Marta Kubišová: selected recordings and live performances, 1964-1969, with slide show and gallery

________________________________________

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Oh Baby, Baby — music: Bohuslav Ondráček, words: Jan Schneider

An excerpt from the Kubišová biography at raffem.com:

One of the biggest hits ever performed by Marta and Helena Vondrackova together “Oh baby baby” was recorded on May 23, 1966. The song was aimed for the festival “Bratislavska lyra 66”. The composer Bohuslav Ondracek wanted see both girls looking like two flowers. The main element on stage was a big and high stair. Marta and Helena dressed in long dresses would go all the way downstairs. Marta remembers that it was the most horrible moment during their performance. Helena held hard Marta’s hand with every step they took but everything went very well as soon as they reached the stage. Marta and Helena received the second prize (Silver Lire) for Oh baby baby. Helena, Marta and Vaclav Neckar performed together during the festival even as the members of the Rokoko Theatre.

____________

Marta Kubišová and Helena Vondráčková

Bratislavská lýra 1966

(below) another performance by the pair in different attire, although obviously at the same location with the same orchestra as the above version, and presumably during the same event

(below) Zlatý slavík 1966

(below) dated 1966 by the video provider; lip-sync performance in a comic sequence, presumably for a TV show

German lyric version, according to the provider’s note, “Německá verze písně” — date unknown

Golden Kids (Marta, Helena, and Vaclav Neckar) singing the original Czech lyric, with Gitte & Knut Kiesewetter singing their parts in German, but not the same German lyric as in the one above — 1969

Marta Kubišová: selected solo recordings, 1964-1969

1964

Co znamená mít rád (What Is This Thing Called Love?) (Cole Porter) — Czech words by Zdeněk Borovec

From Vysílá studio A, 3.díl (Volume 3), 1964-1965

Navěky (Embraceable You) (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) — Czech words by Jiří Aplt

Sama (Tennessee Waltz) — composed and introduced by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King in 1947 — Czech words by Ivo Rožek

1966

Denně Čekám (Anyone Who Had a Heart) (m. Burt Bacharach, w. Hal David) — Czech words by Pavel Vrba

recorded on 21 July 1967, with the Karel Krautgartner Orchestra, conducted by Josef Vobruba

(below) from the TV series “Píseň pro Rudolfa III” (A Song for Rudolf III), Season 1, Episode 3 “Miss Diorling” — originally broadcast on 20 September 1967

_________________________

From Praha.eu, Portal of Prague:

Prayer for Marta (Modlitba pro Martu)
The song which has become the symbol of the occupation of the Warsaw agreement “Soldiers” was composed by Jindřich Brabec and the lyrics were written by Petr Rada. This is the same duo of songwriters which created the antiwar Cesta for the singer, with which she won Zlatá bratislavská lyra (Gold Bratislava Lyre competition) in 1968.

The Prayer was written for one part of the TV series Píseň pro Rudolfa III (Song for Rudolf III) during the heated days of August 1968, but this part was not broadcasted until the year 1969, so an explanatory apology saying that there is no connection between the song and the current political events had to be added.

On August 23 rd or 24 th, roughly two days after the beginning of the occupation, the composer Brabec was going to the recording studio in Petynka where he was expected by Marta Kubišová. Soviet soldiers shot through the tire of his car and so there was no other way than dictate the lyrics on the phone. The singer literally sang the song from the score; Angelo Michajlov played the piano and Karel Černoch the drums. Marta Kubišová then managed to sneak the recording, which was hidden in the front pocket of her jacket, in the sound broadcasting studios which were in Novodvorská. Marta Kubišová returned to the recording of the song a few more times – The Prayer for Marta was made in four versions, one appeared on Songy a ballad album from the year 1969. Before the broadcasting of the song was totally banned on the radio and also on TV, a respectable number was sold for the time – 80,000 copies in all. The song also became the theme song of the political journal Jsme s vámi, buďte s námi (We are with you, be with us), which was moderated by Vladimír Škutina. — Berta Štenclová

_____________________

The beginning lines

Ať mír dál zůstává s touto krajinou.
Zloba, závist, zášť, strach a svár,
ty ať pominou, ať už pominou.

Teď, když tvá ztracená vláda věcí tvých
zpět se k tobě navrátí, lide navrátí.

are translated at the site Eastern Bloc Songs, as follows:

Let peace remain, settle on this landscape.
Anger and envy, resentment, fear and strife
Let all these pass and no longer exist.

Now, you have lost your government,
When it is given back, the people will return.

The interpretation by Conrad Landin in a tribute to Marta at his site The Landiner is notably different:

Let peace continue with this land
Let wrath, envy, hate, and fear vanish

Now the lost reign over your affairs will return to you, people, it will return

1968

Modlitba pro Martu — music: Jindřich Brabec, words: Petr Rada; 1968 single released on the Supraphon label

(below) short version

(below) from Marta’s debut solo album Songy a Balady, released in 1969 — This seems to be the same recording found on the 1968 single.

(below) Marta Kubišová and Iva Janžurová briefly meet Alexander Dubček, intercepting him on a sidewalk to offer him a bouquet of flowers. On 5 January 1968 Dubček became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Dubček and other reformers, according to Wikipedia, sought to liberalize the Communist government—creating “socialism with a human face.” Reforms realized during the early months of his brief tenure as leader of the Party resulted in a period which became known as the Prague Spring.