Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal 18.06.1972

American Singer A Hit In Russia

By Waka Tsunoda

New York (AP) - So what is a nice American boy like you doing becoming a singing idol in Russia, starring in spaghetti westerns, and getting arrested in Chile for symbolically washing the American flag to show his support for Marxist President Allende?

"Look, I accept no political labels," says pop singer Dean Reed. "I'm a puppet of nobody. I'm my own man. I just stand on certain moral principles.

I'll work with anybody who is working toward the progress of mankind at any particular moment. I love America. That's why I sometimes critizise it. The slogan, love me or leave me, is a misconception. If you love her, you stay with her, and try to correct whatever's wrong with her."

In the U.S.S.R., Reed has sung before a record 160,000 people in Lenin Sports Palace, and has been mobbed by sreaming fans. His records have sold more than four million.

"That I'm popular in Russia is not due to political reasons. I'm popular because I can communicate emotions. Russians are emotional and are wonderful audiences. When I sang 'My Yiddisha Mama,' the entire crowd cried. Compared to Russian artist who are stiff in stage manner, I'm open. I don't let the stage separate me and the audience."

The 33 year old former University of Colorado meteorology major might have been working in the weather bureau today if it had not been for an impoverished band leader he met in 1962 on his way to Los Angeles to do some sightseeing. "If you pay my motel bills," the musician suggested to Reed, "I'll introduce you to a song publisher."

As a result, Reed, who had been working his way through college as a dude ranch cowboy, entertaining people with his self-taught country music, was signed to a 7 year contract with a recording company.