Monday 22 October 2018

Singer Lena Nyman plus Egerbladh 1976 and with Rune Andersson1974






Who the heck is the girl on the bottom?

Lena Nyman was/is a Swedish actress, as you can tell from certain spoken passages that remind me of the godawful and thankfully forgotten Ingmar Bergman movies of the 70s that my father used to rave about and today seem so hilariously dated and over the top (note the two collaborated in this movie).  Back when I was into European art movies I became aware of the infamous "I am curious (yellow)" which turned out to be idiotic, and guess what, she was the star of that movie.  (Pretty sure you could find it on youtube.  I don't recommend you try though.)  Very few people would be familiar with it today I'm sure, it was released in 1967, "the summer of love" and, I suppose, achieved notoriety due to the fact she spent half the movie completely naked, which was unusual for the time.  I guess after that she had to cover up her body because she moved into the musical sphere where she made a string of albums in the 70s, starting with these two I am presenting today, and mostly with songwriter Rune Andersson.

Musically I was hoping for something along the lines of our brilliant discovery Carita Holmstrom but this is slightly more generic acoustic seventies pop in the singer-songwriter vein, that is, think James Taylor minus any arrangement or production, and also, take out all the bluesy songs, and on top of that, remove most of the inspiration (I mean, James Taylor, objectively, was a fantastic songwriter even if you hate him you can't argue with the number of his successes).

In the 1974 album whose name I will not copy and paste she appears in collaboration with Rune Andersson who put out an album a year for something like 2 decades, unbelievably prolific or perhaps unrestrainable, considering the simple quality of his songs.  An example of their work, with the aforementioned over-serious and thus hilarious intro:





The 1976 album wherein our former posting (that is, this) Berndt Egerbladh wrote the music is a bit more listenable, the same influences of classical and jazz bubble up, as you can determine for yourself:





Finally, I must apologize for saying I don't think she's very effective as a singer, with one half of her brain seemingly on the theater stage performing drama.  Perhaps she should have continued with the naked movies, which, apparently grossed millions.  ('Grossed' in its two definitions here.)
Anyways next post we'll have a complete change in direction again, back to the well-clothed fusion I so much love.

3 comments: