely leaving work at a vegetable base” ^[1] , he was expelled from it. The rehearsal base of the collective has moved from “school premises to the cult for the capital rock of the Energetik recreation center” ( Raushskaya embankment , building 14, building 1) ^[2] , the premises of which the musicians had the opportunity to use from 1971 to 1973. The group experienced a short (from the beginning of summer to the end of December 1972) period of refusal of independent activity and being a member of the popular Moscow supergroup “Best Years”, as well as a change of name (“Time Machine” instead of “Time Machine”). For the same period, the first contribution of the “Time Machine” as an “amateur” group to the official Soviet culture was made. In 1973, “Melody” released a record with the songs of the vocal trio “Linnik” with instrumental accompaniment of “Time Machine”, while the name of the group was first mentioned on the back of the envelope of this record. And in 1974, the musicians took part in the filming of the film “ Afonya ” directed by Georgy Danelia and recorded a soundtrack of the song “ You or Me ” at the Mosfilm studio for the soundtrack of the film.

The composition of the group at this time was constantly changing and, as a whole, during the period 1969-1975 was characterized by the “most intensive” rotation ^[3] . In the fall of 1971, Alexander Kutikov took the place of the bass player in the group ^[4] . At that time, he was officially employed at the State House of Broadcasting and Sound Recording , where he met with Sergei Kawagoe , one of the participants of the Time Machine, who stood at the origins of the group. Both performed the duties of operator technicians in the GDRZ ^[5] . As Makarevich recalled, “Kutikov came to our rehearsal and played the bass“ Yellow River ”[Song of the 1970 Christie band]. This decided the outcome of the case ” ^[6] . From that time until the end of 1974, the permanent participants of The Time Machine were: Andrei Makarevich ( guitar ), Sergey Kavagoe ( keyboards , drums ) and Alexander Kutikov (bass guitar). Other musicians, including those who came from underground ensembles that were more famous at that time, did not linger for a long time in Time Machine ^[7] . So, among others, during this period the group played: on the guitar - Alexey Belov (“ Successful acquisition ”) and Igor Degtyaryuk (“Second wind”), on the bass guitar - Alik Mikoyan and Nikolai Shiryaev (“Second wind”), on keyboards - Igor Saulsky (“Buffoons”, “Best Years”), on drums - Maxim Kapitanovsky (“Second Wind”) and Yuri Fokin (“Buffoons”, “Best Years”) and others.

Recording and distribution

In the memoir book “Everything is very simple. Stories ”(1991) Makarevich mentioned the recording of five compositions in 1970, namely,“ Last Days ”,“ Help ”,“ Seller of Happiness ”,“ Song of a Soldier ”,“ I saw this day ” ^[8] . However, according to the dating indicated on the album “ Unreleased ” (1996), the phonograms of three of the songs mentioned - “Last Days”, “Help” and “Seller of Happiness” - refer to the period 1971-1972. “Soldier’s Song” and “I Saw This Day”, presumably, can also refer to 1971-1972, and not to 1970, but the general list of compositions recorded during this period may include other tracks .

According to Makarevich, the 1970 record has not been preserved to date ^[8] . He suggested that “once” it could sound on the air ^[8] . The fact of broadcasting the recording on the air was also mentioned in the article “Reflections on the“ Time Machine ”, published in 1988 in the student meridian magazine:“ ... Of the “official” successes, only the film “Afonya” can be called, where “Sunny” island “ , and one more unique radio program from the series“ For Those Who Do Not Sleep, ”in which two or three songs were sounded” ^[9] . There is no other information about the circumstances of the production of the indicated record, the name of the radio program itself, on the air of which the indicated songs were sounded, and the air date on the air.

The recordings of 1973-1974 were made illegally, most likely in the evening and at night, since only officially recognized bands and performers could record in the GDRZ studio. But they sometimes "for years have been waiting for the opportunity to sign up. The authorities then did everything possible to prevent any manifestation of rock culture in the field of professional activity. Television and radio, gramophone recordings and philharmonic concerts - all of these areas have long been completely unavailable to rock bands ” ^[10] . The sound technicians were full - time technicians-operators of the GDRZ Kavagoe and Kutikov, thanks to whom these music sessions basically took place.

The phonogram of 1973-1974 is not fully preserved. Researchers and fans of the group’s creativity suggested that the track list also included the songs “Pink glasses”, “Fast train”, “I'm tired” and some others, as well as several instrumental compositions ^[11] . In the second half of the 1970s, this record was distributed in the Magnitizdat as a separate cycle of songs under the unofficial name of “Misty Fields” ^[12] .

In 1996, the phonograms of 1971-1972, as well as the phonogram of the song “I Look Out the Window” were included in the collection “Unreleased”. The remaining records have not been officially published since their production.

The author of all songs except those noted is A. Makarevich.

1971

1. Last days 02:04
2. Help 02:18
3. I'm alone today 04:23

1972

1. Castle in the sky 03:06
2. Millionaires (A. Kutikov - A. Makarevich) 03:37
3. The seller of happiness (A. Kutikov - A. Makarevich) 02:44

1973-1974

1. I look out the window 06:49
2. Our house 03:56
3. The old days 02:30
4. Misty fields 05:32
5. Day of Anger 01:55
6. You or me 04:06
7. Instrumental (I. Saulsky) 03:31

Help

The name of the song matches the name of the song Help! from the Beatles album of the same name, whose fundamental influence on the work of The Time Machine, especially earlier, was invariably emphasized by Andrei Makarevich ^{[13] [14]} . The phonograms of both songs have the same duration - 2 minutes 18 seconds.

According to Makarevich, the first songs of the collective in Russian were “funeral”, “social- decadent , with very complex harmonies” ^[15] . However, under the influence of Alexander Kutikov, who was accepted into the group in 1971, the musicians began to compose “funny” songs, including “Help”, “Seller of happiness”, “Millionaires”, “Song of a soldier” ^{[16] [15]} .

According to researcher Yulia Shigareva, the center of Makarevich’s work is “the development of the human spirit in time”. In the songs of the early period “Help” and “Our Home” “there is no image of time, it moves so rapidly. Its speed is constantly noted: “Time has broken from the chain” (“Help”, 1971), “Years fly by an arrow ...” (“Our house”, 1973). Here, time is bi-directional. On the one hand, this is the past, which includes the established cultural tradition, on the other, the future, on which spiritual values ​​are projected ” ^[17] .

Millionaires

According to Kutikov, this is the first song that "really heard and loved the people" ^[15] . Music critic Artemy Troitsky considered The Millionaires to be the most popular of the group’s first songs, which he generally described as “children's satire, ” songs “permeated by the harsh irony of schoolchildren from good families” ^[18] . Explaining the particular popularity of “Millionaires,” “scourging consumers,” Troitsky drew attention to the line “ I will buy a gold bath // And an emerald toilet ”, explaining that “at that time it was unexpected, bold, and even very serious” ^[18] .

The musician Aleksey Romanov called "The Millionaires", along with "The Merchant of Happiness" and "Soldier's Song", the early "quite mature compositions" ^[19] . “Like a little thing, a hit, a product, they were a finished product. A fully formalized arrangement , interaction of verses, performance presentation - everything was found. A measure of aggression , a measure of melancholy , a kind of blues-rock platform, a certain amount of country , which Andrei [Makarevich] studied quite seriously. Just such a terry country. Not sleek folk , but “old man's” mournful ballads, with an upset banjo ” ^[19] .

Happiness seller

According to Kutikov, this is the first song he wrote together with Makarevich in 1971 ^[20] . Thus, it was with this song that the long-term creative union of two musicians began, which journalists later compared with the tandem of Paul McCartney and John Lennon ^[21] . Together with the song " You or Me " was part of a program that was performed during a joint concert activity with the group "Best Years".

Our home

One of the first songs in the work of the group and in Russian-language rock music in general, written in an escapist tradition ^[22] . The main feature of escapism is the desire to create an "alternative" world that is not in contact with reality ^[23] . The first stanza of the song “Our Home” claims to leave a certain figurative city in this “alternative” world: “ Years fly by an arrow, // Soon you and I // Will leave the city at once. // Somewhere in the dense forest // Or on a steeper mountain // We’ll build a house for ourselves . ” This “our” house, according to Yu. Shigareva, is first of all “a house of like-minded people, in which“ there is enough room for us and you ”. He “was opposed to the city and stood on the mountain (a symbolic designation of high thoughts)” ^[24] .

According to Ilya Kormiltsev and Olga Surova, the escapist attitude characteristic of the rock aesthetics of the mid-1970s was formed by the first domestic rock authors (Andrei Makarevich, Alexei Romanov , Konstantin Nikolsky ) under the influence, on the one hand, of hippie culture traditions, on the other - a bard song ^[25] .

The song took 8th and 9th places in the nomination “Songs” of the “Stars-80” competition, organized by the Sverdlovsk newspaper “ On Change! " ^[26] .

The most famous cover for the song is the version of the Bravo band, recorded in 2009 for the typewriting album- typewriter .

Misty Fields

Gave the name to the whole cycle of songs from 1973-1974, which was distributed in the magnet . According to Boris Grebenshchikov , the band performed at the festival “ Tallinn Youth Songs 76” as “real psychedelicism ”, which made a strong impression on the musician ^[27] .

Day of Wrath

It has an unofficial name - “The Battle with the Fools”. In the article ^[28], Artemy Troitsky noted that since the late 1970s, the songs “Time Machines”, in particular “Day of Wrath”, have gained an independent life, becoming, in essence, “popular”: “... Moscow - Moscow, but there were facts and more amazing. The guys from the Far East sang “Day of Anger”. “Who composed? - I ask. “ Folklore ...” In work ^[29], Troitsky called the song “a rock anthem of the early 70's,” and later proposed to consider the day that Russian rock was composed as “Day of Wrath” ^[30] . Speaking about the object of satire in the lyrics, the critic noted that “no one considered himself a fool, either on stage or in the hall - and there was no end to delight” ^[28] .

Researchers also drew attention to the traceable analogies of the text of the song “Day of Wrath” with the songs of Bulat Okudzhava ^[31] , in particular, his “Song of Fools” (1960-1961) ^[32] . According to Yu. Shigareva, out of rejection by the lyrical hero of Makarevich’s early work the stereotypes of mass consciousness, the desire to change the world was born. “Day of Wrath” in this sense is a song that has “oratory intonation” and “a radical solution to all problems:“ Give your friends a shotgun, // And the fools will be translated ” ^[33] .

Makarevich himself did not comment on the meaning of the text of the song, but much later from the moment of its composition in an interview ^{[34] he} stated that “it’s pointless to fight fools, because most of the creatures of the human race are and will be” ^[34] , noting that the authorship this statement belongs to the classic Chekhov .

The plot and artistic images of the song received various reflections in the domestic culture. So, during the cooling of relations between Makarevich and Mike Naumenko, the last song was written “County City N”, containing an allusion to the text of the song “Day of Wrath”: “ This is our youth hero // Again started a fight with fools, // But he fights with themselves ” ^{[35] [36]} . In the Rock-n-roll composition of the Alisa group , recorded with the participation of musicians of the oldest Russian rock groups, the line “ We were few, Makar [Makarevich] was right // The bitterness of losses grew stronger in battles ” also directly refers to the text of the song “Day” anger ” ^[37] . In the film of Garik Sukachev's “House of the Sun”, the plot of the first public performance in the history of “Time Machine” is played, in which the group performed “Day of Wrath”. (In fact, at their first concert, the group performed with an English-language repertoire ^[13] .) According to the plot of the film, by the end of the performance, “Time Machine” thwarted a standing ovation.

The most famous cover for the song is the version of Sergey Shnurov and the band “Ruble” , recorded in 2009 for the album-tribute “Typewriting”.

You or me

• Andrey Makarevich - main vocals, guitar;
• Alexander Kutikov - bass, vocals, sound engineer;
• Sergey Kavagoe - drums, keyboards, sound engineer;
• other members of the group and guest musicians from 1971-1974.

• Макаревич А. Всё очень просто. Рассказики. — М. : Огонек, Радио и связь, 1991. — 223 с.
• Марголис М. Затяжной поворот: История группы «Машина времени». — СПб: Амфора, 2009. — 352 с.
• Троицкий А. К. Рок в Союзе: 60-е, 70-е, 80-е.... — М. : Искусство, 1991. — 207 с.