Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

Music has always been a part of the Khmer culture as attested in the carvings of their ancient temples.  In the 1950s, Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk encouraged music and was known for his voice (he was also somewhat of a royal playboy).   During this time, the cities of Cambodia developed an interest in western music.  First, they drew on music from France (who until 1953 was the colonial protectorate of Cambodia) as well Cuba and Latin America.  Cambodian musicians adopted these western styles as well as blending western music with traditional Khmer music.  Men and woman duos as well as co-ed bands popped in night clubs.  In the early sixties, Cambodian bands began mimicking the Beatles and Rolling Stones (three guitars and drums).  In 1965, after the American troop buildup in Vietnam which came with radio stations that could be picked up in Cambodia, Cambodian artists began to draw on rock music that was poplar in America.  Often, these musicians would borrow the tune from western bands, such as Santana, and put Cambodian words to the music. 

“Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll” is an hour and forty-five minute documentary on the Cambodian rock and roll scene from its beginnings to the country’s fall into the hands of the Khmer Rouge in April 1975.  When the government fell, many in Cambodia were glad that the war was finally over.  But quickly, any idea that things would return to normal was squashed as Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, sought to do away with anything Western.  Musicians (along with the educated, business owners, doctors and lawyers) were rounded up and many killed.  Others tried to save themselves.  Men with long hair cut it in an attempt not to look Western.  Musicians lied about their past jobs in an attempt to keep from being singled-out and most likely killed.  This horror continued until January 1979, when Vietnam stepped in and overthrew the Khmer Rouge and deposed Pol Pot.  By then, only a handful of the musicians remained (much of the records and recordings of Cambodian rock and roll was also destroyed during this reign of terror). 

John Pirozzi spent ten years making this film and released it last month on the 40^th anniversary of the fall of Cambodia.  He tracked down surviving artists and family members of artists that didn’t survive to recreate the music culture in Cambodia during this era.  Thankfully, the movie does not go into the horrors of what the musicians faced at the hands of the Khmer Rouge (if you want to see this, watch "The Killing Fields"), but it does impress upon the viewer that it was terrible.  The film does show clippings of the Khmer Rouge prisons and torture centers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh that I visited when I was there in 2011.   What the movie does very effectively is to tell some of the history of Cambodia and its music through contemporary events in Southeast Asia.  Sihanouk’s attempts to keep the country neutral failed as North Vietnam used the porous border to bring supplies to the south, leading to American bombings which led to those in the countryside (who were also being bombed along with North Vietnamese soldiers) to join with the communist.   In 1970, a military coup removed Sihanouk from power and the new rulers were even more aggressive against the communist which only increased the opposition to the government in Phnom Penh. 

Stupa filled with skulls
A memorial to the dead

This is a powerful movie.  By looking at one section of Cambodian life, it shows the horrors of what happened to Cambodia.  This nation lost almost 1/4 of its population during the killings that took place in the war’s aftermath.  The movie is being shown in selected locations around the nation.  I caught it at the Savannah's Muse Art Warehouse.  Unfortunately, it was only there for two showings on the night of May 28, 2015.

I took the photo on the right when in Cambodia in 2011.  This site is haunting and a reminder of how inhuman humanity can be.  We should never forget!