Karel Kryl was a popular Czech singer-songwriter and performer of many protest songs in which he strongly criticized and identified the shortcomings and inhumanity of the Communist and later capitalistic regime in his home country.
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 at 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 to live in West Germany. For the majority of his time in exile, Kryl worked for Radio Free Europe and released a number of albums during this period. Many of these songs became iconic back in his homeland and a symbol of protest.
In the enthusiastic November days of 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, Kryl returned to Czechoslovakia, but was reportedly disappointed with the transformation of society.[1] On March 3, 1994, just a month before his fiftieth birthday, Karel Kryl died of a heart attack in a Passau hospital
Bibliography Hraje a zpívá Karel Kryl Kníška Karla Kryla Sedm básniček na zrcadlo Pochyby 17 kryptogramů na dívčí jména (Zpod stolu) sebrané spisy Slovíčka Amoresky Z mého plíživota Zbraně pro Erató LOT Sněhurka v hadřících POD GRAFIKU Půlkacíř Texty písní Básně Krylogie+Půlkacíř Rozhovory Demokracie, aneb s malou vadou na kráse…
Discography
Kryl's grave at the Břevnov cemetery at St. Margharet in Prague
Karel Kryl has only released one album in Czechoslovakia (Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka),[3] but he has released many albums while in exile, a prominent example would be Tekuté písky.[4] Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka (1969, LP, Panton, ČSSR) Rakovina (1969, LP, Primaphon, Germany) Maškary (1970, LP, Caston, Germany) Carmina Resurrectionis (1974, EP, Caston, Germany) Karavana mraků (1979, LP, Šafrán 78, Sweden) Plaváček (1983) Ocelárna (1984, EP) Dopisy (1988, MC) Tekuté písky (1990, LP, MC, CD, Bonton, Czechoslovakia) Dvě půle lunety aneb rebelant o lásce (1992, recitation poems of Karel Kryl) Monology (1992, LP, CD, MC Janez, Czechoslovakia) To nejlepší 1 (1993, CD, MC, Bonton, Czech Republic) Děkuji (1995) Jedůfky (1996) To nejlepší 2 (1998)
