The article, based on the work of Yuri Vizbor (1934–1984), examines the specifics of the bard’s work in the field of pop song. The author corrects the persistent idea of an author's song as fundamentally incompatible with a pop song. At the center of the analysis is the song “I love You, Capital” (to the music of Pavel Aedonitsky), in which the features of a pop song (levelling of lyrical emotion, the use of “common-places”) are combined with the motifs inherent in Vizbor’s original bard work (motives of distant travels, “difficult professions,” the private life of a city dweller...). Along the way, the author reveals this tendency in other Vizbor songs written for the stage (“Old Arbat”, “Three Stars”).
Vizbor; author song; pop song; lyrical motive; Aedonitsky; Moscow.