“In June ’68 we went to Bratislava, two months after the ‘liberalization and two months before the ‘invasion’.

“‘August ’68, it was dark and it was late,  /  AN 24 was the first, but there were more…’

“(Jools)

“Three months later, in a New York hotel, Julie completed this song.”

— from the liner notes to the album Streetnoise, from which “Czechoslovakia” is taken.

[If there is any problem with viewing this video, you can also access it by clicking this link.]

* Personnel:

Julie (“Jools”) Driscoll: vocals, composition, lyrics, guitar(?)*;

Brian (“Auge”) Auger: organ (Hammond B-3);

Clive (“Toli”) Thacker: drums;

David (“Lobs”) Ambrose: bass, guitar(?)*.

* A Little History:

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity had become pretty big in the UK by the time the 1969 double album  Streetnoise was released, and they probably seemed to many to be poised on the brink of international stardom – a sign of which being that their record company believed in them enough to allow the recording and release of a double album (something of a rarity even now, and even more so back then…).  Sadly, though, the band broke up shortly afterward, due to internal conflicts (interesting two-part article on how all that happened, here and here.)

NOTE: During that period of popularity, Julie Driscoll was often referred to in the UK as “the Face”, for obvious reasons, but in my discussion below I refer to her as “the Voice”, because that’s what she really was back then, and continues to be to this day…

FURTHER NOTE: To read a recent/retrospective review of Streetnoise, click here; to hear the album in its entirety, click here.

* Comments:

“Czechoslovakia” is a composition in four sections – a kind of mini-suite lasting 6 minutes and 24 seconds (can we say, “Masterpiece of Compression”?) – but, especially since the sections are played continuously, it also comports very well with the tripartite structure to be found in much of Western Classical Music.  Another important factor is the relationship between the words and the music – how the text is set in melody and how both text and sung melody interact with the other instruments (one hesitates to use the word “accompaniment” here…).

The piece opens abruptly, jumping right into a groove.  And quite a groove it is – with steady propulsive sixteenth notes in the drums and an organ sound that I believe would be called “greasy” by aficionados of the Hammond B-3, all of which would be hardly out of place in a smokey little dive bar where said aficionados might gather to listen to that special form of music known as “Organ Jazz“.  Except for two things –

First, there’s the metric pattern: a Central European rhythm generally annotated as 3+3+2/8, derived from the folk music of the region and introduced to Western Classical Music by (as I recall) the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók .

Then there’s that jangly rhythm guitar – a sound foreign to Organ Jazz, but which would seem right at home in a venue featuring contemporary folk music – which reinforces both the steady sixteenth-note pulse in the drums and the 3+3+2/8 metrical pattern of the organ, hence bringing them together, while also providing a bright metallic texture, hence taking over the function normally performed by the ride cymbal in a Jazz context.

These various elements create an atmosphere of excitement, as if waking up, discovering new territory – the listener has to really pay attention to get the hang of what’s going on.  The contrast of the far from regular accents with the steady pulse also imply, to my mind at least, the first halting steps of a people just setting off on, or returning after far too long a time to, the path of liberty.

But this instrumental section is very brief, serving only to establish the groove.  Soon the Voice enters, high and keening (and check out the elaborate rhyme scheme – including all those internals!):

Many people I know with nowhere to go, you know they’re lonely.
But many people have died feeling hung up inside, but don’t think they’re phony.
Cuz they’re only trying to stop you from dying, locked behind your own bars –
Maybe you’ll see how good it would be to feel free…

Don’t close your eyes and put on your disguise – someone’s gonna bust you.
There’s things around bring you down, and they disgust you.
So recognize the hidden lies that surround you,
And maybe you’ll see how good it would be to feel free…

In classical tripartite structure, the first third of a piece is used to “set the stage”, so to speak.  And indeed, at around 2:08 (one third of the way through) in “Czechoslovakia”, the music begins to move away from its first material, into a brief codetta.  The Voice intones, in a kind of augmentation:

To feel free!
To feel free!

Then, just after that, the music comes to what can only be called a grinding halt.  What follows is silence, except for sustained low tones form the organ and spare but dissonant chords on the guitar.  The Voice sings, keening even more sharply, as if in tension-filled darkness:

August ’68: it was dark and it was late.
AN 24 was the first, but there were more –
Fighters in close formation,
Ready for the invasion…

(One can almost hear the burbling rattle of idling diesels in the hush of the night…)

At about 4:00 comes the golden section of the piece – in classical tripartite structure this usually marks a kind of turning point, often the re-introduction of the beginning material, sometimes transformed.  In “Czechoslovakia”, this is not only a turning point, but the point.  Over a complex but consonant arpeggiation in the guitar, the Voice re-enters, softer and gentler – somewhat different from, but still somewhat reminiscent of, the original material:

I remember going to a country where people were warned, and people were ready for changes…

Two explosive booms from the music, then electronic sounds that can only be called chaotic.  The Voice again, now crying out, almost screaming:

Iron tanks!  From everywhere!
Smash down everything that’s there!

What follows is silence, except for sparse but octave-rich (thus highly consonant) chords on the guitar – perhaps in a kind of resolution, or as close to a resolution as one can get in such a piece of music – and the Voice slowly intoning one word on a rising figure:

Czech — o — slo — vak — i — a…

Finally, in one last gesture of defiance, the drums play the opening motif from the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven, used by the Allies during the Second World War to signify “Victory!” (the letter “V” in Morse code is dot-dot-dot-dash; during the War, the BBC would open all its broadcasts with this motif, played on the drums, much as it is here) over Hitler’s Germany and the other Axis powers.  It’s as if the music is reminding Brezhnev and the rest of the Communist leadership that, once upon a time, their governments – indeed, their entire movement – had been part of an alliance dedicated to the very freedom they now seemed so intent on crushing, and also more than strongly implying the statement “You’re Hitler now!”  There’s also an element here of “We’re coming for you!”; and well, as the old saying goes, the rest is history…

_____________

* For the album Streetnoise as a whole, Ms Driscoll is listed credited with “vocals, acoustic guitar”, and Mr Ambrose with “4- and 6- string electric bass, guitar”.  As to who is playing the guitar parts on this cut, I’ve drawn a blank in my research.  My best guess is that Ms Driscoll is playing the jangly rhythm guitar parts in the first section, and Mr Ambrose the more developed guitar parts in the second and third sections.  Said best guess is based on a few things:  First, there is a very clear bass presence on the first section, at the same time as the jangly rhythm guitar, implying two players, and the bass remains tacet after that – for the rest of the entire piece.  Second, although multitracking in recordings was available and practiced in the late Sixties, most studios back then were limited to only four tracks.  Third, the musicians here were all steeped in the Jazz tradition, which values interactive playing.  Put these three factors together and it’s more than likely that these musicians ended up doing as much as possible all at once, with multitracking only used occasionally.