Rocking Toward a Free World
When the Stratocaster Beat the Kalashnikov
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
From renowned diplomat and musician András Simonyi -- whom Stephen Colbert calls "the only ambassador I know who can shred a mean guitar!" -- comes a timely and revealing memoir about growing up behind the Iron Curtain and longing for freedom while chasing the great power of rock and roll.
In ROCKING TOWARD A FREE WORLD, Simonyi charts the struggle of growing up in 1960s Hungary, a world in which listening to his favorite music was a powerful but furtive endeavor: records were black-market bootlegs; concerts were held under strict control, even banned; protests were folded into song lyrics. Get caught listening to Western radio could mean punishment, maybe prison. That didn't matter to Simonyi, who from an early age felt the tremendous pull of rock and roll, the lure of American popular culture, and a burning desire to buck the system. Inspired by the protest music coming out of the West, he formed a band and became part of Hungary's burgeoning rock scene. Then came the setbacks: tightening of control by the state, the seemingly inescapable weight of an authoritarian system, and the collapse of Simonyi's own dreams of stardom.
A story of youth, rebellion, and hope, ROCKING TOWARD A FREE WORLD sheds new light on two of the most powerful forces of the modern age: global democracy and rock and roll. Deeply vital and compelling, Simonyi's memoir chronicles how one man's tremendous connection to American and British popular music inspired him to make a difference in his country and, eventually, the world. It tells the story of a generation, as played out in song lyrics and guitar riffs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former Hungarian diplomat Simonyi recalls his rock-and-roll youth in this uninspiring memoir set in the "strange gray zone of isolation" of Cold War era Hungary. Simonyi is less interested in describing Iron Curtain authoritarian monoculture than in contrasting it with the Technicolor fantasia swirling in his head as a 1960s teenager obsessed with rock-and-roll (or "beat music"). This makes for an odd narrative, with Simonyi who was more aware of the West than most, thanks to his father whose career as an engineer allowed the family to travel flipping from discussing the secret police to the debate his teen self really cared about: "You were either with the Beatles or with the Stones." The book ripples with ardent love for Western culture (New Music Express, Jimi Hendrix, Radio Luxembourg, Levi's jeans) that he and his friends treated like rare talismans. A 1968 Traffic concert is rendered with the awe of a religious experience, especially after Simonyi meets Steve Winwood. Even though his obsessions as a fanboy and later musician signaled something born of conformist communist oppression, Simonyi doesn't make those moments truly come alive. This flat account of an explosive time ultimately disappoints.