Karel Kryl

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Karel Kryl

Karel Kryl (April 12, 1944 – March 3, 1994) was a popular Czech songwriter and performer of many protest songs in which he strongly criticized and identified the shortcomings and inhumanity of the Communist regime in his home country.

1 Biography
2 Albums
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

Memorial plaque to Karel Kryl in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Kryl was born on April 12, 1944, in Kroměříž, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), son of Karel Kryl and Marie Krylová. His father owned a printing business, which was confiscated from the family in 1948 after the communist takeover.

Kryl moved to Prague in 1968 as an assistant at Czechoslovak Television. In his spare time he performed his songs in numerous small clubs. When the Warsaw Pact armies occupied Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968, to suppress the Prague Spring reform movement, Kryl released his album Bratříčku zavírej vrátka (Close the Gate, Little Brother), full of songs describing his disgust over the occupation, his views on life under communist rule, and his perception of the crude inhumanity and stupidity of the regime. The album was released in early 1969 and was banned and removed from shelves shortly after. Faced with certain imprisonment, Kryl left Czechoslovakia in 1969 and lived in West Germany. For most of his exile time, he worked for Radio Free Europe. Kryl released a number of albums during this time, and many of these songs became cultural icons back in his homeland.

In the enthusiastic November days of 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, Kryl returned to Czechoslovakia, although he was reportedly disappointed with the transformation of society.^{[citation needed]} On March 3, 1994, just a month before his fiftieth birthday, Karel Kryl died of a heart attack in a Munich hospital.

[edit] Albums

Karel Kryl has only released one album in Czechoslovakia (Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka)^[1], but he has released many albums while in exile, a prominent example would be Tekuté písky.^[2]

His discography includes 10 albums and 2 posthumous albums:

Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka (1969), Rakovina (1969), Maškary (1970), Karavana mraků (1979), Plaváček (1983), Ocelárna (1986), Dopisy (1988), Tekuté písky (1990), Dvě půle lunety (1992), Monology (1992).

Posthumous albums: Děkuji (1995), Jedůfky (1995).