"Police officers!" "Move into action!" "Arrest anyone who resists!" "Each thing has its form, lizard, leaf, tree, Water in the seas, as if cast under a spell" "Fire in the hearthplace safely burning Earth spins in its orbit, locked in the word" "Explosion" "Explosion" "Defendant Dolewski testifies." "He claims he was not the one who raised the price of school notebooks by 300 percent." "Dolewski and Rozmanit were sentenced to death." "The march of friendship will never be stayed Not by high mountains, not by deep seas" "I'm the same age as the Palace of Culture." "My strongest memory of the place was the Rolling Stones." "It was April 13, 1967." "Along with ticketholders, maybe ten or fifteen thousand young people came and gathered round the building, because they just wanted to be there." "The Rolling Stones came for one day only, and tickets ran out." "But even those with a ticket couldn't hear much." "From the very beginning, rock music was more than just the music, more than just songs." "First, it expressed a certain dissatisfaction with the world around us." "Second, it stirred people to take action and change things." "At Thine altars we raise our supplication:" "Bring freedom, 0 Lord, once more to this nation" "Strange is this world" "Where there's still So much evil" "And strange it is" "That for so many years Man has despised man" "Strange this world," "The world of human affairs, It's shameful to admit" "But so often it is That an evil word" "Kills like a knife" "But there are more people of good will And I firmly believe" "That because of them This world will not die" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Hippies were people who wanted to be free in an unfree country, in their appearance at least, so their freedom often met with a quick response from the authorities, people on the street, the schools." "They were trying to carve out some freedom forthemselves, but freedom in their way of being, not political freedom, in this totalitarian world." "But it was instantly interpreted as political by the powers that be." "According to the powers of the time, these were people who had no place on the streets." "Things often ended with temporary arrests, forty-eight hours in lockup." "You always come to me As darkness alights" "You light the river's rainbow Burst into the night" "Lublin was full of characters that were really colorful, considering the times." "0ne time the commies did a really funny thing." "Nixon was supposed to be coming to Poland and he was supposed to visit Lublin." "So they rounded them all up and gave them haircuts." "The Party ordered the security services to carry out the operation." "I managed to locate the instructions they wrote about how to break up the movement." "It was mostly by expelling people who were studying at university, forcing them to join the army," "intimidating their parents." "In music I was looking for freedom." "Whatever music it was, jazz, rock, or any other kind." "I was looking for freedom, and for me that freedom was about finding an outlet through which you could express your emotions in a completely uninhibited way" "Like Hendrix did, like Coltrane." "You said in a recent radio interview that in the sixties, while the band Czerwone Gitary were singing "Because you're afraid of mice,"" "Bob Dylan was singing about much more important things." "That remark caused a lot of controversy..." "I don't understand why it was controversial." "I wasn't telling a lie." "I don't remember any songs about what was really happening in Poland in the sixties and seventies - for obvious reasons, right?" "You couldn't sing songs like that." "Beyond a forest of anger and falsehood Beyond a mountain of fear is our love" "Strange, strange, strange, strange times Strange, strange, strange, strange times" "We're against everything that is against us." "Against everything that in any way limits our own freedom." "How can we not speak about pessimism when so many strange things are happening in the world, when it's ruled by such strange politicians." "You keep shouting at me It's crowded everywhere" "No one can breathe with liberty No one can die with dignity" "I'm tired already" "I'm tired already I've had enough of you all" "These are times of killers of fools and dealers emptiness in every face on the beach there's no more place" "I'm tired already I'm tired already" "I'm tired already I've had enough of you all" "We're waiting, we're waiting, we're waiting" "The first stage is won, but the second stage is much, much harder." "I'm actually afraid of it." "There are bound to be slips, someone's bound to try and lead us astray - that's the truth of it." "But we won't let them, because we all take responsibility." "Not me on my own, but all of us together, that's strength, that's power, and we will do it." "Forthe first time under communism in Poland there was close collaboration between the intelligentsia and the workers, and the authorities failed to divide them." "That was the source of strength of the strike." "We are many, we are many, we are many, we are many" "They are few, they are few, they are few, they are few" "They're afraid of us, of our music without words They're afraid to sleep at night" "They're afraid when they see two of us They're afraid of themselves, of all of us" "We want to be ourselves, to at last be ourselves" "We want to be ourselves, to always be ourselves" "We want to keep rocking We want to keep rocking" "The mood that could be expressed in songs showed me it was possible to be a free person." "And it was something that couldn't be stopped." "Like when you show someone a beautiful new invention, and new possibilities, that person never forgets it, it's already part of them." "They taught us lots of rules, lots of dates Forced learning into our brains" "They told us what we couldn't, what we could Convinced us what was bad, what was good" "They measured our days all the same Told us when to work, when to dream" "Every detail you could conceive But we still don't know how we should live" "Grown-up children, they're angry now at the way of the world and its making" "Grown-up children, they're angry now that so much of their life has been taken" "You felt a kind of freedom when you arrived there." "The first time I was at Jarocin, I thought it was just an one-off adventure." "Because it was 1980." "No one knew what was going on in the country politically speaking, but the situation was dramatic even when it came to food." "So when I think of the festival I think of everyone taking a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk." "What was the biggest discovery of Jarocin?" "For me it was the fact that there were so many superb artists in Poland that I'd never come across before." "I never realized there were so many wonderful people writing songs that made my flesh tingle when I listened to them." "They say we're all free, that we can do what we please They say it'll always be so, our lives will be easy now" "They say the people want it, they fought for it so long They say they all want to be united by victory's song" "Citizens." "A heavy responsibility weighs on me at this dramatic moment in Polish history." "Today, at midnight the State Council introduced martial law throughout the country." "My dear fellow Poles, I address you today on a day deeply rooted in Polish tradition." "We are celebrating this year's holiday in special circumstances." "I'm aware that the stringencies of martial law have made everyday life more difficult." "0ne, two, three, four" "War!" "The slaves are marching" "War!" "They're going to chase you!" "War!" "They're going to suppress you!" "Paranoid hallucination Political degeneration" "That was the exotic nature of communism in those days." "General Jaruzelski holding society by the throat, tanks on the streets, and here you had the band Brygada Kryzys, public enemy number one, making a record with songs like "Babylon is fallen," or singing songs about ganja." "In the seventies I mostly listened to British music, because Polish music didn't have much to say, and I only got to know Polish rock when I was interned." "and at the time there was a lot of rock music that was a real discovery for us." "Because I saw then that there was a new quality, a cutting sound, cutting lyrics, it was something out of the ordinary." "Somehow what they had in the West in the sixties repeated in Poland in the early eighties." "The situation was what it was, martial law had ended, people, at least young people, felt lost, and that music, those lyrics, in some way brought them together." "When we'd play "Night Patrol" everyone in the audience at certain moments would take off their glasses or put them on, it was a kind of game, kind of choreographed, and I didn't need to say anything." "I think that after 1980, afterthe appearance of Solidarity the authorities, the security services had their hands full with preparing martial law and arresting those people and invigilating them, and they didn't have the strength left to keep an eye on rock music." "I think they wanted to control it but they weren't able to." "When a band wanted to make a record, the first thing they had to do was show all their lyrics to the censor's office." "It was only if the lyrics were passed that the band could go record in the studio." "I was called to the censor's office, and the censor says:" ""Paramilitary doves." "What paramilitary doves?"" ""It's the dove of peace." "Picasso." Chop, it's cut." "Next one: "There's a pink glow." "What the hell kind of games are you trying to play here?"" ""0K, let it be a green glow." "What do you mean, green?"" "Processions, processions of elephants Fountains, fountains of sand" "Billows, billows of clouds" ""Elephant procession" was a song written on a high, I wrote it after I'd smoked a huge amount of marijuana." "It was sheer poetry." "But right when the song appeared, the Russians invaded Afghanistan." "And so obviously the elephants were tanks, fountains of sand, billows of clouds, that was the tanks crossing the desert and sending up fountains of sand." "That was why they didn't allow it." "When Lech Walesa won the Nobel Prize we had to remove all the Norwegian songs from the music library at the radio station." "We were trying to figure out if Abba was a Norwegian band, because Frida was Norwegian." "So should we remove Abba as well, or not?" "I left myself so vulnerable" "When you heard that out of the top forty songs three of them were by Maanam it was, well, it was deadly for a show like that." "How can I say all of a sudden: all three songs by Maanam are out this week?" "So what I came up with - it seemed a natural idea to me - was, I cut out the drumbeats from" ""It's just a tango" and put them together so they went on forthirty seconds, and in place of Maanam I played the drumbeats." "And it was allowed, but the listeners got it immediately, they knew what was going on and it had the opposite effect from what the authorities had intended" "Maanam became even more popular than they'd been before." "In eighty-three we had this long tour round Poland with the U.K. Subs." "Their singer, Charlie Harper, read Grzegorz's lyrics and said:" ""Damn, you guys have it good, I let it all out, I write as well as I can, whatever I want, because no one's stopping me, whereas you here, you're forced to write poetry."" "My blood That flows in secret deep inside a body hiding" "Deep in darkened hallways and in alcohol in lips of women blood" "The life beneath my skin that's measured out in liters flowing in a common stream into a sea of blood" "My blood My blood" "That's frozen allocated and collected in the blood banks bankers pour it" "Into secretive accounts a secret weapon With my blood" "A secret weapon built to manifest in a much lovelier more painless manner blood" "My blood Drunk by priests upon the tribunes" "My blood" "My blood And yours as well" "My blood And yours as well" "All yours as well All yours as well" "And mine as well All yours as well" "And yours as well All yours as well" "The Hit Parade on Channel Three is hosted by Marek Niedzwiecki." "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the hundred and thirty-first Hit Parade show." "Today..." "That's right, I heard it said that we were keeping people off the streets, keeping them listening to the radio." "That it was a safety valve, that we attracted people, it was easierto subdue them with a really cool radio show instead of them throwing explosive devices at the police." "Maybe that was true, I can't say." "The Hit Parade on Channel Three, and that whole program "Welcome to Channel Three", it was fundamental, because practically speaking it was really only there that Polish rock music was played." "0therwise we would have had the same situation as in the other socialist bloc countries, where if you weren't a so-called pop star, there was no point in even trying." ""There's only one record for every four Poles." "What's the reason forthis situation?"" ""The record press has failed to produce its quota forthe month due to a shortage of raw materials." "In this way the hits die their own death."" "There was a line several hundred yards long." "People waited from six in the morning to buy a record." ""Sorry, we're short of granulate." "You know, we have our difficulties."" "You could have been mine My crisis babe" "We'd stand in line Drink whateverthey made" "In those days musicians hardly got any money at all from records." "A whole record would earn you enough for a dinner in a third-rate restaurant." "Me, I was living in a tiny apartment, five hundred square feet, and I drove a fourth-hand baby Fiat." "When it came down to it we were famous, idolized paupers." "You're a big star but you live on the fourth floor of a regular apartment block, and everyone knows your address." "These crazy people come and hunt you down when you're throwing out the trash, and either insult you orthrow themselves on you." "It was awful." "What kind of career was that?" "You were completely out in the open." "0ne time I went to see what was new at the store, and from the line I hear," ""Get the fuck back to the end of the line, mister frigging rock star." "Who the hell do you think you are?"" "In the struggle for food there aren't any stars." "You could have been mine My crisis babe" "Live a little each time Like we're told we may" "You could have been mine We'd be poortogether" "Instead of sending a postcard With a picture of wherever" "Poverty ruled everything." "Saying, Merry Christmas to you" "We recorded our first single on instruments I carved myself." "I made the bass, I made a guitar forthe guitarist." "The bass was made out of a stand for pot plants, it was this thick." "So I had something to work with." "A guitar like a Fender Stratocaster - we'd have had to starve for five years to be able to afford one." "First, you weren't allowed to make them, second, there was nothing to make them from." "There was no sheet metal, so for instance you'd buy a big aluminum cooking pot, cut out the bottom, flatten out the metal, and that for example was where your first amplifier came from." "We have the day, we have each night We have our dreams and our paths" "Just like you we look around We want to know the final truth" "We're being chased by a lucrative pig We wish everyone ill you can see it in our eyes" "I came here because you can meet lots of people, and most of all listen to the music, which we really enjoy." "And... these days music is all we have left, we have nothing..." "I'm a free person, right at this moment I'm myself" "Don't give in, don't give in, don't give in" "You all know how Jarocin has been portrayed on the TV." "Do you want that to continue?" "Because I for one don't." "Polish TV showed Jarocin as a bunch of runaways," ""they've run away from home, we're looking for a girl, there's all these strange things scattered around the tent."" "That was how Jarocin was depicted, in this negative way." "I went to Jarocin, I said, it's got to be really cool there if all that illegal stuff is happening." "Let me tell you About my street" "When you listened to all those songs being sung at Jarocin, there weren't any boring lyrics, no bullshit." "They were all really smart, engaged, they spoke of the pain of the individual in the face of the crowd, and they were aimed at people who immediately understood." "0n my street No one's surprised by anyone" "0n my street No one" "Is surprised by anyone" "0n my street Christ has moved away" "And Satan's gone too" "0n my street There's the building's chill" "The chill of ever fewer living tissues The chill of ever fewer living tissues" "The chill of ever fewer living tissues" "Because my street Is in the heart of the city" "Because my street Is in the heart of the city" "Because my street Is in the heart of the city" "Because my street Is in the heart of the city" "Because my street Is in the heart of the city" "The Jarocin festivals, the Róbrege festivals, "0ut of Control,"" "in the eighties these were powerful signals that young people were thinking differently, that we had a new generation that couldn't be stifled so easily." "I am a soldier in the army of this world I am a crumb in the dragon's mouth" "I'm left at the mercy of destiny I want to be the morsel that poisons the beast" "I want to break loose from the grip of despair I want to shake off the shell of servitude" "I want to stand on the far side of the river To be a deserter with a chance of getting through a chance of getting through, a chance of getting through" "0ur reality is our illusion We're the ones that made all this damn stuff 0ur imagination won't give us freedom There isn't any freedom 'cause there is no us" "There is no us, there is no us, there is no us, there is no us, there is no us" "Sure, we turned our lyrics in to the censor's office, but we sang what we wanted, because that was our basic principle, either we sing what we want or we don't sing at all." "And even if the censor comes to the concert, and that sometimes happened, so long as no one said " Down with communism" between songs, even if you sang it they wouldn't have heard it." "They didn't know how to listen to that kind of music." "Let's give the cameraman a goodbye round of applause." "There was no rebellion, it was a total rejection of the system and an attempt, quite successful I think, to live completely outside it." "The morning sun rises over me As I walk through Sopot down by the sea" "And on the dirty beach as well The Baltic has a crude oil smell" "The sidewalks in the morning sun 0n my way I talk with no one" "If it's a Sunday morning, look - the sidewalks are covered with Saturday's puke" "Poland I live in Poland" "I live in Poland I live here, here, here" "Bottles of milk at the all-night store I see what's happening by its door" "The crowd has their fists under someone's chin Calling forthe death penalty for him 0nce again the morning trains Those people in uniforms look so strange" "Have you ever been at the station at night It's so filthy and ugly you lose your sight, your sight, your sight" "Poland I live in Poland" "I live in Poland I live here, here, here, here here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here" "SURVEILLANCE REP0RT" "DIS0RGANIZED MAJ0RITY 0F PARTICIPANTS" "I guess the powers that be were most afraid of what they didn't understand." "Forthem this was something strange, incomprehensible, but that attracted large numbers of people." "The authorities were wondering if it might be somehow dangerous." "PREPARATl0NS F0R "P0G0"" ""DESTR0YED" SUBTYPE CREW WITH LEADER IN BACKGR0UND" ""TRAINEES" SUBTYPE WITH LEADER" "CREW 0F "TRAINEES";" "LEADER IN BACKGR0UND" ""TRAINEES"" " CREW 0N M0VE WITH NEWLY CH0SEN LEADER" "MEMBER 0F "BLACK" M0VEMENT" "GENUINE R0CK MUSIC FAN" ""HEAVY METAL" GR0UP ENTERING STADIUM IN 0RGANIZED FASHl0N" "Understanding the slogans of the punk movement, understanding these young people, the purposes they gathered for, what they sang about - none of this fitted with their way of thinking." "Hence the the surveillance of subcultures, counting how many punks there were, how many skinheads, how they differed in appearance, how they behaved - because really that was all they were capable of doing." "N0TE PANT LEGS TURNED UP APPR0X. 1.5 IN. 0VER B00TS" "Chasing after punk rockers was beneath the dignity of the communist government." "So they trained their own bandits who did their dirty work forthem." "Toward the end of the eighties a Nazi skinhead movement appeared." "The skinheads burst in and right away it was Heil this, Heil that," "I knew there was no point talking with pricks like that." "They started invading concerts, attacking the audience, beating people up, robbing them..." "We've come to listen to music here, stop fighting." "It was obvious they were being protected." "0f course the police would come, and they'd arrest the people that had been beaten up." "I don't know what's going to happen now." "Next yearthere's going to be such huge disturbances here that I don't know if the event'll take place at all." "Jarocin attracted the most radical youth, who were definitely outside the system." "I went there with a backpack full of leaflets." "There was a national information campaign going on." "Above all we were demanding the introduction of something that in the West was called alternative military service." "0n the third day of leafleting I was arrested by a secret police officer." "There was a medical station, something that made you feel safe." "But it was a trap." "The first room really was doctors and nurses, but the next room was all security services." "They handcuffed me to a radiator." "The officerthat arrested me dialed a number on the phone and said: "We got him, boss!"" "Go out on the street with your head held high Always be yourself, don't give up the fight" "Be your own man, don't fear anyone Fight to the end, till your fighting is done" "Fight, fight" "Quiet down, please!" "The night of May ninth to tenth saw the appearance of the 0range Council for National Salvation." "Listen, my van's completely full..." "Above all I was fulfilling myself as an artist, fulfilling my need for freedom." "We had a cry: "We're here, we're against it," and most of all we did it our own way." "We weren't imitating anyone, we made our own 0range Revolution." "The system was coming to an end." "It was obvious it wouldn't create anything new, but it could till destroy a great deal." "We chose the best possible route." "After I got arrested I started thinking about how to actually spread political ideas underthe cover of a rock band." "The towering building a monument in stone Jabs its needle into the sky" "The middle of Europe crushed by communism's fist" "And I'm at the foot of the palace My eyes fixed on the top" "I'm lighting the fuse with glee I'm wanting to blow it all up" "I'm lighting the fuse with glee I'm wanting to blow it all up"