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(I-Newswire) September 26, 2009 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Timely feature story and interview opportunity.
Perfect tie-in to Veterans Day, November 11, 2009.
Photos, video, and audio available;
preview at www.RockNRollSoldierAMemoir.com
Review copies available.
Contact: Elyse Marshall
HarperCollins
(212) 261-6793
elyse.marshall@harpercollins.com
Honor military service members this Veterans Day with Rock 'N' Roll Soldier
Incredible true story offers never-before-seen musical perspective of Vietnam, America's first rock 'n' roll war
Graham Nash: "A remarkable story about the transcendent power of music"
It was 1966. Dean Kohler of Portsmouth, Virginia was a year out of high school and had just landed a recording contract with his rock band, the Satellites. Soon, the whole world would be listening to his songs on the radio.
And then his draft notice arrived.
But even in Nam, fending off Vietcong ambushes and sweeping for snipers as a military policeman, Dean couldn't give up his rock star dreams. He improvised some instruments and equipment, taught a few fellow MPs to play, and formed his own touring rock band right there in the combat zone – all without missing a single patrol.
What started as a lark, though, ultimately became a lifeline for Dean and the band, as well as the thousands of combat-weary troops they played for. One moment they were going toe-to-toe with the VC. The next they were crossing the deadly An Khe Pass to play "We Gotta Get Outta This Place" for a crowd of cheering GIs in desperate need of an escape – if only for three sets. Amazingly, Dean and his group even cut a record there in the jungle, crafting a makeshift sound studio on a war-zone mountainside.
Armed with their music as well as their rifles, Dean and his bandmates created their own bit of order out of the chaos of Vietnam, bringing some sense of normalcy to the surreal hell of war.
Hailed as "a sober but ultimately inspiring read" by Booklist and "a narrative depict[ing] life continuing beyond conflict" by Kirkus Reviews, Rock 'N Roll Soldier gives the war memoir a unique musical twist. It also reveals how rock music was an intrinsic part of the Vietnam experience for the soldiers who served there. Whether tuning into Armed Forces Radio to hear the latest hits from back in "the World," bonding as brothers-in-arms at precious few live performances in the war zone, or turning to music-making as a shield against the horrors of war, GIs in Vietnam relied on a rock 'n' roll soundtrack to keep them safe and sane.
As rock musician Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young writes in his powerful foreword to Rock 'N' Roll Soldier, "[Countless veterans have] told us that it was music – our music, our friends' music – that helped them get through another day to survive for another night… and to get through another night to survive for another day." Indeed, there is an emerging field of scholarly study devoted to music made by soldiers in the Vietnam War zone.
Dean Kohler, who dedicated Rock 'N' Roll Soldier to all those who've served, made a lifelong career of music after returning home from Vietnam. Dean is an entertaining and energetic speaker, and available for interview.
For more information about Rock 'N' Roll Soldier, including Dean's 8mm film footage, audio, and photos from Vietnam, book excerpts, discussion guide, and playlist of songs featured in the book, visit www.RockNRollSoldierAMemoir.com.
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Rock 'N' Roll Soldier: A Memoir
By Dean Ellis Kohler with Susan VanHecke
HarperCollins/ September 2009/ 278 pages
ISBN 978-0-06-124255-7/ $16.99
What they're saying about
Rock 'N' Roll Soldier…
"A remarkable story about the transcendent power of music." – Graham Nash
"An easy and entertaining read as well as a coming of age story about a young man who was able to live his dream in the middle of a war – and survive."
– Edward T. Luttenberger, National Vietnam War Museum
"The war memoir gets a unique spin with Kohler’s recollection of his time playing rock and roll in the Vietnam jungle. The 19-year-old Kohler arrives in Qui Nhon in 1967 as part of a new military-police company, but his mind is on the record deal his band had to turn down when he received his draft notice. Word of his talent gets around, though, and soon Kohler and three fellow privates are buying instruments from local merchants and rehearsing covers of everyone from Herman’s Hermits to the Velvet Underground. Their band—the Electrical Banana—quickly becomes the in-demand entertainment for nearby companies, and Kohler is determined to play every gig, even when it means traveling unarmed through VC territory. As scenes of panic and carnage alternate with the wild cheering of weary soldiers, the theme hits you in the gut: the restorative power of music is real, and no band, no matter how famous, could have been any more important than the Electrical Banana. A sober but ultimately inspiring read." – Booklist
"With its focus on overcoming adversity and creating positive situations, the narrative could devolve into a blathering self-help book, but Kohler and co-author VanHecke avoid that trap entirely. Reluctant readers will find plenty of action and suspense in the war scenes, while those who are musically inclined will appreciate the trials of starting a band, no matter what the circumstances. Brief sidelines regarding both the motivations for and the difficulties of the war emerge, but it does not overtake the plot, and Kohler avoids getting bogged down in the politics. Humorous and light, with a hint of despair, the narrative depicts life continuing beyond conflict." – Kirkus Reviews
"Drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, Kohler got the chance to pursue his desire to make music when he was asked by his captain to put together a rock band. He recruited three other soldiers, found inexpensive instruments in the local town, and set about practicing and then playing for fellow combatants in the 127th Military Police Company. Soon, he became more serious and tried to get the Electrical Banana gigs in all the clubs in Qui Nhon and beyond. From his eye-opening perspective, Kohler draws in readers with some gut-wrenching accounts of warfare, lightening the mood with references to bands, songs, and his love of music. This memoir reads like an action-packed novel and pairs well with Walter Dean Myers's Fallen Angels (Scholastic, 1998). It could provide an outstanding cross-curriculum tie-in between social studies and English." – School Library Journal
"I hope that today's young adults will enjoy this memoir and perhaps understand how important the band that Dean and his friends put together was to those young guys so far from home in such dangerous circumstances. I think that's the way all of us who worked in morale and recreation felt. Whatever we did, whether it was recreation, music, crafts, libraries, or entertainment, it was all directed at making the war and the fear go away, if only for a moment; to remind those soldiers –and us –of home; to bring them, for however brief a time, a small respite from the war. I only hope that there is something similar going on today for the men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan." – Ann Kelsey, Associate Director, Learning Resource Center at County College of Morris, NJ and a civilian librarian with Army Special Services in Vietnam, 1969-1970
"In 1967, Dean Kohler was a typical car-girl-and-music-loving teenager from Portsmouth. But then he was drafted, sent to Vietnam and indoctrinated into a military police unit in Qui Nhon. His story, eloquently and cleanly told, will settle into its own place on the shelves of classic Vietnam War literature, but with a subgenre of its own: the music of war. The likes of “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Louie, Louie,” and “Under My Thumb” blast louder than machine-gun fire as Kohler and his band, “The Electrical Banana,” play live gigs for the soldiers between their own live battles. With a foreword by Graham Nash about the life-saving power of music, Kohler’s story couldn’t be timelier for the young men and women navigating the war zones of today. " – Style Weekly
Rock 'N' Roll Soldier: A Memoir
By Dean Ellis Kohler with Susan VanHecke
HarperCollins/ September 2009/ 278 pages
ISBN 978-0-06-124255-7/ $16.99
Company Contact Information
Ann Wood Media Relations
Ann Wood
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