BENJAMIN RASMUSSEN


COLD WAR COWBOY 


THE STRANGE LIFE AND DEATH OF DEAN REED

DEAR JERRY: In the early 1960s, most of my girl friends were crazy about Ricky, Frankie, and Fabian. But the teen idol I adored most was Dean Reed. He resembled a young Robert Redford. Dean didn’t have nearly as many hits in America as the others, but he did appear on several Bandstand-type TV shows. Then he just vanished, and I’ve never heard a thing about him since. Plus, we never hear any of his songs on the radio, especially “The Search,” “Our Summer Romance,” and “I Wonder.” Any idea what happened to Dean Reed?

Clarice Hoover,

Racine, Wisconsine

“Ask Mr. Music” - Jerry Osborne, 04/11/2011


















You can keep the Beatles and forget Frank Sinatra, The Led Zeppelin are nowhere in the Kremlin, man. In the Communist Party, The Who are merely, the who? Mick Jagger, the Pink Floyd and Elvis Presley are forbidden practitioners of bourgeois culture.

But Dean Reed, the famous American pop star and heartthrob of the Soviet masses, is something else again.

Dean who?
“He’s 2nd Most Famous American In Soviet After President Ford.” -
UPI, 07/01/1976























































































 American folk singer Dean Reed is a freedom fighter in the eyes of Soviet youth, a guitar-strumming balladeer whose songs are silenced by U.S. political repression.

Dean who?
“Protest singer hero to Soviets.” -
AP, 05/11/1978





































































The pop star who is the leading heartthrob of Moscow matrons, the crooner whose smile captivates Russian teenage girls, is American expatriate Dean Reed.

The average American’s reaction to this Russian entertainment phenomenon is Dean who?

“Obscure American Singer Finds Stardom In Eastern Europe.” -
UPI, 05/31/1981
































































































“Oh my god,” shrieked Roberts’ interpreter. “It’s Dean Reed!”

“Who is Dean Reed?” asked Roberts.

The Russian interpreter was incredulous. “I can’t believe you don’t know. Why, he’s the most famous American in the world!”

“Death in Berlin for defector who changed his tune.” -
The Sunday Times, 22 June 1986






























Reed and Reagan (2022)



























I decided to go to California, to Hollywood which I hadn’t seen yet. Really and truly, I never had any ambition to be a singer, I just wanted to go and see the place.

In the middle of the desert a regular vagabond, with a great big beard, raised his hand and asked for a lift. So I stopped the car and he got in. I had my guitar on the back seat - I always took it with me - and he asked me if I sang. I said yes, and we started talking.

“Lots of Happiness, Love and Peace to You All.” - Moscow News, 09/1972


























































He said, “I’ll tell you what. You pay for a night at a motel, maybe give me a spare pair of pants, and I’ll give you a name of someone in the music business.”
Comrade Rockstar by Reggie Nadelson









On Monday morning the contact turned out to be real… On Tuesday he sang (his one song) for the President of Capitol Records, Voyle Gilmor, and by Friday he had a 7-yearinging contract.
“Iron Curtain Cowboy.” - Rolling Stock, 11/1986