Czerwone Gitary (The Red Guitars) is one of the most popular rock bands in … Read Full Bio ↴Czerwone Gitary (The Red Guitars) is one of the most popular rock bands in the history of Polish popular music. The band formed in 1965 and achieved its greatest success from 1965 to 1970. Often considered the Polish equivalent of the Beatles, many of their hits are now classics in Poland. The group toured extensively outside Poland (in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, USA, Germany and Soviet Union) but had mostly disappeared from the Polish scene by the 1980s. The band reformed in the 1990s.

Czerwone Gitary were founded by guitarist/vocalist Jerzy Kossela (July 15, 1942 – January 7, 2017) and bassist Henryk Zomerski on 3 January 1965 in Gdańsk. Initial members included Bernard Dornowski (guitar/vocals), Krzysztof Klenczon (lead guitar /vocals) and Jerzy Skrzypczyk (drums/vocals); four members (Dornowski, Klenczon, Kossela and Zomerski) had played previously in another notable Polish band, the Niebiesko-Czarni (The Blue-Blacks). Note: Radio disc jockey Neil Kempfer-Stocker was the first person to air the Blue-Blacks 45 rpms in America while at WRMC Radio Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1968. In Autumn 1965 Zomerski was replaced by Seweryn Krajewski (bass/vocals) ; around that time the band also launched their first tour in Poland under the slogan "We play and sing the loudest in Poland".

Their 1966 debut album "To właśnie my" ("It's us") sold 160,000 copies, and their May 1967 follow up, Czerwone Gitary 2, sold a then-record (for Poland) 240,000. In the same year Krajewski received a special award at the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole (Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej w Opolu). In 1967 Kossela left the band. The band's 1968 third album sold 220,000 copies, and the group received an award in Opole for their song "Takie ładne oczy" ("Such Pretty Eyes"). In 1969 the band received a MIDEM award in Cannes for the largest number of discs sold in Poland up to that date; this was the same year that the Beatles received this award. Thereafter the Czerwone Gitary would be known as the Polish Beatles (see also Beatlesque). The same year the group received a special award from Billboard magazine, and in Poland, another award from Opole festival for "Biały krzyż" ("White cross").

Klenczon left in 1970, the year of the band's acclaimed LP "Na fujarce" ("On the flute"). Krajewski then took lead as the group turned to mainstream folk-tinged pop in the 1970s.

After a hiatus the Czerwone Gitary returned in the early 1990s with Kossela, Dornowski and Skrzypczyk resurrecting the group. Krajeski refused to participate and even released a solo album credited to Czerwone Gitary by Seweryn Krajewski called "Koniec" ("The End"). Initially the new lineup played the old hits; its first new album since the 1970s was "...jeszcze gra muzyka" ("...still the music plays") in 1998. In a 2000 poll for the Polish magazine Polityka, Czerwone Gitary were selected as "One of the Best Polish Bands of the 20th Century". In 2005 a new song "Senny szept" ("Sleepy whisper") took fourth place in the Sopot International Song Festival.

Members:

Jerzy Kossela (guitar, vocals, founder, leader, left in 1967, returned in 1991, left again in 1993 and returned again in 1999, stopped touring in 2015 due to health problems and died in 2017)
Henryk Zomerski (bass, keyabords ('90 & '00 only), founder, left the band soon after it was founded, in late 1965; in the band since 1999 till his death in 2011)
Bernard Dornowski (guitar, vocals, bass, one of the original members, left in 1999)
Jerzy Skrzypczyk (drums, vocals, percussion, one of the original members, still in the band as of 2016)
Krzysztof Klenczon (lead guitar, vocals, harmonica,one of the original members; left in 1970)
Seweryn Krajewski (bass, vocals, guitar, piano, violin, keyboards, replaced Zomerski in December 1965; left in 1997)
Dominik Kuta (guitar, flute, vocals, briefly in 1970)
Ryszard Kaczmarek (bass, 1971–1975)
Jan Pospieszalski (bass, 1976–1980)
Wojciech Hoffman (guitar, 1997–2000)
Arkadiusz Malinowski (guitar, bass, 1999–2002)
Dariusz Olszewski (guitar, vocals, 2000–2004, rejoined in 2010, still in the band as of 2016)
Mieczysław Wądołowski (guitar, vocals, joined 1997, still in the band as of 2016)
Marek Kisieliński (guitar, keyboards, joined 2003, left in 2013)
Arkadiusz Wiśniewski (bass, guitar, vocals, joined in 2003, still in the band as of 2016)
Artur Chyb (guitar, joined in 2013, left in 2014)
Marcin Niewęgłowski (guitar, vocals, 2014-2016)
Marek Jabłoński (guitar, joined in 2016)
Artur Żurek (percussion, additional drums, joined in 2016)

Sledztwo zakochanego
Czerwone Gitary Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Prawie co dzień od tygodnia
Znikasz gdzieś wieczorem
Często milczysz nic nie mówisz
Tylko się uśmiechasz

Jesteś bardzo tajemnicza
Nie wiem co to znaczy
Chociaż proszę choć nalegam

Nie chcesz nic tłumaczyć

Pójdę jednak za Tobą
Jak cień za właścicielem
Pójdę jednak za Tobą
Jak cień za właścicielem

Minął tydzień a ja chodzę
Wciąż za Twoim cieniem
I nie mogę rozszyfrować
Czym jest Twe milczenie

Wczoraj byłem blisko celu
Jednak Cię zgubiłem
Pójdę jednak za Tobą
Jak cień za właścicielem
Pójdę i się przekonam
Co robisz dziś wieczorem

Prawie co dzień od miesiąca
Znikasz gdzieś wieczorem
Jeszcze wczoraj Cię szukałem
Pod byle pozorem

Jeszcze wczoraj przypuszczałem
Że masz już innego
Teraz wiem że brałaś tylko
Lekcje angielskiego

Teraz pójdę już z Tobą
Na lekcje angielskiego
Teraz pójdę już z Tobą
Na lekcje angielskiego

W tłumie ludzi na przystanku
O siódmej godzinie

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Czerwone Gitary's "Sledztwo zakochanego" describe the singer's emotional journey as he tries to unravel the mystery of his lover's behavior. He notices that she disappears almost every night, and when she does speak, it is always with a smile, yet she remains elusive, refusing to explain why she acts this way. Despite this, the singer is so smitten with her that he follows her around like a shadow in the hope of uncovering her secrets. After a week of trying to solve the mystery, he comes very close but fails to find out where she goes every night. However, he does eventually discover that she has been taking English lessons and that he now wants to join her on her lessons.

The song touches on the theme of love and obsession, where the singer's love for his partner has blinded him to any other aspects of the relationship, including communication and trust. He is desperate to understand her every move, but she remains a mystery to him. The use of shadow and light imagery throughout the song emphasizes this idea of the singer following his lover like a shadow, watching her every move but not truly understanding her.

Overall, the song is a poignant exploration of the complexities of love and relationships, and how sometimes, despite our best efforts, we may never fully understand the person we love.

Line by Line Meaning

Prawie co dzień od tygodnia
Nearly every day for a week

Znikasz gdzieś wieczorem
You disappear somewhere in the evening

Często milczysz nic nie mówisz
Often silent, saying nothing

Tylko się uśmiechasz
Just smiling

Jesteś bardzo tajemnicza
You are very mysterious

Nie wiem co to znaczy
I don't know what that means

Chociaż proszę choć nalegam
Although I'm asking and insisting

Nie chcesz nic tłumaczyć
You don't want to explain anything

Pójdę jednak za Tobą
However, I'll follow you

Jak cień za właścicielem
Like a shadow follows its owner

Minął tydzień a ja chodzę
A week has passed and I walk