The latest episode of Nordic Rox on Sirius XM was broadcast on 13th February. Per Gessle and Sven Lindström recorded it in a very sunny Stockholm and start the show with discussing Christmas. PG asks Sven if he had a great Xmas and Sven says he absolutely had, apart from the minor detail that he had corona for the second time. Sven asks Mr. G if he managed to get away a bit. Per says he did, but it’s still crazy, this corona thing just gets on your nerves. Sven tells Per had to postpone his tour. PG confirms they had to for regulation reasons, but they will hopefully continue in April. The guys say there is new regulation every minute, that’s the way it is, but Nordic Rox continues.
Sven tells that in the upcoming shows they will focus on musical profiles that have made a mark in Swedish music history. One of those artists is Pugh Rogefeldt. Per says it’s an impossible name to pronounce in English, but for Per’s generation he is one of the or even THE most influential artist of all time. In the 60’s he was the first one to make pop and rock music in Swedish language, which was unheard of at the time. Most bands were doing Beatles or Stones imitations, but he went his own way from day one. He is an amazing songwriter as well. He even invented his own language, Pughish. He was a big inspiration, Per adds. Mr. G thinks Pugh’s first 6 albums are really influential. Sven says they are going to focus on his early years later on the show.
Here they play Lykke Li’s Get Some. Son Of Cathy’s Clown from 1981 comes next by Basse Wickman who is one of Per’s favourites and label mates on Parlophone. Per plays that song a lot and still loves it. Sven says Basse was like the Swedish version of Gene Clark from The Byrds in the 60’s. He had the same haircut, he was influenced by the same music. While the guys are talking, Per is checking out the album sleeve of Sailing Down the Years. Basse is posing there with a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar which Per bought from him 3 years later. He still has it and points at it in his office, showing it to Sven. It’s a 1965 Rickenbacker Sunburst and Sven says it’s looking good. Sven asks Per if he has written any famous songs on that one. PG replies no. The guys are laughing and Sven says it didn’t pay off then, Per reacts „but she’s a beauty”.
Then comes Mirror, one of the latest singles of Sigrid from Denmark. Mr. G thinks it’s a good one. The next song is It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane by The Ark. That was the band’s breakthrough song and Per thinks it’s an amazing one. Sven tells it’s from 2000.
Here comes the Pugh Rogefeldt special. Sven asks Per if he knew Pugh’s real name is Torbjörn Rogefeldt. Torbjörn is an old Viking name. Mr. G knew it and says it’s an impossible name for an artist. The guys are smiling and say it’s like e.g. Reginald Dwight [Elton John’s name. /PP] or Declan MacManus [Elvis Costello’s name. /PP], it doesn’t work. In 1967, while he was on his military service, Pugh sent some demos to Swedish producer Anders Burman at Metronome, which was originally a jazz label. Per adds Burman was a jazz drummer and started his own label. As a producer, he was responsible for a lot of amazing records that were made in the 60’s. Lot’s of folk music, jazz and easy listening. Then he had success with Pugh and also had some interesting singer songwriters in the 70’s, e.g. Ola Magnell. He had good ears. Sven knows Pugh sent out his demos to all the labels and the only one who replied was Anders Burman. Sven says one can understand why. Mr. G thinks Pugh’s music is very melodic, that’s the strength of it. The lyrics are also very special. The only artist Per can think of that sounds similar in a way is Captain Beefheart, his old stuff, but Captain Beefheart wasn’t as melodic as Pugh was. Pugh wrote hit songs and he did it in his own way. On his first albums he worked with a jazz drummer and a bass player, Georg “Jojje” Wadenius, who eventually became a guitar player in Blood, Sweat & Tears.
The first Pugh song the guys play is Här kommer natten. Sven says it’s porbably one of the more rock-orientated songs, but it’s still not a typical hit. It’s a bit psychedelic. Per adds it was Pugh’s breakthrough song in 1969. It’s got a really beautiful melody according to Mr. G.
Per thinks Pugh’s music is very melodic, but at the same time very experimental, so he really needed superqualified quality musicians. Janne “Loffe” Carlsson was one of them. He played drums in Hansson & Karlsson and he also played drums for Jimi Hendrix. He and Jojje were professional musicians and Pugh really needed that stability to make this crazy music happening, otherwise it would be unlistenable.
Mr. G thinks the first album, Ja, dä ä dä is beautiful. Sven tells Swedish language you associated with easy listening music or jazz or schlager and Pugh showed that it didn’t necessarily had to be that. Per says Pugh opened up a lot of doors. That generation of artists and songwriters did that. Suddenly, when the singer songwriter thing happened internationally in the late 60’s with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Cat Stevens among others, there were tons of Swedish artists doing the same thing in Swedish. It was really interesting. Even today some of those albums are outstanding.
Sven asks Per if he remembers he got Pugh’s album when it came out. PG says he didn’t get the debut album, he got the second one. Sven got the second album too. As years passed by, Pugh became bigger and bigger and he played in Halmstad at the big theatre there, which takes 800 people. It was in the early 70’s and that was an amazing show for a 13-year-old PG to watch. Pugh was a superstar those days.
The guys play another song from Pugh’s debut album, Små lätta moln. A very beautiful song which was also a big success for Rogefeldt. Pugh from Västerås. Per tells the title translates into Tiny Light Clouds. Sven adds Per immediately figured he can steal and use this title. Per laughs and says „recycle”.
The guys talk about Rogefeldt’s second album, Pughish. It’s a new language he invented for that album. Per thinks it’s a crazy idea to write songs in a brand new language. Some of those songs are in a language nobody understands. Sven laughs and says it must be a great message to the A&R guy at the record company that wants to sell records that the guy is already a bit complicated, not reaching the broad masses and now for the second album he invented his own language. Brilliant idea, Per thinks.
The next track they play is Föräldralåten from 1970. It’s a great song and a big commercial success for Pugh. Sven says it’s about a nagging mother. This wraps up Nordic Rox’s tribute to Pugh Rogefeldt.
A Roxette track is coming up next. 7Twenty7 is from the Have A Nice Day album, which they recorded outside Málaga, in Spain. They were there all in all for 3 months, recorded lots of tracks and had so many musicians coming in and out, trying things out. They aso had a new co-producer, which was weird. It was a pretty complicated album to make, but Per likes it a lot. It was a new direction for Roxette, a bit more synthesizer-driven than the previous albums. Lot of the songs were written in a more classic way, 7Twenty7 also had a very guitar-driven demo Per made, but they changed that a bit in the studio. Sven is curious how Per likes the studio version vs. the demo. Mr. G admits he likes the demo better. When Roxette got together again and went on tour in 2010, 7Twenty7 was back in its demo shape, it was guitar-driven again. Sven is a fan of the studio version as well. Per tells it’s because Sven is from Malmö. They laugh. Even if Sven tells it’s 7Twenty7 by Roxette coming next, they play Per’s demo.
The next song is Genghis Khan by Miike Snow. Per thinks it’s a great track. Miike Snow was involved in a dance music production as well, in Galantis, as Per informs.
Come Along by Titiyo is next, written by Joakim Berg from Kent and Peter Svensson from The Cardigans. Peter is doing lots of great stuff right now in the States, Per says. He also worked together with Ariana Grande.
Bold as Love by Whyte Seeds is wrapping up the episode and as usual, the guys say goodbye and Anita Lindblom’s Cigarettes is the last track played.
Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.
Thanks for the technical support to János Tóth!