Two groups, closely related to both
each other and the Gothenburg communist party KPLM(r), with
anti-imperialist lyrics dealing with the liberation of Vietnam.
Maria Hörnelius and
Marie Selander were both among the many Freedom
Singers members.
FREEDOM SINGERS – 68 (Befria Södern,
1968, 10”)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Freedom Singers first album, an eight
track ten inch, was a joint venture by the FNL groups of Gothenburg
and Stockholm. The music is part American sounding protest songs
(ironically enough), part Swedish styled singer/songwriter, and part
standard fare communist anthems. ”Befria södern!” has become a
classic of sorts in the circuits of like-minded, and also gave name
to the bands' own label.
FREEDOM SINGERS - Antiimperialistiska
sånger (Befria Södern, 1970)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Second album is mainly the work of the
Gothenburg FNL faction, but it doesn't helped making the music much
better. If you've heard one of these albums, you've basically heard
them all. But at least this one has a couple of decent songs if you
can look beyond the dreadful genre typical fist-waving, more
precisely ”Wall Street”, the Jefferson Airplane inspired ”Richard
Dollarhjärta” (their best track), and Fugs cover ”CIA-visan”, the latter two with
full band backing including fuzz guitar. ”Bläckfisken” (not the
Björn Afzelius song) is passable. Anthem ”Befria Södern” makes
another appearance.
DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA
Till det
kämpande Vietnam (Befria Södern, 1971)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Includes contributions from various FNL
groups from Stockholm and Uppsala in a standard protest style with
few variations. Some tracks sound like
Fria Proteatern with
accordion. Horrible. And for the third time, ”Befria Södern”.
DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA - Vietnam
är nära (Befria Södern, 1972)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
More of the same, although the lush
string arrangement on ”Vid läsningen av Ett tusen poeters
antologi' is an (temporary) advancement. ”Maktens män” and
”Roten till det onda” feature a full band but aren't as 'good' as
”Richard Dollarhjärta”. ”Avskedet” and ”En kamp på tusen
slagfält” are the least maddening tracks here. And oh, ”Befria
Södern” finishes off the album.
DE FÖRENADE FNL-GRUPPERNA - Framtiden är vår (Befria Södern, 1974)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
”Vi hjälptes åt” almost sounds
like something UK folk prog band Spirogira could have done, for what
it's worth. ”Basarbetaren” has some of that ”Richard
Dollarhjärta” fuzz but it's still a crap track. And in case you
thought they had forgotten, they didn't: Here's the fifth version of
”Befria Södern”.
Freedom Singers released on further
album, ”Lär känna Vietnam”; recorded live in 1973 with a
Vietnamese song and dance group (and including ”Befria Södern”).
They also released a 1975 EP, ”Vietnam Kambodja befriade!” to
celebrate the end of the Vietnam war. Thankfully, that was the end of
Freedom Singers/FNL-grupperna as well.
Of course I concur with the sentiment here – it's needless to point out that the Vietnam
war was a disgrace to mankind, but the fundamentalist vibe to these record is as repellant as on many political albums in a similar style. Sitting through these albums one more time for the review made me nauseous. I felt physically ill, I kid you not. Also, they are outdated, at best an academic reminder of the dogmatism of bygone days.