Band Review: The Plastic People of the Universe

I finished reading Vaclav Havel's The Power of the Powerless in July. I wasn't expecting band references.

The Plastic People of the Universe formed in 1968, influenced by both the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. That old saying about the Velvet Underground only selling X amount of records, but every one who bought one of the records started a band? May actually be true.

However, most of those bands did not end up being illegal. The Plastic People did. The Czech government revoked their license in 1970. As weird as it sounds to think of musicians being licensed in the States, in Czechoslovakia it was a thing. The band continued to exist underground, and dissidents rallied around them.

The band was really just focused on their music, so it seems unfair to focus on that aspect too much. As a reviewer, I should also be focusing on their music, which I don't like that much.

Well, I don't like a lot of it. There are other songs that work for me. (I rather like the title track to Co znamená vésti koně.) I am not a huge fan of experimental rock in general, but I think there are other factors at work here.

I also am not familiar with Czech music or the Czech language in general. I have not listened much to either Frank Zappa or the Velvet Underground. Those things could have provided entry points into the music for me. Sometimes difference is enough for an initial recoil, even though you can still learn to appreciate it later.

Even if I never learn to love their music, I will love their story. Loving music and needing to play it - even in the face of political opposition - that's something I get. I have a sense of their need to play, and why it would inspire others so much that they would take a stand as well.

And I totally see a connection between samizdat and zines. I see why being subversive - whether intentionally or not - necessitates DIY.

The Plastic People of the Universe don't have the tempo and energy of punk, but they are not strangers.

http://plastic-people.cz/

https://www.facebook.com/plasticpeople.cz/

https://www.youtube.com/user/plasticpeoplecz