Karel Kryl (April 12, 1944 Kroměříž – March 3, 1994 Munich) 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 regime in his home country.

[edit] Biography

Kryl was born on April 12, 1944, in Kroměříž, in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, (now the Czech Republic). He was the son of Karel Kryl and Marie Krylová. His father owned a printing business, which was confiscated from the family in 1948 after the communist takeover.

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.^[2]

Memorial plaque to Karel Kryl in Olomouc, Czech Republic

[edit] 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…

[edit] Discography

Kryl's grave at the Břevnov cemetry 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)^[4]

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Karel Kryl

• Karel Kryl website (by his widow)
• Webpage of Karel Kryl
• Fanclub of Karel Kryl
• Karel Kryl
• Editor of Karel Kryl in exile, Jiří Pallas

[edit] References