Všechno je proměnlivé - Zakázané koncerty

This CD presents recently discovered recordings of uncensored songs by Jan Vodňanský and Petr Skoumal from the 1970s and early 1980s. From their first appearances at Prague’s Činoherní klub in the 1960s, the duo faced constant censorship, which intensified during the early years of normalization and eventually drove them from Prague stages to railway venues and student clubs. Most of the recordings come from the archive of sound engineer and collector Petr Benesch, with two songs from Jan Vodňanský’s archive. Their exact location and date cannot be established, but they clearly come from the early 1980s, shortly before the definitive ban on the duo’s collaboration. In the freer atmosphere of university clubs, the pair could perform texts that could not otherwise be published, adding ever more verses to songs approved by the censors and responding to totalitarian repression with wit, irony and nonsense. The Czech-language tracklist includes “Povídá matka Bedřiše”, “Hluché tety”, “Dvě deci vodky”, “Toho dne šel šimpanz do penze”, “Ono to šplouchá”, “O mé kráse, Pepo, pěj”, “Já jsem totiž námořník”, “Stázin kozáček”, “Jsou chvíle, kdy i klaun”, “Píseň maséra”, “Petra”, “Maminko, tatínku, ne”, “Generální konzul”, “Šemík v ovzduší”, “Vynález Francie”, “S Kateřinou pod peřinou sám”, “Cesta na Bajkal”, “Orientální špion” and “Všechno je proměnlivé”.