Mercy Mercy - Meripioneerit - The Merry-Go-Round - Metropolis - Mezzoforte

MERCY MERCY

What Are We Gonna Do About It? / (Dubmix) (1985)

Minä sain tämän ihanan poppibiisin kasetille vuonna 1985, kun se oli kerran soinut radiossa. Poikkeuksellisesti nauhoitus säilyi minulla tallessa aina 2000-luvulle asti, mutta äänen- ja muu laatu nyt tietysti oli mitä oli, parikymmentä vuotta vanha kasettinauhoitus josta puuttuivat sekä alku- että lopputahdit. Niinpä himoitsin kappaleesta kunnollista kopiota tai vaikkapa oikeaa levyä.

Mercy Mercyn single julkaistiin sekä 12- että 7-tuumaisena singlenä. Jostain syystä pidempi 12-tuumainen versio on huomattavasti yleisempi. Se oli postattu YouTubeenkin, mutta jouduin huomaamaan, ettei se ole se versio joka minulla oli nauhalla. Pidempi versio oli mielestäni pilattu turhalla venkoilulla ja miksaamisella, mikä olikin leimallista 80-luvun pidemmille maksisinkkuversioille. Hain lopulta apua MusicStackista, jossa oli myynnissä aika kivasti 12-tuumaisia singlejä. Seiskatuumaista kauppasi varmaan vain pari myyjää, mutta ei se mitään. Yksikin tarjolla ollut kappale seiskatuumaista riitti minulle, jotta sain Mercy Mercyn biisin juuri sinä versiona jota kaipasin.

MERIPIONEERIT

Vietnamin linnut (1972)

Tästä levystä löysin mp3:t jostain, Pirate Baysta ehkä? Kävin lainaamassa levyn Tikkurilan kirjastosta saadakseni levynkansikuvat CD-R-kopiotani varten. Siinä olikin äheltämistä, sillä kirjaston kappale oli kansiltaan kauheassa kunnossa: reunat suojattu harmaalla teipillä, kannet täynnä kirjaston lappua ja tarraa, leimaa, kontaktimuovia, töherrystä... Ikinä en ole käyttänyt niin paljon copypastea kuin silloin kun yritin saada tästä LP:stä täydelliset etu- ja takakansikuvat aikaiseksi.

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

Listen, Listen: The Definitive Collection (2005)

Merry-Go-Roundilla oli kaksi isoa hittiä, Live ja You're a Very Lovely Woman. Ne erottuvat tällä kokoelmalla - joka itse asiassa kokoaa yhteen bändin ainoan albumin sekä Emitt Rhodesin mainion soololevyn The American Dream (1971) materiaalin sekä nipun muita kappaleita - selvästi ikimuistoisimpina paloina. Koko CD on kuitenkin täynnä ihanaa aurinkoista poppia, ja Rhodesin soolo on aivan samaa tasoa Merry-Go-Round -materiaalin kanssa. Tai itse asiassa The American Dream oli käytännössä Merry-Go-Round -levy, bändin loppukauden äänityksiä jotka olivat saaneet vähän studiokäsittelyä osakseen.

Rhodesin soolouran kohtalo oli traaginen. Dunhill Records vaati häneltä uutta albumia joka kuudes kuukausi, vaatimus joka oli mahdoton täyttää ellei ollut Klaus Wunderlichin tai James Lastin kaltainen liukuhihnaviihdemaakari. Rhodes tunsi 70-luvun alussa itsensä niin vapaaksi, kun hänellä oli oma studio jossa häärätä mielin määrin ja tehdä musiikkia kokonaan omilla ehdoillaan, mutta hän oli myös perfektionisti. Nämä seikat merkitsivät nopeaa loppua soolouralle.

Eri Esittäjiä: METROPOLIS

Various Artists: Metropolis (1980)

FinnArctic-esittely:

"The end of the 1970's was a period of change in Finnish rock'n'roll. Punk turned over the old authorities and introduced a new, energetic rock'n'roll generation, that woke many people from their sleep. The time of passivity was over.

The young people who didn't relate to the punk movement, adopted the 1950's style and the type of white people's rock music played at that time. The youth press made them "young rebels", like James Dean.

Older musicians had to make way for the younger ones in public, and find that their popularity had waned. This forced them to re-estimate themselves and their music, revive and strengthen themselves. The coexistence of the new and the old generation of musicians, and the competition for respect and publicity kept the creative powers up in both leagues. The success of one band helped other bands to push themselves forward. The eagerness and ambitions grew.

The last summer and autumn of the 1970's formed the hottest period. The most resourced of punk bands had developed into skillful units. Amateurishness had evolved into professionalism, the first LP's had been released and the second ones were about to be finished. The groups gigged a lot, attracting attention and popularity. The capital city, Helsinki, became the center, the "Metropolis", where the youth operated most actively. The strong need of accentuating an own identity gave birth to youth gangs with their own music and their own symbols. The punkers had their energetic and loud music, the rockers - usually called "diinit" or "diinarit" (the deans) or "fiftarit" (the Fifties people) - had their lightly bopping rockabilly music. In the summer concerts at Kaivopuisto the rockers used to throw eggs at punk bands playing on stage. The relations between punks and deans took violent forms, even though music attempted to cool down the heat.

Another center for happenings in Helsinki was the rock club in Kallio, Kill City, invaded by youngsters and renovated into their own music center. The Kill City club, the studio, and punk group Maukka Perusjätkä & Sotaa Apatiaa Vastaan attracted a lot of attention in newspapers and TV. The "Sotaa Apatiaa Vastaan" (War Against Apathy) movement spread into other cities and eventually took on more organized forms.

In September the decision-makers in Helsinki ordered Kill City to be demolished. The grief about losing this great rock club was relieved by live music association ELMU's own Lepakkoluola (Bat Cave), which was originally a long-serving hostel for alcoholics. New wave hippies, punkers, fifties rockers et. al. renovated it into a new music center for themselves.

The third important gigging place was (and still is!) Tavastia Club, which served the older generation. New bands carried on with Tavastia's honourable rock'n'roll tradition with good concerts and won new audiences.

This triple album "Metropolis" is a documentary of this period. It portrays the state of Finnish rock'n'roll at the turn of the decade; in what direction bands had developed after the punk revolution, and what the future looked like.

"Metropolis" assembled both new and old generation groups, punk rock, rock'n'roll, rockabilly and Shadows-type "rautalanka" music into one whole. On this triple LP young people played together in harmony for a good cause: good music and a need to express themselves. And it wasn't just about something as abstract as music, it was about life that pulsated stongly on the streets and in the basements.

Every performance in its own way reflected the thoughts, state and maturing of these young people. The compilation contains many different views about music and life, and they're all essential. These live recordings give an opportunity to hear the bands live and fiery, whether it's about pop, punk or rockabilly.

The performances were recorded in Kill City and Tavastia. Most of the groups were from Helsinki, except for Ratsia (Pihtipudas) and Vaavi (Salo). These two bands give this compilation a kind of colour and perspective lacking from the youth of major cities. Ratsia's gig - recorded in January 1980 in Tavastia - is one of the highlights of "Metropolis". Despite being exhausted after much touring, they give everything on stage, without sparing a single ounce of energy. The same feeling could be experienced in Pelle Miljoona & 1980's Tavastia gig in December 1979 - the farewell gig for this band. The incredible energy of both the band and the audience resulted in an unforgettable night.

A metropolis is an urbane environment: asphalt, concrete and cars. Young people need space, and they demand it too. When you have no other place to go to, you have to act out in the streets. Life is restless.

This restlessness and frustration can be heard in the fierce rock'n'roll of Briard and Widows. On stage, Widows were chaos personified. They were the ultimate expression of the environment they lived in.

Widows, Briard, Rock Boys and Ducktails played a central role in transforming the wooden building of Kallio's youth center into the Kill City club. The fight for keeping this club led into demonstrations in August-September 1979, and these bands took part in them. Widows, Briard, and Rock Boys + The Agents were recorded during these happenings. When Maukka Perusjätkä & Sotaa Apatiaa Vastaan performed out in the Kill City yard, the building was already being demolished by bulldozers.

"Metropolis" is immense. Although many performances are in English, the songs tell a lot about Finland. You can't just adopt an indifferent approach to it."

- Slightly modified from the liner notes by Juhani Kansi -



NOTE: The CD edition of "Metropolis", released in 1996, is a single disc edition that omits all the rockabilly, rock'n'roll and guitar instrumental performances and only includes the punk rock material. Here you have the complete original 3-LP version, including the bands that were left out from the CD reissue: Jim Pembroke Band, Rock Boys, The Agents, Ducktails and Tuomari Nurmio & Köyhien Ystävät. On the original vinyl, these non-punk performances were sprinkled here and there in between the punk band performances, but here I've tucked them to the end of the whole set.

Enjoy! This is an important chunk of Finnish music history!

MEZZOFORTE

Observations (1984)

Rising (1984)

Islantilainen jazzrock-ihme Mezzoforte oli parhaimmillaan mahdottoman kiva bändi. Levyhyllyyni kelpaisi muutama muukin levy, toistaiseksi löytyvät vain nämä. Pitäisikö koluta enemmän divareiden alelevylaareja? Mezzoforten tuotanto on tosin luvattoman epätasaista, heidän hyvät biisinsä pystyy kokoamaan tunnin ja vartin mittaiseksi paketiksi vaikka albumeja on syntynyt 16. Onneksi ne hyvät biisit ovat sitten minulle aivan mielettömän nautittavia, kaikesta kaupallisesta kosiskelustaan huolimatta.

Heidän isoin hittinsä taisi olla Garden Party, biisi jonka tunsin hyvin jo 1984 radiosta ja isän ostamasta kokoelmatuplasta.