“Life goes on” after occupation: Czechoslovak beatles cover versions after the Prague spring, 1968-72

Abstract

This essay examines songs from the Beatles' eponymous double album (the White Album) covered by Czechoslovak musicians between the Soviet invasion in August 1968 that thwarted the culturally and politically progressive “Prague Spring,” and 1972, during which normalization was instituted. The selection of these White Album songs-free of political themes underlying others like “Revolution 1”-parallels encroaching governmental reductions in artistic expression, and connotes a reversal from more progressive Beatles covers released immediately prior to the invasion. Rewritten lyrics and musical arrangements used in these White Album covers also refect “permitted” styles afer the suppression of the Prague Spring.