Showing posts with label Folksång. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Folksång. Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2025

A SEVEN INCH SPECIAL, VOL. 5: Political and religious


THE VERGERS – Se dig för / Fader vår (Celesta, 1969)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

”Se dig för” is included on ”Frälst!” but B side ”Fader vår” remains uncomped. Not a very good one, weaker than the A side, so there's no need to look for this 45 if you have ”Frälst!”. This was the last of The Vergers' four singles.

 
FRIA PROTEATERN – Chile (Folksång, 1974)
Swedish vocals:
International relevance: *

Two tracks unique to this Chile solidarity single, although side one's ”Ett enat folk” is available in a live version on ”Koncert I København Okt. 1973”. Side B has ”IB, ÖB och SÄPO” about the political scandal described in some detail here. For Fria Proteatern fans only.


OPPONER – Alfa blues / Till min make (Opponer, 1975)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Two tracks not on Opponer's full length album. ”Alfa blues” is exacrly that, a blues number of no particular merir, while ”Till min make” is a traditional tune with new lyrics by Opponer singer Anna Olofsson and bassist Mats Sönnfors. A much better song with that sweet melancholy typical to the best Swedish folk tunes. Released with the aid from the workers at pump facorty Alfa Laval.


ELEVER PÅ MUSIKLÄRARSKOLAN SÄMUS I GÖTEBORG / FRIA PROTEATERNVietnam Kambodja befriade (Befria Södern, 1975)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

As the Vietnam war ended in 1975, so did the stream of releases from De Förenade FNL-grupperna and their cohorts. This was the last of those, a three track EP split between Fria Proteatern and Elever på musiklärarskolan SÄMUS i Göteborg (students at the Gothenburg school for music teachers). Released to celebrate the war's end, it's typical political stuff very much in line with the other Vietnam albums and singles, and so best ignored. Fria Proteatern's ”Balladen om Rune Henry Johansson” is also on ”Sånger från ljugarbänken”.



BJÖRN AFZELIUS BAND / NATIONALTEATERN – Kamrater, Bodenarbetare / Rädda varven! (Nacksving, 1978)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Two exclusive tracks, one by Björn Afzelius Band and one by Nationalteatern. Afzelius's ”Kamrater, Bodenarbetare” is in support of the strikers at Boden's car factory in 1978. It's a pretty good track with slight folk rock shadings, good especially for Björn Afzelius. Nationalteatern's ”Rädda varven!” is a call to save the Gothenburg boatyard threatened by shutdown which eventually happened. A weak track in an undistinguished Gothenburg/Nacksving rock style.


EN RÖD KÖR OCH SÅNGGRUPPEN DEN MÄNSKLIGA FAKTORN – Säj nej! 
(no label, EP 1980)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

A privately pressed single released in 1980, the year of the Swedish nuclear power referendum and has anti-nuclear message. It has two acts, the choir En Röd Kör and vocal folk group Den Mänskliga Faktorn, although it's hard to say if it all involves the same people. Acoustic as it is it could easily fall into the Fria Proteatern trap but there's something very charming and disarming about the unpretentious atmosphere. The rock & roll pastiche ”The Sysselsättning Rock” is pretty terrible but the other songs are in fact rather catchy. Well, perhaps I wouldn't call the title track exactly catchy, but it's a quite atmospheric adaptation of a Czech herding song. It's nothing I would particularly recommend, but I've heard far worse and way more self-important examples of political songs than these.

The Vergers:
Se dig för (Bandcamp)
Fader vår
Fria Proteatern:
Ett enat folk (El Pueblo Unido)
IB, ÖB och SÄPO
Opponer:
Alfa blues
Till min make
Vietnam Kambodja befriade:
SÄMUS - Vietnam är befriat
Fria Proteatern - Balladen om Rune Henry Johansson
SÄMUS - Kambodja är befriat 
Björn Afzelius/Nationalteatern:
Björn Afzelius Band - Kamrater, Bodenarbetare
Nationalteatern - Rädda varven!
En Röd Kör och sånggruppen Den Mänskliga Faktorn:
no links found

Monday, October 3, 2022

TOMMY KÖRBERG, ANDERS LINDER, LILL LINDFORS & ANN SOFI NILSSON – Barn i stan (Folksång, 1980)


Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

The featured booklet explains the album: ”This album deals with the condition of children. Some of the songs are newly written, but most of them date back to the turn of the century. You can learn a lot from history. Knowledge of the historical context can help us to greater power of action today.” Needless to say, the lyrics have a strong political bent, and while it's hard to object to the sentiment, the wiseacre approach is as tiresome here as always.

The most interesting thing about the album is the all-star lineup with several of prog stellars including Tommy Körberg (Solar Plexus, Made In Sweden), Anders Linder (all-round performer well-loved for his many children's shows on national TV), Stefan Nilsson (De Gladas Kapell, Kornet, Hörselmat and later on stahlwart with Tommy Körberg), Stefan Ringbom (Mascots, Fria Proteatern) and of course, the everpresent multi-instrumentalist maestro Kjell Westling (Arbete & Fritid, Harvester, Gunder Hägg/Blå Tåget, Vargavinter, Spjärnsvallet...). Still, the music itself isn't very interesting, and ”Barn i stan” stands most of all as merely a historical document from the tail end of the progg movement.

Folksång was Fria Proteatern's label.

No links found.

Monday, July 9, 2018

FRIA PROTEATERN & NJA-GRUPPEN – Albums 1970-1977

Fria Proteatern grew out of the Swedish beat group Mascots who released two above average albums and a massive amount of 45's between 1964 and 1969 including the absolutely gorgeous Beatles pastiche ”Words Enough to Tell You”. As the Mascots concept proved to narrow for the members' burgeoning interest in polirics, it became necessary to create a new outlet for their ideas. Enter NJA-gruppen who wrote a stage play about iron workers in the northern parts of Sweden. They put a lot of effort into their material, for instance interviewing actual labourers to secure an authentic as possible stage presentation of the workers' conditions. The group changed their name to Fria Proteatern in 1971.
Hör upp allt folk (MNW, 1970) 
as NJA-gruppen
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

There's nothing about ”Hör upp allt folk” that reveals the band's past as The Mascots. Gone was the charming Beatles inspired tunes, substituted with political sloganeering set to a mellow, acoustic folk pop sound. Although some tracks are accessible and melodic, the lyrics are strenuously propagandistic. They focused on important wrongs and faults with the system but the message is so densly packed, it's a hard task sitting through it today. And it got worse as their career proceeded. Fria Proteatern was very much a product of their time and time has been rough on them.

”Balladen om Olsson” has become some kind of classic but has nothing to set it apart from the rest of the album.

Hör ni hört kamrater (Folksång, 1971) 
as Fria Proteatern (NJA-gruppen)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

If one album was forgivable (albeit not excusable), two were as pleasant as trying to brush the teeth of a starving crocodile. The style is the same as on the previous album, the lyrics read like a transcription of a communist meeting. Wanna proselytize along? No prob, lyric booklet is included.

Typerna och draken (Folksång, 1972)
International relevance: -
Swedish vocals

Their third album, recorded in performance, including spoken portions from the actual play which only makes this album even more abysmal. This time the plot deals with typographers and newspapers but the sentiment is the same as before. Nervegrating, impenetrable.

Sånger från Ljugarbänken (Oktober, 1975)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

After a live album released on Danish progressive label Demos, ”Koncert i København okt. 1973”, Fria Proteatern switched labels from their own Folksång to Oktober for their fourth proper album. What it's like? More of the same. This never ends, does it?
 
 
Knytkalas: Nya sånger med Fria Proteatern (Oktober, 1976)
 Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

If you consider that the catchy pseudo blues of album opener ”Kom igen” and that ”Utanför mitt fönster” is reasonably evocative, this is a surprisingly good album by Fria Proteatern standards. Then again, two songs don't make an album.

Med vilken rätt (Oktober, 1977)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

A more mature work with influences from Finnish tango and a greater amount of Swedish traditional music in the mix. The surprisingly heavy, electric album closer ”Teruel” is quite good. The best album Fria Proteatern ever did in the 70s. What a pity it took them so long to make one listenable album...

Fria Proteatern re-appeared on disc ten years later with ”Sånger av Vysotskij” featuring translations of Russian poet and songwriter Vladimir Vysotskij. Being the best album they did at all, it was reissued and expanded in 2007. A live album of more Vysotskij songs were recorded in 2003. They also had a couple of singles out. Career overview ”Valda verk 1969-1984” contains unreleased recordings, god help us all. They're also featued in ”Progglådan” with a live recording from Scalateatern in Stockholm.

Final words: Fria Proteatern was one of the bands that kept me from exploring progg music more extensively for so long. They gave me the wrong idea of what progg was and could be, and the loathing runs deep. I know that this runthrough isn't very thorough, but it took me a serious amount of self-denial and determination to get it done at all. Going through all their albums once again was a horror. Now I hope I won't ever have to listen to them again, with the possible exception of ”Med vilken rätt”. 
 

from Har ni hört kamrater