Life in the underground Soviet music scene Part 1 (198)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 863 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joanna Stingray was only 23 years old when she first set foot in the USSR and started meeting now-legendary musicians and artists of the Soviet underground. By 1985, she was writing and recording with them, and smuggling their music to the West in order to produce the groundbreaking album Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the USSR. This is her testimony of youthful fortitude and rebellion, her love story, and proof of the power of music and youth culture over stagnancy and oppression. Details of the book giveaway are here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode198/ Part 2 is here and part 3 here Joanna’s book, Red Wave written with her singer/songwriter daughter, Madison, includes Stingray’s extensive collection of photographs, artworks, and interviews with the musicians. Buy the book and support the podcast here UK listeners https://amzn.to/3rwItSz US listeners https://amzn.to/3zyvbHX If you are enjoying the podcasts I’m asking for donations to support my work and enable me to continue producing the podcast. If you become a monthly supporter via Patreon, you will get the sought after CWC coaster as a thank you and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, then you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us as well as sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. I am delighted to welcome Joanna Stingray to our Cold War conversation… If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. Help Support the podcast by shopping at Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/books/12447630031/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_books&tag=cwcp-21 Help support the podcast with a CWC mug or maybe a t-shirt? https://www.redbubble.com/people/Coldwarpod/shop?asc=u Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations 0:00 Introduction and Joanna Stingray's journey into the Soviet Underground 1:23 Sponsor: Patreon introduction and shoutout 2:46 Joanna's initial career plans and first visit to Russia 6:14 Joanna's struggle with communication and parental concerns 11:38 Joanna's first meeting with Boris Grebenschikov 14:17 Joanna's first visit to a Soviet apartment 18:27 Joanna's realization about her own music and the language of music 23:04 Joanna's experience at an underground concert and promise to return to Russia 29:49 Joanna's offer to help the Russian music scene 36:38 Joanna's first experience at a Russian rock concert and impressions of Soviet bands 44:00 Joanna's backstage experiences and encounter with the KGB 46:40 Ian's closing remarks and Sponsor: Patreon acknowledgement 48:21 Cold War Conversations online store promotion Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.7	Put the headphones on, click play, and I hear this music, and from the first couple
0:12.4	seconds, it just runs through my veins. It is so haunting. Everything I was hearing was so
0:20.0	visceral. It just touched me to my soul. I did not
0:24.1	understand a word of what he was singing, but I could feel it was prolific. This is Cold War
0:32.6	Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:43.1	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:50.0	Joanna Stingray was only 23 years old when she first set foot in the Soviet Union and started meeting the now legendary musicians and artists of the Soviet underground.
1:02.0	By 1985 she was writing and recording with them and smuggling their music to the West in order to produce the groundbreaking album Red Wave, four underground
1:13.1	bands from the USSR. This is her testimony of youthful fortitude and rebellion, her love story,
1:21.3	and proof of the power of music and youth culture over stagnancy and oppression.
1:28.9	Joanna's book Red Wave, written by her singer-songwriter daughter Madison,
1:33.8	includes Stingray's extensive collection of photographs, artworks and interviews with the musicians.
1:40.6	There's links in the episode notes.
1:43.9	If you're enjoying the podcasts, I would really appreciate your donations to support my work and enable me to continue producing it.
1:54.9	If you become a monthly supporter via Patreon, you will get the sought after Cold War Conversations drinks coaster as a thank you
2:03.1	and bask in the warm glow of knowing that you're helping to preserve Cold War history.
2:09.5	Still not sure? He's one of our financial supporters.
2:13.8	I'm Tim from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I support the Cold War Conversations podcast financially
2:19.3	because of the great research and the quality of the storytelling.
2:23.8	Just go to cold warconversations.com slash donate.
2:28.0	If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, then you can still help us by leaving
	...

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