Black Dog Petersburg

“Black Dog Petersburg is our first thematic, conceptual program. When we did it, we understood that as musicians we should rise to a new, different level. We set ourselves tasks that had never been solved before. Everything was new, in wonder. And it turned out. With all the minuses, but it turned out! ”...“ There for the first time such big topics were touched upon. Topics that art is generally sick of: “To be or not to be?”, The Bronze Horseman, Boris Godunov a little ... There were appeals to Mandelstam, Brodsky, Shostakovich, some kind of symphony, albeit a little. Work has already begun on figurative music. It was a milestone for us. ”

- Y. Shevchuk, “DDT. Understanding Freedom ”, Fuzz # 1, 2002 ^[2]

Originally it was planned to record a new studio album, but after receiving a good recording from the concert and having the opportunity to correct it a bit, the group decided not to waste money and time on a new recording, but to release a live album. It was the first double and last vinyl record DDT. “To release a double album is a rather expensive and risky business, but the presence of the main hits of the format at that time allowed Black Dog to contain a conceptual thematic program of new songs.” ^[3]

Vadim Kurylev notes Alexander Lyapin’s expressive solos and the electronic drums of Dmitry Yevdomakhi, which strengthened the rhythm section, which introduced the missing elements into the program. According to Kurylev, it was one of the strongest compositions of DDT: “Yura himself and all the musicians were in great shape, and everyone was in his place. Even at the concert console was none other than the legendary Yuri Morozov. Further, however, for some reason, this matter did not go well, I don’t know who to blame for this. ” ^[3]

According to Kurylyov, some studio changes were made to the album. For example, due to poor-quality recordings, electronic drums and backing vocals were re-recorded. The Psalter, on which Kurylyov played in the instrumental part of the song “Black Dog”, also turned out to be unrecorded, and it was replaced by an acoustic guitar. In some songs, the guitar parts were rewritten (or dubbed). “No one documented this in detail, but now no one remembers where the concert tracks remained, and where the studio tracks remained. They do not always differ by ear. ” ^[3]

Mikhail Chernov considers the Black Dog Petersburg program the pinnacle of the group’s growth and the beginning of its fall: “In my personal opinion, this is where DDT ended. Because shortly after the release of Black Dog, Andrey Muratov (Murzik), a keyboard player, a man who gave the collective symphony, left. Without it, confusion and vacillation began. ” ^[4] Nikita Zaitsev highly appreciated the concert program and album ^[5] .

For Shevchuk, “Black Dog” was the second birth of DDT: “It is a pity that we played this program very little - it was the best we created. Only 9 concerts - in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, in Minsk. The last concert was in Barnaul - the best. ” ^[6] . According to Igor Dotsenko, there were three more concerts in Kiev ^[7] . The sponsors were the companies OILCO (St. Petersburg) and Nastupny Krok (Minsk).

Two clips were shot. The first is “You are not alone”, 1992, director Sergey Selyanov . The second - "Black Dog Petersburg", 1992, directed by Boris Dedenyov.

Black Dog Petersburg is the first conceptual DDT program; the group was given new tasks, work began on figurative music ^[8] . According to Shevchuk, this is the first DDT program, consisting not only of the social layers of life, but also of some philosophical, lyricism ^[8] .

Concerts began with the "howl" of the Black Dog. “First, they wanted to have time to get somewhere or collect the thereminvox themselves - SJ had to go on stage and start“ conjuring ”with him. But, of course, we did not find any theremin in such a short time, and the howling of the Black Dog depicted Lyapin on the guitar. ” ^[3]

Above the light and scenery - city walls, a well with windows, a giant ball (which Shevchuk beat, turning it into a huge Foucault pendulum , then into a weight for demolishing old buildings), the theater artist Alexander Orlov worked ^[9] . According to Vadim Kurylyov’s memoirs, while preparing the program they even considered costume options, but in the end the group stopped just on black clothes: stayed in it until the end of the concert. Visually, the program was framed quite concisely, but it was precisely this severity that combined with the image of St. Petersburg, a huge dog philosopher who lost his master somewhere in time and wandered along the Neva shores at the end of the 20th century ^[3] . ”

On the cover, a free artist Sergey Brock is captured with Tsuka, a diver dog borrowed from someone. A week before the premiere of the concert, Brock began a daily advertising tour of Nevsky Prospekt and the surrounding streets. One of these days he was captured on Rubinstein Street ^{[3] [10]} .

Multichannel sound recording was made at two concerts in Moscow, and shooting (as a more expensive thing) - only at one of them. Later it turned out that the concert was played and recorded better on the day when there was no shooting, so the best phonogram went with studio improvements to the vinyl album, and the phonogram of the shooting day remained in the film ^[11] .

The album was released on phonograph records, cassette tapes and a double CD. On the first vinyl edition there are no tracks “Post Intelligent” and “Terrorist”. The album was released by the group at its own expense, without the help of any labels. Accordingly, the catalog number was not assigned to the product ^[12] .

In the booklet of the disk and on the vinyl envelope there is an “Interview taken from himself” ^[13] . Shevchuk discusses how difficult it is to talk with the media , about atheism , about the problem of music in Russia, where Bogdan Titomir is gaining popularity and “art is progressing”, about DDT, as well as about the Black Dog Petersburg program.

In February 2016, the Imagine Club publishing house released a reprint of two LPs, 180 g each, with new mastering and another printing industry. The album is presented in the following versions: black envelope - white vinyl 500 copies and white envelope - black vinyl 500 copies. Each has its own individual number. Circulation printed in Germany ^{[14] [15]} .

The author of all the songs is Y. Shevchuk (except for the one specified)

• Yuri Shevchuk - vocals, acoustic guitar, electric drums (“Temple” - introduction)
• Andrey Vasiliev - guitar, back cry
• Vadim Kurylev - bass guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar (“You are not alone,” “I lit all the candles in churches”), acoustic solo (loss to “Black Dog Petersburg”)
• Andrey Muratov - keyboards, back-scream
• Igor Dotsenko - drums, electric drums ("New Blockade")
• Mikhail Chernov - saxophone, flute
• Alexander Lyapin - solo guitar
• Jacob Solodky - Congi ("Trouble")
• Dmitry Evdomakha - electric drums, percussion
• Sound engineers - Andrey Muratov , Yuri Morozov , Alexander Dokshin

Concert

• Yuri Shevchuk - vocals, acoustic guitar
• Andrey Vasilyev - guitar, back-scream
• Vadim Kurylyov - bass, backing vocals, psalter
• Andrey Muratov - keyboards, backing vocals
• Igor Dotsenko - drums
• Mikhail Chernov - saxophone, flute
• Alexander Lyapin - solo guitar
• Dmitry Evdomakha - electric drums, percussion
• Alexander Brovko - harmonica
• Yuri Morozov - sound engineer

There is also a concert film with the same name. The shooting was carried out by the ATV television company. After two days of shooting the concert, it turned out that half the cameras worked in marriage:

“The man - the operator - was shooting the whole concert, we are watching his work, and everything is muddy there. I was shocked by this quality of work and, most importantly, by my attitude to it. But there was already nothing to do, we really wanted to release this film. They didn’t sleep for three days at the montage, they simply sewed it from pieces, closed unsuccessful plans with some old records, views of St. Petersburg, etc. Now I look and see that it’s all the same luck - time and spirit have been preserved. And thank God."

- Yuri Shevchuk, interview with the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets , 11/27/1993

The film mainly consists of a recording of a concert in Luzhniki on December 13, 1992 . In addition to the concert itself, the film contains video sequences made in St. Petersburg , Moscow , Kiev and Minsk .

Song List

1. Prologue
2. New blockers
3. Styx
4. Temple
5. The trouble
6. You are not alone
7. I stopped time
8. In it
9. Verse. Neutralized faces ...
10. Night in Moscow
11. Verse. Dying in a dream ...
12. Post intelligent
13. Terrorist
14. Black Dog Petersburg
15. Rain
16. Verse. Autumn, sky ...
17. Last fall
18. What is autumn
19. I lit all the candles in the churches
20. Verse. Saturday
21. Leningrad
22. Motherland
23. Christmas
24. Actress Spring

Data

• The film lasts 118 minutes.
• Director - Sergey Morozov
• Sound producer - Andrei Muratov. The sound producer of the audio version is Alexander Dokshin.
• Scenery - A. Orlov
• Concert sound engineer - Yu. Morozov

• The song "New Blockades" was first performed in 1989 at a concert in Dnepropetrovsk , while significantly differing in the lyrics and the melody of the verses. It was performed at the end of the 2010s in the concert program “The History of Sound”.
• The song "Black Dog Petersburg" was originally called "Sphinx" and had a hard rock arrangement that was different from the well-known version. In the mid-1990s, when DDT toured with the From and To jubilee program, during a lengthy instrumental loss, guitarist Vadim Kurylyov sang his song Masquerade ^[16] .
• There are unreleased studio versions of the songs “Black Dog Petersburg” and “You are not alone” recorded in 1992. The studio version of "You Are Not Alone" sounds in the 1994 Russian Transit television series. The songs “You Are Not Alone” and “I lit all the candles in the churches” were re-recorded in 2003 for the album “ Songs ”.
• The song “To it” sounded on the 20th anniversary of the Leningrad rock club and had other lyrics and arrangements. On January 22, 1991, DDT played it in support of the Vzglyad program at the Luzhniki small sports arena ^[17] .
• A similar stage props (a huge ball hanging from the ceiling) was subsequently used by AC / DC during their Ballbreaker concert tour.

• N. V. Krylov, V. A. Mikhailov. Literary reminiscences in the "Petersburg" texts of Yuri Shevchuk . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 1999. - No. 2 .
• Makhmutov, Nail. “In the footsteps of the legends of Ufa rock and roll . ” - Ufa: Summer, 2015. - 290 p. - ISBN 978-5-87308-137-9 .
• V. A. Mikhailova, T. N. Mikhailova. Pushkin reminiscences in St. Petersburg texts by Yuri Shevchuk . - Russian rock poetry: text and context, 2000. - No. 3 .
• Shevchuk Yu. Yu. Defenders of Troy. 2nd ed., Ext. SPb .: Publishing House of the Russian Poetry Foundation, 2000. 55 p. ISBN 5-89108-041-9
• Shevchuk Yu. Yu. Solnik: album of poems. M .: Novaya Gazeta , 2009. 208 p. ISBN 978-5-91147-005-0

• Black Dog Petersburg on Discogs website
• Time Z: Black Dog Petersburg (live, 1993)
• Vadim Kurylyov about the album Black Dog Petersburg
•   DDT - Black Dog Petersburg (Official video)
•   DDT - You are not alone (Official video)
• Black Dog Petersburg in the register of rental certificates for films of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation