Russian bard song is built on a single voice and a single acoustic guitar. The melodies are plain; the real protagonist is the sharp, literary lyric. The range runs from Vysotsky's hoarse, ferocious delivery to Okudzhava's quiet, conversational tone, singing the candour, irony and human nuance that escaped the censor.

In the 1960s 'thaw' era of the USSR, poets, actors and scientists who were not professional composers set their own poems to their own guitar accompaniment to create 'avtorskaya pesnya' (author's song). As a private, frank form of expression at the opposite pole from state-managed mass song, it won a devoted youth following. Concerts were often held unofficially, and amateur song clubs (KSP) grew up across the country.

The accompaniment is deliberately spare; what you should follow is the words. In Vysotsky's case the very act of straining his hoarse voice to its limit becomes the expression. The fact that the recordings are not official releases but muffled home tapes itself tells the story of how this music spread underground.

Vladimir Vysotsky's 'Song About a Friend' (Pesnya o druge, 1966), built around mountaineering as a metaphor for friendship and trust, is a fine entry point. For the quiet side, hear Okudzhava's 'Prayer' (Molitva, 1970).

Vysotsky's songs were almost never released officially, yet home-recorded tapes (magnitizdat) were copied endlessly and achieved de facto nationwide distribution. He is a rare case of a singer who became a national figure with no state release permission at all.