Per Gessle

Per Gessle – Gessles nio i topp – Nine songs about colors

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Last Saturday, in the new episode of Gessles nio i topp on Swedish Radio, Per Gessle and Sven Lindström discussed songs about colors. According to Per, when you are listening to music, you often associate the songs with colors. In the studio he also associates his songs with colors. Sven says he read it about John Lennon that he also talked about colors, e.g. ”I want a green sound”. Mr. G says he can understand it and adds that there are a lot of songs that have colors in their titles.

Per’s Top 9 songs about colors

9. Cyndi Lauper – True Colors
8. Billy Idol – White Wedding
7. The Rolling Stones – Paint It Black
6. The Stranglers – Golden Brown
5. The Who – Behind Blue Eyes
4. Small Faces – Red Balloon
3. Visage – Fade To Grey
2. Booker T. & the M.G.’s – Green Onions
1. Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl

The ninth song on the list is True Colors from Cyndi Lauper from August 1986. It’s a fantastic song written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg who were a very successful songwriter team before the ’90s. They wrote e.g. Like A Virgin for Madonna, I Drove All Night, Eternal Flame for The Bangles. Cyndi Lauper broke through 3 years before True Colors with Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Money Changes Everything is also a fun pop song of hers. True Colors was her last No. 1 on the US Billboard charts and then she disappeared. She did several come-backs though. One of her come-backs was with Kinky Boots, the musical which was a big success. True Colors was covered by Phil Collins in the ’90s. Sven says he read a story of Noel Gallagher who stated that their goal when they formed Oasis was to kick Phil Collins off the charts. Back to Cyndi, Per thinks she is a fantastic artist and has a very strong personality which can also be seen on stage.

Sven tells white is a color too and here comes one of Per’s bleached favourites. Next one is White Wedding from Billy Idol. Mr. G likes Billy Idol and thinks he released fantastic singles. He and his right hand, guitarist Steve Stevens looked out really cool. White Wedding was produced by Keith Forsey who started as a drummer. Drummers are very good producers, the guys say and mention Butch Vig as another example. White Wedding is on Billy’s first solo album from 1982, the year when GT released Sommartider. Sven thinks Sommartider was a bigger hit than White Wedding. Per agrees, but he still thinks WW is damn good. Sven has the feeling that the song was growing and growing and became a bigger hit later, not when it was first released. It came out as a single in autumn 1982, but didn’t chart on Billboard, which Sven can’t understand. Then it was released again in summer 1983 and peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. Dancing with Myself was the first single from the same album. That was a new recording of the old Generation X song. Billy Idol was in Generation X under the punk era in England, but then he moved to Los Angeles and started his solo career.

Song No. 7 is Paint It Black from The Rolling Stones from 1966. Per thinks it’s a magical song. It has a clash, being dangerous, but beautiful at the same time. The Rolling Stones was damn good in 1965-66. Per says he always thought PIB was recorded in England, but they recorded it in Los Angeles. Sven asks if Per realized that originally the song was released with the title Paint It, Black, with a comma. It disappeared later and Per thinks Mick Jagger wanted to add something intellectual. He couldn’t really find out why the comma was there. [The comma is said to be just a clerical error by Decca Records. /PP] PIB was released on the album Aftermath, which was the first LP of The Rolling Stones with songs written solely by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. A year later came another album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, which is almost unlistenable according to Mr. G. They did fantastic singles though, e.g. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? which is phenomenal. It’s pop-psychedelia at its best. PIB is more than a classic pop song. Brian Jones plays the sitar in it and Per says The Rolling Stones was awesome when he was in the band. One could recognize it when it was Brian playing the instruments. Sven says Johnny Ramone was following Brian Jones and he even copied his hairdo.

Next is Golden Brown from The Stranglers. Their first album was Rattus Norvegicus. They came with the English new wave era in the end of the ’70s. Per doesn’t have a close relation to them, the only song he was listening to was Golden Brown from 1981. He liked the harpsichord sound in it. Their song Peaches was damn good too. Sven remembers when he was in London in 1977-78, it was there in all pubs on the jukebox. They even had a song about Sweden, Sweden (All Quiet on the Eastern Front) written by Hugh Cornwell. In Golden Brown one can hear The Doors influence. Per doesn’t really know what the song is about. Drugs or something else. Its best position on the charts was No. 2 in the UK. Well-deserved, Per says. The song has a lovely atmosphere, great production and it’s in fine 6/8 time signature. It’s a little odd for being a song from 1981. It certainly stood out on the radio when it was released.

No. 5 is Behind Blue Eyes from 1971 from The Who, one of Sven and Per’s common favourite band. Sven says earlier they had a program with nine best songs from 1971 and this song wasn’t on that list. Per says it could have been on that one too. It’s from The Who’s 5th album and for Per that’s the best The Who album of all. There is no bad track on it. Maybe you can skip John Entwistle’s My Wife. Pete Townshend peaks here and the whole band is in top shape. Sven also thinks they were one of the biggest bands in the world in the ’70s and this album was incredibly perfect. It was kind of a follow-up album to Tommy, instead of the rock opera, Lifehouse. Behind Blue Eyes is a wonderful ballad according to Per. Sven says it’s a ballad for appr. 2 minutes and 18 seconds, but then comes Keith Moon in and the band explodes. The power chords of Pete Townshend are awesome. Mr. G says he always thought The Who’s weakest link was Roger Daltrey’s singing, but he reconsidered it and now he thinks he is a fantastic singer. When he was listening to Pete Townshend’s demos he realized how much Roger Daltrey added to the songs. Also if you are watching their early live performances, you can see he is a great frontman.

Next song is Red Balloon from Small Faces. It came out in 1969 on The Autumn Stone double LP which Per had when he was a child. It was a cover of Tim Hardin’s song. Sven says there is more hippie feeling in it, but Per says one could sense it already in Tin Soldier or Lazy Sunday. It’s a typical Small Faces song, it has a fantastic soundscape. Tim Hardin was a great songwriter. He also wrote If I Were a Carpenter and Lady Came from Baltimore. Red Balloon was not a big song for Tim. Bobby Darin covered it too. It was one of Per’s favourite songs when he grew up and his records were his best friends. Sven asks if one can say it’s a cozy song. Per says not really if you know what the lyric is about. It’s about drugs. Sven laughs and says it’s a recurring theme, but they are picking songs about colors after all.

No. 3 is Fade To Grey from Visage from 1980. It was one of the first synthpop hits. It sounded modern. When you say synthpop, today people think of the digital world we live in and how you make music on laptops. It was actually the beginning of it all. Visage was a new wave band and they became linked to the New Romantic movement. Sven says regarding the genre, one can link to Bowie’s Berlin albums or maybe even Kraftwerk. Per adds Bowie’s Scary Monsters album too, which was released the same year as Fade To Grey. Steve Strange, who was the brain behind Visage appeared in the video to Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes. Steve Strange was a scene-maker what was hip in the ’70s in London. He had a club there, called Billy’s. Midge Ure, founding member of Visage, singer-songwriter was in another band too, Ultravox and they released their album Vienna the same year as Visage released FTG. Everyone in Visage wanted to do a different project, so no wonder the band broke up. The video to FTG was directed by Godley & Creme from the band 10cc.

No. 2 is Green Onions from Booker T. & the M.G.’s. It’s one of Sven’s favourite bands, he thinks they are super cool. GO was their break-through song in 1962. They became a houseband at Stax Records in Memphis and played on hundreds of recordings. They also did instrumental covers of The Beatles’ Abbey Road songs. Sven asks Per if he knows Hammond organ. He says he stumbled over it, but he is a keyboard guy. He tells Sven ”you know, I come from a band that plays Farfisa organ.” Sven says Hammond organs already existed in the ’30s. It was invented by Laurens Hammond and it has a fantastic sound. Jazz musician Jimmy Smith was a Hammond organist. Jon Lord from Deep Purple also played it even live on stage, Billy Preston too on The Rolling Stones tours. Mr. G says they should have a separate program about songs with Hammond organ. In Green Onions Booker T. Jones also plays Hammond organ and Steve Cropper plays the guitar. Booker T. & the M.G.’s was a band that consisted of both white and black members. Their name comes from the British car brand MG, however, their record label stated that it stood for Memphis Group.

No. 1 is Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl. Whenever Per hears this song he becomes happy. Van Morrison was the singer of Them before, but this was released by him as a solo artist. BEG was released in 1967. It’s one of the most played songs on American radios of all time. Once when Sven was in Liverpool with a gang of Beatles fans, a friend of him from Malmö said he knew the guitarist in Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Brian Nash. He was also from Liverpool and he was there and showed them around. It was much fun. He talked a lot about his career in bands, playing at weddings and parties, as well as in cover bands. Sven asked which song is the most popular that people ask most often to be played and he said Brown Eyed Girl. And then they all started singing it there in Liverpool. It has a magnetic effect, Per says and he thinks it’s a song of timeless quality.

Grunden Media Podcast interview with Per Gessle

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Carl-Magnus Eriksson and Jakob Olsson from Grunden Media Podcast interviewed Per Gessle the other day. You can listen to the podcast in Swedish HERE.

The guys ask Per to introduce himself to the listeners. He says he is a guy from Halmstad and is making music since he was a teen, so he has been making music for over 40 years now with Gyllene Tider, Roxette and as a solo artist.

To the question how his working week looks like he replies it’s a bit different now. There are no concerts, so he is writing a lot and there is a studio where he is trying out different ideas. He explains he usually tours in blocks, so when he is on tour, then he is free for a half year or a year maybe until there is a next tour and then he is writing a lot.

Carl-Magnus and Jakob ask Per about his latest single, Mamma / Pappa. Per says he was dealing with another project, he was writing in English, but then suddenly he realized that it’s Mother’s Day soon, so maybe he should write a song about a mom. It started a bit with his own mom, but it’s also about someone else. Most of his songs are starting with his own feelings, then his imagination soars and it becomes something different in the end. Anyway, he finished the song and recorded it with Helena Josefsson. He thought it became a good song and he also thought he would write one about a dad to have a balance. He thinks it became even better. Others also thought they were damn good songs, so he released them in 2 weeks digitally, then also on vinyl.

The guys ask Per if his parents were role models to him when he was young, in the heydays of Gyllene Tider. Mr. G says his father died in 1978 before Gyllene Tider broke through. His mother always supported and encouraged him. She was the one who bought Per’s first guitar. He tells they had a piano at home and both his sister and brother played the piano. His mom passed away in 2013.

Talking about his first guitar, the guys mention that they know it from Niklas Strömstedt’s Gessle enligt Gessle documentary that it was a Bjärton nylon-string guitar. Per confirms it and says it was nice and very expensive. There was another guitar at home, but it was hard to tune it properly and press down the strings. So he thinks his mom thought she should buy something which can be played properly. He still has that guitar in Halmstad and also plays it once in a while. It still sounds fantastic. Per tells he has guitars on display at Hotel Tylösand, but he also has some at home in Halmstad and in Stockholm. There are guitars in a warehouse too and those are used when he is on tour. His guitar technician takes care of them. He doesn’t like to sell guitars, he rather keeps them and buys new ones too.

They guys ask Per if he misses playing with Gyllene Tider. Per says last year they recorded an album in France and went on a big tour. It was nice. He likes playing with Gyllene Tider and anyway he likes playing in a band. In a gang that plays the same song at the same time. Haha. They guys say Anders Herrlin and Micke Syd are among the best musicians in Swedish pop history. Per says Micke is a super-duper drummer and Anders is a fantastic bassist, but when they play together, 1+1 makes 3 or even 4. They are super tight. Anders was there in the heydays of Roxette and also toured with them in the ’90s. He played the bass in a different style vs. when he plays with Micke.

Per says one of the rewards of his job – both writing and playing music – is that you touch so many people. Many say that they feel like the song is about them, they recognize themsleves in a lyric maybe. Mr. G thinks it’s fantastic. He remembers when he got his first fan mail in the ’70s, in 1976 or 1977. There was a radio program called Bandet går where you could send in recordings and Per sent in a song, Ser du alla människor, which was 6 minutes long. It was quite horrible he thinks, but they played it on the radio. Then he got a mail from a girl who thought the song was fantastic, she recognized herself in the text. Per was totally shocked that something he did himself could touch another person so much. After all these years, one could easily say and think that you can take it for granted, but it’s not like that. He thinks he stilll has that fan mail. He lived at his mom back then and he has boxes with a lot of stuff from those times.

Carl-Magnus says he was born in 1975. He asks Per what he was doing before 1975. Per says in his childhood he spent a lot of time on his own. His family moved several times, so probably that was a reason for that. Already at an early age he was intrested in pop music. He was collecting records and listened to all chart shows on the radio. He learned English via English music magazines he bought, e.g. Melody Maker, Record Mirror. He was handing out newspapers at the weekends and was selling Christmas magazines, he earned his money with that to be able to buy the records. He tried to buy a single each week. The guys ask him which was his first record. Per says his first LP was a The Kinks album, The Kink Kontroversy. He bought it from his brother who needed money for cigarette.

The guys ask how the idea of Flickorna på TV2 came to him. Mr. G says he wrote the song together with Mats Persson. He can’t really remember. There was TV2 and there were those nice girls. He wrote it for GT’s first LP on which all the lyrics are a bit odd, e.g. (Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän, Fån telefon, Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly. Flickorna på TV2 was a song they changed the whole composition to in the studio, so they got a kind of groove in the song that wasn’t there in the beginning. There are rehearsal studio demos of it before they found the real sound to it. The guys ask about this part of the intro: “Master 17223, take 8”. Per says it’s from a recording that went wrong. They were at EMI Studios in Stockholm where they were also working with English stuff, so this snippet was from another record. They found it cool and kept it.

About Hotel Tylösand Per says he had no experience in the hotel business, except for living in hotels, but he thought it would be stupid not to buy it since it was so close to his hometown. It’s very unique with its nice beach. They bought it in 1995, rebuilt it, but it’s not him who is managing the hotel. It’s 100 years old this year and there is a nice video about it on YouTube.

To the question what he thinks when he sees old videos of himself he replies it’s fun. His generation got to be part of a wonderful era in pop music. ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s was a golden era before everything became digitalized. The music industry became so big it also became a big business. It wasn’t like that when Per started. Back then, young people established record companies and dealt with exciting music, e.g. Stiff Records, Atlantic Records. When he thinks about the old video of himself in Måndagsbörsen in the ’80s, it was fun to be there.

The guys ask what he would be if not a musician. Per says he doesn’t really know. He ended up being a musician already at the age of 19-20. At high school he was at an architect office. He always liked architecture, so that could have been fun. Now he is just doodling in his notebooks when working in the studio. He is bad at constructing things.

The guys ask Per about The Beatles. He says The Beatles created everything they are doing now in different ways. Everything they did was new, how they were writing songs, producing and playing them, how they looked, their album covers. He never saw them perform live. They toured Sweden in the beginning of the ‘60s. But he saw Paul McCartney live of course.

About Ramones Per says the awesome thing about them is their lovely hybrid of punk and surf music. There is The Beach Boys style surf music that they played much faster in a way. It’s very simple pop music with a fantastic attitude and Per loves the whole Ramones concept including how they looked with the same hairdo and outfit. He also loves that era in pop music, the ‘70s. Before punk and new wave happened, everything felt so important in pop music and professional, then with the punk there was a revolution and anyone could start a band or play the bass or the guitar or sing. When they started with GT, they learned everything on the way. Progressive music in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis had long songs, they were advanced and professional. The Ramones represented the opposite which Per liked a lot.

To the question how it was singing in Måndagsbörsen in 1981 Per replies he can barely remember, but it was fun. He remembers that Dag Vag had a hit song then, Pop opp i topp and they performed it together with Gyllene Tider. Thore Skogman joined them too. He then invited GT to his home somewhere near the Norwegian border and they had lunch there. Per says he was a very nice person.

The guys are talking about how it was working together with Nisse Hellberg. Mr. G says it was fun, he is a highly talented, great guy. It was an exciting cooperation. They did a soundtrack to Mats Olsson’s book, De ensamma pojkarna. They pretended to be a ‘60s band, The Lonely Boys.

Carl-Magnus and Jakob ask who Mr. G would work together with. He says it’s fun to work with other voices, because he often feels limited with his own voice. That’s how Roxette started. Marie could sing his songs much better than Per himself. He also works a lot with Helena Josefsson. If he can dream away, it would be cool to work together with Sia or Pink for example.

The guys ask if he misses Marie Fredriksson. Of course he misses her, she was one of his best friends for so many years. It’s terrible that she is not there anymore. It’s hard to accept and understand it. He thinks of her almost every day.

The guys are talking about the song Per released in February, Around The Corner and Carl-Magnus and Jakob are curious how it was to sing those lyrics. Per says when he wrote it, it wasn’t about Marie, however, when he finished it, he understood that it was in a way about Marie and about the feeling that you have to move on. He recorded a simple demo of it that felt so strong that he thought they should work on it a bit more. Helena came to the studio and was singing and then Per sent what they had done to Clarence and he added his keyboards to it. Then the song was produced and he released it. Per says he finished writing the song before he went to the studio. He is working quite fast so it took maybe an afternoon to write it. He always tries to catch the same temperature in the music and the text. When he writes the text, he likes it when it’s lying around for maybe a day or two before he gets back to it. Then he corrects it or changes things in it. When he is writing, things are just flowing out. When he is working on a song for too long, it means it’s not good.

Carl-Magnus and Jakob ask what Per’s favourite Marie Fredriksson song is. There are many, he says. She didn’t write so many songs, but they are very good ones. From her Swedish songs Per likes Den ständiga resan the most. It’s a fantastic song. From the Roxette songs she wrote, Watercolours In The Rain is fantastic. Per wrote the text to it, but Marie wrote the music.

Mr. G says it would be fun to make more soundtrack music. Making music to Small Apartments, a Jonas Åkerlund movie some years ago was an exciting project. It’s instrumental music, which is totally different to making songs with lyrics. Here the guys are talking about Uno Svenningsson and his son who makes ambient music. Per says he grew up in an era where real instruments were played, while today’s generation is different. But ambient music can also fit movies.

Regarding which song he is the most proud of, Mr. G says when he hears a song on the radio or in the department store, he thinks “shit, it’s a good song. Oh shit, it’s a Roxette song”. He thinks The Look became damn good, something you never heard before. Tycker om när du tar på mej has a very nice text. He likes the whole Mazarin album a lot, because that was the first time he worked together with Christoffer Lundquist in his studio and also the first time he worked with Helena Josefsson. The album became different vs. what he was doing before. He likes all the songs on it.

To the question which hairdo he thinks was his best over the times he replied he hopes the best is yet to come. Haha.

The guys ask Per what he is listening to on Spotify right now. He checks it while he is sitting in front of his computer. He is listening to songs people recommended to him, so now it’s old jazz, e.g. Art Pepper and old Van Morrison albums. He also likes The Chainsmokers as modern music, but he is listening to everything possible. He makes playlists. The more new music he listens to the more he feels eager to listen to old music. He usually finds something in new music he likes, but he thinks it was made more for him several years ago. If he is listening to Blinding Lights from The Weeknd for example, he thinks it sounds cool, but it also sounds like the ’80s, so he is eager to listen to some ’80s music after hearing it.

Regarding F1 and racing Per says he likes watching the race. Occasionally he is out on a racing track to drive and for that you need a standard driving license. He explains there is a bunch of technicians who tell you how to drive and what to do there. Every year he travels to see at least one F1 race live. It’s much fun. The guys tell they saw Per has many Ferraris. Per confirms and says it’s like with the guitars and laughs. He adds he likes the design of them. He doesn’t know the maximum speed of his cars, he never drives too fast.

To the question if he has ever thought about making a movie from his songs like Elton John or Queen did, he replied he thinks something like that is coming in the future. Maybe some kind of musical. It feels like a natural development of the hit catalogue he has. It would be fun and exciting, but it has to be good. It’s easier said than done. He thinks Bohemian Rhapsody is super good.

Carl-Magnus and Jakob ask what’s next. Per tells he plans to record more songs in autumn, so he is writing during summer. There is no tour booked. Of course he wants to tour, but he doesn’t know how and in what context.

The guys ask Per about Spännande ostar. It was Marie, Lasse Lindbom, Mats Persson and Per in 1983 or 1984 and they played acoustic songs.

Carl-Magnus and Jakob shoot some quick questions at the end of the interview.

  1. Vinyl or Spotify? Vinyl, because it smells good.
  2. Tour or studio? He loves both, so he can’t choose.
  3. Gyllene Tider or Sommartider? Gyllene Tider.
  4. Yellow Submarine or Come Together? Come Together.
  5. Min tjej och jag or Låt denna trumslagarpojke sjunga!? Min tjej och jag.
  6. Ferrari or black McLaren Senna? Ferrari.
  7. He can’t reply to the question what he would ask from Helena Josefsson, but tells he is to meet her next day.
Pic by Fredrik Etoall

Per Gessle – Gessles nio i topp – Nine songs about sweets

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In the latest episode of Gessles nio i topp, Per Gessle and Sven Lindström are talking about sweet songs. Sven says Sweets for My Sweet from The Searchers should have been No. 1 on the list, but rumor has it, there is something else on the top. Per grabs his list and says he can’t even see that song on it. Honey from Bobby Goldsboro is also not bad, there was a Swedish version of it, Raring by Björn Ulvaeus, but it’s not on the list either. Per rather chose old songs from the ’60s and ’70s.

Per’s Top 9 songs about sweets

9. Millie Small – My Boy Lollipop
8. The Rubettes – Sugar Baby Love
7. Marcy Playground – Sex And Candy
6. The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane
5. The Strangeloves – I Want Candy
4. Lynsey De Paul – Sugar Me
3. Echo & The Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar
2. The Kinks – Sweet Lady Genevieve
1. The Archies – Sugar, Sugar (medley with Wilson Pickett’s version of Sugar, Sugar)

My Boy Lollipop from Millie Small was a mono release in 1964 when Mr. G was only 5 years old. It was one of the first ska songs. Per remembers he saw Millie on Swedish TV, maybe on Hylands hörna and Swedish radio also played MBL. It’s an awesome song still today. Millie passed away not so long ago [5th May 2020]. Sven mentions she didn’t receive royalties for this song which he can’t understand. The original version was recorded in New York in 1956 and record company executive Morris Levy purchased it and listed himself as one of the authors of the song. When John Lennon did Come Together, Morris Levy sued him because of using a line, ”Here come old flattop” from Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me. As penalty, John recorded three songs from Levy’s publishing catalogue for his Rock ‘n’ Roll LP. MBL was the first hit for Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records. Sven adds that Blackwell bought records in New York and sold them to DJs in Jamaica after he recorded them on tape. When Millie came into sight, he found the recording of the original version of MBL and that’s what they recorded in Millie’s version. After playing the song, Per and Sven are discussing who played the harmonica on this one. Per says it was Rod Stewart as Millie also told about it in an interview, but Sven says it was Pete Hogman. It stays a mystery why it wasn’t clear who played the harmonica.

Sugar Baby Love from The Rubettes is next. Per thinks it’s a guilty pleasure song, a one hit wonder, but it’s damn good. The falsetto voice is awesome in it. Mr. G has the single, he bought it in 1974 when it was released. Sven tells ”Bop-shu-waddy” is being sung over the whole song and Per presents it by singing it two times. Everyone told the songwriter it won’t work to sing ”Bop-shu-waddy” for 3 minutes, but the more people said that to him, the more convinced he was doing it that way. 6 million copies were sold of the single. Per tells the guys who wrote this song wrote another awesome hit, Nothing But A Heartache for The Flirtations in 1968.

Per picks Sex And Candy from Marcy Playground from the ’90s (1997), to have a modern song on the list too. Marcy Playground is a band from Minneapolis that was at the same record company as Roxette. The song has a psychedelic aura which Per thinks is appealing. Sven says he likes a lot of ’90s songs and it was a phenomenal decade. Mr. G says there was a natural development of pop music. Technology advanced and it sounded different, but Sex And Candy is still a very good song. Sven adds it’s innovative.

Sweet Jane from 1970, from The Velvet Underground’s fourth album, Loaded comes next. Sven asks Per if he listened to The Velvet Underground back in the days. Per tells he had an album, he can’t remember which one it was, it had a black & white cover and Pale Blue Eyes was one of the songs on it. It was a very strange album with very good songs. Mr. G says he discovered Lou Reed on his live album, Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal. Sven says it was the same with him. Until Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal Lou Reed was just a name for him, but he was fascinated by that album. Per says Sven probably heard Walk On The Wild Side from the Transfomers album. Mr. Lindström didn’t have it, but he heard it on the radio. Per is kidding Sven and acts like he is surprised that they had radio in Växjö. Sven laughs and says they had pirate radio. The Velvet Underground was present in the arty New York scene during the Andy Warhol era. Sven says they were style makers and went their own way. The guys agree that at the age of 13 they were not matured enough for that. Sweet Jane is a phenomenal song according to Per. There are several live versions released of it, but the original is on the album, Loaded.

Song No. 5 is a real dynamite hit, I Want Candy from The Strangeloves from 1965. Among others, it was also covered by Bow Wow Wow in 1982. Per thinks The Strangeloves was a great band, they had several good songs, e.g. Night Time. Richard Gottehrer, who was part of the band formed Sire Records together with Seymour Stein. He produced Blondie’s first album and Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album too. Before forming The Strangeloves, the 3 guys were writing songs for other artists, girl group acts included. The girl group sound was going out of fashion due to the British Invasion style, so the guys decided to form an own beat group. They couldn’t fake British accent, so they pretended to be Australians. Per tells one version of Hang On Sloopy was on the same album as IWC. Per finds the Bo Diddley beat quite cool in IWC and tells that they also used the beat in Roxette’s Harleys & Indians.

After the song is played, the guys get back to Bow Wow Wow and are talking a bit about their debut album. It had a very strange title, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! Sven asks what a record company can say when you come up with such title. Per says he doesn’t know. They laugh.

Sugar Me from Lynsey De Paul is next. Per says he bought the single when it was released on MAM Records. Lynsey De Paul was a singer-songwriter and it was she who wrote and also produced the song. Mr. G mentions Lynsey took part in the recording of one of the best pop songs of all time, Roll Away the Stone from Mott the Hoople. She is the one who is whispering ”Well I got my invite” on the album version. There is another story related to Mott the Hoople. When new guitarist, Luther Grosvenor joined the band, Lynsey De Paul suggested to change his name to Ariel Bender. Per says he saw them on their farewell tour last year in London and Ariel Bender was wearing quite tight pants that left nothing to the imagination. The guys are laughing. Sven tells they had their 40th anniversary reunion in 2009 and then he saw them in London. Lead singer Ian Hunter is still fantastic, the guys say. Getting back to Sugar Me, Per says one gets hooked immediately because of the piano intro. He thinks it’s very special.

Before talking about the Top3 songs, the guys mention two more that could have been on the list, Pour Some Sugar On Me from Def Leppard and Sugar Town from Nancy Sinatra. These didn’t make it, but No. 3 is Lips Like Sugar from Echo & The Bunnymen. The band is from Liverpool. Per thinks this is their best song and Sven says they broke through with this one. It’s very typical of the time, 1987 music (U2, Simple Minds). Mr. G thinks the song is a bit too long, but the chorus is awesome and they could have get to it a bit earlier. Sven reacts maybe ”Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” was inspired by that. Haha. Per informs that the cool video to the song was directed by Anton Corbijn.

No. 2 is Sweet Lady Genevieve from The Kinks. The band is a favourite both for Per and Sven. Mr. G says that at the beginning, The Kinks were not an album band at all, rather a hit factory. Ray Davies was writing big stories and in 1973 they released Preservation Act. There was Preservation Act 1 and 2, the latter one was a double LP. The first one was a fantastic album according to Per. If you are looking back at the ’60s, Ray is definitely one of the best songwriters of that era. Sven says there is something disarming in his style. Per adds he started with songs like You Really Got Me, 3-chord riffs and he had his style, but he also left his style. Sweet Lady Genevieve is one of Per’s favourites from The Kinks, it’s absolutely magical. Sven asks Per as a songwriter what he thinks the magic is in this song. Mr. G says the magic lies in the complete song, in Ray Davies’ voice, in his expression, the whole story and the sound. It sounds how only The Kinks can sound. They had their own studio, Konk Studios. If you look at albums from before digital times, they sounded in a certain way (e.g. Olympic Studios). The Konk Studios sounded differently. It’s hard to do it these days when everything is digital. It sounds the same if you make songs on your laptop or e.g. in Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. Sven jokes and says it would be cool to have a Konk plugin.

No. 1 is Sugar, Sugar from The Archies. According to Per it’s one of the absolute best songs that has ever been written. The Archies is a cartoon band that featured in an animated TV series in the US. The song was written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim. Per says Andy Kim had an own hit, Rock Me Gently which was a big hit in the US. Jeff Barry worked together with his wife, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. They wrote together e.g. Da Doo Ron Ron, River Deep – Mountain High. Sugar, Sugar was released in 1969. No one really knew who The Archies were, but Sven says they found out 2 older gentlemen were involved. One of them, the guitarist was born in 1922, which was unusual in the ’60s pop world, to have a 40-year-old guitarist. Per says it’s real, sugar sweet bubble gum music. Sven first thought it was The Archies who invented the bubblegum pop genre, but he realized it was Ohio Express a bit earlier with Yummy Yummy Yummy and Per adds Simon Says by the 1910 Fruitgum Company was also an early bubblegum success. Sven asks Per if he says Sugar, Sugar and soul, what Mr. G thinks about. Per says Wilson Pickett. He did a soul version of the song which is fantastic. So the guys play a medley of The Archies’ and Wilson Pickett’s versions as the last song in the sweet podcast.

Real Sugar pic of Marie & Per by Jesper Hiro

 

Per Gessle – Gessles nio i topp – Nine fuzzbox songs

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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’.

Marie Fredriksson tribute on Nordic Rox #4

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A couple of days ago there was the final episode of the Marie tribute program on Nordic Rox, Sirius XM.

This time Per Gessle and Sven Lindström were back with 2 more classic tracks and Per commented on those songs. Until Mr. G joined Sven, Mr. Lindström played a Roxette beauty, A Thing About You from 2002.

The first song Per picked is from Roxette’s biggest selling album, Joyride. He chose Things Will Never Be The Same. Mr. G says it’s one of the fan favourites, it has always been very popular among the fans. Per always loved this track. It’s got that Roxette gimmick in there: Per is singing a bit and Marie is singing 80 percent of the song. It just made it sort of special and sounded like no one else. Like in Dressed For Success or Dangerous, it’s that little trick they used. TWNBTS has a Spanish guitar intro and outro. It sounded different. It has a beautiful melody and of course, amazing vocals by Marie. Sven asks Per if he remembers any special tricks in the songwriting regarding this song. Mr. G says if there are 2 singers, you can use the strengths or hide the weaknesses. They laugh. Per tells he basically wrote most of the songs for Marie’s voice, but then sometimes in the lyrics you can ask a question like ”Whatcha gonna tell your brother?” in DFS and she can answer. You can just use that you are two people, a female and a male having a dialogue in the lyric. It’s an old country trick. It makes sense in TWNBTS lyrically and it’s just a beautiful song. Sven asks Per if he remembers how he presented TWNBTS for Marie, if he played it live on an acoustic guitar or if he made a demo and sent it to her. Per thinks he made a demo in the studio. For Joyride he started making pretty advanced demos. Lots of the arrangements on that album were already there when he made the demos. Joyride for instance sounds almost the same as his demo. Songs which are sung by Marie become totally different when you record them, because you change the keys and as soon as you change the key, it sounds different. In TWNBTS they brought in the Spanish guitar part and producer Clarence Öfwerman’s trademark synthesizers are all over the place. A little drum machine is also in there. Per thinks it’s a cool track, a typical production for its era. You can hear its early ’90s sound to it. It’s very Roxette for Per. Sven says the title is perfect for the feelings we all had when Marie left us before Christmas last year.

After the song, Sven tells they are sitting in the ABBA room at Live Nation in Stockholm. Per asks him if he feels like a dancing queen. Sven replies ”not exactly” and asks Per if he feels like it. Per answers ”always”. Haha. He mentions he is looking at an old ABBA picture in the room, an old poster from the Voulez-Vous Tour when they played Gothenburg in the ’70s.

Queen Of Rain is the other song the guys are discussing. It was a single from Tourism in 1992. It was actually recorded for the Joyride album in 1990 and it was supposed to be the final track on Joyride, but then Per wrote a song called Perfect Day, which included an accordion. They thought it was fitting because it had a different sound to it, totally different to the other tracks on the album. So they used Perfect Day as the last song instead. They had a backing vocalist called Vicki Benckert who was also a great accordion player. Tourism was the tour album from the Joyride tour. Per says the album was recorded basically on the road. They booked studios in São Paulo, Copenhagen, Los Angeles. Some songs they recorded in hotel rooms. It was like a tour album, including a couple of live tracks as well, but most of it was studio recordings. The live recording of Joyride seamlessly goes over to QOR on the album. They did a video to QOR in Northern France. Per thinks it’s a beautiful song and it fits Marie perfectly. She is just a great singer and QOR sums up Marie really well for Per. Sven says they talked about her rock ’n’ roll side, but she also had this melancholy in her personality. Mr. G says Marie loved to sing songs like Queen Of Rain, Crash! Boom! Bang! or Spending My Time, telling stories. You can hear it in her voice that she becomes the song and that’s how she communicated so well to everyone who listened to her. Per thinks it’s one of his best songs if he may say so himself, but it’s Marie’s voice that brings it home. Amazing!

Waving goodbye in Kalmar 2015. Pic by Patrícia Peres

 

Thanx for the technical support to János Tóth.