The legend of Turkish Anatolian rock music, Erkin Koray gave a lecture on April 22nd, Saturday in Kane Hall, Walker-Ames Room, at the University of Washington. His contributors from the Seattle based record label Sublime Frequencies joined him on stage. The event was organized by Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program/NELC at the University of Washington. There was a great interest for the event from a diverse community members and University of Washington students & faculty.
The program started with screening of a short documentary of Erkin Koray. The faculty of the Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program, Dr. Melike Yucel-Koc introduced Erkin Koray as the founder of Anatolian Rock movement in Turkey whose music blended classic oriental Turkish tunes and ethnic and Middle Eastern themes and has stood the test of time. The director of the program Prof. Selim Kuru, Turkish and Ottoman literature expert, thanked Erkin Koray for his immortalized contribution and continuing influence on Turkish music through various compositions as well as original lyrics, innovations with musical instruments, and his style.
Erkin Koray impressed the audience with his stories of early music career, his first electric guitar (he is still looking for that Imperial brand guitar, at least for a picture of it), his explorations in Germany's Star Clubö where Beatles were born, his rock'n'roll lifestyle that involved very long hair and platform boots and how things have changed in music industry since then.