It’s always good to discover new music, particularly when it belongs to a genre you don’t listen to that often. But wait, I might be getting ahead of myself a little here.
I often watch videos on YouTube because I’ve got nothing better to do. Actually, that isn’t strictly true. What I mean is, I watch YouTube videos because I can’t be arsed to do things that involve standing up. Anyway, one series of videos I watched several of recently was called something along the lines of “Metal Musicians Recommend Non-Metal Albums for Metal Fans”. Mostly, the videos involved dudes with long hair and beards admitting they actually liked Michael Jackson’s Bad. But one guy (whose name I don’t remember, but I’m reasonably sure he was in a band I’m not that fussed about) really pushed the envelope.
He recommend an old, Swedish, keyboard-based prog album based on The Lord of the Rings, daringly saying something like “no metal fan will dislike this”. Well, that’s like a red rag to a bull, isn’t it? So I went on Spotify and found the album in question, determined to prove him wrong.
But the only person who was proved wrong was me.
Sagan Om Ringen was recorded by Svenska proggist Bo Hansson and a couple of session musicians in a cottage on an island off Stockholm in 1969 before being repackaged as the more snappy Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings for international release after it proved quite popular among hippyish Tolkien enthusiasts.
It’s a 13-track album that would almost fit on one side of a C-90 cassette and you can immediately tell it’s from 1969. The unmistakable keyboard sound of that era flows forth and you realise Hansson is like a pickled herring-eating Mike Oldfield. Leaving Shire is the opening track. It doesn’t exactly scream Middle Earth, but with a bit of added mellow guitar over the keyboard meanderings, it serves as a trippy intro to what is to come.
The album continues with folky melodies and a little bit of Jon Lordian fingerwork. There’s a definite experimental aspect to the album and it couldn’t scream “WE’RE ON DRUGS!” any more unless Hansson were to interject and yell “VI ANVÄNDER NARKOTIKA!”
It might not be “all mine, all mine”, but Fog on the Barrow-Downs delivers more of the same groovy madness. In fact, the album continues delivering the kind of music that would be an excellent soundtrack to a jazz cigarette-smoking session. Or an evening on the ‘shrooms.
I already made a Mike Oldfield comparison, but this is really the closest thing you’ll ever get to something like Tubular Bells, which is quite the compliment given that Oldfield himself couldn’t even recreate the magic of his original work in the multiple ill-advised sequels he attempted.
The playing isn’t as complex and wanky as you’ll find on many prog rock albums, but it shouldn’t be all about making it difficult for other people to play it should they want to. It doesn’t particularly make me think of The Lord of the Rings either, probably due to the lack of penny whistle solos, but it doesn’t matter. Think of the title of any instrumental work and you’ll probably find exactly the same situation.
I’m not sure if it’s essential listening for fans of metal, but it’s certainly worth a playthrough if you’re a fan of instrumental music, weirdness or drugs. And if you like all three, you may just have hit the jackpot here.
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