All aboard for a trip to Sweden! Hurra! One of my grandmothers was from Sweden. The Muppets have the Swedish chef, with his creepy real hands (and I guess Swedes don't like the character, I've never been crazy about him either, he's no Roosevelt Franklin that's for sure). Sweden also reminds me of Bjorn Borg, ABBA, Pippi Longstocking, and the excellent film Mitt liv som hund (My Life As A Dog). And finally, let's not forget one of the coolest capital names, Stockholm, home of the fantastic psychedelic rock band, Dungen.
Dungen translates as "the grove", not dungeon, which is what I've always assumed. Dungeon in Swedish is fängelsehåla as in "kasta honom i fängelsehålan!" (throw him in the dungeon!).
Gjort bort sig ("Made a fool of himself"), is from Dungen's excellent third album, Ta det lugnt ("Take It Easy", låt inte ljudet av dina egna hjul göra dig galen). The song has a festive opening, like we are enjoying a merry romp through the forest. Check when he gets to the part around 0:58 and his voice becomes all reverbed, very much like Krzysztof Klenczon on Nie przejdziemy do historii. Cool fake out at the end, as the tune bounces off into a cosmic candyland with about 0:45 to go. There's even a second fade out with 0:17 to go. Otrolig!
The main dude in Dungen, the Dudegen, is Gustav Ejstes, the whole band is primarily him, unless he's touring and then he can't simultaneously play all the instruments himself on stage. I've seen Dungen a couple of times, the first time Gustav got pissed or was in the moment or it was an accident, and he tipped his keyboard over on stage. He seemed like a man possessed.
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