Gott: Sometimes I have the pitch right there! Svoboda: Those pitches of his!
About time! The album of the lifetime of two BIG Karels and great friends. A new CD called "Jdi za štěstím..." with Karel Gott singing Karel Svoboda’s hits is released these days. The album presents remakes of old smashing hits that were born in Svoboda’s studio in Jevany in the arrangements by Jiří Škorpík. "I think that Karel and I will not manage to do anything this good," says Svoboda who composed about 80 songs for Gott, the first of them being the famous Lady Carneval. The song saw the light of the world in 1968 since which time both Karels have been friends for life. This time Karels left all arrangements to Jiří Škorpík. "I could not redo some of my own things, to start from scratch and intervene with the old composition," says Svoboda who claims that his melody and harmony was retained and Gott conformed to the new arrangements with grace and without protests. "He adopted the new style perfectly and sang everything in a simple, sometimes even humble way. He did not go for his famous pitches. Everybody known he can sing them. On the contrary – this time, his voice went deeper to the higher baritone level. It is only in some songs that Gott cannot but make his tenor show its full range – just in case someone thought Karel’s voice’s no longer that great," laughs Svoboda. And Gott adds: "I began to discover new timbres. Personally, I found them more pleasant than those that made my way to the top of popularity. When younger, we believed that the listener would not be satisfied if a tenor did not show the peak of his voice. Right now, the timbre that has intimate, soothing and perhaps even erotic drive is more important to me. I show the pitch tones only sometimes so that nobody could say: Well, Gott can’t make it anymore."

Karel Svoboda’s comments on selected songs:
Téma na román (lyric: Karel Šíp)
"Originally, this was a slow, romantic song. Its new arrangement inspired it with a Latin American spirit. The technical sound changed it entirely."
Kam se schoulíš (lyric: Eduard Krečmar)
"Eduard Krečmar and I started our music career together. Now we wanted to revive the 60’s, which is why we made use of triplets that are integrated in the lyric too. This song is a so-called ‘triplet’. Today, slow songs are nicknamed ‘fertilizers’. Well, this is one of the fertilizers and event though newly arranged Karel sings it with the edge of the 60’s, which has always been tight up his alley!"
Kakaová (lyric: Karel Šíp)
"This song comes from the time when Karel was in love with a mulatto lady called Manuela whom he met at a Canadian Embassy. Karel Šíp and I could but turn his ‘cocoa’ romance into music whose lyric carried a tint of parody. The critics misunderstood the song completely and took us down a peg or too for creating a style bastard, or Latin American music made in the Czech way. Well, dear critics, why don’t you listen to the song now again? It sounds optimistic. Its performed with perfection and I would not hesitate to send it to the world."
Já toužím po životě (lyric: Jiří Štaidl)
"This song was a fruit of a somewhat high-spirited state of mind when Jirka Štaidl and I were lying in the grass in Jevany, watched a pond and contemplated life. The song speaks of everything that I was confronted with in my life later on. I became a countryman, as the lyric says: "I long for life somewhere in Sleepy Hollow." Jevany is not that sleepy, yet nature is all around."
Lady Carneval (lyric: Jiří Štaidl)
"This song was crucial for Karel. It was not only awarded in Rio de Janeiro, but it also swept the German hit parade. Karel has always kept it in his repertoire and sings is ‘in between’. Naturally, this song secured my position as a composer on the German market. All of us were just poor boys who wanted to see the world. And Karel got this idea: "Write a song for me and we’ll go and show it to Ria." Jirka Štaidl and I said "yes" instantly and let our minds take over. At 8 p.m. Karel called us and we lied to him saying that the song had been ready – and even in a smashing Latino rhythm. We bought a bottle of plum brandy, hoping it’d make our creativity explode. To this day Karel has claimed that we did not drink – well, he is dead wrong. We did drink and it was darn good we did. All of a sudden Jirka said these two words: Lady Carneval. I sat by the piano and the song was done in ten minutes. And it became a hit because the melody has a strong passage that would remain in your mind forever. Its lyric is impressive too and works like a fire match. So far the song has been translated into 36 languages and I wish you could hear it in Hungarian – it always makes me laugh."
Konec ptačích árií (lyric: Jiří Štaidl)
"When Jirka Štaidl worked on this lyric he must have felt his approaching end as he died in a car accident in 1973. Sadness sounded from the very first tones of this song. Karel and I both have very intimate feelings about this song. It was a premonition. This new version, however, has an absolutely fabulous arrangement where the vocalization without words of Nada Wepperova amplifies the sadness without turning it into depression."
Půlnoc v motelu Stop (lyric: Karel Šíp)
"Well, this is a real surprise. The arranger employed techno-pop elements, which have never been used by Karel before. This time, however, he did not oppose this idea and I think it was a good decision. He had a chance to show a different face of his. I guess that song can make it at discos too."
Jdi za štěstím (lyric: Zdeněk Borovec)
"I composed this song particularly for Karel’s participation in a festival in Tokyo in 1977. I’ll never forget the trip. It was the time of the dark communist ages and we spent perhaps four days traveling. The song scored a success; maybe it was partly thanks to the fact that Karel spoke to audiences in Japanese. And he was really good at it as the Japanese actually sing rather than speak. We also went to Turkish-style baths. Geishas gave us a massage and as they were approaching our private parts a provocative look in their eyes asked us whether they should go on. I screamed "No!", while Karel answered "Yes!". I do not know what happened next because there was a folding screen between me and Karel."
Mistrál (lyric: Jiří Štaidl)
"The old arrangement of Mistrál was often heard in pubs. And when people wanted Karel to sing something well known that usually asked: "Mister Gott, please sing MISTRÁK for us. This misspelled form of the word means something like a masterpiece. ""
Můj déšť (lyric: Zdeněk Borovec)
"This song was not one of those destined to become a super hit. Yet even now, after so many years have passed, we do not have feel ashamed. The song was chosen by the arranger alone as it was easy to transform into the new sound."
Z mé cigarety (lyric: Michal Bukovič)
"This is one of my true favorites. To me this is a song of a matured man who enjoys a smoke and whom I believe every word of the lyric. A grown up bard who knows what he is singing about. This is authentic Karel Gott of our time. I can easily visualize this remake in a wonderful video clip."
Nápoj lásky (lyric: F. Ringo Čech)
"Well, this composition with a happy lyric aptly balances some of the serious lyrics on this album and presents a joyous closure to all twelve cover versions. Note that this album does not conclude some of our greatest hits because it is impossible to remake them anew. The wheel of music styles that tends to return after every few years rolled too far away from our oldest songs, making their new arrangements undoable."