Some probably think this is one of the
most controversial post ever here on the blog. (That's OK, I've been bashed by purists before.) Tomas Ledin is usually
considered the very anti-thesis to all things progg, the epitome of
commercial thinking and too successful to be credible to the 'right'
crowd, and entertaining to too many 'ordinary people'. He even married
ABBA manager Stikkan Andersson's daughter Marie in 1983 – good
grief, the ultimate treacherous act!
But let's go back in time a bit. Ledin
was born into a working class family in Östersund but they moved
around a lot and eventually settled down in Sandviken in the early
60's. His parents were the first in his family to receive a proper
education, and his dad later became a teacher himself. His granddad
on the father side was one of the workers demonstrating in Ådalen
1931, when five workers were shot to death during the protest
manifestation, killed by the military under police command. A traumatic
incident never to be forgotten, and one of the most important
incidents in the entire history of the working rights movement and a
powerful socialist symbol. That's the family history of Tomas Ledin –
now suck on that, all you self-righteous leftist upper class
theorists of the music movement (and beyond)!
In 1969, Ledin spent a year in the
U.S.A. as an exchange student. He missed the Woodstock festival by a
week, but got a close look at the hippie movement still in full bloom, and he saw the best minds of his generation rot from drugs (to
paraphrase Allen Ginsberg). He saw the Vietnam protests in full
swing, and participated in 'un-American' demonstrations that almost
had him thrown out of the States. Now suck on that, all you
anti-imperialist pamphlet writing FNL velour academics in your safe
little Swedish homes!
Upon returning to Sweden, Ledin noticed
that a lot of what he had experienced in the States also was
happening in his native country. He felt comfortable with what was
going on here, and he wanted to be a part of it. He wrote songs, he
was a singer/songwriter, and he assumed there would be a place for
him in the burgeoning music movement. After all, he was the perfect
person with the very same credentials the movement idealized. But
instead and to his bafflement, they turned him away.
Why wouldn't they let him in? The answer is, of course, the poison of
politics. Tomas Ledin was recently back from the U.S.A. and wrote
songs – in imperialist English!!! – without a clear political agenda,
and that was enough to accuse him of rejecting
the 'correct' teachings. As the music movement turned him
down, he seeked out major labels to have his music released, and in
1972, multinational RCA Victor put out Ledin's debut album ”Restless
Mind”. Which of course did not make him any more acceptable
to the leftist coteries.
This is a textbook example of the
bigotry of the Swedish leftist movement in the 70's, and the reason
why so much of it looks even more mendacious in hindsight. The double
standards, the trickery, the expulsion of imagined traitors, the
complacent fundamentalism, the bloated smugness – all that was counterproductive then and is disgusting now. That's what killed the music movement,
that mentality was the vampire that sucked every drop of
lifeblood out of progg.
Restless Mind (RCA Victor, 1972)
English vocals
International relevance: **
Did anyone within the music movement
even bother to listen to ”Restless Mind”, or did they just hate
it anyway?
I suspect they just hated it anyway,
because had anyone put it on, they would have discovered Tomas Ledin
was a pretty OK songwriter, neither better nor worse than anybody
else in his genre. Well, if anything he was better if you compare him
to
Jan Hammarlund or
Bernt Staf. And a better singer, even if
his voice was (and still is) a bit too nasal.
And had anyone cared to step down from
their own political pedestals and listened to the album, perhaps they
too would have discovered that tracks like ”I've Been Waiting for
the Summer”, ”Both Sides of the River”, ”Come Home to Me”
and most of all the excellent ”Black Knight, the Faker” could
outprog quite a few of the movement authorized artists of the time.
The songs are well crafted, often
augmented by unexpected chord changes and shaded with a melancholy. It's not a
perfect album – ”Follow the Highway”, ”Wait for Me” and the
title track are less than impressive – but it's a good album
nevertheless, deserving to be heard by those courageous enough to
shuffle off their political principles and prejudicial pride.
Of course, one might dislike this and any of Tomas Ledin's early albums, even venomously. But please, listen to it with an open mind before you judge. Hear what it sounds like and not what you think it sounds like.
Hjärtats rytm (RCA Victor, 1973)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
For his second album, Ledin switched to
Swedish lyrics. Not that it mattered to the music movement – he was
doomed from the start. ”Hjärtats rytm” has a tighter
sound and more straightforward songwriting. Fine guitar playing from
Janne Schaffer (who also appeared on ”Restless Mind”) and some heavy
Göran Lagerberg bass. ”Utslagen man” has a good arrangement
permeated by anxiety. ”Här kommer morgonen” almost suggests
Nature. ”Följ med mig” is heavy rock with electric fake sitar
(for those who care for such things). ”Blå, blå känslor” is
Ledin's best known track from his earliest days and a fine number
richly textured with heartfelt melancholy (and later covered by
Mikael Wiehe).
Knivhuggar-rock (RCA Victor, 1975)
as Tomas Ledins Band
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
A lot less interesting than his first
two albums, but it does have two great tracks. ”Luftballongen”
almost sounds like
November (albeit with less heavy production), and ”Ta av dej masken” which is
the most progressive
track Ledin did, with a wonderfully floaty feel interrupted by some
fat wah wah solo work from Ledin himself.
For his next album, Ledin signed with
Polydor and made the terrible ”Natten är ung”. After that, he went artistically
downhill fast as his sales figures went up – another
plausible/probable explanation for why his early albums are
reflexively ignored. Today, superstar Ledin is very
involved in aid agencies and charity work. How many old
Stalinists like
Knutna Nävar can say that, and how much good did
they do for the world staring up their own ideological arses?
Restless Mind full album playlist with bonus track