Gramotingltangl Suchý + Šlitr

Previously unreleased live broadcasts of Gramotingltangls with the duo Suchý and Šlitr from 1968 + bonus. Recordings by Czech Radio from 1966–1968. On Monday, 4 October 1965, at exactly 6:30 p.m., an announcer's voice came over the radio waves: "Československo II announces that Jiří Suchý has committed to broadcasting one Gramotingltangl daily on this frequency – except for Sundays, because Sunday, as we know, comes from the word 'do nothing'. All signs indicate that this will be a marathon completely unique in the history of radio." What followed was the first episode of the announced programme, which indeed became a three-year marathon. Jiří Suchý offered songs from home and abroad; his reflections on any topic, which linked the music together, were almost exclusively improvised. Gramotingltangls can be found in the programme schedule until the end of June 1968, with 674 premiere episodes broadcast. However, given Suchý's workload, he sooner or later had to face the fact that he couldn't sustain this marathon on his own for the long term. In subsequent seasons, due to his workload, he began to alternate hosting duties with Miroslav Horníček, Jan Werich, Ivan Vyskočil, and occasionally also with Jiří Šlitr, and a few times with the duo Jiří Grossmann and Miloslav Šimek. Nevertheless, he remained the dominant author, broadcasting 440 episodes himself. The content of Gramotingltangls began to slowly change in the spring of 1968. Until then, the topics of Suchý's reflections came from the most ordinary things that came to his mind from daily life. With the loosening of the political situation, more serious topics increasingly found their way into his musings. He talked about living according to one's own ideals, about the distortion of history, and he reflected on topics such as censorship, truth, democracy, and justice, not shying away from religious themes either. He also touched upon figures like T. G. Masaryk and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In short, he addressed things he couldn't have spoken about impromptu on the radio just a few weeks earlier. Or only very cautiously. In early May 1968, a complete novelty arrived on Gramotingltangl, which Jiří Suchý described in one of his episodes with these words: "We're doing a new thing for you on the radio now. Every other Saturday, we get together here in the studio in Vinohrady, Jiřík Šlitr is there too, and two musicians, Jiřík Bauer and Helenka Bauerová, just a little group, plus a few kindred spirits, who are members of the club, or regulars from Reduta and so on. There are always about fifty of us in total. And we just play the piano there, sing, and it creates quite a good atmosphere..." The first episode of these live Gramotingltangls was broadcast on Monday, 6 May 1968, and a new episode followed every subsequent Monday until the end of the season, with the last one airing on 24 June. The August invasion by Warsaw Pact troops changed many things soon after and, as a result, also caused the cancellation of this series. The swansong was just six episodes of Půlnoční párty (Midnight Parties) (released on CD by Radioservis in 2024). - Lukáš Berný