Hög standard (Sonet, 1975)
as Peps Blodsband
Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
1975 saw the release of Peps'
collaboration with Slim Notini, ”Blues på svenska”, but also his
first fullblown reggae album. ”Hög standard” caused some
puzzlement among the blues fans. What was this?
Well, it was Peps Persson having discovered
The Wailers' ”Catch a Fire” before most other people had. ”Hög
standard” was probably the first time ever a lot of Swedes were
exposed to the Jamaican beat, and it was a most amazing introduction.
With drummer Bosse Skoglund, Peps pulled off a trick that few have
pulled off with such credibility and artistic grandeur.
In an interview for Jefferson blues
magazine, Peps said that meeting Skoglund is one of the best things
that have ever happened to him, and it was indeed a musical marriage
made in heaven. Skoglund is an incredibly versatile player; he
doesn't just play, he understands the concepts of beat, rhythm
and flow. He's a musician deep within his heart, deep within his
soul, and in every molecule of his body. Bosse Skoglund is a perfect
drummer, not shying away from any style thrown at him. He made anything he played on cooking and swinging, and that's something sadly missing from too many progg albums – it's as progg sometimes had to be stiff and rigid and boring to be 'authentic' or whatever nonsense. (Then again, it takes some skill to make music physically appealing, and that too is sadly missing from way too many stupid progg albums made by musical analphabets.) So without
trying to diminish any other of Peps' musicians, Skoglund was indeed
the perfect contributor to whatever Peps set out to do.
In the same Jefferson interview, Peps
says that the blues was a dream, while reggae brought him closer to
reality. Well, with ”
Peps Blodsband” from 1974, it was far more
than a dream; the album's certainly true and real to me with its
spot-on observations of society. But, ”Hög standard” is too. The
title track has become a part of the Swedish musical canon; it's one
of those tracks that people immediately recognize and could sing
along to for at least a couple of lyric lines criticizing our society
fixated with mindnumbing superficial pre-fab 'happiness'. Already the
album cover art is a spoof on the glamour depicted on the cover of
ABBA's eponymous album, like ”Hög standard” released in 1975.
But the whole album ”Hög standard”
is fantastic, with the possible exception of ”Persson ifrån stan”,
written by Peps' dad in the 20's. Two other covers appear here,
originally on Bob Marley albums and merituously translated by Peps,
”Styr den opp” (”Stir It Up”) and ”Snackelåt” (”Talking
Blues”). But exceot for ”Persson ifrån stan”, the entire album
consists of first-rate material.>
Droppen urholkar stenen (Sonet, 1976)
as Peps Blodsband
Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
Peps most varied album up to that
point, mixing reggae, calypso and blues. Great Swedish versions of
Bob Marley's ”Small Axe” (”Liden såg”), Peter Tosh's ”Mark
of the Beast” (”Vilddjurets tecken” subtitled ”Snea figurer”)
and blues classic ”Going Down Slow” (”Det roliga é slut”).
Plus high calibre original material like ”Babylon” and
”Identitet”. Despite lesser tracks like ”Varför blev jag
terrorist?” (written by bassist Göran Weihs) and ”Rus”, this
is another essential Peps Blodsband album.
In 1976, Peps Blodsband backed up
Ronny Åström on his first Peps produced album ”Den ensamma människan”.
Fyra tunnlann bedor om dan... (Oktober,
1977)
as Pelleperssons Kapell
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
At the time a surprising release, made
on behalf of SKP (The Communist Party of Sweden) and released on
their Oktober imprint. Explains Peps in the Jefferson interview:
”[SKP] were Marxist national romantics campaigning for people to
play Swedish music. Their angle was that all American popular music
was imperialist propaganda, including black music. They published a
pamphlet around that time, called 'You can't conquer to the music of
the enemy'. They wanted an album from us with old labour movement
songs and songs about strikes, but we soon realized that songs like
that would have a longevity of a maximum of six months – so we
substituted most of them for songs that were more fun. They didn't
like that very much, especially as the musical backing sounded pretty
un-Swedish to them. But if you dance with the devil, you have to pay
the piper so they put the album out and it sold well.”
It wasn't the only time political
organizations and the music movement in general tried to lure Peps
over to their side. For some reason, Peps was always acceptable to
the movement crowd despite being signed to a so called commercial
label, Sonet. But Peps never really responded to their invitations,
having too much integrity to join any clubs or cults.
”Fyra tunnlann bedor om dan...” is
more than anything a curio. I have a soft spot for opening track
”Auktionsvisa” but the rest of the album really isn't very good.
The songs are too silly, but the musicians apparently enjoy playing
them. Perhaps it offered a relief from the often dead serious
atmosphere of the music movement? And it's a fine line-up including
Roland Keijser (who also appears on ”Hög standard” and ”Droppen
urholkar stenen”), Per Odeltorp (later of
Dag Vag), Bertil
Pettersson (later of
Blue Fire and Chicago Express), plus the usual
Peps Blodsband suspects.
Spår (Sonet, 1978)
as Peps Blodsband
Swedish vocals, English vocals
Internationl relevance: ***
An excellent album blending reggae,
rock, calypso touches and African influences. The few bad tracks
(”Drängavisa”, ”Moliendo Café” and ”Mors lilla Olle”)
can't drag the strong ones down, such as the classic ”Hyreskasern”
(Jacob Miller's ”Tenement Yard”), ”Maskin nr. 2”, the two
tracks from newly recruited guitar slinger Babatunde Tony Ellis, and
percussionist Lester Jackman's excellent ”Games”. The use of
multiple singers works in the album's advantage, and ”Spår”
stands out as one of the best albums by Peps Blodsband.
Rotrock (Sonet, 1980)
as Peps Persson med Blodsband och Kapell
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
A very uneven album bringing together
tracks from the proper Peps Blodsband and a couple of songs by
Pelleperssons Kapell that are similar to the inferior ”Fyra
tunnlann bedor om dan...”. Great tracks like ”Illa” and
”Rotrock” mix with not so great tracks like ”Då måste detta
va' blues” and ”Främmande”, and some terrible ones like
”Motorcykeln”, ”Karna & Ola” and ”Ain sorgeli visa om
vauillen pau tinged i Auby”. To put it straight: the album is a
frustrating mish-mash with too few real highlights.
Persson sjonger Persson (Sonet, 1982)
Pelleperssons Kapell
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Another full album from Pelleperssons
Kapell is not what you need. This time Peps sings songs
originally recorded by the infuriatingly jovial Edvard Persson, an
actor famous in the 1920's through the 50's, and whose movies
appeared on TV well into the 70's like a swarm of wasps in a glass of
juice. His music was just as lousy as his movies and it didn't get
any better just because you put a reggae or calypso beat to it.
Easily Peps Persson's worst album.
Peps Persson kept enjoying an artistically successful
career but largely withdrew from
music in the 00's due to health issues.
He died in 2021.