Customer Reviews

Polka Happiness (Visual Studies)

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Excellent scholarly book on polka music, concentrating predominantly on the Polish style, although one chapter is devoted to the Slovenian-American-style. This book along with Victor Green's "A Passion for Polka" mark two MUST READS for any serious polka aficianado/scholar.

There once were polka dances every weekend in every Polish Town scattered throughout the Rust Belt. Those days are almost at an end but, ah, the memories linger. Polka was an intergral part of Polish Americana.

Polka Happiness is an absolutely fabulous survey of the polka scene right before the sun set on Polish Town and everyone scattered for the suburbs. This book was published in 1992 but much of the material comes from the 70's and 80's. Although it's not completely focused on Polish American polka, it comes close. There's one chapter devoted to Slovenian legend, Frankie Yankovic and everything else is Li'l Wally, Walt Solek, Eddie Zima, Marion Lush, Happy Louie, Eddie Blazonczyk, Lenny Gomulka, and my personal favorite, David "Scrubby" Seweryniak, former frontman extraordinaire for Buffalo's Dynatones.

It's all here, folks, from Eastern-style to Chicago-push. The photos are fantastic. Is their anything hotter than a shapely Polskie dziewczyny twirling around the polka dance floor? I once heard a self-righteous, Chopin-loving, stick-up-his-dupa Pole say he couldn't stand polka, describing it as "bottom-feeder" music. Well, I wouldn't trust that kupa any farther than I could throw him. His great-grandparents probably picked ziemniakow and kapusta right next to mine.

Bravo and hats off to Keil, Keil, and Blau for putting some of that polka happiness to print before it completely faded away.