Table Of ContentNiemen Enigmatic
33 1/3 Global
33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes
the format of the original series of short, music-based books and
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focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include
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33 1/3 Japan
Series Editor: Noriko Manabe
Spanning a range of artists and genres – from the 1970s rock of
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kei of Cornelius, classic anime series Cowboy Bebop, J-Pop/EDM hybrid
Perfume, and vocaloid star Hatsune Miku – 33 1/3 Japan is a series
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Supercell’s Supercell by Keisuke Yamada
Yoko Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack by Rose Bridges
Perfume’s Game by Patrick St. Michel
Cornelius’s Fantasma by Martin Roberts
Joe Hisaishi’s My Neighbor Totoro: Soundtrack by Kunio Hara
Shonen Knife’s Happy Hour by Brooke McCorkle
Nenes’ Koza Dabasa by Henry Johnson
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33 1/3 Europe
Series Editor: Fabian Holt
Spanning a range of artists and genres, 33 1/3 Europe offers engaging
accounts of popular and culturally significant albums of Continental
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Published Titles:
Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky by Ross Hagen
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Modeselektor’s Happy Birthday! by Sean Nye
Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break the Oath by Henrik Marstal
Bea Playa’s I’ll Be Your Plaything by Anna Szemere and András Rónai
Various Artists’ DJs do Guetto by Richard Elliott
Czesław Niemen’s Niemen Enigmatic by Ewa Mazierska and Mariusz
Gradowski
Forthcoming Titles:
Los Rodriguez’s Sin Documentos by Fernán del Val and Héctor Fouce
Massada’s Astaganaga by Lutgard Mutsaers
Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano’s Bella Ciao by Jacopo Tomatis
Amália Rodrigues’s Amália at the Olympia by Lilla Ellen Gray
Ardit Gjebrea’s Projekt Jon by Nicholas Tochka
Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi by Maria Sonevytsky
Édith Piaf’s Recital 1961 by David Looseley
Iannis Xenakis’ Persepolis by Aram Yardumian
Niemen
Enigmatic
Mariusz Gradowski and Ewa
Mazierska
Series Editor: Fabian Holt
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2022
Copyright © Mariusz Gradowski and Ewa Mazierska, 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gradowski, Mariusz, author. | Mazierska, Ewa, author.
Title: Czeslaw Niemen’s Niemen enigmatic / Mariusz Gradowski
and Ewa Mazierska.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. | Series: 33 1/3
Europe | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “Examines the remarkable history and significance of the album
Niemen Enigmatic, released in Poland in 1970 by Polish musician Czeslaw
Niemen in its national and international contexts”–Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021042209 (print) | LCCN 2021042210 (ebook) | ISBN
9781501372674 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501372667 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781501372681 (epub) | ISBN 9781501372698 (pdf) | ISBN
9781501372704 (ebook other)
Subjects: LCSH: Niemen, Czesław. Niemen enigmatic. | Niemen,
Czesław–Criticism and interpretation. | Rock music–Poland–1961-1970–
History and criticism. | Popular music–Poland–History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML420.N674 C94 2022 (print) | LCC ML420.N674
(ebook) | DDC 782.42166092–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042209
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042210
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-7267-4
PB: 978-1-5013-7266-7
ePDF: 978-1-5013-7269-8
eBook: 978-1-5013-7268-1
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Series: 33 1/3 Europe
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and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
List of tables viii
Introduction 1
1 From an ordinary singer to a prophet: The
life and career of Czesław Niemen 7
2 From the poem to Poems: Inspiration,
conception and production of Niemen
Enigmatic 37
3 Solving the enigma: What Niemen Enigmatic
is about? 65
4 Like old wine: Remembering Niemen
Enigmatic 107
Bibliography 135
Index 140
Tables
1 Formal Diagram of ‘Rhapsody’ after Piotr Chlebowski 80
2 Formal Diagram of ‘Rhapsody’ by Gradowski and
Mazierska 82
3 Formal Diagram of ‘One Heart’ by Gradowski and
Mazierska 92
4 Formal Diagram of ‘Flowers of My Country’
by Gradowski and Mazierska 98
5 Formal Diagram of ‘Keep Talking to Me’
by Gradowski and Mazierska 102
Introduction
When preparing to write the introduction to this book, we
looked at other books published for the series 331/3. They
typically include a description of a personal encounter of the
author with the artist and the record, either thanks to meeting
his or her in person, or remembering the moment when they
saw them in a television show or listened to his or her record.
By contrast, we were not able to identify such moments of
personal encounter with Niemen or the record which we will
analyse in the subsequent chapters. For us, however, this is not
a sign that Niemen matters less for us than, say, David Bowie
or Led Zeppelin for the authors who wrote about their iconic
records, but that Niemen’s music has been a soundtrack to our
lives. That said, each of the two authors remembers Niemen
differently.
For Ewa Mazierska, who was born in 1964, Niemen’s music
stood for the music of ‘young people’. This was music which her
parents and grandmother avoided, on account of its noisiness,
being rebellious and provocative, in contrast to estrada music,
which came across as harmonious and conformist. Mazierska
also bore witness to Niemen’s transformation from the idol
of a young generation to an avant-garde composer and an
important cultural figure, frequently compared to Romantic
poets, whose poetry he adopted in his works, such as Adam
Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and, most importantly, Cyprian
