Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1988

Credit for Dean Reed

Your article on Peter Himmelman, "Rocker Makes His Music a Matter of Faith," (by Mike Boehm, Dec. 20) is blatantly incorrect. You state he has toured the Soviet Union more than any other U.S. rock artist. Yet Dean Reed toured hundreds of places in the Soviet Union from 1966 until his death in 1986.

Indeed, the year the Beatles first sang "Back in the U.S.S.R.," Reed made his first tour of the Soviet Union. He also made 18 films and 14 albums in the Soviet bloc, including a number that chronicled the U.S. genocide of the Indian.

The recent "Back in the U.S.S.R." by Artem Troitsky purports to be the first history of Soviet rock, yet makes no mention of Reed. Nor do Hedrick Smith's and David Binyon's books on Soviet life, which contain chapters on Soviet rock. The reason is, unlike Himmelman, Reed endorsed the Soviet system.

While I did do a piece on him on L.A. cable, the omission of his carer is remarkable proof there is censorship in the U.S. - or just as dangerously, a chauvinism that makes censorship unnecessary.

JOHN PISTILLI
Los Angeles

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