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Professor to Discuss Music, Politics at International Conference |
| By
Vicki L. Kroll |
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Aug 27, 2002 |
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| Dr. Russell Reising |
As the floodwaters recede in Prague, a University of Toledo professor is preparing to attend a conference in the Czech Republic dedicated to a deep topic — politics and fiction.
Dr. Russell Reising, professor of English, was invited to attend the American Studies Colloquium, “The Fictions of Politics and Politics of Fiction,” at Palacky University in Olomouc Sept. 1-6. The annual conference is dedicated to exploring politics and art.
He will discuss “Iron Curtains and Satin Sheets: Anger and Eros in Cold War Popular Music.”
“I’m looking at how the psychological terror of the idea of nuclear war and the possibility of imminent destruction affected popular music from the 1940s through the 1970s,” he said. “Lots of songs that try to talk about the Cold War tend to be characterized by either love, fear or hate. My point is that these emotions become intermingled and indistinguishable from one another in a lot of songs.”
In addition to popular music, Reising will examine jazz, blue grass and folk music. “I’ll talk about some artists whose music is often discussed in a Cold War context — Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Neil Young — and other artists who might surprise some listeners — jazz performer Sun Ra, Alice Cooper, Blood, Sweat and Tears,” he said. “I’ll be talking about the different ways these performers register the terror and confusion of the Cold War.”
For example, Reising will talk about Cooper’s “Nuclear Infected.” “This song, like quite a few other Cold War pop songs, almost celebrates nuclear toxicity and glories in a freakish sense of sexual opportunism,” he said. He pointed to Cooper’s lyrics:
I’m nuclear infected,
Looking for a mate,
So slip on something lead, babe,
And go out on a date.
When I’m happy I glow yellow,
When I’m sad I glow blue, yeah,
And I glow red hot when I’m in bed with you.
“I look at other love songs as well, many of which are more grisly and bizarre than Alice Cooper’s,” Reising said.
When conference organizers contacted Reising about giving a presentation, he said he could talk about Henry James or music. “They really wanted the second one because they didn’t have access to this music,” he said.
Organizers were familiar with Reising from having read some of his publications on American studies and because he had talked about his Cold War research at the University of Lodz in Poland. UT has an ongoing exchange program with the University of Lodz.
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