Summary: Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor spent her early childhood in the Soviet Union -- but even after she immigrated to the U.S. in 1989, her family continued to listen to the music of their native Russia. She tells Soundcheck host John Schaefer about one particularly important musical figure to her family -- Vladimir Vysotsky, who some have described as the "Bob Dylan of Russia." Although he started out as a well known film actor, he quickly became renowned as a singer whose satirical and often politically pointed songs became beloved throughout the USSR -- despite their politically dangerous messages. Regina Spektor, on the importance of Vladimir Vysotsky to her and her family: He's still to this day one of my greatest musical heroes. I think he's one of the most talented and brilliant singers of the last century. It's interesting because even though he died in 1980, and I was born in 1980, I feel like I overlapped with him because he was such a part of my daily life in Russia and when we immigrated. We couldn't bring a lot of things, we were very limited in our luggage, everybody had like one outfit, but we had a ton of Vysotsky cassettes, because everybody prioritizes what they need and my parents really prioritized culture. On the nature of his protest songs and their impact on his place in Soviet society: He was extremely subversive. He occupied a fascinating place in the culture because he wrote extremely anti-establishment songs, but they were so witty and so entertaining that I think that the establishment itself was just so entertained by him that they -- he was in this uncomfortable position -- he was also a pet. He was just too good to be eliminated and stifled. On the lasting importance of Vysotsky and his music in Russia today: I would say he's still to this day the most iconic hero of the Russian people. I don't think anyone has come [close] since in popular culture in any way. I think he's sort of up there with -- there's Pushkin and there's Tchaikovsky and there's Tolstoy, and then there's Vysotsky. I think that's where he sits. Every single person you'll ever ask about him in Russia will know his name.
