Bangkok After Dark

Benjamin Tausig is Associate Professor of Music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the author of Bangkok Is Ringing: Sound, Protest, and Constraint.

Note on Transliteration and Style ix Introduction. Acknowledgments 1 1. Rocco Blues 29 2. Heart of Nightlife, Artery of War 67 3. "What Ever Happened to Maurice Rocco?" 91 4. Intimate Neocolonial Nightlife 113 5. Rice Outside the Field 171 Conclusion. Acknowledging thIng wAy 201 Notes 207 Bibliography 227 Index 239

"In this unique and important book, Benjamin Tausig tells the compelling journey of one Black, queer American man whose biography Tausig uses as a vehicle for another story about capitalist development in Thailand during the Cold War. We learn about the cultural effects of the US fiscal and military presence in Thailand, the development of and changes to colorism and to racial and farang identities in Thailand, the significance of the local and global circulation of musical genres, and much more. Bangkok after Dark is magnificent." - Tamara Loos, author of Bones around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur "Bangkok after Dark is a mysterious place, crowded with obscure forms, echoing with half-heard tales and forgotten melodies. Yet in the shadowed figure of Maurice Rocco, Benjamin Tausig brilliantly exposes the impacts of war, race, sexuality, performance, and identity in the multiple lives of a musician, a city, and a nation shaped at the margins of global history." - David Novak, author of Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation "Benjamin Tausig... traces [Maurice] Rocco's enigmatic story in his fascinating new book. . . . By looking at how nightlife developed during the period of Maurice Rocco's life in Thailand, Tausig reveals the neo-colonial roots of Thailand's huge entertainment industry and how they persist to the present day." - John Clewley Bangkok Post