Kourosh Yaghmaei

Kourosh Yaghmaei ( also spelled as Kourosh Yaghmaee, born 3 December 1946) is an Iranian singer-songwriter, composer and record producer, who started his career in the early 1970s. Regarded as one of the greatest Persian psychedelic rock musicians in the history of Iranian rock music, he is known as "the Godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock", as well as "the king of rock".
Born in 1946 in Shahrud to Parsi parents, later grew up in Tehran. Most of his songs are a combination of Persian classical poems, his own lyrics, and contemporary poems. His styles of music are a mixture of Persian traditional music and the protein 1970s rock influenced by bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. He has significant styles in blues and rock as well as Iranian folk music. He is best known internationally for his unique presentation of the early Iranian rock throughout the 1970s. He began his solo career in 1973 with his first single "Gol-e Yakh" ("Ice Flower") which was a huge success with more than 5 million copies sold in the domestic market. Later he started solo career with the album "Gol-e Yakh" (1973) which also included this song. Several of his songs are well known by the Iranian diaspora and his hit singles such as "Gol-e Yakh", "Havar Havar" ("Shout Shout"), "Khaar" ("Thistle"), "Leila", "Paiz" ("Autumn"), "Reyhan" etc. In 2011, his first compilation album "" was released by Now-Again Records. "Vogue" described Yaghmei as "psyche singer, stylish, moustached and funky". He was banned for 17 years since 1979.
Early life.
Kourosh Yaghmaei was born on 3 December 1946 in Central District of Shahrud, Semnan, Iran to a well-off family. His name Kourosh ( "Kūrauš"; "Kourosh") originated from the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great (c. 600 – 530 BC). He is second son as a part of the Yaghmaei family. His elder brother Kamran Yaghmaei and younger brother Kambiz Yaghmaei are also musicians. His grandfather was a landowner and one of his distant ancestors was a popular Iranian poet. They had moved to Tehran so that Yaghmaei grew up there and studied at Shahid Beheshti University.
Yaghmaei began his interest in music at his age of ten. He started to learning Santur, an eastern instrument, which was bought by his father. Soon he learned to play and primarily followed by the traditional Iranian music. Later he self-learned to play guitar, at his age of fifteen, and became interested in Western music.
Music career.
1960s–1970s.
At his young age, he started his first band with some friends by listening to the vinyl of bands like Surf-rockers The Ventures. In the early 1960s, Yaghmaei joined a group named The Raptures who covers The Ventures, The Kinks, The Beatles, and The Monkees. In 1967 lineup of that group was Yaghmaei (lead vocal, guitar), Bahram Saeedi (electric guitar), Kamran Khasheh (organ), Jahangir (bass), Viguen (drums). He also played another group named Rebels for a while, later who gradually took their places in Iranian rock scene.
In the early 1970s, at his age of early 20, Yaghmaei sated up his solo band along with his elder brother Kamran Yaghmaei and younger brother Kambiz Yaghmaei. That time he was playing guitar, bass and making vocals. His music consisted of combining Iranian melodies, instrumentals, vocals, and tones with Western harmonies, scales, and modes.
"Gol-e Yakh".
In 1973, Yaghmaei made his debut single when he was studying in Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The song "Gol-e Yakh" was written by Mahdi Akhavan Langeroudi who was Yaghmaei's friend at the university and one of the significant modern Persian poet. "Gol-e Yakh" penetrated beyond the borders of Iran, and thereafter various performances in other countries of the world continued till this day. The song brought a great fame to Yaghmaei and it was adapted for various languages. At the same year he released debut solo album "Gol-e Yakh" under Now-Again Records level, an American independent record label based in Los Angeles which is also a subsidiary of Stones Throw Records.
He released 4 singles from his contracted record company Ahange Rooz. In 1973 "Gole Yakh" / "Del Dareh Pir Misheh" and "Leila" / "Paiz", in 1974 "Hajme Khali" / "Akhm Nakon" and in 1975 "Saraabe Toe" / "Dar Enteha" was released. Despite the high sales from all these records he could only gain a modest royalty. He released two albums before being banned, both of which are important works of Iranian rock history. Between 1975 to 1979, Yaghmaei recorded 24 songs in total. 17 of those songs were collected in two albums named "Hajm-e Khali" (1975) and "Sārāb-e Toe" (1977) released in cassettes. The remaining 7 songs were recorded in the pre-revolution riot period between 1978 to 1979.
Islamic Revolution.
Yaghmaei performed on radio or television in Iran till 1970s. During the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Islamic government cracked down hard on his music. Kourosh was no longer allowed to sing and perform publicly. This ban on Kourosh's performances would affect his career. Aside from a few concerts in Sweden and Norway in 1993, he did not perform much outside the country. The authorities swiftly shut down his music and barred from releasing records and performing live. Following the revolution, Yaghmaei spent over a month for recording albums "Sol-e 1" (1979)- reissued on CD as "Parandeye Mohajer" by Los Angeles based record label Caltex Records, "Sol-e 2" (1980, recorded with Fereydoon Forooghi) and "Sol-e 3", which was renamed to "Arayesh-E Khorshid" during its release in 2000, because during that time this album was about to be released the regime's pressure on music became more unbearable than ever. According to Kevan Harris, a lecturer from the University of California, the government after the Islamic revolution were too much motivated to stop the impacts of Western and European culture; therefore it was convinced to diminish musicians like Kourosh. Several musicians immigrated to cities like Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris and other European countries where exile communities were settled. Yaghmaei preferred to stay in Iran for his principles. Where he stated that:
Post revolution.
Since the Islamic Revolution, Yaghmaei was forbidden for seventeen years. During this time he worked for the children and published books and cassettes. In 1987, he released his fourth solo instrumental "Diar" with a restriction of Iranian Government not to using bass, guitar and drums during the recording session. However, there were folkloric pieces arranged by Yaghmaei to be played by the Great National Orchestra.
1990s–present.
In the early 1990s, Yaghmaei got permission from the Iranian government to release albums under some restrictions. He released studio album "Gorg haye Ghorosneh" in 1990. Caltex Records titled his "best of the 1970s" as "Gole Yakh" released in 1991. During 1993, the restrictions became looser and Kourosh got permission to perform concerts in Norway and Sweden. In 1994 he released studio album "Sib-e Noghreii" ("The Silver Apple"), in which the regime didn't let him publish his portrait as an artwork, therefore album cover was only graphic arts. In 1996 "Mah va Palang" and in 1997 "Kabous" was released.
In the early 2000s, he released two solo albums "Arayesh-E Khorshid" (2000), which primarily recorded as "Sol-e 3" was censored one track before released and "Tofang-e daste Noghre" (2001), was the last album that legally published in Iran.
"Malek Jamshid".
Between 2003 to 2006, Yaghmaei worked with his last studio album titled "Malek Jamshid". After 12 years of trying to obtain the required permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the authority denied to release this album in Iran. Latter in 2016, since two years of restriction not to use types of equipment such as acoustic system, sound engineering, professional microphones, amplifiers, Roland keyboard, electric guitar, 8 track recorder and other necessary equipment the album was released by Now-Again in United States and the album was banned by the Iranian government.
He released debut compilation "" in 2011. A two-disc celebration of Yaghmaei's most well-known numbers, recorded between 1973 and 1979, before the Islamic Revolution.
Musical style.
Yaghmaei has unique Iranian style of psychedelic rock and blues-rock music. He brought a lot of innovation to Iranian rock, using the keyboard as the rhythm of the song instead of the guitar is part of this innovation. Such as describing a melancholic picture, blues riffs, strings and analog synthesizer sounds make a feeling that settles in the heart. As the songs last for 6 to 8 minutes approximately, many progressive movements could easily be a part of the music. According to Iranian writer Ebrahim Nabavi, "Yaghmaei has had a profound impact on Psychedelic rock in Iran." Yaghmaei is known as the father of Iranian rock music because of his deep influence on Iranian rock music. "He was one of the people who was doing the Western-Eastern kind of hybrid music the right way," says Ashkan Kooshanejad, a British-Iranian composer.
Personal life.
Yaghmaei has two sons, Kaveh Yaghmaei, also a musician and lives in Vancouver, Canada; and Kamil Yaghmaei. He has a daughter named Satgin Yaghmaei. Due to his records being under heavy censorship in Iran, Kourosh now runs a private music school and studio in Tehran.
Discography.
Film score.
Kourosh Yaghmaei also composed several film scores, starting in 1991, with "Gorghaye Gorosneh".
In popular culture.
"Vice Principals" is an American comedy television series which in season 1, episode 4 called "Run for the Money" when Gamby and Russell experience Psychedelic drugs on themselves when Russell tried to sabotage the football game, the background music plays the song "Sarab-e To", a psychedelic single by Kourosh was released in 1975. The song "Sarab-e To" can also be heard in the 2014 American horror comedy film "Summer of Blood".
Yaghmaei's song featured on several albums by various artists. His 1974 single "Gol-e Yakh" about disappearing youth appeared originally as "Adam and Eve" on 2018 albums "Nasir" by American rapper Nas.
In 1989, Bollywood song "Haa Bhai Haa Mai Hu Jawaan" performed by Anuradha Paudwal and Amit Kumar from the film "Toofan" directed by Ketan Desai was inspired from Yaghmaei's song "Havar Havar". Pakistani singer Hasan Jahangir had copied to come out with "Hava Hava" in his album "Hava Hava".This song was also remade in a hindi movie "Aag ka Gola" by music composer Bappi Lahiri.
Gol-e Yakh was also featured in "The Rock" episode of the Apple TV+ series "Little America", which focused on the immigrant life of an Iranian family living in New York.