Kourosh Yaghmaei (Persian: کورش یغمایی 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 musician in the history of Iranian rock music, he is known as "the Godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock".^[1][2]

Born in 1946 in Shahrud to Parsi parents, letter grew up in Tehran, most of his songs also a combination of Persian classical poems, his own lyrics, and contemporary poems. His styles of music come from a mix between Persian traditional music and the protein 1970's rock influenced by such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.^[3] His 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" was a huge success over 5 million copies sold in the domestic market.^[4] Later including this song he started a solo career with the album Gol-e Yakh. Several of his songs are well known by the Iranian diaspora and his hit singles such as "Gol-e Yakh" ("Winter Sweet"), "Havar Havar" ("Shout Shout"), "Khaar", "Leila", "Paiz", "Reyhan" etc. He achieved international success with his second compilation album Back From the Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979 released by Now-Again Records in 2011. Vogue described Yaghmei as that "psyche singer, stylish, moustached and funky".^[5]

Kourosh Yaghmaei was born on 3 December 1946 in Central District of Shahrud,Semnan, Iran to a well-off family. His name is originated from the famous Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great.^[6] He is second son as a part of the Yaghmaei family. His grandfather was a landowner and one of his distant ancestors was a popular Iranian poet.^[7] They had moved to Tehran so that Yaghmaei grew up there and studied at Shahid Beheshti University.^[6]

Yaghmaei began his interest in music at his age of ten with started to learning Santur, an eastern instrument, bought by his father. He learned and followed traditional Iranian music at first. Later he self-learned to play guitar,^[8] at his age of fifteen,^[9] and soon he became interested in Western music.

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, Kourosh joined a group named The Raptures who covers The Ventures, The Kinks, The Beatles, and The Monkees. In 1967 lineup of the group was Kourosh (lead vocal, guitar), Bahram Saeedi (electric guitar), Kamran Khasheh (organ), Jahangir (bass), Viguen (drums). Kourosh also played in this group named Rebels for a while, who gradually took their places in Persian Rock Scene.^[6]

When you stay by me, my loneliness is swept by winds
Winter flowers grow in my heart

— "Gol-e Yakh", ^[7]

In the early 1970s, by the time he was in his early 20s, Kourosh sated up his solo band with his brothers Kamran and Kambiz.^[7] That time he was playing guitar, bass and making vocals.^[6] His music consisted of combining Iranian melodies, instrumentals, vocals, and tones with Western harmonies, scales, and modes. In 1973 Kourosh made his debut single when he was studying in Shahid Beheshti University. The song "Gol-e Yakh" was written by Mahdi Akhavan Langeroudi who was Kourosh’s friend at the university and one the significant modern Persian poets of our age.^[4][6] Based on international standards, "Gol-e Yakh" penetrated beyond the borders of Iran, and thereafter various performances in other countries of the world continued to this day.^[10][11] The song brought a great fame to him and it was adapted for various languages.^[6] He released 4 singles was released 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.^[6]

In 1973 he released debut solo album Gol-e Yakh under Now-Again Records level.^[12] He released two albums before being banned, both of which are important works of Iranian rock. Between 1975 to 1979, he recorded 24 songs in total. 17 of those songs were collected in two cassette albums named Hajm-e Khali (1975)^[13] and Sārāb-e Toe (1977). The remaining 7 songs were recorded in the pre-revolution riot period between 1978-1979.^[6]

Yaghmaei performed on radio or television in Iran till 1970s.^[7] During the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Islamic government that cracked down hard on his music.^[14] Kourosh was no longer allowed to sing and perform.^[12] 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 of Iran either. The authorities swiftly shut down his music and barred from releasing records and performing live.^[7] Following the revolution, Yaghmaei spent over a month for recording albums Sol-e 1 (1979), Sol-e 2 (1980, recorded with Fereydoon Foroughi) and Sol-e 3, which was renamed during release as Arayesh-e khorshid (2000),^[15] because that time this album was about to be released the regime's pressure on music became more unbearable than ever.^[6] According to Kevan Harris, a lecturer from the University of California, the governments after the Islamic revolution were too much motivated to stop the impacts of American and European culture; therefore it was convinced to diminish musicians like Kourosh.^[6]

In the early 1990s, Yaghmaei received permission from the Iranian government to release albums. Later folowing he album Gorg haye Ghorosneh (1990) he released studio album Sib-e Noghreii (The Silver Apple) in 1994. His last solo album Malek Jamshid was released in 2016.^[7] He got international attention after release of his album Back From the Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979 in 2011.^[16][17] A two-disc celebration of Yaghmaei's most well-known numbers, recorded between 1973 and 1979, before the Islamic Revolution.^[18]

Yaghmaei has unique Iranian style of psychedelic rock and blues-rock music. He brought a lot of innovation to Iranian rock,^[19][20] using the keyboard as the rhythm of the song instead of the guitar is part of this innovation.^[13][21] 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.^[6] According to Iranian writer Ebrahim Nabavi, "Yaghmaei has had a profound impact on Psychedelic rock in Iran."^[22] Yaghmaei is known as the father of Iranian rock music because of his deep influence on Iranian rock music.^{[23][24][25][26]} "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.^[7]

Yaghmaei has three sons, Kaveh Yaghmaei, also a musician^[27] and lives in Vancouver, Canada;^[7] Satgin Yaghmaei and Kamil Yaghmaei. Due to his records under heavy censorship in Iran, Kourosh now runs a private music school and studio in Tehran.^[28]

• Gol-e Yakh (1973)
• Hajm-e Khali (1975)
• Sarab-e To (1977)
• Diar (1987)
• Gorg haye Ghorosneh (1990)
• Sib-e Noghreii (The Silver Apple) (1994)
• Mah va Palang (1996)
• Parandeye Mohajer (1996)
• Kabous (1997)
• Arayesh-e khorshid (2000)
• Tofang-e daste Noghre (2001)
• Malek Jamshid (2016)

• Sol-e 1 (1979)
• Sol-e 2 (1980)

• Back From the Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock From Iran: 1973-1979 (2011)
• Happy Birthday (Joyful songs for Children) (2012)

• 50 Golden Songs of Giti , Afshin , Kourosh Yaghmaee & Fereydoon Farrokhzad - Persian Music (2004)

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".

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" ("Adam and Eve")^[31] about disappearing youth appeared originally on 2018 albums Nasir by American rapper Nas.^[32][11]

• List of Iranian musicians

• Official website
• Kourosh Yaghmaei at IMDb 
• Kourosh Yaghmaei discography at Discogs

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