What can be said about Träd Gräs Och
Stenar (hereafter referred to as TG&S) that hasn't been said
before? They're one of the most renowned progg bands, both
domestically and internationally. Their career is well documented,
from the earliest days to their more recent activities as a recording
outfit, so there's no real reason for dwelling upon any detailed
biographical facts. Just a quick background check: Their original
1967 line-up consisted of Bo Anders Persson (guitar), Thomas Tidholm
(vocals, sax, flute), Torbjörn Abelli (bass), Thomas Mera Gartz
(drums), Urban Yman (violin) and Arne Ericsson (cello). Bo Anders
Persson was already a noted avantgarde composer, and his idea was to
fuse the minimalism of Terry Riley and La Monte Young with the
rock'n'roll of The Rolling Stones. Initially operating as
Pärson Sound, they changed their name to International Harvester in
1968.
Sov gott Rose-Marie (Love, 1968)
as International Harvester
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: ***
Tracks like ”Klockan är mycket nu”,
the pointlessly short ”It's Only Love”, the overlong ”How to
Survive” and a couple of others should have been substituted by the
25 minute ”Skördetider” that was saved for bonus track on the
2001 CD reissue. But those tracks are massively overshadowed by, for
instance, the punkish ”There Is No Other Place”, the imperative
”Ho Chi Minh” and the great ”I Mourn You”. Oddly enough, the
classic ”Sommarlåten” fades out after only a couple of minutes
while it could stretch out to a forever when performed live.
My personal favourite however is the captivating title track, also
way too short with its mere three and a half minutes. But despite a
few weak spots, a very good album.
Hemåt (Decibel, 1969)
as Harvester
Instrumental, Swedish vocals
as Harvester
Instrumental, Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
With their name shortened to Harvester,
the band released ”Hemåt” in 1969. A mess of good,
underdeveloped and undevelopable ideas, in a sound quality that
ranges from the wonderfully confrontative basement fidelity of ”Sov
gott Rose-Marie” to the plain unlistenable. Sound and intent
coincide fully only on ”Kristallen den fina”. TG&S's interest
in Swedish folk music shines through on ”Kuk-polska”, an early
but heavyhanded and rheumatic attempt at folk rock. All in all,
”Hemåt” is frustrating and inferior. And again, one of the best
tracks were left to unreleased until the early 00's CD reissue –
especially odd as it's the album's title track!
Träd, Gräs Och Stenar (Decibel, 1970)
Instrumental, English vocals, Swedish
vocals
International relevance: ***
Harvester lost original member Thomas
Tidholm already in 1968 (they would reunite briefly as Hot Boys for
one lovely album in 1974), and the band reformed in 1969 as Träd, Gräs Och
Stenar, releasing the first LP bearing that name in 1970. The first
side is devoted in full to two tedious cover versions of Bob Dylan's
”All Along the Watchtower” and the Stones' ”Satisfaction”.
The Dylan song in particular is too wrapped up in the 'everybody can
play' ethos. Obviously, everybody can not
play – Bo Anders Persson's guitar solo is way off at times. And no,
I don't think it's charming. I cringe every time he fires off a bum
note. And that happens a lot.
”Sanningens
silverflod” is the album's high point (later bettered and immortalized by
rock reggae band Dag Vag) but Persson proves that slide guitar isn't
quite his thing either. Thomas Mera Gartz's ”Svarta pärla” is
shaky but evocative enough to come in as the album's second best
track. With ”Tegenborgsvalsen”, TG&S digs deeper into Swedish
folk with as bad results as on ”Hemåt”. Sound quality is again
down the drain. ”Allt makt åt folket” is six long minutes of
people blowing whistles, clapping hands and chanting. Man, this
communal trip is really getting on my nerves...
Rock
för kropp och själ (Silence, 1972)
Swedish
vocals
International
relevance: ***
TG&S
may look like the archetypical Silence band, but the only album
originally made for the label was ”Rock för kropp och själ”.
Includes a studio version of TG&S's classic cover of Philemon
Arthur & The Dung's ”In kommer Gösta”, premiered at the
Gärdet festival two years earlier. Most of the album slides around
in a mud pool of nothingness; the title track is a 24 minute jam that
reaches its climax much too late, ”Våran vila” is lead-footed
boogie, and ”Solen går upp, solen går ner” is two long
minutes of audience chanting. The best track is ”I ljuset av din
dag”, sung by Gartz.
Djungelns
lag (Tall, 1972)
Instrumental,
Swedish vocals
International
relevance: ***
A live
album recorded on tour in Sweden and Norway. The sound quality isn't
quite as atrocious as one would expect but the music is a bit hit and
miss. A powerful ”Sanningens silverflod” opens the album and
”Drammen export” closes it in a fine way. The acoustic ”Dibio”
and ”Munfiol” are crap; ”Vår vila” suffers badly from lousy
guitar soloing. Even worse guitar canbe heard on the drowsy ”Tidigt
om morgonen” (the title means ”early in the morning” and these
people obviously couldn't get out of bed at all). CD includes the 31+
minutes bonus track ”Amithaha” seguing into ”In kommer Gösta”,
meaning a lot more
fumbling guitar noodling.
Mors
mors (Tall, 1973)
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals
International
relevance: ***
Another
live album (decent sound), this time recorded in Sweden and Denmark
in 1972. There's not much to set this one apart from their previous
albums, with the possible exception of what might be the dullest
Rolling Stones cover ever, ”The Last Time”. Other than that, it's
the usual extended jamming, some OK, some of it sleep inducing. Best
track: ”Dansa jord”. CD bonus: 26 breathing minutes of
”Sommarlåten” – should have been on the album.
ARCHIVAL
RELEASES
PÄRSON
SOUND (Subliminal Sounds, 2000; recorded 1966-1968)
Instrumental
International
relevance: ***
Ranked #18 on the blog's Top 25
The
first official peak into the voluminous TG&S vaults is also the
best, not only of their archival releases but thebest TG&S album of all, recorded as a fledgling band in various
locations. Outdoors performances blend with recordings made for
Swedish Radio. The sound quality differs between tracks, but the
music is incredibly powerful and overwhelming. The impact is bone crushing! Their drone rock never
worked better than in their early Pärson Sound days, and I'd be hard
pressed to come up with an international band or artist in the same
vein that can actually compete with Pärson Sound. TG&S
themselves couldn't, that's for sure.
Gärdet
12.6.70 (Subliminal Sounds, 1996; recorded 1970)
Instrumental,
Swedish vocals
International
relevance: ***
The
TG&S performances at the two legendary Gärdet festivals –
arranged by themselves in June and August 1970 – are progg
landmarks, and it's surprising it took so long before anyone made
them publicly available in full. (A track from the second festival
was featured on the ”Festen på Gärdet” album.) Subliminal
Sounds unearthed a recording from the first festival and released it
on CD in 1996. The mono sound is a bit muddy and distorted but OK for a 1970 audience tape. The music is standard TG&S. Lots of
jamming, sometimes propulsive, sometimes at a standstill, some notes
shouldn't be there, and another version of ”Satisfaction”
certainly shouldn't be there.
The
album was re-released in 2011 on double vinyl and expanded with a
previously unreleased sidelong water-treading jam entitled ”Låt
oss tänka ett par dagar”, recorded some time in the winter of
'69/'70.
Live
1972 (1/2 Special Skivor & Trams, 2001; recorded 1972)
Instrumental
International
relevance: ***
Recorded
in February and March 1972, this basically sounds like a bonus disc
to ”Mors mors” that was recorded around the same time, although
this has a bit weaker sound and weaker performances. For completists
only. (Reissued with bonus tracks by Anthology Recordings in 2016.)
Kom
tillsammans (Anthology Recordings, 2016; recorded 1972)
Instrumental, Swedish vocals
Instrumental, Swedish vocals
International
relevance: ***
Released
as part of the ”Träd, Gräs Och Stenar” 6LP/3CD box set only,
i.e. not sold separately. (Picture above shows the box set front.) The main discs in the set are expanded
double disc versions of ”Djungelns lag” and ”Mors mors”. and
”Kom tillsammans” consists of more live recordings from 1972,
some of them with vocals. ”Medan vinden vänder sig” is OK and
combines a reflective mood with a movement forward. The sound quality
leaves a lot to be desired, it appears that reverb was added which
emphasizes the distortion on several tracks, most likely prevalent on
the original tapes. Unless you need more samey sounding TG&S in
your life, this
is something you can ignore.
No-one
can deny that TG&S were instrumental to progg's emergence, through arranging the Gärdet festivals and through their pioneering and
influential musical work. But 'influential' isn't necessarily
synonymous with 'good' or 'consistent'. TG&S have become the
holiest of all holy progg cows – if you like progg, you're expected
to like them, almost obliged
to. I frankly don't think they're that good. ”Pärson Sound” is
utterly brilliant, ”Sov gott Rose-Marie” is a very fine album,
but a lot of the Harvester/TG&S ouevre is way overrated to my ears. Every album
has its moments, but none of them holds up in its entirety.
(A compilation of their best tracks would be more to the point.) Their jams drag on and get one-dimensional and predictable too often. Somebody once described their music as a journey, but to me a journey is a lot more than sitting on a train that doesn't leave on time and then suddenly derails at full speed.
TG&S's attempts to vary the style are usually not very successful and further reveal their ineptitude. You have accept the 'everybody can play' premises as fundamental, and if you don't their approach doesn't work as often as I wish it would. And the thing is, I always get the feeling that TG&S's ineptude is an end in itself, as if they're being bad on purpose, which live recordings by the reincarnated band suggest as well. That, to me, is a kind of pretentiousness which isn't better than any other kind of pretentiousness.
Sov gott Rose-Marie full album playlist with bonus tracks
TG&S's attempts to vary the style are usually not very successful and further reveal their ineptitude. You have accept the 'everybody can play' premises as fundamental, and if you don't their approach doesn't work as often as I wish it would. And the thing is, I always get the feeling that TG&S's ineptude is an end in itself, as if they're being bad on purpose, which live recordings by the reincarnated band suggest as well. That, to me, is a kind of pretentiousness which isn't better than any other kind of pretentiousness.
Sov gott Rose-Marie full album playlist with bonus tracks
Live 1972 no links found
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