Swedish lyrics
International relevance: **
Dennis Huntington had made a bit of a
name for himself years before he founded Huntington Band. He used to
be in the seldom mentioned Lag & Ordning who released an album in
1979, ”51, Moderately
Beat”, four years after it was recorded.
His best known work ought to be with Love Explosion, whose ”Bästa
låtar” is a DIY classic.
Huntington
Band's only album is held in lower esteem than his previous bands.
Perhaps because it's a less frantic effort, more along the lines of
Motvind, Nationalteatern, Mobben and Ensamma Hjärtan's more
straightforward songs. It's fair to say that it is a Gothenburg album
typical of its time; the Gothenburg bands were less experimental and
relied more on blues based rock with a harder edge than their
Stockholm contemporaries in particular. Gothenburg has always been a
workers' town, a left wing stronghold, and it's not too far fetched
too say that the down to earth approach to life also affected many of
the 70's bands.
It's
a pity that Huntington Band's eponymous album is overlooked.
Huntington himself was a good songwriter as proven by this album as
much as anything else he did. ”Vad är det som händer” is a hard
rocking number, while ”Barn av vår tid” (not to confuse with the
Nationalteatern song of the same name) adds a semi-funky groove.
”Utan moral” veers towards Santana territory, with an eager drive
and a contagious beat. Ten minute track ”Tre hjältar” rounds off the album in an
angst ridden way, as grey as the concrete houses of a Gothenburg
suburb. Famous saxophone player Christer Boustedt adds a crying alto
sax to the song which further adds to its sense of underlying
desperation. Tracks like ”Vårt samhälle” and ”Håll mig hårt”
are probably responsible for giving the album a reputation of being a
blues rock album, but although being a no-nonsense, straight ahead
album, it's more varied than your standard palefaced blues rock
album.
Being
such a neglected effort, ”Huntington Band” is still pretty cheap to get, but it doesn't show up very often. Being released
on Gothenburg's premiere progg label Nacksving, it's likely easiest
to find locally in and around Gothenburg. It's well worth to pick up
if you run across it, but you should bear in mind that the focus to a
fair extent lies on the lyrics, why foreign listeners miss out on
some important aspects of the songs.
Huntington
Band did at least one session for the Swedish Radio but they're
unfortunately not included in the massive live recordings compilation
box set ”Progglådan”.
Dennis
Huntington also wrote songs for fellow Gothenburgers Röda Ropet, and
he later became the drummer for Togges Gossar, an obscure outfit
that, apart from playing at weddings and parties, released a mere
three singles in the 80's. Huntington sadly died in 2011. His son
Ivar Huntington plays in a band called Fred På Jorden who performed
some of his dad's songs at a memorial concert in 2012.
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