GIN & GRAPPO – Gin & Grappo (CBS, 1975)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Featured on ”Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils Volume 4,” 1974 single 'A' side ”Förståelse” is Gin & Grappo's best known song. It's a catchy little track, taking cues from The Rolling Stones classic ”Sympathy for the Devil”. Gin & Grappo released two more singles plus two full length albums, the first one being self released in 1973.

For their second LP, they scored a deal with CBS, confusingly enough eponymous just like their debut. The 1975 albu features eleven tracks, nine of them written by Janne Goldman (the Gin half of the duo, with Bo Johansson being Grappo), with a couple of lyrics penned by Anders Klintevall, at the time host for Swedish radio show Tonkraft. The songs are half decent, not particularly good, not particularly bad but not particularly exciting either. Most of them are in a 'soft-rock with an edge' mould with a couple of them displaying a slight country tinge thanks to steel guitarist Jan Lindgren. The performances are competent utilizing the talents of well-known studio musicians and seasoned performers such as skilled piano player Per-Erik Hallin (the Swedish Christian Elton John of the 70's), percussionist Malando Gassama and back-up singer Agneta Gilstig whose main claim to fame is releasing an album with Vatten's Thomas Ernvik in 1980. The best track is probably album closer ”Så många människor” (ironically one of the two non-Goldmann compositions).

Goldmann later embarked on a solo career releasing a couple of albums and several 45's, occassionally with his backing band Rock Und Roll Gruppe. Bo Johansson appeared on a couple of Goldman albums and wrote ”Christine” for Swedish Traveling Wilburys styled supergroup Grymlings (featuring among others Pugh Rogefeldt, Mats Ronander and Göran Lagerberg formerly of Tages, Kebnekajse et al).

Full album playlist