Gessles nio i topp

Last Saturday Per Gessle and Sven Lindström discussed fuzzbox songs in Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio. First of all, the guys explain what fuzzbox is. It’s a device which distorts the sound of an electric guitar or other electric instrument. This technique popped up in the ’60s. Per says he chose this topic, because he has always been thinking about why we like certain sounds in music and why we don’t like others. Fuzzbox is an important thing in Mr. G’s life. He says the first albums he bought when he was a little boy, contained a lot of distorted guitar sounds. He finds it interesting why one likes fuzzboxes and distorted sounds. Sven adds it sometimes sounds like a killer bee, bzzzz and sometimes it’s crunchier when there is an amplifier.

Sven plays a short part of Marty Robbins’ song, Don’t Worry from 1961. There is a fuzz effect in it which Per finds fantastic. Sven mentions that in 1962 Phil Spector recorded the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah with Bob B. Soxx and the technician pressed the wrong button, so it became a different distorted sound. Sven plays a bit of it and Per finds it wonderful. Mr. G says the fuzzy sound is only one of the many colors on the ’60s sound palette. One was looking for some unique sound to make the soundscape more interesting. Nowadays it’s much easier to distort the sound.

Per’s Top 9 fuzzbox songs

9.  David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
8. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze
7. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones
6. The Yardbirds – Heart Full Of Soul
5. The Beatles – Think For Yourself
4. The Animals – Don’t Bring Me Down
3. T.Rex – 20th Century Boy
2. Ola & The Janglers – Poetry In Motion
1. The Spencer Davis Group – Keep On Running

No. 9 on the list is David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream from the Ziggy Stardust album (1972). Per says here it’s more about Mick Ronson than David Bowie why he picked this song. There is a fantastic distorted tone in his guitar. On all the albums they worked together one can recognize it’s Mick Ronson playing the guitar. He most often used Gibson Les Paul. Sven mentions Moonage Daydream came out already before Ziggy Stardust, Bowie recorded it with his band Arnold Corns.

Next on the list is Purple Haze from Jimi Hendrix. The guys agree that the ’60s fuzzbox sounds were more authentic than the ’80s fuzzy sounds. The intro of this song is so cool, one couldn’t hear anything like that before. It was released as a single in spring of 1967. When in December 1966 Hendrix was in the studio in London with Chas Chandler and Chas heard the riff, he said it would be the next single. Sven asks Per why he put this song so high on his list and if he was hooked on Jimi Hendrix. Per replies he can’t say so, but he liked Jimi’s hit singles, e.g. Hey Joe or The Wind Cries Mary. One can realize what a pioneer Hendrix was. When the Woodstock film came out it was magical to watch Jimi playing the guitar. Even though he was a rock star, in 1967 Hendrix was very much pop. He was trying to make black music for white audience. There was a lot of rhythm & blues and soul in his music, but also pop.

After the song Sven asks Per if he remembers when he got hold of his first fuzzbox. Mr. G says it was the same day he bought his first guitar in 1977 or 1978. It was a Maestro Fuzz and there were 2 fuzz modes on it: 1 and 2. Mode 1 was nice and mode 2 was awesome. The problem was that it occupied a huge space in the soundscape, so one couldn’t hear anything else.

It’s The Rolling Stones turn on the list. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction from 1965 is the next song and Sven says he thinks the first time he heard a fuzzbox sound was on this one. Per says it’s a fuzzbox signature song with its immortal riff. Sven says The Rolling Stones recorded ICGNS in Hollywood on May 12 and released it on 6th June in the US. It became an instant superhit. That’s why Sven can’t understand why they waited so many weeks with the UK release on 20th August. Per thinks maybe they had another single in England. Sven says they released The Last Time in the UK before that as a single, but one must add that they also released a live EP, Got Live If You Want It! in June. So because of that their biggest hit had to wait 10 weeks to be released. As Per is reading about the song, he realizes and proudly states that Keith Richards also used a Maestro fuzzbox on ICGNS. Don’t miss Per singing at the end of the song. Haha. Sven asks Mr. G if he knows which song dethroned ICGNS on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. Per doesn’t know, so Sven tells it was I’m Henry VIII, I Am from Herman’s Hermits.

The guys play a little quiz. Sven says the song titles that were in the Top10 on Swedish Radio (Tio i topp) in August 1965 when ICGNS was No. 1 and Per has to find out the bands. Help! was No. 2 from The Beatles and No. 3 was Mr. Tambourine Man from The Byrds. No. 4 We Gotta Get out of This Place from The Animals. No. 5. I Got You Babe from Sonny & Cher. No. 6. Wooly Bully from Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. No. 7 I’m Henry VIII, I Am from Herman’s Hermits. No. 8 Bald Headed Woman from Hep Stars. No. 9 One More Time from Them (this is the only song Per couldn’t match a band with, but he realized it was Van Morrison’s group). No. 10 I’m Alive from The Hollies.

Song No. 6 on Per’s fuzz sound list is Heart Full Of Soul from The Yardbirds. Mr. G asks Sven if he likes The Yardbirds. Mr. Lindström says they are not his favourite, even if several phenomenal guitarists played in the band. Per says HFOS is the first single with Jeff Beck on guitar, but also Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page played in the band. They worked with outsider producers, e.g. Mickie Most on their singles. HFOS was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and written by Graham Gouldman who was a teenager songwriter. He was only 18-19 years old when he wrote this song and many others for English bands. He wrote e.g. Look Through Any Window, Bus Stop, For Your Love. Mr. G thinks he is a complete mystery that at such a young age he could write such songs. Sven asks Per if he had the HFOS single. Mr. G says his brother had the Shapes of Things single, nothing else from The Yardbirds. But one could listen to it on Tio i topp and record it, before Pirate Bay existed. The guys are talking a bit about producer Giorgio Gomelsky who owned the Crawdaddy Club in London where The Rolling Stones were the house band. After The Rolling Stones became so big, he hired The Yardbirds as the house band.

The next song includes a fuzz bass, Think For Yourself from The Beatles’ 1965 album, Rubber Soul. It was written by George Harrison and it was Per’s favourite song from the album when he was a child. It’s one of Sven’s favourites too, but there are many others, e.g. Drive My Car or Girl. Per mentions In My Life too. Sven tells Paul McCartney used a Rickenbacker on TFY instead of his usual Höfner violin bass, because that sounded a bit better. Per is thinking again why one likes this fuzzed sound and he says it jumps out all the time and it works like a magnet, you want to listen to it again and again. It’s a nice song, but the distorted bass sound gives it a little aggression and makes it a little rougher. Sven tells he heard in an interview with George Harrison that the fuzzbox sound was not inspired by The Rolling Stones, but he credited Phil Spector’s production of Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah by Bob B. Soxx.

Don’t Bring Me Down is next from The Animals from 1966. It was written by songwriters who worked at Brill Building in New York, Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Per thinks the guitar sound in it is damn good. Sven says it was a new sound for The Animals, a little tougher. Their producer was Mickie Most at the time, but they changed him for Tom Wilson, who also produced Bob Dylan. According to Per, Goffin and King was one of the ’60s biggest songwriter teams. Sven adds it feels like The Animals were on their way out from the R&B world towards something else. Per is hooked on the fuzz sound on DBMD.

No. 3 on the list is 20th Century Boy from T. Rex from 1973. It was recorded in Tokyo while the band was on tour. Per thinks T. Rex is the world’s strangest duo with Marc Bolan who did everything except for hand clapping and playing the conga. Mickey Finn did that. Sven says conga was a popular instrument in the ’70s. Per laughs and says it was for Osibisa and Santana. 20th Century Boy had its revival in the ’90s when it was used in a commercial.

No. 2 is a song from a Swedish band, Ola & The Janglers. Poetry In Motion was released in 1966 on the album Lime Light. Claes ”Clabbe” af Geijerstam plays fuzz guitar on it. He does an awesome job, he is a fantastic guitarist. Sven says the band wrote the soundtrack to the ’60s and back then he thought Ola & The Janglers, The Mascots and Hep Stars were as good as… maybe not The Beatles, but they were very good. Mr. G thinks Ola & The Janglers made several very good albums and Ola Håkansson had a great voice, while ”Clabbe” af Geijerstam wrote great songs and drummer Leif Johansson was one of their strengths too. Sven says the keyboard guy was also good. The guys are playing the quiz again. When Poetry In Motion was No. 1 on Tio i topp in October 1966, the other songs in the Top5 were: No. 2 Just Like A Woman from Manfred Mann, No. 3. Little Man from Sonny & Cher, No. 4 The Kids Are Alright from The Who, No. 5 All Or Nothing from Small Faces.

Keep On Running is Per’s No. 1 fuzzbox song from The Spencer Davis Group. Mr. G says it’s actually a reggae song written by Jackie Edwards. When you are listening to Edwards’ version you are wondering how the arrangement became how it is on The Spencer Davis Group’s version. Per thinks the guitar sound in it is incomparable, you want to listen to it again and again. Steve Winwood on lead guitar was only 17 when they recorded Keep On Running. Per thinks the band was awesome. They had hits like I’m a Man, Somebody Help Me (also written by Jackie Edwards), Gimme Some Lovin’.

Last Saturday Per Gessle and Sven Lindström talked about dog songs in Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio. ”Tea at 8 o’clock I took the dog for a walk in the morning. I never really liked him but let’s keep that between you and me.” Touched By The Hand Of God. Nah. It wasn’t on the list.

Per says he likes cats much more than dogs. He is a cat person. Sven is also a cat person which is probably because their neighbour’s dog in Växjö in the ’60s bit him in the leg. Since then he has a skeptical attitude towards dogs. Per tells they had a Norwegian Buhund when he was a little child. His name was Buster. When Mr. G’s mom was coming home by bus, Per put a leash on the dog and Buster was so happy he dragged Mr. G along for tens of metres until they reached Mamma Elisabeth. Per says he must have been 5-6 years old then. He still likes dogs anyway.

Per’s Top 9 songs about dogs

9. David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
8. The Everly Brothers – Bird Dog
7. Led Zeppelin – Black Dog
6. Tom T. Hall – (Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine
5. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Dogs on the Run
4. The Who – Dogs
3. Elvis Presley – Hound Dog
2. Neil Young – Old King
1. The Beatles – Martha My Dear

The first song the guys are talking about is David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs. Sven is surprised, because he thought this would be on top of Per’s list. Mr. G says Diamond Dogs is an eminent album from 1974. He already loved it when it was released and still does. It is related to George Orwell’s novel, 1984 and the science fiction touch is there all over. It’s David Bowie himself who plays the guitar on the whole album and the influence of The Rolling Stones can be heard. Previously, it was Mick Ronson who played the guitar and he was one of the world’s best guitarists. He had his own style. One could hear it when e.g. Rebel Rebel was played live, it never sounded like on the album, because it was Bowie who played it on the album. The riff in Diamond Dogs sounds a bit like Keith Richards, Sven says. Per adds that the saxophone sound fits the guitar amazingly well in the song. Sven mentions the single flopped and Mr. G says maybe because it was 6 minutes long. The lead single from the album was Rebel Rebel, but according to Mr. G, there are no real singles on this album. It’s not that type of an album. There was more single material on Aladdin Sane. Diamond Dogs is more like an epic.

Next on the list is Bird Dog from The Everly Brothers from 1958. Per first heard this song in the interpretation of Hep Stars. It was written by Boudleaux Bryant. He wrote a lot of songs for The Everly Brothers and for many others. Bryant was often writing together with his wife, Felice. Their better known songs are Love Hurts, All I Have to Do Is Dream, Wake Up Little Susie, Bye Bye Love. All phenomenal songs. Per says he met their son, Del Bryant. He was the leader of BMI, the largest music rights organization in the United States. Del visited Per in his apartment in Stockholm, he handed out awards for their success on American radio. He is a very nice person, still lives in Nashville and talks a lot about his parents. Sven says one gets starstruck by meeting a legend. Per jokes and says it’s cool he knows someone whom Sven doesn’t know in person. Regarding Bird Dog, Sven says it was released only a few days after it had been recorded and a couple of days later it already entered the US Billboard and very soon became No. 2. It succeeded fast. Per says releasing a song so fast after recording it is not unique. John Lennon’s Instant Karma is another example of that. Mr. G thinks Bird Dog is shockingly good.

The guys are talking about nostalgy and Per says the older you get you realize that you heard tens of thousands of songs and you like maybe 2-3-5,000 of them. When you like 5,000 songs, it’s hard to take in new music. Sven says there are some artists who don’t sound like anyone else and they are hard to be copied. The Everly Brothers were like that. Many tried to sound like them though.

Mr. G asks Sven about his dog-related bravados. Sven says the closest he got to a dog-related bravado was buying an album in 1971 where the first song was about a black dog. It was Led Zeppelin’s fourth album and Black Dog was the first track on it. The title refers to the black labrador that was wandering around outside the studio while Led Zeppelin were recording their album. It was their most successful record. Jimmy Page once read in a magazine that Led Zeppelin was compared to Black Sabbath and he hated Black Sabbath. He thought they sounded ridiculous and played primitively, while Page was an equilibrist on his instrument. Many thought it was Jimmy Page who wrote the riff to Black Dog, but it was John Paul Jones, bassist in Led Zeppelin. It was inspired by an old blues riff, as Per heard, but according to Sven, it was inspired by Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud album, which is more acid jazz than blues. The guys agree that it’s something one had not heard before and they haven’t heard anything similar since then either. The riff is fantastic and so are Robert Plant’s voice and John Bonham’s playing the drums. It’s one of rock history’s coolest recordings of all time. Black Dog wasn’t released as a single in the UK, but they released it in the US with Misty Mountain Hop as a B-side.

The next song is (Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine from Tom T. Hall. Per says there was a quite controversial Swedish version of it, Hundar, ungar och hembryggt äppelvin by Alf Robertsson. Sven says it’s rather a black hole for him. Mr. G says he always liked Tom T. Hall’s songs, e.g. Harper Valley PTA, which was a big hit when Per was a child. He also always loved That’s How I Got to Memphis. There are many versions of it, one by Solomon Burke for example. Per asks Sven if he has any relations to Tom T. Hall. Sven replies that Tom for him sounds very similar to one his old favourites, Roger Miller who made country songs, but with a little pop feeling. Mr. G says the storytelling style that was present in those times’ country music is fantastic. Sven asks Per if he knows what the ”T.” stands for in Tom’s name. Per jokes and says ”Tax” [Swedish name of Dachshund /PP]. Sven says the T was just added to make the name look better. Per jokes further that it could have stood for Teddy. Sven asks Per if he knows who made a Swedish cover of Harper Valley PTA. Mr. G thought it was Siw Malmkvist, but it was Björn Ulvaeus and the song’s title was Fröken Fredriksson. The Swedish lyrics were written by Stikkan Andersson.

Song No. 5 is Dogs on the Run from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Per asks Sven if he has any relations to this song. Sven replies he does, but it’s not really positive. Mr. Lindström says the album on which it was relased, Southern Accents was a concept album, but he doesn’t know what the concept was. Sven thinks Tom Petty should have renamed the album to Southern Accidents. Per agrees that this one is Tom Petty’s weakest, but there is e.g. Don’t Come Around Here No More on it. Tom wrote it together with Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. Sven thinks that’s the only good song on Southern Accents. Per disagrees. He also likes The Best of Everything, co-produced by Robbie Robertson. Mr. G also likes the title track, Southern Accents. He thinks it’s one of Petty’s finest songs. Mr. G says Tom Petty was magical at the end of the ’70s and in the beginning of the ’80s with albums like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Long After Dark. Then came some boring years. Then he came back with albums produced by Jeff Lynne. Full Moon Fever and Into the Great Wide Open. Per thinks Petty needed some new collaborators to satisfy his recreational drug habit. The guys agree that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is one of the world’s best rock bands.

No. 4 on the list is a song from 1968, Dogs from The Who. Per didn’t have it as a single, but always loved it. It was also released on an early compilation album of The Who. Mr. G thinks it’s a strange song, it’s not a hit in any way. It’s like the result of a weird mid period between all the big The Who hits and Tommy. Dogs has a wonderful melody. It is about greyhound dogs and people are talking in cockney accent in it. Sven thinks it might have been inspired by Lazy Sunday from Small Faces. Singles by The Who released before were Pictures of Lily and I Can See for Miles. Phenomenal, classic The Who singles. Then nothing and then comes Dogs. Per thinks it’s brilliant. Mr. G also listens a lot to Join Together and The Seeker.

No. 3 is Hound Dog from Elvis Presley from 1956. Per thinks they add Elvis Presley rarely to their top9 lists. According to Mr. G, Elvis was a great singer and Sven says one can understand why his songs exploded in the ’50s. Hound Dog was recorded originally by Big Mama Thornton 4 years before Presley’s version came out. They sound very different to each other. Elvis’ version was a bomb on the radio, one can understand it. Sven tells that in 1956 Elvis was a flop in Las Vegas. A band called Freddie Bell and the Bellboys did a version of Hound Dog with somewhat changed lyrics and that became Elvis’ version later. Per says they should watch an Elvis movie in the evening. Then some dog movies. Sven says maybe they could combine it. Elvis did like 600 movies in Hollywood, are there any dog movies among them? Per laughs and says Lassie. Haha.

No. 2 on the list is Old King by Neil Young. Per says the song has a nice melody about Neil’s dog called King. It’s on the 1992 album, Harvest Moon. It’s kind of a spiritual follow-up to Harvest (1972). Harvest Moon is fantastic from A to Z. Sven also thinks Neil Young is awesome. One of his absolute favourites is Long May You Run from him. He always comes back. Per says it feels like Neil Young has so many things that when he opens a box that he forgot to open in 15 years, suddenly a song pops out which he wrote 15 years ago and was absolutely amazing already then. Per and Sven are wondering what kind of dog Old King could have been. Maybe a labrador. Mr. G asks Sven if he could imagine Neil Young with a poodle or a Dachshund. Sven adds Chihuahua. Haha. Sven mentions there is a photo taken by Henry Diltz where Neil Young appears with a dog and it’s definitely not a Chihuahua. Per adds he knows the picture where Neil is inviting the dog for a joint, which is not politically correct.

No. 1 is Martha My Dear by The Beatles. Martha was Paul’s dog and the song is about her, Per says. Sven asks if he is sure about it, because there were speculations that the song might be about Jane Asher [Paul’s former girlfriend]. Per says he is 100% sure it’s about the dog. Sven adds that’s what Paul says too. According to Mr. G, it’s a typical dog song. It was one of the last songs to be recorded for the White Album in 1968. According to Per, it’s an absolutely fantastic composition, only Paul McCartney can write such music. Sven thinks it’s a complex and tricky song. Mr. G thinks it’s kind of music hall music and no one else in The Beatles wrote this type of pop music. It’s a typical McCartney song, like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. The guys agree that the White Album is The Beatles’ best album ever. It’s not an album of singles. John’s songs don’t sound like Paul’s and George Harrison blossomed as a songwriter on this one with While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Sven shares a trivia at the end of the program. Martha was born in 1966 and passed away in 1981. She was a sheepdog. One of Martha’s offspring, Arrow, appeared on the cover of one of Paul’s live albums.

Last Saturday Per Gessle picked nine songs again in Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio. This time it was all about cars. Per thinks cars are a basic topic in pop and rock history and you can find tons of songs about cars. He states at the beginning that he didn’t include Sleeping In My Car in the list, just like he didn’t include Fading Like A Flower in the flower songs list. Sven adds that car songs reflected a time before climate anxiety. They were always connected with pleasure, freedom and youth. Sven asks Per if there is any Bruce Springsteen song on the list. Per answers he could have come up with Pink Cadillac, Born To Run, but they are not on the list.

Per’s Top 9 songs about cars

9. Deep Purple – Highway Star
8. Canned Heat – On The Road Again
7. The Cars – Drive
6. Iggy Pop – The Passanger
5. Gary Numan – Cars
4. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Roadrunner
3. Wilson Pickett – Mustang Sally
2. The Beatles – Drive My Car – Remastered
1. Billy Ocean – Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car

The ninth on the list is Highway Star from Deep Purple. Per thinks it’s an awesome song, terrifically good music and he loved it when he was a teenager. It’s on Deep Purple’s Machine Head album, but Mr. G heard it on the band’s live record, Made in Japan. No one Per knew was listening to the drum solo in The Mule. Smoke on the Water, Highway Star and Child in Time were fab songs on it. Sven says ’70s hard rock doesn’t get any better than that. Sven adds the guys wrote Highway Star because they wanted to have a new opening song on tour in autumn 1971. Before that, they always opened with Speed King. They wrote HS on a tour bus while on their way to a gig and actually played it on that gig for the first time. They were effective. Per recommends the song ”if you haven’t heard it before, you’re in for a treat”. After they play HS, Sven says Per has just finished his air guitar playing. Mr. G says it’s so hard to resist.

The next song is On The Road Again from Canned Heat. Per says his brother had this album, Boogie with Canned Heat and this song was outstanding on it. Mr. G always loved Alan Wilson’s falsetto vocals. Bob ”The Bear” Hite was the other singer in the band. Sven says Alan was collecting old blues records and tells the story that Son House, American blues singer and guitarist was rediscovered in the ’60s. House had forgotten his songs due to his long absence from music and it was Wilson who showed him how to play again the songs House had recorded before. Alan Wilson was a real blues nerd. Per says the band members died at a very early age, however, the band still exists, there is one living original member. Sven adds Alan died at the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix died 2 weeks later at the age of 27, then 2 weeks later Janis Joplin also died at the age of 27. Per says it’s scary.

After the song, Sven and Per are talking about falsetto singing. It’s fun to hear Mr. G’s falsetto voice saying ”I don’t know” in Swedish at 12:25. Haha. Per says he sings falsetto quite often, e.g. on Come On from Son of a Plumber. Sven says it’s one of his favourites. Sakta mina steg is another one. Here Per mentions Marie Fredriksson’s vocal capacity that was similar to Joni Mitchell’s.

Seventh song on the list is Drive from The Cars’ Heartbeat City album. The production was new, it sounded really special in 1984. The producer was Robert John ”Mutt” Lange who is still great. He also produced Def Leppard and the early Bryan Adams albums, AC/DC and Rock n’ Roll Love Letter from The Records. The Cars was a guitar-oriented pop band in the beginning, but here they used a new sound. There was synthesizer and they used programmed drums that sounded better. It felt more digital. The Cars sold millions of their debut album, but Drive was kind of a turbo fro them. Per says it was in the early years of MTV and The Cars shot cool videos. They became an MTV band. Heartbeat City was their greatest album and Per thinks it’s still an awesome record. Sven remembers that in spring of 1984, when the album was released, he wrote hastily about it. Then when he was on his way home from Malmö to Lund on a Friday evening and Drive came on the radio, he didn’t recognize it and thought that was the best he had heard. Then he realized it was from that album. Per says Drive is written by Ric Ocasek who was lead vocalist in The Cars, but this song was sung by bassist Benjamin Orr. He sings phenomenally. Per says Ric has a very special voice and that doesn’t really fit this song, so he understands why it wasn’t him singing it. The guys say it wasn’t No. 1 in the US, but peaked at a high position. Sven adds it was Paulina Porizkova in the music video to Drive, who later became Ric Ocasek’s wife. She was Czechoslovakian, but lived in Lund from the age of 10 and as a model she left for Paris and New York. Per says it’s such a romantic story, it’s so warm he has to take off his sweater. Sven laughs and asks Per to keep it on.

Song number six is The Passanger from Iggy Pop. The guys are laughing again saying apropos romantic, there is this guy who never wears a sweater. Per says it’s maybe not a car song, but a vehicle song. He thinks the riff in it is so ridiculously simple, it’s brilliant. It was a B side song on the single Success. Per says if you check Iggy Pop on Spotify, you can see that his most popular song is The Passanger. Iggy has a kind of roughness in everything he does. When he sings lalalala is also a bit dangerous, but one must like it. The song is from Iggy’s Lust for Life album that came after The Idiot, which had a little arty sleeve where Iggy was standing in the rain. Lust for Life also has Iggy on the cover, with a huge smile, however, Sven says one can never see Iggy Pop laughing. Per adds the album was recorded in Berlin together with David Bowie. Mr. G says it was a productive year for both of them. Bowie released 2 albums, Low and ”Heroes” and Iggy released The Idiot and Lust for Life.

The fifth song is Cars from Gary Numan and Per thinks it’s still an awesome song. Gary is from Tubeway Army, a band Per was listening to a lot. When the song Cars came out, it was innovative pop music. The riff sounds exciting. Sven says it’s 1.5 minutes singing and then 2.5 minutes synth festival. What differentiates it from other songs is that the other songs were programmed, while there is live drums and live bass on Cars. Per says the song is from 1979 when they were young. Sven says Per is still young. Mr. G reacts ”like Benjamin Button” and they laugh.

Sven says he has the feeling that the next song was written and recorded at the same time. It’s Roadrunner from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. There are a lot of versions of this song from different years with different producers. The first version was recorded in 1972 and produced by John Cale. Many say that it’s the first new wave single in a way. It sounds a bit like it was inspired by the Velvet Underground.  Jonathan comes from Boston and he also played in the movie There’s Something About Mary. There was a version of the song produced by Matthew King Kaufman for Beserkley Records. Starting Stiff Records was inspired by Beserkley Records, Sven mentions based on Nick Lowe’s biography.

Song number three is Mustang Sally from Wilson Pickett, released in 1966. The original title was Mustang Mama, but songwriter Mack Rice changed it after Aretha Franklin suggested Mustang Sally because of ”ride, Sally, ride” in the chorus. The song was recorded in the famous FAME Studio. Sven tells the story that Rice knew a singer who wanted to give a Lincoln as a thank you gift for one of her band members, but at the time everyone wanted a Mustang. Rice got inspiration from this story and wrote the song. According to Per, Wilson Pickett made the best version of it. Sven comes up with The Commitments, a movie about an Irish band. There this band also plays Mustang Sally.

Drive My Car from The Beatles, released in 1965 is No. 2 on the list. It was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They sing this song wonderfully together, however, Paul is dominating. DMC wasn’t a single, it was released on Rubber Soul as a fantastic opening song. Sven thinks ”beep beep yeah” in the lyrics is 100% pop. Per likes it too. The text refers to dirty things like in old blues songs. In the ’60s, ”drive my car” referred to intimate relations. Per thinks this one is one of the coolest songs in the world.

Before Per announces which song is No. 1, he mentions a few other car songs. Then it turns out that on top of his list is Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car from Billy Ocean. This is the second song on the list produced by ”Mutt” Lange who is also the songwriter of it. It was before he met Shania Twain. Per likes Billy Ocean’s songs, e.g. Carribean Queen which is a cozy pop song. Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car is very much of an ’80s hit. Sven says one was kind of bombarded by this song and he always tried to avoid it. It came out in spring of 1988. Sven tells when he was collecting info about Per for his book, he found out Mr G. bought a synth in spring of 1988 and wrote The Look on it. It was inspired by ZZ Top. Per says there was a lot of synthesizer music back then, dance music of the time. If you are listening to it today, it’s quite radical. Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car went to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot100. And one year later, Marie and Per were No. 1 with The Look. Per says he didn’t think about it when he bought that synthesizer. Mr. G says he liked the ’80s style. After they play GOMDGIMC, regarding the No. 1 song choice Sven says Per is the man of constant surprises.

Last Saturday, after the midsummer session in the afternoon, there came a new episode of Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio and this time Per Gessle put together a bouquet of the most colorful songs about flowers.

Per’s Top 9 songs about flowers

9. The Move – Flowers In The Rain
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Feat. Kylie Minogue – Where the Wild Roses Grow
7. The Damned – New Rose
6. Geraint Watkins – Only A Rose
5. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Magnolia
4. Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
3. The Rolling Stones – Dead Flowers
2. George Jones – A Good Year For The Roses
1. Nick Lowe – The Rose of England

The ninth song on the list is from 1967, when Per was 8 and ran around and sold magazines to earn money for being able to buy singles. Mr. G says it was a fantastic year in pop music history. Sven tells that year was all about sun, love and flowers. Per says one can have flowers in the rain too. Sven adds especially if someone lives in England. Per picks Flowers In The Rain from The Move. Roy Wood was the songwriter in this fantastic band. Later he formed Electric Light Orchestra together with Jeff Lynne. Sven asks Per if he bought any The Move singles. He replies that his brother bought ”I Can Hear The Grass Grow” and that was their single before ”Flowers In The Rain”. The latter one Per heard on the radio and recorded it on tape from there. Sven mentions that Scott McKenzie’s ”San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)” was also a candidate for this flower list, but The Move kicked them out. ”Flowers In The Rain” was produced by Denny Cordell who also produced Tom Petty’s first album and Tony Visconti, David Bowie’s producer was the assistant producer of the song. Sven and Per discovered that all royalties from the sale of the record went to the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson’s charity foundation after The Move promoted their single with some kind of postcard on which there was a caricature of the naked Prime Minister and his naked secretary. Today it’s still that foundation that gets the royalty money. Per thinks The Move sound typical of their time and Roy Wood was fantastic. Fun fact is that this song was the first record to be played on BBC Radio 1 when the station was launched.

Sven tells now there is a murder song. Per picked Where The Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Feat. Kylie Minogue. Mr. G says it’s still Nick Cave’s biggest hit. It was inspired by an old folk song, ”Down In The Willow Garden”, a murder ballad. The song has an awesome video that was inspired by a murder painting from the 1800s. The song was all over the place in the ’90s. Sven and Per say they were never much into Nick Cave’s stuff, but Per tells he saw a documentary about him and he thinks he is a very special artist. Sven gave it a try and listened to the album, ”Murder Ballads”. He says the first song is more than 6 minutes long and it’s quite a dark one, however, the title of it is ”Song Of Joy”. Per thinks ”Where The Wild Roses Grow” is really catchy and kind of a commercial pop song, but there aren’t any other songs like this in Nick Cave’s catalogue. Sven warns Per he will get some protest letters from Nick’s fans. Sven tells Nick sent a real monotonous demo of the song and when Kylie’s manager heard it, he wasn’t impressed, but Kylie thought it was damn good. It was very different vs. anything she had done before in her career.

The next song is from 1976, the punk and new wave era. Per’s choice is New Rose from The Damned. Per was buying only singles and the only LP he bought was The Damned’s first album, produced by Nick Lowe who worked together with a lot of Stiff Records artists. Sven remembers that Stiff Records’ first single was Nick Lowe’s solo debut single, ”So It Goes”. He also says that Stiff Records had some great images with slogans, e.g. ”Electrically recorded”. Before the guys play ”New Rose”, they mention that the intro, ”Is she really going out with him?” is a parody of a Shangri-Las song ”Leader Of The Pack”.

After ”New Rose”, Sven and Per talks about how this album [Damned Damned Damned] affected Gyllene Tider. Per says everyone in the band liked the album cover very much, with the guys with cream on their faces. They were checking all Stiff Records and F-Beat Records albums. That was a nice time to start a band. You didn’t necessarily had to be good, it was OK if you sounded bad. It was enough if everyone could play the same song at the same time in a band. Haha. Per wishes everyone could experience playing in a band. It’s very different to sitting in front of the computer. Playing instruments together is just awesome.

The next song is Only A Rose from Geraint Watkins. Per says he had this one on his playlist since long. He doesn’t know anything about the artist, but he loves the song. If you google Geraint Watkins it turns out that he is from Wales and he worked together with Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler and Paul McCartney among others. He plays the piano and the accordion and he is singing wonderfully. Per thinks ”Only A Rose” is a masterpiece from 2004. One can never get tired of it. Sven says even Nick Lowe loves Geraint Watkins and his name pops up on other artists’ albums. Sven never heard this song before, but he thinks it’s a nice one.

Per picked Magnolia from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as the next song. He says it’s from Tom Petty’s probably least successful album, ”You’re Gonna Get It!” (1978). Per mentions the album is less than 30 minutes long. Sven says the Ramones’ first album was 29 minutes long and Per tells The Hives’ first album was also under 30 minutes. Mr. G thinks there are many good songs on ”You’re Gonna Get It!”, one can feel the creativity on the album. The last track on it is ”Baby’s A Rock ‘n’ Roller”, which is one of Per’s favourite Tom Petty songs. But it’s not about flowers, so he had to pick another one for this list. Sven jokes and asks if ”I Need To Know” from the same album isn’t about flowers. Per laughs and says they did a cover of that song with Gyllene Tider (”Vill ha ett svar”). Per talks about a YouTube video where Tom mentions that the strangest cover of any of his songs is a Swedish cover of ”I Need To Know”. The guys start talking about ”Magnolia” and Per says Tom was an adorable singer. As a Swede, when you are listening to the old classic albums of The Rolling Stones or Tom Petty, you don’t really hear what they are singing, but there is a kind of expression in their voices. Mick Jagger has it too. And Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin. Tom Petty was a big fan of Roger McGuinn from The Byrds. He originally wrote ”Magnolia” for Roger, but he didn’t record it, so that’s how it ended up on Tom Petty’s album instead. Sven tells it was the same with ”Keeping Me Alive”. Tom Petty wrote it for the Everly Brothers, but they didn’t like it. The Williams Brothers released it first, but then it also ended up on a Tom Petty album. Per says them guys in Gyllene Tider loved Tom Petty and in 1978 when MP and Per started writing songs, this album, ”You’re Gonna Get It!” was really important.

The next song choice is Cherry Blossom Girl from Air, which is a French duo and they broke through in the end of the ’90s with their ”Moon Safari” album. There was a big hit on it, ”Sexy Boy”. Then they did a soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s ”The Virgin Suicides”. ”Cherry Blossom Girl” is from their 2004 ”Talkie Walkie” album and it’s an airy, dreamy, hypnotic song.

Dead Flowers from The Rolling Stones is next. Sven says it’s a bit morbid from Per, first Nick Cave’s murder ballad, now dead flowers. Per says flowers can be happy and sad too. Mr. G thinks the best Rolling Stones album is ”Sticky Fingers” from 1971. There are a lot of good songs on it and the album sleeve is cool too. Per says many like ”Exile on Main St.” (1972) more, but he never understood that. Sven thinks there are many super cool songs on ”Exile on Main St.”, but he also thinks ”Sticky Fingers” is a more effective album. Per says if you didn’t listen to the ’60s-’70s albums when they came out, it’s more difficult to enter that world now. He had all the big albums except for ”Exile on Main St.” and he listened to it as an adult and it was difficult to find its place and like it. Sven says there was a band called Love and everyone liked them which he couldn’t understand. Per says he never liked them, but it’s the same with their albums, he didn’t listen to them when they were released, just later. Sven comes up with the idea that maybe in the future they could do an episode of Top9 love songs, then Per jokes that there could also be an episode with Top9 artists they don’t have a relation to. Back to ”Dead Flowers”, Sven tells it’s a country rock song. Per adds that there is a country touch that goes through the whole album. After they play the song, Sven mentions that Townes Van Zandt made a fantastic cover of it and that version was used in the film ”The Big Lebowski”. The movie is both Sven and Per’s favourite. Per thinks it’s a milestone in film history. Sven tells the story that Allen Klein, the Rolling Stones’ former manager owned the rights to the song and asked 150,000 USD for it to be used in the movie. Producer T-Bone Burnett invited Klein to watch an early cut of the film. There is a part where the Dude is sitting in a taxi and the radio plays ”Peaceful Easy Feeling” from the Eagles. The Dude asks the driver to change the channel which he refuses to do and the Dude says ”I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man”. Klein thought that was beautiful and gave the song for free in the end.

One of the absolute best songs Per knows is at No. 2 on the list. It’s A Good Year For The Roses from George Jones. Per realizes there are a lot of rose songs. Mr. G says no one sings about dandelions [maskros in Swedish], however, he has tussilago [coltsfoot] in ”Småstadsprat”. Sven says tulips are not song-friendly and Per agrees. He says there is a romantic touch with roses. Both in positive and negative sense. Per mentions the song ”Pictures Of Lily” [from The Who], however, it’s not about lillies. They laugh. Back to ”A Good Year For The Roses”, the guys say it’s a song that can make a grown man cry. Per says Elvis Costello did a cover of it, but the original version by George Jones is fantastic. The song was written by Jerry Chesnut.

No. 1 on the flower songs list is Nick Lowe’s The Rose of England. Per says Nick Lowe is Nick Lowe and thinks it’s a magnificent song, one of Nick’s best. Sven says it’s from Nick Lowe’s forgotten period. According to Per, his album in the mid ’80s was boring. His band Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit didn’t really work out. Sven adds Nick left the new wave and he was on the way towards his old man period. Per thinks ”Shelley My Love” from the ’90s is a fantastic song, but also ”The Rose of England” is real Nick Lowe pop for Mr. G. ”American Squirm” is also wonderful English pop. When Per listened to ”The Rose of England” the other day he thought it’s like his style in songwriting. It’s so good. They start laughing and Per explains he recognizes his songwriting style in there. The many chord changes in the verses and that everything is built on the fantastic melody. It’s classic Nick Lowe pop. Like ”Heart Of The City” or ”Cracking Up”. According to Sven there is an obviousness, similar to Paul McCartney. Kind of a trade mark. Per thinks the same and he says when you hear these songs you think shit, you already heard that one. They play ”The Rose of England” from 1985 then as the last song in this episode.

The fourth season of Gessles nio i topp kicked off with a midsummer special including the best songs about sun and rain. Per and Sven of course didn’t know whether it will be sunny or raining today in Sweden when they recorded this midsummer episode, so they decided to include sunny and rainy songs as well. Per explains it can’t be fifty-fifty, because they have 9 songs on each list. Sven laughs and says Maths was not his strongest subject at school and asks Per what his favourite subject was. Mr. G says it was drawing and Swedish, but then in the first year at high school he surprised himself with being good at Maths.

Per’s Top 9 sun & rain songs

9. Gerry & The Pacemakers – Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying
8. The Lovin’ Spoonful – Rain On The Roof
7. Sheryl Crow – Soak Up The Sun
6. Tages – Every Raindrop Means A Lot
5. The Beatles – Sun King
4. Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains
3. Traffic – Paper Sun
2. Tony Joe White – Rainy Night In Georgia
1. The 5 th Dimension – Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In

Per thinks Gerry & The Pacemakers are damn good and they had the same manager as The Beatles had, namely, Brian Epstein. Gerry Marsden, the singer in the group was also a songwriter and in the pop world it wasn’t very common back then that a band wrote their own songs. John and Paul did of course. Per thinks maybe Brian Epstein encouraged his bands to write their own songs. Sven says Gerry & The Pacemakers stayed in The Beatles’ huge shadow, however, they had some real hits. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying is one of them from 1964. It peaked at No. 4 in the US. According to Per, it’s an awesome, heartfelt song.

Mr. G thinks it’s easier to come up with rain songs, he doesn’t really know why. He thinks it’s hard to come up with real beautiful songs about the sun and sunshine. It can be because the best pop music is a bit melancholic. It’s harder to write happy songs than sad songs.

The Lovin’ Spoonful is a lovely band from the 60’s and they were big in Sweden. Per always liked their song, Rain On The Roof from 1966. Mr. G thinks it has a very beautiful melody and is a typical John Sebastian composition. Sven says it’s from their ”Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful” album and asks Per if he has this record. Per replies he doesn’t have it, but his brother had their ”Do You Believe in Magic” album. Sven highlights a couple of songs from the HOTLS album, ”Summer in the City”, ”Nashville Cats” and when he mentions ”Darlin’ Companion”, Per starts singing it. Mr. G tells a story when he and Anders Herrlin were in Los Angeles in autumn of 1981 and they ended up at an Improv stand-up comedy event where John Sebastian also played an acoustic set that night. His brother, Mark Sebastian was also in John’s band. They wrote ”Summer in the City” together, so Per was a bit starstruck by meeting Mark as well. The guys told they go to New York after Los Angeles and Mr. Sebastian invited them to visit him in Woodstock. Per tells they of course couldn’t say no to that and travelled to Woodstock and actually, lived at the Sebastian family for a couple of days. Per says it was very nice. John didn’t drink alcohol at all, but he was smoking a lot of grass. Haha. Per tells John has always been a sympathetic guy. His wife is a photographer, called Catherine. Sven says in John’s songs there is warmth and Per says John is coming from a jugband and folk music tradition, so his songs are very much melody-based.

After the song Per states 1966 was a great pop year. Sven asks what he thinks about 2002 then. Mr. G starts thinking what he was doing in that year. They already finished their Room Service tour and recorded songs for their ”Pop Hits” and ”Ballad Hits” compilations. Sven says Sheryl Crow’s Soak Up The Sun, the 7th on Per’s midsummer list is from that year too. Mr. G says he picked this song because you can’t really hear it anymore. He likes Sheryl and thinks she has a nice voice. The guys agree on the fact that she is very talented, she can sing phenomenally and even plays the bass, she is cool on stage and she is a bit of rock, pop and country, but somehow she hasn’t become a high profile artist.

The next song is the only one on the list by a Swedish band, Tages. If Per has to think of the Swedish music scene in the 60’s, there is this band that is better than the others. They were from Gothenburg. Per has 2 favourite songs from them, ”Fantasy Island” and Every Raindrop Means A Lot. The latter one is from 1967 and Per had it as a single. Tommy Blom sings the verses and Göran Lagerberg sings the choruses on it. It’s a little Beatles-inspired song. In 1964 the band won a pop contest, Västkustens Beatles, as Sven informs. Their producer was Anders “Henkan” Henriksson who was very good and ahead of his time, Per thinks. Their first single was ”Sleep Little Girl” in 1964. Sven tells the second week it was on the charts it beat a Beatles single in autumn 1964. Sven asks Per which Beatles single he thinks it was. Mr. G’s first guess is ”A Hard Day’s Night”. Sven says it’s very close, but it wasn’t that, so Per says ”I Should Have Known Better”. Bingo. Per says he was only 5 then, so Sven says it’s forgivable that he didn’t know it at first. Haha.

The next song could have been ”Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles, which is the band’s most played song on Spotify, but since they haven’t played Sun King on this program yet, Per picked that one after Sven’s propaganda for this song. Both songs are on the same album, ”Abbey Road”. Per says he always thought the best in ”Sun King” was that ”Mean Mr. Mustard” came after it on the album. Haha. Sven thinks it’s John Lennon’s most fuzzy and dreamy and slowest song. You can also learn a little Spanish, Italian or Portuguese when listening to it. Paul knew a few Spanish words from school and they just inserted them, as well as paparazzi and obrigado.

The guys jump to the 90’s then and Per picks Only Happy When It Rains from Garbage. He thinks Garbage’s first album was awesome. ”Stupid Girl” from that record was also damn good. Butch Vig, drummer in Garbage was also co-producer of the band and he also produced Nirvana’s ”Nevermind” album. Per says he liked Nirvana’s singles, because they were very good pop songs, but he also thinks grunge is cool. Per likes Divinyls, an Australian rock band and compares Garbage to them. They have strong women as front figure singers in both bands. They are a bit like Blondie with Debbie Harry. Per thinks the lyrics of ”Only Happy When It Rains” are a bit depressive, but Sven thinks it’s a bit like a parody of depressive grunge songs’ lyrics. It was released in 1995 and Sven asks Per what he was doing that year. Mr. G says they released their compilation album, ”Don’t Bore Us – Get To The Chorus!” and they also went to Abbey Road Studios and recorded some songs with Roxette. A day before that they played a promo gig at Shepherd’s Bush in London for the compilation album. There was also a little Gyllene Tider comeback that year, a gig at Stora Torg in Halmstad.

The next song on the list is Traffic’s Paper Sun, the debut single of the band. Per says he liked Traffic’s singles. ”Paper Sun” flopped in Sweden, but Mr. G had the single at home anyway. Their next single, ”Hole In My Shoe” was a hit though. Steve Winwood left The Spencer Davis Group in April 1967 and formed Traffic together with Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi and released their first single in May 1967. Per likes the guitar hook in ”Paper Sun”.

Tony Joe White’s Rainy Night In Georgia is next. Sven says Tony Joe started writing his own songs in the middle of the 60’s after he heard ”Ode To Billie Joe” and recognized himself in the lyrics. He then decided to write a song that he can relate to and that became ”Polk Salad Annie”. ”Rainy Night In Georgia” was covered by many artists, Ray Charles among them, but the first hit version was made by Brook Benton in 1970. It’s a blues, soul, rock hybrid. It’s the No. 1 song in rain category, Per says.

Sven mentions Per wrote some rain songs too and asks which are Mr. G’s Top3 favourite rain songs he himself wrote. Per replies it’s ”The Rain” from ”Tourism”, ”Smakar på ett regn” from ”Mazarin” and then Sven suggests ”Queen of Rain” also from ”Tourism”. Per laughs and says he likes his own songs if he can say so. Sven notes Mr. G wrote more songs about rain than about sun. Per confirms and says it’s easier to write about rain than sun.

As No. 1 on the midsummer list, Per picked the medley of The 5 th Dimension, Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In from Hair, the musical. This medley is middle of the road pop with a little soul in it and even if The 5 th Dimension was quite big, they were still an anonymous band. The medley is damn good.