The Music and the Revolution in the Sixties

So, ladies and lassies, let's continue the history lesson after the interlude about why us Golden Ladies are so knowledgeable about music.

I left you hanging in the mid 60s. Today's story begins in the spring of 65. I had begun my journey leftwards and had older friends that were active anarchists, writers, artists and situationists . My musical taste at this time was leaning towards Billie Holliday and songs from the Spanish civil war. Rather limited I know, but then that's the way it is when your 16.

With my brother and parents we went to Copenhagen for the first of May holidays. I knew a Danish guy from a meeting of the situationist international so we hooked up with him. Who wants to spend a weekend in Copenhagen with your parents when you're 16? He was also active in the anarchistic movement Provos. We in Gothenburg were also much influenced by this Dutch movement. But we called ourself "Vulgär Anarkister" - vulgar anarchists.

Chairman Mao's little red book had just been released in the west and we had copies of it. Armed with that and our youthful spirits we sat out to "preach" to the citizenry. Waving our little red books we rushed along "Ströget", THE street in Copenhagen, shouting: Provo, Anarki, Mao. Now and then we would stop, my brother and I in a worshipping position on our knees while our Danish friend read out loud. Then up, running and shouting. We repeated this on "Rådhuspladsen" and on the courtyard of the royal castle "Amalienborg".

Well this haven't been much about music so far. But maybe it gives a feeling of how the mood was among us on the far left in the mid to late 60s. Anything was possible and the old, rotten society would crumble any moment.

As the decade progressed the political climate all over the West became more and more radical, leftist and revolutionary. Not that we ever were a majority. (Except for a short period 68 in France.) To a large extent the music and the "youth culture" paved the way for this. As did the growing opposition all over the world against USA's criminal war in Vietnam. In Sweden the left was dominated by the different brands of communists, we anarchists called them all stalinists.

The domestic music scene changed drastically in Sweden in the second part of the sixties. A lot of groups rejected the big labels and started their own independent labels. The music varied from folk to very experimental. The texts became very important, sometimes poetic, sometimes political. And some of the artists became popular even among "the common man".

At the end of the decade the popular music all over the world had changed. Gone were Perry Como, and only old folks were listening to Frank Sinatra. Even Elvis tried a shot at being socially concious with In the Ghetto. We got great artists like Jimie Hendrix (I heard him at Gröna Lund and my oldest daughter played with his child at Eriksdalsbadet) Janis Joplin, the Fugs, Mothers of Invention and many more. In Sweden we got Nationalteatern, Nynningen, Träd, gräs och stenar, Hola Bandola Band, Philemon Arthur and the Dung.....................