Sunday, August 26, 2018

PEPS PERSSON – The reggae years 1975-1982


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.

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