Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Whenever someone wants to poke fun at
progg music, they pull out a band like Knutna Nävar with a nasty
sneer to prove just what kind of leftwing fundamentalists that made
up the progg movement of the 70's. Thing is, it doesn't prove
anything except that even the Movement had its maniacs too. Because
although the Movement (”Musikrörelsen” in Swedish, see
”Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music” for a comprehensive
description) very often had leftwing sympathies, few were as far left or proclaimed their politics with such
a religious fervour as Knutna Nävar. They were affiliated with
KPML(r), a revolutionary party to the extreme left, and basically
the musical spokespeople for the party.
In ”99 proggplattor”, an anthology
of 100 (!) newly written progg reviews, Stefan Wermelin (famous radio host and
founder of the Musiklaget label) sums it up, very accurately, this way: ”The album is worth
listening to as a historical document, a musical trip into the past,
performed with great gusto and conviction. Two of the songs' lyrics,
'De svarta listornas folk' and 'Hundra procent' were written by
Arthur Magnusson, a Swedish revolutionary poet in the 20's and 30's.
It works, as long as the lyrics originates in a time when choices
were between nazism and communism. More recent lyrics, on the other
hand, appear unintentionally parodic.”
Wermelin states that albums such as
this were not the kind of albums that were regularly played among
proggers. ”They rather belonged in the Party's office”, as he
puts it. It's important to remember this every time someone tries to
dismiss the entire progg movement on the grounds of one band and a
coterie of airheads only. Knutna Nävar were extremists tributing
Stalin, most overtly in the infamous ”Sången om Stalin” in which they call the dictator ”our friend and
our comrade”.
But still. It's hard to entirely
dismiss Knutna Nävar because they did have their merits. They could
weave a couple of excellent songs, and they had a couple of
prominently executed covers. Just listen to ”Strejken på Arendal”
on this, their last album. An irresistably rocking version of the
American traditional ”John Hardy”, translated to tell the story
of a wildcat strike at the Arendal shipyard in October 1972. (They
had previously covered the Creedence Clearwater Revival chestnut
”Proud Mary”, as ”Lär av historien”.) They also had a
natural flair for slightly psychy originals in a predominantly
acoustic folk vein. A track like ”Greppet hårdnar” is nothing
less than excellent, but it's hard to stomach the extreme message even to someone of more moderate leftwing
opinions.
At first I considered ”De svarta
listornas folk” to be of mainly domestic interest, but the more I
think about it, the more I believe that foreigners may appreciate it
the most, simply because the lyrics won't get in their way. If this
was performed in a language I can't speak, I would probably feel less
uncomfortable listening to it. Because it's a largely good album, but just about impossible to listen to due to the
lyrics. Oddly enough, Knutna Nävar remain popular among a lot of
people, although it's hard to say if it's because of the lyrics or in
spite of them, or whether they take the lyrics seriously or not.
Whatever happened to many of the
members of Knutna Nävar is largely shrouded in mystery, but Swedish
actor Sven Wollter was involved in an earlier incarnation of the band
(Freedom Singers). Main musicians on ”De svarta listornas folk”
include Bengt Franzén, Brita Josefson, Mattias Lundälv, Lars Gerdin
and Thomas Ellerås. Gerdin played congas on Proletärkultur
stablemate Dan Berglund's leftist classic ”En järnarbetares visor”,
while Thomas Ellerås was also in Folk Blues Inc and other bands.
He's an opera singer today.
KPML(r) changed their name to
Kommunistiska Partiet in 2005, and as such they still run
Proletärkultur, offering mostly leftwing literature.