Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2010, Page 13

Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.12.2010, Page 13
Music | Valur Gunnarsson Bringing It All Back Home: Three Icelandic Dylans IN THE 1960S, pOp MUSIC IN ICELANd WAS OFTEN REFERREd TO AS BÍTLATóN- LIST (“BEATLE MUSIC”) ANd TOdAy MANy EVEN SpEAK OF BÍTLAáRIN (“THE BEATLE yEARS”). dESpITE THE pROXIMITy OF THE AMERICAN NAVAL BASE ANd US ARMEd FORCES RAdIO, MUSICAL INFLUENCES HERE MOSTLy CAME FROM THE UK. Some say that this was because the rough sailor types of Keflavík (known as Bítlabærinn or “Beatle- town”) found a kinship with the scene in Liverpool, others that it was because most Icelandic musicians went to London to buy records unavailable here. In any case, Bob Dylan and folk rock made relatively little impact here in the ‘60s. Perhaps the real reason was that Iceland had almost no proper con- cert venues where people could just go and listen. Rather, rock music was enjoyed at drunken country balls and was decidedly more for the feet than the mind. FOUNdING FATHERS ANd OTHER MISFITS They say that in Iceland everything happens five years too late. So it was only in the early ‘70s, ironi- cally when Dylan’s influence in the English-speak- ing world was at a low, that echoes of him could be heard here. Hörður Torfason was the first major singer- songwriter to emerge in Iceland. On his first album in 1970, he wrote music to other people’s poems. By his second, in 1971, he was finding his own voice as a lyricist. The next year, a young man who had been work- ing as a night watchman in Norway recorded his début album. The album, named after its creator, Megas, was iconoclastic in more ways than one, dealing with some of Iceland’s most esteemed he- roes. We meet national poet Jónas Hallgrímsson lying around syphilis-infected and drunk, and hear that the settlement of Iceland itself was an unfortu- nate mistake by the nation’s founder. That album, as well as subsequent ones, established Megas as something of a national poet in his own right. Meanwhile, Hörður came out of the closet and told Icelanders he was gay, one of the first prominent Icelanders to do so. The response was somewhat less than celebratory, and forced him to relocate temporarily to Denmark. He soon returned, and became a strong gay rights advocate. LAXNESS ANd ELVIS Megas eventually established himself as a master of the Icelandic language, though initially many disputed his use of slang and English or Danish ‘loan words’ mixed with highly literary Icelandic. In 1979, after a slew of brilliant albums, he retired to go to art school. In the early 1980s a new troubadour emerged, one influenced by both Megas and Hörður Torfa as well as Dylan. His name was Bubbi Morthens, and he almost instantly eclipsed both of his Icelandic forerunners in terms of sales. Urged on by Bubbi, Megas re-emerged in the mid-’80s to near-respect- ability and ever greater critical and commercial success. In 1988, master and apprentice Megas and Bubbi teamed up to record the album ‘Bláir drau- mar’, which was intended to rescue the faltering re- cord label Grammið from bankruptcy. This might have been successful, had the album not included a track called ‘Litlir sætir strákar’ (“Cute little boys”), sung from a paedophile’s viewpoint. Both album and label tanked, and Megas spent roughly a decade and a half in the commercial wilderness, at least partly due to this one song. The album was later re-released on two different CDs—one for each art- ist—and is currently unavailable in its entirety. Even though usually broke and despite lucrative of- fers, Megas was the very model of artistic integrity, refusing all offers of using his songs for advertise- ments. He often had problems getting his music released by record labels, and his house was paid for by a former backing singer of his called Björk [some of you might be familiar...]. Megas, who once said that he grew up with readings of Halldór Lax- ness’ works in one ear and Elvis singing into the other, was nevertheless in the year 2000 celebrat- ed along with Laxness as one of Iceland’s greatest writers of all time. In early 2008, his career went through a commercial resurgence with a new band and two new albums that outsold previous output. Megas, the rock ’n’ roll Laxness, was belatedly going through his Elvis phase. (NOT JUST) TALKING ‘BOUT A REVOLUTION Even though his financial troubles should have been behind him, it was at this point that Megas sold one of his classic songs to Toyota (perhaps in- spired by Dylan, who was by now doing Cadillac commercials). A few months later, the economy col- lapsed. Coincidence? Probably not. Re-enter Hörður Torfason. Largely ignored in Iceland by the general public, apart from his an- nual and usually sold-out autumn concert, it was Hörður who now stepped forth. Trained as a theatre director and hardened by his civil rights struggle on behalf of the gay community, he began organising the weekly protests that later escalated into the pots and pans revolution. Many troubadours have sung about revolution throughout the years, but Hörður may be the first one to actually make it happen. He has stepped out of the shadow of his contempo- raries and surpassed them all, at least in terms of direct political influence. Dylan, surely, never did this. THE TRIALS ANd TRIBULATIONS OF 1988 1988 did not only see the Megas-Bubbi team up. The Big Three, Bubbi, Megas and Hörður Torfa jointly held a Concert Against Aids (as it was known) in Háskólabíó. Bubbi was then at his peak, Iceland’s biggest selling artist by far, and the other two were also enjoying commercial resurgence. The concert, however, was not a success. Megas later quipped in a Fréttablaðið interview that few had attended as they were afraid of catching the disease, as many had misconceptions about it at the time. The con- cert was released on VHS, and again Megas joked that a third of the printing had an American thriller with the music to the concert, another third had the visuals with soundtrack to said crime film, while only a third had both correct sound and vision. That same year, a band calling themselves Dýrið gengur laust (“The animal walks freely”) released a spoof called ‘Bláir draumar’ (“Blue Dreams”), af- ter the Bubbi/Megas album. The song graphically detailed a homosexual orgy of the country’s three leading troubadours. It was in poor taste, but leg- end has it that Bubbi, the most physical of the three, actually paid the songwriter a visit and clocked him for his labours. Perhaps that is why people in gen- eral have been reluctant to criticise him (perhaps this writer may be expecting a similar visit?). THE GOOd... Again, in 1988, the Big Three of the acoustic scene converged in Háskólabíó. They had been coming from very different places, and were to go on to more different places still. Ironically, it was Hörður Torfa who started out as the most commercial. In the early ‘70s, he was something of a golden boy with his blonde hair and blue eyes, working as a model as well as a singer before his coming out put a temporary halt to his career. Despite not being overtly political as a song- writer, it was he who was to have the most direct impact on Icelandic society. First he took part in founding Samtökin’78 (called The National Queer Organisation in English) which certainly must be one of the most successful in history. In the three decades since its founding, gays in Iceland have gone from a closeted existence to more or less complete acceptance. One of the last hurdles was crossed this year, as the National Church has now accepted same-sex marriages. Thirty years later, Hörður started his one-man show outside the Par- liament building, which escalated into the biggest protests in Icelandic history and brought down the government. ...THE BAd... Bubbi first appeared a decade later than Hörður, as an angry young man and part of the then-rising punk movement. He never fit in easily, being some years older (at 24) and a lot more rock and roll than his teenage contemporaries. His politics, clearly left wing and honed by almost a decade working as a labourer in fish factories around the countryside, were in direct opposition to the punks’ urban an- archism. The fact that he became the one to break into the mainstream probably says something about the mood at the time, as well as the power of his performances. The first side of his seminal début ‘Ísbjarnar- blús’ was electric and the second was acoustic (much like Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’), and ever since he has gone between the two for- mats. Although still popular in the ’90s, he started dabbling in commercials. In early 2005, he took the final step and sold his entire catalogue to Sjóvá in- surance company and Glitnir Bank. Bubbi again embodied the spirit of the times and when the economy collapsed he went down with it, in financial terms at least, being heavily in debt. He has lately become something of an apolo- gist for disgraced bankers, one of very few Iceland- ers to do so. No longer the spokesman of the work- ing classes, but perhaps we can still find some of his old punk spirit in going so brazenly against popular opinion? ...ANd THE dOWNRIGHT BIzARRE Megas has always been a wild card. Although he obviously abhors the Conservatives, he seems equally happy to take shots at the left or any group that seems to him to be too self-righteous. He even presented his selling out to Toyota as a practical joke against those who were too dogmatic against Who's your favourite Icelandic Dylan? At one point or the other, they've all been pretty great. The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 18 — 2010 13 CONTINUES ON pAGE 16 Megas / Photo by Aldis Pálsdóttir Hörður Torfa / Photo by Gúndi Bubbi / Photo by Spessi

x

Reykjavík Grapevine

Direct Links

If you want to link to this newspaper/magazine, please use these links:

Link to this newspaper/magazine: Reykjavík Grapevine
https://timarit.is/publication/943

Link to this issue:

Link to this page:

Link to this article:

Please do not link directly to images or PDFs on Timarit.is as such URLs may change without warning. Please use the URLs provided above for linking to the website.