Thursday 3 March 2022

Waldemar Matuška - Krysař (The Rat-Catcher)

 

I haven't posted here for a while (a long while), mostly because I've been either busy at work or had family issues. Apologies for that, and if you let me know that you like this blog, I will continue. I just didn't feel the need when I didn't have any followers.

However, in the current situation, a post like this might be relevant to at least a few people. 

There are plenty of Czech songs that reflect on the invasion of 1968, and I picked this one because I believe it reflects perfectly on current events as well. History repeats itself, unfortunately.

That being said, our Ukrainian brothers are putting up a fight that we were not capable of, they are the true heroes. The men who put their lives at risk at the front, the women who are strong enough to leave their husbands behind and take a step into the unknown, moving their children to a foreign country, often without any contact there, and everybody else who are just trying to survive in what looks like an apocalypse.

Sláva Ukrajině!

The song is a cover of Hugues Aufray's Le joueur de pipeau (The Pied Piper), Czech text was written by Ivo Fischer. It was recorded just a year before the invasion of the Warsaw Pact (mostly Soviet) armies in 1968, and it is harrowing in retrospect. And in present times, alas.