"Czech Dylan" Karel Kryl died 30 years ago today
Karel Kryl, sometimes referred to as ‘the Czech Bob Dylan’ because of his complex and poetic lyrics on political themes, died 30 years ago today, a month shy of his 50th birthday. Kryl was one of the best-known Czech folk musicians of the communist era, famous for his protest songs critical of the Czechoslovak communist regime like Bratříčku zavírej vrátka (Close the Gate, Little Brother), composed in response to the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Born in Kroměříž in 1944, Kryl began writing and performing after graduating from secondary school, and was later expelled from army service for performing songs deemed to be anti-socialist. He moved to Prague in 1968 and got a job as an assistant at Czechoslovak Television. At nights he performed satirical folk songs in the city’s clubs.
Shortly after the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968, Kryl released his first album, with the title song 'Bratříčku zavírej vrátka', which captured the feelings of many Czechs at the time. The album was banned and removed from shelves, but this didn't prevent it from circulating and the songs became cult hits.
Under close surveillance by the communist regime, he was forced into exile in Germany in 1969 but continued to write, produce and perform, as well as broadcast to his home country via Radio Free Europe. Meanwhile, copies of his records were smuggled into Czechoslovakia and circulated around.
After 20 years in exile, he returned home following the Velvet Revolution in 1989. At first he was enthusiastic and hopeful about the collapse of communism, but he quickly became disillusioned with the new regime and its protagonists, including Václav Havel, accusing them of being hypocrites.
Because of this, he decided to leave again and go back to Germany. On 3 March 1994, just a month before his 50th birthday, Kryl died of a heart attack in a Munich hospital.
