TOMAS LEDIN – Restless Mind (RCA Victor, 1972) / Hjärtats rytm (RCA Victor, 1973) / Knivhuggar-rock (RCA Victor, 1975)

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

Hjärtats rytm full album playlist with bonus track 

Knivhuggar-rock full album playlist