The American Who Smuggled Russian Rock Music Out of the USSR | NBC Left Field
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.
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Producer - George Itzhak
Video and Music Courtesy of Joanna Stingray
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Who in the USA, likes to listen to Victor Tsoi???
Love him, from the USA
Not USA but holland
There are more of us than you might think. I bought the Red Wave album in high school and I loved it. Later, I had the chance to see Alisa and DDT play in the United States. I'm very sad that I never had the chance to see Kino/Tsoi.
I'm from Leningrad
Love him from Liverpool
These rockers are huge now. Viktor Tsoi is a legend, no doubt.
Он легенда
Many of them have been cancelled for their opposition to the war in Ukraine
Both Tsoi and Grebenschikov were HUGE in the late 80's - early '90's. I was in college in the Soviet University at that time, and remember sharing their tapes with my friends - that's all we listened to. They literally burst from the underground to the mainstream overnight during glasnost' and perestroika. Viktor Tsoi was especially daring, his lyrics were inspiring and damning, his most famous song is "We demand changes". He died in a mysterious car crash in 1990 when he was at the height of his game. Grebenschikov is still alive and still tours, I saw him a few years ago in Seattle. Another huge band was "Nautilus", almost all the tapes we had had Tsoi on one side, and Nautilus on another.
Let's not forget that "We Demand Change" was not meant to be political, as Tsoi himself mentioned, which I find most interesting.
The car crash wasn't mysterious, it was determined he'd most likely fallen asleep behind the wheel, exhausted from all the work and touring.
@@nl3064 not mystery but some drama/coverup may have ocurred. Aleksei Vishnya (Kino's sound engineer) more recently said that Viktor was coming back from a party that involved drugs.
I saw Boris live with Akvarium just last year in Warsaw. Still really great man and great band.
@@zztopz7090 listen to Tsoi's songs in the "Новый день" group. "Перемен" after that will change its meaning. Most likely he had to say that it was not "political", because the songs of the second group reveal the meaning of Tsoi's songs.
thank goodness for joanna stingray, amazing person, so glad she was able to do this
I bought the album "Red Wave" when I was 16 or 17 in a record shop in Bloomington, Indiana in 1987. Changed my life!
attar7bazaar I bought it too when I was that age, in Tampa Florida and it’s still in my collection. I had the same reaction as you.
Last year I started playing music with two others and we all had an interest in this era of Russian underground music. Our music is influence by Kino and we worked on a cover version of "Mama We Are all Crazy Sick Now." None of us know the Russian language, however.
attar7bazaar that’s really cool. I know no one who’s heard of them but very pleased to introduce them to their work. I only just found out about Viktor’s death due to the 30+ years between me listening to them and rediscovering on KZhead, which is a bittersweet reunion for me. RIP, Viktor 😢
I think I still have my copy.
this is so dope
Brilliant , I met Boris and jammed a couple of times with him in London in 89. A great guy.
Кино навсегда, Цой жив!!!!!!
Regardless of where you are in the world, we all love Viktor Tsoi.
Gorbachev wasn't any fan of rock music or whatever. The party dinosaurs were just extremely embarrased that their own talented musicians were getting released in the West but the Soviets still formally didn't even acknoledge their existence. After the Red Wave LP soviet labels started releasing Soviet underground rock bands. Joanna has literally forced these boring bureaucrats to give even more green light to the scene that was much bigger than just a bunch of rock n roll kids at that point. She played her (significant) role in the Soviet scene, great gal.
I will write what songs I hear in the background in this video. 1st song 0:05 дальше действовать будем мы by Кино. 2nd song sounds like it’s a Joanna (it’s a woman singing at least) tune, so not Russian rock really. (If you want to hear a woman sing Russian rock/pop listen to комбинация, земфира, Ленинград, Ана Герман, or maybe Аля Пугачева. It’s not really the same genre, but whatever). 3rd song at 0:55 is звезда по имени солнце by кино. 4th song at 1:55 is Рок н рол мертв by Boris Grebenshikov and Аквариум. Stingray is seen singing the same song in English with BG later. 5th song at 2:22 is перемен by кино. 6th song at 2:54 is unknown to me but it’s Boris G. Like any artist, there are little songs that dont go big and are just for the moment. 7th song at 3:25 is the Rock and Roll is dead reprisal I mentioned above by Boris. 8th song at 3:50 is Танцы на грани весны by Boris Grebenshikov again even though it looks like Yuri kasparyan from Kino is playing. 9th song at 4:34 is видели ночь by Кино. I can’t tell what song is at 5:02, but it sounds like an awful recording (very common) of another Kino song. Maybe Beatnik. 11th song at 5:42 is Музыка волн by кино. The video ends at 6:27 with перемен by кино a second time. If you’re new to this stuff, know they only played, like, the 5 biggest hits and some fuzzy static songs in this video. There’s much much more. Other comments here will tell you
ДДТ is also a great rock band, check them out if you haven't already. Yuri Shevchuk is a master at his trade
The second is "Back in the USSR", it's a song by The Beatles
Yanka!
Thank u!
What's cool about tsoi is he's technically north Korea's only rockstar lol
Well yeah given that his ancestors came from that area in Korea
Man... Thanks for making this video!!! Absolutely enjoy it and definitely learned more
I just found a Test Pressing of Joanna's "Beverly Hills Brat" today. The cover is the regular 4 song EP, but inside was a mint condition test press from Rainbo. It's awesome, so I went to look her up and found the "Beverly Hills Brat" video which features Andy Warhol -- and now this story which just is even more fascinating! I am actually compelled to leave a KZhead comment, that's how interesting this all was to me!
Victor Tsoi was really inspired by The Cure, The Clash, Joy Division, and New Order. That’s where their sound came from.
Джоанна Стингрей браво, мы вместе
Please more stories like this.
I just talked to a Russian girl who said she liked every type of music except rock. Some people like to say they don’t like something without even giving it a chance
Привет из СССР!
*Ты болеешь чем? Совок давно сдох.*
@@tatianaimailova8936 трупы любят некрофилы. Совок дохлый, как и Членин - труп. Любители совка и Членина со Сралиным, - это больные некрофилы.
Black Jack твой либерастский канал говно кста.
Цой жив 🙏🙏
None of that music got any play on American airwaves in the 80's. The only band to come out of Russia and have any success was Gorky Park and that wasn't till the late 80's
Yes, it is. In Europe for example they still knew such groups as KRUIZ and First Aid. The most interesting thing is that none of these groups belonged to the underground. Therefore, when they talk about "Soviet rock", they do not tell the truth, but give the information one-sidedly.
thank you johanna
That is so awesome..I didn't know much I know of KINO and Alisa
Cool cool story!! Joanna Stingray is rad!
Цой жив! ДДТ также очень хорошая группа
Rocknroll will never die!
really??? and where's rock now ?
Цой жив
@Peter Kelner In clubs in bars in bedrooms in the streets, to put it simply where it all started and it will only come back in time
Great groups
Great story!
Why does this man speak like a buzzfeed article
ВИКТОР ЦОЙ
Yes!!
This is cool, I wanna see a movie about that
Hello, How i can found 2:20 video ? please help
Thats pretty good
By the way, Stingray herself recorded a real nice version of Liar, Liar (Pants on fire :)) while she was trying to achieve smth in the U.S. Unfortunately this is the only tune of that period I've listened to, so I'd like to listen to the entire album but have no idea where to get it...
For some reason there was a huge communication gap happened with East Europe , Slavic People and West Europe and USA. But Rock n Rol can bridge such gaps.
Ah! Yay!!!! Kino!
God bless Viktor Tsoi
RIP VICTOR!
From Russia, with love.
Never was really into 80's rock to begin with, although this was pretty cool. My Russian rock hero will always be Yuri Morozov. I love his 70's experimental psychedelic work.
Somehow I think you've twisted things around a bit. It was the west who never allowed Russian musicians to enter the west.
And it was the USSR that had "government sanctioned" music bands
She doesn't look and doesn't talk like a rock star, she was on a mission in Russia.
My dads friend nickname chort during soviet era was getting all the American british records into soviet latvia had kiss led zeppelin you name it they probably were illegally listening to it, he was one of the best,my dad was getting my grandfather in trouble because he was a union leader😂 Sadly he's not around anymore in 2008 he set himself on fire .. Apparently
Жалко, что про легендарного Егора Летова на западе мало что знают.
This is a cool subject and video but god it reeks of pro america liberal propaganda and exceptionalism.
You so right
How? It's an innocent story of a good friend of some Russian musicians no matter where she came from , who wanted to help them with what they were doing, like any true friend would. I'm from Australia and I had no idea about her!! I'm also a musician that adventured to Russia and live it there. I am from the Perth diy folk punk and various alt music movements and I too jammed with many musicians. I'd be really happy to help any bands or music friends back then or now. Australia is too far to bring guitars tho haha and their still is many apartment concerts we participate in квартирники и празники. I already brought my instruments there ans left them there to go back and marrx a Russian! But we broke up and he wasn't a musician and didn't support what ido!! I had no idea about her. She could have been from anywhere and what a sweet girl!! I don't think it's about American imperialism or politics. This guy is presenting it because there's so many people like us who never knew. She wanted peace between her countries and she was smart. I'd do the same now if I was American . You shoukdnt see Americans as enemy. People are not their leaders. It's not propoganda, nif she was blocked for helping release that record and share it with America to help make peace then that is the opposite
@@tessacyclone6329 it's actually both innocent and politic. Sometimes we all do innoncent thigs with a politic impact. I think she was genuine gal
what a grazy life of hers usa to ussr imagen if kurt cobain and tsoi would have met
Based
drumer in underwear WTF 🤣🤣🤣
hahahahaha, watch the full video it was filmed in their apartment after a drunken night
He was also a Raging Homosexual.
Giorgi Konstantinovich Guryanov was a legend
It was his gimmick, he often played in swimming trunks even on big stages and on TV and it seemed to be really cool back then. Maybe it had something to do with him being gay, but nobody really cared about that.
So?
She was a CIA agent, probably still is as one never retires really. 😎She played those idiots like keynotes. Boy, this is just hilarious. 🤣
Umm what?
Bullshit , stop smearing innocent people
this is what KGB said so you must be a KGB agent, must you not?
sometimes people do innocent things that turns out to be political. I mean if they were into rockn'rool she pulled west strings that were already there. And she was american. Most american naturally promote their culture. I noticed that because it's less the case in Europe.
punk is right wing
It's better than communist.
Many Soviet punk artists took a sharp turn to the right after the fall of the Soviet Union, but another big strain of punk is also anarchist, which would generally be seen as left-wing. Mostly, Soviet punk bands were fed up with the system and demanded change in some form.