Bone Records were not just made in the USSR. They were also made in Hungary before the war (in fact, my theory is that this is where the culture began), though not as bootlegs of forbidden music, but as an amateur archivist activity.

In the Soviet states, the jazz and rock’n’roll the records often contained, was usually associated with youth culture and the birth of the teenager, just as it was in the West (see the ‘Rock Around the Bloc’ post below). Apart from their love for the energy and excitement of this new music, the Eastern Bloc cold war kids were highly influenced by glimpses they got of the look and attitude of their Western peers in smuggled magazines - particularly of the British Teds and the American Rock and Rollers.

The Teds also ran into problems with the authorities and the media of the day, though not of course with the same level of risk. I recently recorded an interview with the author Max Decharne on this subject for my Bureau of Lost Culture show.

You can listen here:

BONE BLOG