Česká rocková alba - Zákazům navzdory 1969-1989 – Riedel Jaroslav (2025)

This Czech-language book by Jaroslav Riedel explores 83 Czech rock albums recorded outside official publishing channels between 1969 and 1989, many of them created in defiance of the totalitarian regime. The recordings were made at concerts, in rehearsal rooms and later in home studios; only eight were released abroad on records between 1978 and 1987. The music is highly varied: underground distribution sometimes gave it a clear social impact, while in other cases it became a cult for a distinctive circle of listeners. Behind most of the albums, however, lie dramatic stories as well as entertaining anecdotes. The selection focuses on underground music, alternative rock and the new wave, featuring artists and groups including Plastic People, DG 307, Umělá hmota, Svatopluk Karásek, Charlie Soukup, Psí vojáci, Národní třída, Extempore, Švehlík, Amalgam, Kilhets, the Janota-Fidler-Richter trio, Lesík Hajdovský and Manželé, MCH Band, Zikkurat, Jasná páka, Dvouletá fáma, Precedens and Visací zámek. The book is not intended as a comprehensive monograph of the unofficial music scene, but Riedel draws on forty years of research, interviews with more than a hundred musicians, State Security archives and otherwise inaccessible sources such as period chronicles, diaries, private correspondence and samizdat magazines. The stories of more than 80 albums form an informative encyclopedia of their kind, documenting a significant part of the unofficial music scene of the 1970s and 1980s and bearing witness to the enduring desire to play, human and creative courage, and inner freedom that could not be subdued.