Bone Music: Soviet X-Ray Audio

by Stephen Coates (Editor)

Stories of the secret underground Cold War–era Soviet music subculture that distributed forbidden music on used hospital x-rays.

During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censors, building recording machines and making their own records of forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll, and Russian music, cut onto used hospital x-ray film. Bone Music is the follow up the acclaimed X-Ray The Strange History of Soviet Music on the Bone, delving deeper into a forgotten era when being a music fan could mean a lengthy prison sentence, or worse.

Who made these records? Why did they do it and how was it even possible? Foregrounding interviews and oral testimonies gathered over five years, Bone Music presents the stories of the original bone bootleggers, their customers, musicians, record collectors, and commentators, evoking a spirited resistance to a repressive culture of prohibition and punishment. It reveals that although Western jazz and rock’n’roll were important to the Stilyagi youth culture, the true rebel music was that of forbidden Russian emigres, gypsy romances, and criminal the soul songs of a society brutally cut off from its culture.

Richly illustrated with dozens of new images of Soviet x-ray discs and sound letters, Bone Music details how the bootleggers worked, outlining the technical precedents of their techniques, situating their discs in a revised history of recorded media, and bringing a wealth of compelling new detail.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Technology, Cultural

156 pages, Paperback

Published January 10, 2023

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

From roughly 1948 to 1964, enterprising Soviets gained access to forbidden music by listening to tunes carved into x-rays. Each x-ray could hold one song of three- or four-minutes’ duration on one side only. The shallow grooves etched into the x-rays in conjunction with poor-quality needles (often still made of steel for old wind-up gramophones) meant that most recordings could only be played a few times before being scratched beyond use. Of course, many of the songs were banned jazz and pop tunes from the West but, surprisingly enough, most of the x-ray music was of traditional Russian folksongs that had now been banned by Soviet censors.

Bone music’s origins seem to be in Hungary during the 1930s, generated by Sophie Török (a poet and salon hostess) and István Makai (a sound engineer). Makai, in fact, published articles describing how to create records at home with x-rays. The recordings were not illegal, however, and seemed to be an inexpensive way to record and share music and poetry readings. Most of Bone Music includes information on figures the figures behind the bootleg recording in the Soviet Union—who they were, how they built their equipment, how they ended up arrested, and so forth—along with profuse illustrations of the records themselves and Soviet anti-bone music propaganda.

Overall, a brief and entertaining history of a little-known criminal activity, Soviet style. Comes with instructions for cutting your own x-ray record.

https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Phil Wilkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully produced book. Written and researched with a great deal of love and attention to a fascinating subject. The book captures the stories, insights and motivations of the Soviet underground - much of which is oral history for it is lost.

If you're interested in the counter culture or music history - if you like Bob Stanley's Let's Do It you'll enjoy this.

[Baikinange · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the risks taken by Soviet youth to listen to Western and other forbidden music - with a focus on those who manufactured illegal records using old x-rays.