Sunday, 17 August 2008

MRTH 101: 1970'S DANISH PSYCH AND PROTEST

It is the second installment, in the form of letter with the quartz of George, of the Danish history of rock from the artist Martha Hviid:



MARTHA: ok, so here is the danish 70s, or part of it. the first song is by a rather unknown psych band called Freed. fred in danish (the d is soft, almost like a th-sound in english) means peace, so freed must be something like peeaace, which I find kind of funny. the song is called 'natten solen dagen' which means 'the night, the sun, the day'.



Freed - Natten Solen

the next two songs are by my dad's old band - Jomfru Ane Band. they started out as a political theater troupe located in jomfru ane gade, which is a street in a city called aalborg.

I chose the first song because it always was my favourite when I grew up. 'Leilas kærlighed' means 'Leila's love', and it's basically just a plain love popsong about longing and lust.



Jomfru Ane Band - Lailas Kærlighed

The second song is about a public playground in my new neighbourhood (remember, Nørrebro?). it was build for the children to have something to do, but people didn't treat it well, and vandalism and insanitary surroundings made it fall apart, and the politicians didn't want to do anything about it. I know it sounds like a lame cause, but it was really a big deal because it raised some bigger issues about what the city was turning into.

it was the politicians that didn't want the playground to start out with. they had cleared the area, and this adventure playground (as I think you call it in english) was build, but then the politicians wanted to tear it down and build housing estates instead. the locals wanted to keep it and it ended with the playground being torn down under the protection of 700 policemen(!). apparently a danish achitect came up with the idea about adventure playgrounds which we call byggelegeplads.



Jomfru Ane Band - Balladen om Byggeren

these songs aren't the most famous one's they've done. the top most famous one is about nuclear power and the second one about the political history of the united states and how denmark relates to it. I don't want to send you the last one, because your people get quite the verbal beating there.

so, this was a look into that era.

next I imagine going more into one certain synthy-new wavy-art band that I think you would really like.

furthermore I have a vague idea about giving you a taste of late eighties/ early nineties popsongs which is like plain food without much taste, but when you've had it in your mouth for a while you start to notice all the flavours of the raw produce and find out that what you've thought was flavour so far was really just bulks of spices covering everything up. you'll never want to go back to the spices.

and maybe I should tell you about the eurovision song contest from a danes perspective.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the picture of the weapon that comes out with a guy holding flowers. It's interesting how the artist made that and thought about that. I think it means the very thing that harms people can bring peace too. Interesting way to look at it.

-Zane of ontario honey