''Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned'' is an album by Czech underground band the Plastic People of the Universe. It was recorded in 1974/75, mainly at

Houska Castle Houska Castle is an early Gothic castle in the municipality of Blatce in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It lies about north of Prague. It is one of the best preserved castles of the period. Some notable features of the castle incl ...

, enabled by the castle's then warden

Svatopluk Karásek Svatopluk Karásek (18 October 1942 – 20 December 2020) was a Czech singer, evangelical clergyman, and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. His brother was the photographer Oldřich Karásek. He was a signatory to Cha ...

, with some songs being recorded in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. The album could not be officially released and distributed under the former Communist regime in Czechoslovakia; instead fans duplicated tapes with one another, often resulting in poor technical quality. It was released in 1978 in France by SCOPA Invisible Production. In the Czech Republic a remastered version was published in 2001 by Globus Music. The album title is a parody of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' album ''

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...

''. Most of the songs on the record are settings of poems by

Egon Bondy Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer (20 January 1930 in Prague – 9 April 2007 in Bratislava), was a Czech philosopher, writer, and poet, one of the leading personalities of the Prague underground. In the late 1940s, Bondy was active in a surreal ...

. The author of the album title is Ivan Hartl, a Czechoslovak emigrant living in London.

Critical reception

Music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

named the album one of the few import-only records he loved yet omitted from '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981). ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' wrote: "They clearly define a heavy bass-drums bottom over which the soloists duel wonderfully with these incredibly sinister riffs. It's a sort of musique noir, evoking images out of Carol Reed's ''The Third Man'', Welles' ''The Trial'' and the dark doings and damp streets of Fritz Lang's films noirs of the late 1940s. The album's opening cut, '20', typically sounds like eccentric Procol Harum, though in place of one of Robin Trower's guitar solos Brabanec lays out a devastating sax solo in the manner of Coltrane." The ''

Spin Alternative Record Guide The ''Spin Alternative Record Guide'' is a music reference book compiled by the American music magazine '' Spin'' and published in 1995 by Vintage Books. It was edited by rock critic Eric Weisbard and Craig Marks, who was the magazine's editor-i ...

'' praised the album's "sardonic pleasures."

Track listing

All music composed by

Milan Hlavsa Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa (Prague, 6 March 1951 – 5 January 2001) was the founder, chief songwriter, and original bassist of the Czech band the Plastic People of the Universe, which was part of the inspiration for the anti-establishment movement C ...

; texts are listed. #"Dvacet" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Zácpa" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Toxika" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Magické noci" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"M.G.M." (instrumental) #"Okolo okna" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Elegie" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Podivuhodný mandarin" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Nikdo" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Jó-to se ti to spí" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Já a Mike" (lyrics: Kurt Vonnegut; translated to Czech by

Jaroslav Kořán Jaroslav Kořán (17 January 1940 – 2 June 2017) was a Czech translator, actor, writer, screenwriter, and politician. A dissident and signatory of Charter 77 during Czechoslovakia's Communist era, Kořán translated over seven dozen books, most ...

) #"Ranní ptáče" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Francovka" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Jednou nohou" (instrumental) #"Spofa blues" (lyrics: Egon Bondy) #"Apokalyptickej pták" (lyrics:

Pavel Zajíček Pavel Zajíček (born 15 April 1951, in Prague) is a Czech poet and musician. In 1973, he founded the experimental band DG 307 (named after the code for the psychiatric diagnosis that would exempt young men from compulsory military service) toget ...

) #"Píseň brance" (lyrics: František Pánek)

Personnel

– bass guitar, vocals *

Josef Janíček Josef Janíček (born 28 December 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) is a Czech rock keyboardist, singer, accordion and guitar player. He was a former guitarist of The Primitives Group; from 1969 he played with The Plastic People ...

– claviphone, guitar, vibraphone, vocals *

Jiří Kabeš Jiří Kabeš, alias ''Kába'' (* 26 March 1946 in Křemín, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech rock singer, violist, violinist, guitarist and songwriter. He was a longtime member of The Plastic People of the Universe where he played on viola and violin, ...

– violin, vocals *

Vratislav Brabenec Vratislav Brabenec (born 28 April 1943 in Prague) is a Czech musician and author, and a member of The Plastic People of the Universe. Life Vratislav Brabenec was born in Prague into the family of a postal worker. He studied gardening at the Agric ...

– alt saxophone *Jiří Šula – drums * Jaroslav Vožniak – drums *Vasil Šnajdr – flute *Zdeněk Fišer – theremin

References

The Plastic People of the Universe albums 1978 albums 2001 albums {{1970s-rock-album-stub