Czeslaw Niemen's Niemen Enigmatic

Mariusz Gradowski, Ewa Mazierska

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781501372681
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Niemen Enigmatic is the fourth album in the career of Czeslaw Niemen, arguably one of the greatest Polish musicians of all time (from pop and rock to jazz-rock and avant-garde). The book asks how significant was this album? How enduring is its popularity? Has the popularity and meanings changed over time? It does this by unpacking its production, which was unprecedented in the history of the Polish popular music due to its large number of musicians with varied backgrounds, including progressive rock, mixing jazz, rock and soul with classical music. It also examines its appeal to different segments of Polish population, and failure to reach foreign audiences, despite Niemen himself privileging this album, especially its centrepiece, Bema pamieci zalobny rapsod (Mournful Rhapsody in Memoriam of Bem aka A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem aka Mourner's Rhapsody), in his attempt to make a career abroad.

1 From an ordinary singer to a prophet

The life and career of Czesław Niemen

Czesław Niemen is regarded as one of the greatest Polish popular stars, along artists and bands such as Ewa Demarczyk, Marek Grechuta, Czerwone Gitary, SBB, Maanam, Hey, Grzegorz Ciechowski and, recently, Monika Brodka and Taco Hemingway. However, unlike these artists, who have more specialized audience in terms of belonging to specific generation and affinity to a specific genre (sung poetry, rock, hip-hop), Niemen comes across as transcending such divisions. From his beginnings in the early 1960s to his death in 2004 he was continuously present in Polish cultural life and never lost his privileged position. His very name became a byword for high-art end of Polish popular music and the yardstick by which popular musicians are measured in Poland. In this chapter we present reasons for his high status in his own country and the obstacles he faced in reaching a wider, international audience. We do so, by looking at Niemen’s authenticity, his relation to politics and his international career. First we sketch his life against the background of Polish politics and culture.

Niemen’s life

Niemen was born Czesław Wydrzycki in Stare Wasiliszki in 1939, in the region of Grodzieńsczyzna, which is currently part of Belarus, but what in Poland is usually described as Kresy (Borders). Kresy are not seen as peripheral, but central to Polish culture, because this region is imbued with the memory of a Polish imperial past and the homeland of the most revered Polish Romantic poet, Adam Mickiewicz. Niemen’s subsequent position as a poet-prophet for the new generation of Poles was reinforced by coming from this ‘heart of Poland’. The most conspicuous sign of the artist’s identification with his homeland was adopting the artistic pseudonym Niemen, from the river which passes through the region of Grodzieńsczyzna, although this happened not on Czesław Wydrzycki’s own initiative, but on the advice of the wife of his first manager, Franciszek Walicki (Michalski 2009: 21). ‘Niemen’ (that later on became Czesław’s official last name) was supposed to be easier to pronounce than ‘Wydrzycki’ and at the same time it pointed to the cultural importance of Kresy to the artist and to his Polish audience, for after World War II this region was incorporated by the USSR.

In 1958 the future pop star moved to Poland with his family in the last cohort of Polish re-patriates. His relocation coincided with the beginning of what is termed ‘small stabilization’. This was a time after the political thaw of 1956–7, when Poland entered a period of political and economic stability, marked by easing ideological pressure to adjust to communist ideals. The emergence of a vernacular version of youth culture, including pop-rock, named in Poland ‘big beat’, reflected this change (Idzikowska-Czubaj 2011; Gradowski 2016). Young Czesław found himself on the Baltic coast, the best place to absorb foreign influences, as sailors coming to the Polish ports were a source of foreign records, unavailable elsewhere.

At first the decision of the Wydrzyckis to move to Poland appeared to be a bad one, given that they found it difficult to adapt to the new circumstances, as confirmed by Wydrzycki senior’s death only two years after their repatriation. But this decision was conducive to Niemen’s career, as he was forced to play commercial music to support himself and his family, rather than pursue a career as a classical musician, playing bassoon, which was his initial plan. In the early 1960s he performed in student cabarets in Gdańsk, first singing in foreign languages and later in Polish. Switching to Polish was encouraged by the popular music establishment of this period, especially Franciszek Walicki, who coined the slogan ‘Polish Youth Sings Polish Songs’. Such a move reflected a desire on the part of those who made their living from pop-rock to present big beat as a Polish movement, as opposed to being an import from the West (Idzikowska-Czubaj: 137; Tompkins 2015) and a wider trend of Polonization of state socialism. Although this was a pragmatic move, the idea that Polish popular singers should sing in Polish was ingrained in Niemen’s mind.

The drive to create Polish songs was beneficial for the future star. By moving from English to Polish he demonstrated that he is not an imitator, but a creator. Moreover, singing in Polish allowed him to develop deeper contact with his audience because language plays a major role in the way a song is received. This was particularly the case in Poland, where in the 1960s few people knew English. Another development in Poland which benefitted Niemen was the shift in the status of jazz of the 1960s from the dominant style of youth to the music of the metropolitan elite (Wilczko 1969: 8–9). The void left by jazz was filled by big beat. Niemen found himself in the first group of Polish musicians who were identified with this style, thanks to being among fifteen winners of a festival for young performers in Szczecin in 1962. Apart from Niemen, there was also Michaj Burano, Wojciech Korda, Helena Majdaniec, Ada Rusowicz and Piotr Janczerski.

This success allowed him to join the band Niebiesko-Czarni (The Blue-Blacks), one of the first professional pop-rock bands in Poland, operating as a kind of super-band, with a number of leading vocalists performing one after another during the concerts. Franciszek Walicki, who was Niebiesko-Czarni’s creator and manager, wanted it to be a training ground for future stars. This was the case with Niemen, who at the end of the 1960s, while still playing with Niebiesko-Czarni, created his own band, Akwarele (Watercolours); the name possibly suggesting a more nuanced approach to music than that offered by Niebiesko-Czarni. In the 1960s, Niemen recorded three LPs in quick succession: Dziwny jest ten świat (Strange Is This World, 1967), Sukces (Success, 1968) and Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz? (Do You Still Remember Me?, 1968). Strange Is This World became the first Gold Record in Poland, selling over 100,000 copies. Success also became a Gold Record, selling about 200,000 copies, establishing Niemen as the best-selling pop-rock artist of the decade. This popularity includes Niemen Enigmatic as it became in 1971 a Gold Record as well.

Niemen’s transition from his first public appearances, through Niebiesko-Czarni, to eventually becoming leader of his own band, was also marked by a change in his image. Initially he looked unremarkable, in a shirt, tie or bowtie and short hair, which projected the image of a provincial putting on his Sunday best clothes to make an impression on his audience. Gradually his hair became longer and his clothes more colourful and fancy, reflecting the influences of folk, soul and psychedelic rock. Niemen was probably the first Polish male rock star who fully understood the importance of appearance in creating star quality. His distinctive look was the subject of public debate, being read as an aspect of his posture as a rebel.

In the late 1960s Niemen turned to progressive rock. He started to write longer compositions, approaching twenty minutes and using different instruments. Niemen’s favourite instrument in the 1970s was the Hammond organ, then the Moog and the Mellotron. This shift was also reflected in the changing cast of the band, from pop to jazz players, as well as the name, from Akwarele to Niemen Enigmatic. In this decade he was particularly affected by three artists, the jazzman Zbigniew Namysłowski, who was the leader of his band, Helmut Nadolski, who played experimental music on double-bass and Józef Skrzek, who came from a blues tradition. Niemen’s physical appearance also changed – he grew his hair (or rather started to wear wigs with long hair) and beard, losing his ‘neat’ image. His clothes also became less flamboyant, giving the impression of a man who does not care how others perceive him, as was often the case with progressive and heavy metal rock musicians.

In the 1980s and 1990s Niemen released only two records with new material: Terra Deflorata (1989), and spod­chmury­kapelusza (from­underthe­cloudo­fahat, 2001) which attracted relatively little attention. His main focus was music for film and theatre. In the 1980s, during the second rock boom in Poland, Niemen was perceived as somebody detached from social and political reality, unlike Polish punk rock and new wave musicians, for whom it was the main source of inspiration. Consequently, many of them saw him as a part of the musical establishment. However, re-releasing his back catalogue, and his writing for a popular Polish rock magazine ‘Tylko Rock’, where he became a leading advocate of the protection of copyright of musicians, poorly served by the existing law. ensured Niemen’s continuous presence in the media. The loss of rock’s dominant position in the Polish popular music in the 1990s and 2000s, largely due to being supplanted by hip-hop, led to the renaissance of the interest in his music. Following his death from cancer in 2004, Niemen’s position solidified, as demonstrated by a large number of commemorative events and numerous volumes devoted to his memory, many times exceeding those dedicated to other artists, as well as the production of a full-length film documentary about his work and life, Sen o Warszawie (Dream About Warsaw, 2014), directed by Krzysztof Magowski. Judging by these facts, one can conjecture that Niemen’s position in 2021 is stronger than during the peak of his career, in the 1960s and early 1970s. This claim is also supported by comparing reviews from Niemen Enigmatic, published straight after its release with later reviews; a fact which we will discuss in Chapter 4. How this elevation of Niemen happened?

Authenticity and authorship

In his seminal article about authenticity, Allan Moore identifies three ways in which an artist can appear as authentic to their audience: by speaking truth about their own situation, to the situation of (absent) others and of their own culture, thereby representing others (Moore 2002: 209). Moore also points out that authenticity is not inherent in the musical work itself; it is a matter of interpretation which is fought for from within a cultural position. It is ascribed by the audience, not inscribed in the work. This means that standards of authenticity keep changing, according to the times in which the musician is operating, his genre, instruments s/he uses and his/her ability to persuade the audience that his/her career decisions are in tune with this artist’s worldview, rather than imposed from above. We argue that Niemen managed to adjust his claim to authenticity to the times in which he worked. Moreover, his ‘authentication’ did not happen overnight, but took place in stages; each new one added to the perception that he is an authentic artist.

These stages can be mapped into three genres of music, with which he was identified: ‘estrada music’, ‘rock’ and ‘electronica’. Estrada music is an Eastern European equivalent of Western ‘traditional pop’. In the USSR it emerged during the early 1930s and encompassed the dominating popular music style composed by government-approved songwriters and the primary repertoire of likewise professionally trained performers. A great number of estrada songs took the form of ballads, with the (often orchestral) accompaniment relegated to a largely secondary role to the vocal abilities, sentimental lyricism and catchy, memorable melodies employed by the singers. From the early till mid-1960s, Niemen was predominantly an estrada singer, relying more on repertoire provided by professional composers and lyricists than his own ideas and works. However, it is difficult to establish to what extent this was a consequence of being at the early stage of his career and to what extent a consequence of the organization of Polish popular music. At the time all musicians who wanted to perform their own compositions had to deal with the officially supported patterns of bringing new songs to the market that preferred professional (meaning educated and recognized by official exams) composers and lyricists, usually older and lacking ‘feel’ for rock and roll. To sing his own songs, Niemen had to record some songs by officially acclaimed songwriters.

Even when he joined the rock band Niebiesko-Czarni, Niemen was to some extent an estrada singer, as the official rules of estrada music had a strong impact on rock bands at that time. He started to pen his own songs only in 1964. Niemen’s liminal status of this period, between estrada singer and singer-songwriter is reflected in his eclectic output, consisting mostly of ballads, often with an ‘exotic’ tint, and their sentimental lyrics. The main topic of these early songs is unrequited love, as demonstrated by titles such as ‘Wiem, że nie wrócisz’ (I Know That You Don’t Return) and ‘Nigdy się nie dowiesz’ (You Will Never Find Out). In the latter song, written by Niemen himself, we hear that

Świat swój urok traci bez Ciebie,

A Ty o tym chyba też nie wiesz

Ale to na pewno już zostanie moją tajemnicą

Wiem, będzie tak jak jest.

Zachowam to sobie, nie powiem o tym, nigdy, Tobie.

(The World Loses Its Charm Without You

But You Probably Don’t Know About It

It will forever be my secret

I know it will be like it is now.

I will keep it to myself, I don’t tell it to you ever.)

In these early songs Niemen’s lyrics are direct and clumsy, often sounding like the confessions of a teenage boy, somewhat reflecting the fact that his time with Niebiesko-Czarni was a period of his musical maturation, even though when he left the band in 1965, he was already twenty-six, hence rather mature as for a rock musician at the outset of his career. However, even though Niemen’s early songs weren’t complex, they felt fresh, catchy and they stood out at that time from the bulk of production for young people in Poland.

The next step on Niemen’s road to authenticity was leaving the aforementioned Niebiesko-Czarni in 1965 and creating Akwarele. Its significance lies in Niemen disentangling himself from the patronage of Walicki and deciding about his own path. Creating his own band facilitated Niemen’s shift from being merely a performer to an author of his own repertoire, although initially he continued to rely on professional composers and lyricists and his records showed a limited stylistic and thematic consistency. His three records released prior to Niemen Enigmatic, mentioned previously, include rock and folk-inspired pieces, romantic pop ballads, British beat tunes, soul inspirations and bossa novas. Setting up his own band also meant that Niemen was in a position to tour individually and give recitals, rather than being one of many performers, accompanied by a small ‘orchestra’. He took advantage of this situation and started to tour extensively, in Poland and abroad, including Italy and Germany.

A milestone on Niemen’s road to be recognized as an authentic artist was his performance of the ‘Strange Is This World’ at the Opole Festival, the main festival of Polish songs, in 1967 and releasing a record of the same title. This was the most talked about act at the festival and subsequently the most popular song in Niemen’s repertoire. The song was Niemen’s sole creation: he wrote its lyrics and music, giving impression that he speaks on behalf of himself. It has a form of protest song, but does not protest against any specific political event or position, as for example Dylan’s ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’, which expresses the singer’s protest against racism in America. In ‘Strange Is This World’ Niemen protests against general human vices such as hatred and lack of respect for other people’s dignity. His remonstration can be embraced by practically everybody, irrespective of his or her political allegiance. The same goes for its positive message, according to which now is the time to destroy negative feelings in our hearts, and human kindness will ultimately save the world from extinction. Who will disagree with such a message of hope? Not surprisingly, some cultural luminaries, such as Tadeusz Grochowiak, criticized it for feeding the listeners with platitudes. However, Niemen’s dramatic interpretation, including shouting, unencountered by this time in Polish popular music, dignified and authenticated what otherwise can be regarded as a banality. Here it is worth mentioning what Allan Moore writes about Paul Weller’s performance of ‘Changingman’, where the singer employs gravelly vocals connoting a voice made raw from crying. ‘The assumption here is that his listeners have personal experience of what gives rise to such crying and shouting and that, therefore, the result conjures up an active memory of the cause’ (Moore 2002: 212). Following this performance, Niemen started to be seen as a prophet, speaking the truth of his own situation and that of his country.

The year when Niemen released Strange Is This World was an important year in the history of rock, as it was the same year as the release of records such as Sergeant’s Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles, Strange Days by the Doors, The Velvet Underground and Nico by the Velvet Underground and The Piper and the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd, all records which in due course became classics of rock and popular music, thanks to the complexity of compositions and innovations in the process of recording. Niemen, working in state socialist Poland, which technologically lagged behind the West, could not compete with the Beatles or Pink Floyd, but this record shows that in his parallel universe he tried to introduce similar innovations as his Western peers. The most important innovation was taking responsibility for the entire production of a record, complete with its visual aspect. Although Niemen is not credited with designing the cover (Elżbieta Tarkowska is), he claimed that its idea came from him. It shows a photograph of Niemen, revealing only part of its face: his eyes and fragments of its nose. The photograph gives the impression (especially taking into account that it was shown on the cover of a vinyl record, rath...