2017 - July 31 - (Seemingly) Nonstop July

For the longest time, the biggest Norwegian pop export was a-ha, and they were largely seen as a one-hit wonder thanks to their hit Take On Me, originally released in 1984, but finally charting in October 1985 following the third release of the single (second version). However, their career is filled with rock solid albums - already on their second album, Scoundrel Days, their sound was changing away from the very straightforward 80s synth pop of their debut album, Hunting High And Low. After what I consider a misstep with their sickeningly poppy Stay On These Roads (redeemed by the James Bond song The Living Daylights), they struck back with a vengeance with their fourth album, East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon in 1990.

East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon is a great album as a whole. It opens with a tastefully done (yet overly sweet) version of the Everly Brothers' Crying In The Rain but from the sentimental opening directly into upbeat pop and through heavy brooding and many emotions in between before it ends with today's little ditty. On the last day of July, I thought that (Seemingly) Nonstop July would be appropriate...

2017 - July 30 - Jockey Full Of Bourbon

Some days I feel like picking a song just because... This is one of those days. I have played some Tom Waits before, and today I am revisiting Rain Dogs from 1985. The song is following a mambo rhythm, played in 4/4, but counted 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2 for the 8th notes, giving a really cool syncopated rhythm that always has appealed to me. Marc Ribot's guitar is all over the song - his tone is as good as any signature - and Tom Waits sings about what I always have interpreted as a drunken night on the town. Please enjoy Jockey Full Of Bourbon!

2017 - July 29 - Between The Wheels

In 1984, the record company Vertigo, which was home to many great bands, released the compilation The Heavy Way. My friend Geir got it, and we spent quite a bit of time listening to it, one of the main draws being our own hometown heroes in TNT, which we also saw live right around this time. Their track, Seven Seas, was the single off their Knights Of The New Thunder album, and right after it was Rush with Between The Wheels.

Rush was a new acquaintance of mine at this time, and I had not yet come to realize just how great their album Grace Under Pressure was. Plus, I succumbed to peer pressure as well so I said that it was a weak song - the weakest of the compilation. I wasn't quite a fan of it either yet by then - being turned off by the severely phat synthesizer chords that open it - but now it stands out to me as one of the highlights on Grace Under Pressure, which I also find to be one of their most underappreciated albums. I love the album and I love this song!

2017 - July 28 - Churchill's Speech/Aces High

Saturday I went to the movies to see Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Dunkirk. I didn't know the story - but I was familiar with Churchill's words that we get acquainted with at the end of the movie thanks to Iron Maiden's WWII fighter pilot tribute Aces High, which live was paired with an excerpt from Churchill's speech from 1940.

Dunkirk is simply put the best war movie I have ever seen bar none. The pictures combined with the music (and the sound of a clock ticking incessantly) created a tension that really made me feel uneasy. There was very limited dialogue, and there was very little of the fast paced editing that we see in so many movies these days - and when it did happened, it was to heighten the confusion to make you feel you were part of the situation rather than watching it in a comfortable movie theater. There was also no gore and very limited amounts of blood. It wasn't needed to make me feel queasy. This is a movie that captures what I can only imagine is what war really can feel like, especially if you just are sitting ducks on a beautiful sandy beach, with troops advancing from the inland and airstrikes stopping anything from happening from the sea.

Now I know that I don't know what war feels like, but I have seen reports of veterans of Dunkirk saying it was like being back there again. But I do think we all need the reminder of the senselessness of war from time to time, and this is a great reminder. If there aren't massive accolades and awards to this movie for best picture and best direction, there'd better be some exceptional movies coming, as this was by far the best movie experience I have had in a long, long time. Not that I haven't seen other great movies, but this was something very different. This is a movie that deserves to be viewed on the big screen. Do not wait for it to be available at home through BluRay or DVD.

Thank you, Christopher Nolan. You delivered a movie so much better than I imagined. Now for the rest of you: Go see this movie! And in the meantime, listen to Churchill's words and Iron Maiden's Aces High.

2017 - July 27 - Sola Skinner

Today I will indulge in playing one of my favorite summer songs ever. I remember when I first heard this song - my good friend in middle school, Stig Erik, brought me over to another friend's house, and he had this single by a new Norwegian band, Jokke & Valentinerne. This single was 2 Fulle Menn - or 2 Drunk Men - but the song that really stood out was still the lead off track on the B side: Sola Skinner (The Sun Is Shining). The lyrics included everything wrong or taboo: Cigarettes, alcohol, coupling and copulation - but it was honest. In many ways, it was brutally honest. This would have been about 30 years ago = the summer or fall of 1987. Jokke himself (Joachim Nielsen) died in 2000 from a drug overdose, 36 years old. His poetry was always naked, raw, and honest - and his musicianship was driven by passion more than skill. He is sorely missed - but Sola Skinner still gets me in a great mood whenever I hear it!

2017 - July 26 - Praying

Since good pop music ended up being what I played yesterday, I think I can do one more. I wasn't a huge fan of Kesha's with her first two albums, but I have been a little bit more curious over the past few years as she has been struggling with some really severe issues involving the producer Dr. Luke. I am not one to judge in that case, but there is no doubt that there is a lot of hurt and pain on Kesha's side. I do know that sometimes great art can come out of great personal turmoil, and I am very glad to see that Kesha really has been able to channel her battles into her music. The first single off her upcoming Rainbow album is called Praying, and it moved me to tears. I was completely blown away by this - and I did not expect it.

2017 - July 25 - Angels

Does anyone really think there is a coincidence that the movie Boss Baby is released on DVD/BluRay on my sister's birthday? I certainly don't. The effect of the arrival of a younger sibling is explored well in that movie, although my sister certainly was slightly less conniving... I think I have talked about her somewhat lacking taste in music before (ok, that was below the belt, but I am allowed to do that to my sister) - but I don't think I really have talked about her massive affinity for mass produced British pop. When I grew up, Stock, Aitken, and Waterman was pretty much a curse word for me (well, technically a phrase, but the trio was mass producing so much crap that I still consider it one word) - and yet, that music could frequently be heard from my sister's bedroom.

However, even blind men can find gold, and she started finding some really good music in there as well. She started having a thing for British singers (well, technically, British men in general, right Will?), and there was one British gentleman whose career in many ways reminds me of Justin Timberlake's - although for some reason, he never made it quite as big in the US. He also started in a boy band (and no, Elin, I am not talking about Holly Johnson here - he was better with Frankie Goes To Hollywood than on his own) - Take That was pretty darn huge at least in Europe in the early to mid 90s (their probably best known song was Back For Good, which peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the British charts) - before he broke on his own and really went his own way. His debut album, Life Thru A Lens, was released in 1997, and the fourth single was the song I chose for today. It only spent 218 weeks on the British charts (!) - and listening to it again now, I can easily see why. I wasn't listening to this kind of music much at the time, but I do appreciate good pop music when I hear it - and this is good pop.

I also appreciate a good sister when I see one, and I have really lucked out. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in crime growing up - and I miss her and love her very much. The song Angels by Robbie Williams is the least I can play for her birthday! Happy birthday, Elin!

2017 - July 24 - She's Leaving Home

So yes, it's been 50 years since Sgt. Pepper shook the world, so I played the original stereo mix in my car on the way home from work again on Friday. I was singing along, probably pretty loudly, to the title track, With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Getting Better, Fixing A Hole, and then... She's Leaving Home. My heart still drops when She's Leaving Home plays. The lyrics are pitch perfect - in many ways a companion piece to Revolver's Eleanor Rigby - and the line that always gets me is "She breaks down and cries to her husband, 'daddy, our baby's gone.'" It is a devastating line. The alternating points of view creates an emotional tension that really counteracts the sweet melody - and I love it. I couldn't find the original online, but I did find one from Paul McCartney's Back In The World album - with his great band that he still is touring with!

2017- July 23 - De Nære Ting

Today, my grandma would have turned 105 years old. I still miss her - just like I did a year ago. I miss the way she would make sure that I got enough to eat - and then some - before telling me I needed to lose weight. She would probably be all over my hair and beard, telling me that I needed to cut both - she used to be after my long hair when I was a teenager again. But I never doubted that she loved me. And I loved her.

She also loved music, especially old, Norwegian standards. I found a version of a song she loved that I am positive she would not like - but I like it, so I thought why not? She still liked the song, at least. And it is a beautiful song. The singer, Ole Paus, has an approach to singing that is similar to Bob Dylan - it's all about the feeling and not about perfect pitch... Here is De Nære Ting, a song about remembering the little things, originally made famous in Norway by Kurt Foss and Reidar Bøe, better known as Radiofantomene (The Radio Phantoms). Their harmonies were beautiful, but since I don't have that version in my private collection, I give you this one by Ole Paus. It is a song about remembering the little things.

And, for farmor, here is the original...

2017 - July 22 - Heroes

Six years ago today, 69 people ages 14-51 were killed in the attack on Utøya in Norway - although the age range betrays the fact that these were predominantly youth. The average age was 20, and 33 of the 69 were 17 or 18 years old. They were at a youth camp for the Norwegian Labour Party's youth organization held at an island in the Tyrifjord lake not far away from Oslo. The perpetrator, who held islamophobic and far right views, was caught and is currently serving the maximum prison sentence in Norway, which is 21 years. However, his sentence is of such a nature that it can be extended in five year increments if he is found to be a risk to others upon release.

I am positive that there are big and long discussions that could be had regarding whether the sentence is right or not - but that is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the 564 people who were gathered at Utøya that July day. The Workers Youth League's (AUF) summer camp is a well known political youth event in Norway, with major politicians giving speeches and holding seminars - in addition to all other possible shenanigans that tend to go on when you have that many youth from fourteen and into their twenties gathered in a relatively secluded area for a week's time.

When I heard the news six years ago, it hit me hard. I never went to Utøya - although I was a member of AUF for a while - but I did do my fair share of political youth camps. My camps were issue based, as I was a member of both DNTU and NGU, Norway's two leading youth teetotaling organizations, until they merged as Juvente 25 years ago today. The thought of idealistic youth, gathering to discuss what they believe in (as well as having fun), being attacked that way felt like an attack on MY summers. On MY values. On MY rights. And while I wasn't personally affected, it still hit me.

And so today, I want to play one of my favorite songs, written by one of my all-time favorite artists, and performed by one of my favorite bands. Robert Fripp, who has led King Crimson pretty much from the beginning, was asked by David Bowie to provide his guitar on his Heroes album from 1977. So 40 years ago, Fripp packed his guitar and travelled to Berlin, to Hansa Studios, where U2 later would return to reinvent themselves on Achtung! Baby, and teamed up with David Bowie and his producer Brian Eno. The result was pure magic. Last year, Fripp returned to Berlin with King Crimson, and they recorded this version of Heroes, and I would like to dedicate this to everyone taking a non-violent stand for everything they believe in, especially our youth. We need people to be active - because while the Washington Post rightfully claims that Democracy Dies In Darkness, democracy also dies with silence and passivity.