Welcome to Master Choke Theater, I am your host Roberto Alvarez-Galloso and we have a blast from the past. It is a past worth rediscovering in today’s world.

For those in America and the English speaking community [Great Britain, Canada, Australia…] who think that Communism will solve their problems, or that Cuba is a «paradise», this article is for you to wake up before it is too late. Dean Reed was a Country and Rock Singer who was born in Colorado [1938] and died in the German Democratic Republic [GDR, The Red Zone of Germany] [1986].

Dean Reed [like many before, during and after him] left Colorado for the bright lights of Hollywood after performing in his home state to an audience that loved him at first until he wore out his welcome. It appears that his communist tendencies and mediocre talent played a part.

In Hollywood, Dean Reed competed with other stars such as Ricky Nelson and Pat Boone resulting in record contracts with Capitol as well as appearances in television. He also married and had children. Yet, the star shone brightly for a brief time and Dean Reed repeated the same history in Hollywood as in Colorado for the same reasons.

This singer or «crooner» decided to reinvent himself and went to South America with his family and music. The crowds in South America [especially Chile and Argentina] went wild until again history repeated itself and Dean Reed was forced to leave the American Continent for better opportunities in Europe.

In Europe [especially Italy], Dean Reed was the «topic of discussion» in Spaghetti Westerns until he found his true home in East Germany. During that time, his first wife and child returned to the USA while Reed found another wife and another one.

Dean Reed signed record deals with Melodiya [USSR], Supraphon [Czechoslovakia] and Amiga [East Germany] and it appeared that he found his niche in life. After all, he lived the life of a superstar in the Soviet Bloc while butchering a cover of Elvis Presley «Heartbreak Hotel» and participating in East German Radio TV [including appearances in the Short Wave Radio Station of East Germany called RBI or Radio Berlin International]. I wish I had the recordings but they disappeared with Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Life was kind to Dean Reed until history [again] repeated itself but this time it was due to external causes such as Perestroika, MTV, and other features of the emerging 1980s. Nobody wanted to hear a cowboy folk social justice rocker when MTV was appreciated across the Berlin Wall.

At the same time, Perestroika removed the electricity from Dean Reed as he recorded flop after flop and the women left him except his last wife. Nothing worked and the washed up cowboy attempted a comeback in America from East Germany but the people in the Land Of The Free and Home Of The Brave said «NO».

At the end, nobody knew what happened when Dean Reed died or how it happened. He was eventually buried in Colorado at the request of the daughter of his first wife but nobody went to the ceremony.

Lesson to be learned is «Be Careful What You Wish For Because You Will Regret It And It Will Be Too Late».

This was Roberto Alvarez-Galloso of Master Choke Theater until next time.