Publisher's Synopsis
- This is an exotic view of a world Americans could not imagine, an insider/outsider perspective on the Leningrad underground music scene, which American Joanna Stingray witnessed, documented through photos, videos, and interviews, and in which she was also a protagonist.
- Red Wave presents the power of youth culture to unite people across the world in the quest for freedom and rights. Rock is a universal music of liberation that carries the winds of change.
- Red Wave documents the "Golden Age" of Russian rock, which is a critical part of the history of art triumphing over repressive state control in the 1980s.
- In the first part of the book, the author tells of her adventures relating to the conception, realization, and consequences of the historic split double album "Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the USSR," which she produced with the Big Time label in Los Angeles after smuggling the "unofficial" music out of the country in nine successive trips over 1985-1986.
- The album and scandal it provoked spurred the process of rock music's recognition and legitimization in the USSR, expanded the boundaries of glasnost and heralded the downfall of communism.
- The book is an easy, captivating and fascinating read; a page-turner full of seamless dialog, filmic scenes, and powerful imagery that reveals a neophyte's curious, passionate, inquisitive glance into a hitherto unknown magic world. Stingray writes in a genuine way about being star-struck, about falling in love (with the lead guitarist of the band Kino), about the amazing cast of characters with whom she spent her life in Russia, and about her own development as a musician.
- Coauthor and daughter Madison Stingray, a songwriter and musician in her own right, captures her mother's admirable and enthralling adventures and conveys them in a language that is accessible but full of genuine passion and genuine poetry. Joanna's archive has dozens of interviews with musicians, artists, producers, journalists - all leading figures in the underground movement - and the authors have used these to round out Joanna's recollections and give authentic voice to the characters in the book.
- The second part of the book details how the Red Wave album not only revealed Russian rock to the world, but how it was a powerful catalyst for rock's evolution within Russia as a flood of black market dubs made their way around the country after the album's release, launching the four bands to instant stardom, and complicating Joanna's life, her marriage, her friendships, but also boosting her own career and notoriety.
- Enlightening observations are made about attitudes toward money, work, and art in Soviet society as well as how Russia's transition in the 1990s to a capitalist system forever changed a society long insulated from money's corrupting influence.
- Through the profound, exhaustive, thoughtful answers of musicians to Joanna's simplest questions comes an elaboration of deeply hidden truths about Soviet life, not only about music.
- Cultivating her power among the male rockers, Stingray accumulates a fan base of young women and becomes an important female role model, launching her public career in Russia by standing up for the environment and working with Greenpeace. A funny episode is how she becomes famous overnight for her humorous anti-littering campaign/music video.
- The book is full of inspiration for young rebels but is moderated by Stingray's heartbreak: after many of her closest companions die from substances, suicide, a tragic accident (Victor Tsoi), and AIDS, she realizes she carries their mantle in her memories and extensive archives, and it is for their legacy that she must write the book. It's a real rock 'n' roll ride, full of joy, but underscored by the depth of true sorrow.
- Included are Joanna's archival correspondence with major labels and David Bowie's management about the release of the Red Wave album; FBI reports; her letters to Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan; and the USSR Copyright Agency Memorandum that settles the copyright infringement dispute around Red Wave, its own fascinating chapter in the book.
- Legendary personalities like David Bowie and Andy Warhol make their appearance along with Russian stars who figure importantly today, like Boris Grebenshchikov, Victor Tsoi, and Sergei Kuryokhin. Boris, known as 'the Russian Bob Dylan' for his poetic, brooding lyrics, is set to begin touring again as he has just gotten his UK visa.
- The book includes notes and commentaries. Many names, toponyms, and facts from both Soviet and American realities of the 1980s are unknown to contemporary readers, and their knowledge is crucial for understanding the book's historic context.
- There was a lot of press coverage about the Red Wave album in 1986, and just recently, about the release of Joanna's book in Russia. She has also been interviewed on the BBC, RT, and for several films and smaller internet media sites. Here are three highlights; her website has more.
June 12, 2019 BBC Newsday:
Rock 'n' roll through the Iron Curtain "Joanna Fields was born in California brought up to mistrust Communism, so as soon as she could, in 1984 she went to the Soviet Union. She met underground rock musicians like Boris Grebenshchikov and his band Akvarium, banned from releasing music or playing official concerts and thought someone should get their music out to the West. Joanna has now written an account of her tape smuggling years as she shuttled across the Iron Curtain and released a groundbreaking double LP called Red Wave, featuring four underground bands and music that many in the West simply thought didn't exist. Of course she needed a code name. She chose Stingray."
December 20, 2018 RT:
Rock in a Hard Place? "It's hard to find a more drab and yet more romantic period in the history of the Soviet Union than in the 1980s. Life as people knew it was falling apart and yet there was also a growing hope that something new and exciting would rise in its place. That sense of cognitive and emotional dissonance was perfectly captured by the underground music of that time, produced by young non-conformist musicians in what was then the city of Leningrad. What was it like to live and make music in that period of hopeful despair? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Joanna Stingray, American musician and avid chronicler of the Leningrad rock scene."
May 22, 2018 NBC Left Field:
The American Who Smuggled Russian Rock Music Out of the USSR
"In the 1980s, Joanna Stingray brought us music that we weren't supposed to hear - underground rock from behind the Iron Curtain. Along the way, she befriended Russia's greatest rock legends, fell in love, made some music videos, and got banned from attending her own wedding. Join us as we take a deep dive into Joanna's video diaries from Russia, as she pulled back the Iron Curtain with a little help from an album called Red Wave."
