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Rock poetry in Swedish is a delicate thing. Since the mother tongue of rock is English, an undesirable clarity emerges in every wording of Swedish. Suddenly you start hearing the words. And it becomes literal, often without levels of abstraction. Humor is not our thing here. The male desire for freedom, natural metaphors, and love are three themes that have stood the test of time since the 1970s.
Staffan Hellstrand is a good copywriter. In their language there are no annoying or annoying stumbles. But above all, language and rock go well together and it doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Hellstrand is not the artist of grand gestures, and he knows how to match the correct line with the correct chord, find the syntax, and stack the syllables in time. The latter, of course, is particularly important.
Hellstrand is updated with a book and album this fall. The album is called “The Murders in the Nuremberg Brewery” and it is a kind of thematic album that you could say, a series of songs about the royal drama that took place between the pawn Carl Pehrsson and the owner of the Carl Johan Wertmüller brewery in January 1836 when the farm finally got tired of the beatings and the harsh. treatment and killed his boss with a stick and dipped him in a beer. Pehrsson was arrested and festively executed in front of 5,000 people in Skanstull.
Hellstrand has written songs from the perspective of the two men, but the production is a bit simple and the characters do not come to life.
And when I sail and read in the book “You never go alone. Texts 1985-2020 ”It seems a bit similar to me, that texts are rarely specific enough, or abstract enough, to stand on their own. Staffan Hellstrand writes good poetry, but it presupposes rock.
Another thing that is clear is how consistent it has been. From the first text with the band SH! Until the last verses of the book, he keeps his words tight as he sings his world. It is analog, contains few cars and no modern technology, men and women have troubled relationships characterized by mutual dependence. It is more often autumn and winter than spring in Hellstrand’s texts. If it is in the city, it is specific, then it is the Church of Sofia and the Red Mountains, but if it is outside the city, nature is more of a state than a place. There are many angels and witches in the lyrics. Loyalty is without exception on the side of the vulnerable. Forty-five years of production in an extremely harsh summary.
The lyrics of the records framed by little biographical introductions, little insights into the long career of a deeply understanding artist who actually, when remembered, produced quite a few strong radio singles. It’s weird that he hasn’t been on “Much Better” yet, he should be. Because the truth is also that his great albums go back a few years, but that his treasure of songs deserves to be revived.
Read more cultural commentary and more texts by Po Tidholm
