Category: Uncategorized
In the rearview mirror – YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
The year was 1990 and I had my own heavy metal radio-show at Radio MCB.
Yngwie Malmsteen was one of my absolute idols and I was still new in the game. I had only been working as a rock-journalist for about a year, maybe a little longer, when Yngwie called the radio station, live on the air, during my show.
It was a spontaneous, exclusive thing, cause he was only home on vacation and nobody even knew he was there. So how did that happen?
Connections. Isn’t that how everything happens usually?
I was working at this weekly called Hemmets Journal (FICK-Journalen) at the time and somehow, I don’t even remember how, I got to know the mother of the Johansson-brothers (Anders Johansson – drums, who is now with Hammerfall, but used to play with Yngwie back then, and Jens Johansson – keyboards, who is now with Stratovarius, who used to play with Dio and Yngwie).
Else Johansson was a tough and determined lady and I remember talking to her a few times when I called the house to set up an interview with Jens or Anders, which happened quite a lot back then because they had so much going on all the time.
She liked me. I think that was my luck, because she was more than happy to “pull some strings” even when I didn’t ask for it.
The Yngwie-thing was one of those things.
She asked if I knew that he was home and that he got engaged to his girlfriend Erika “yesterday”. She knew that I was a big fan of Yngwie and few journalists back then actually LIKED Yngwie.
He was constantly involved in bar fights and stuff, so he was great to follow if you wanted a scandal to write about. But very few actually cared about his music, it was always about what a stuck up diva he was. So Else thought he should be happy that he had someone in his corner, who actually liked his music.
She said she would have him call the radio station. It’s so long ago now that I don’t remember all the details anymore, but sure enough, Yngwie called!
As far as I know, that was the only thing he bothered to do on that short visit to Stockholm.
It’s all in Swedish but it’s still a cool thing to have, cause it’s as exclusive as it gets. :)
Apologies for the poor audio-quality, but this is from a worn out cassette that’s 21 years old. If we sound like Donald and Daisy Duck it’s for that same reason.
Still, it brings back nice memories. Yngwie RULED back in those days, I wish I could go back in time and re-live his absolutely fantastic gig at Olympen in Lund, Sweden, 1988. Those were the days..! 
Songs before and after
I was out driving with my sister the other day and “Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City” started playing in the car stereo. She said she loved that song, but was well aware that it wasn’t Whitesnake’s own tune. It’s an old R & B-song from the 70’s actually, but not too many people know that. Whitesnake have somehow made it their own.
Some songs just work better the second time. Maybe because the timing is better, or because everything can be perfected. Either way, it’s an interesting phenomenon. I went for years thinking that Diamonds and Rust and Green Manalishi were Judas Priest-originals. Probably because those were on the first Priest-album I ever bought, Unleashed In the East. I figured those were all their own songs.
I’m sure you can think of a bunch of great covers that were improved and modernized to fit a different (and often larger) audience – but here are a few that I could think of from the top of my head:
I LOVE ROCK’N’ROLL
(original by Arrows 1975 – covered by Joan Jett in 1981)
AIN’T NO LOVE IN THE HEART OF THE CITY
(original by Bobby Blue Bland 1974 – covered by Whitesnake in 1978)
DIAMONDS AND RUST
(original by Joan Baez 1975 – covered by Judas Priest in 1977)
GREEN MANALISHI
(original by Fleetwood Mac 1970 – covered by Judas Priest in 1979)
ACTION!
(original by The Sweet 1975 – covered by Def Leppard in 1993)
I DIDN’T KNOW I LOVED YOU (‘TIL I SAW YOU ROCK’N’ROLL)
(original by Gary Glitter 1972 – covered by Rock Goddess and more in 1983)
Introduction
I haven’t even presented this blog properly. I was a bit “thrown off the wagon” by the news about Gary Moore’s death, but better late than never.
Those of you who have even found this blog, already know who I am and have most likely already read my blogs on MySpace for a while.
But there might be more people visiting this along the way, so I might as well introduce myself.
I’m just not sure what title I should use. There are a few. J Music fan? Absolutely. That’s where it all started, that’s what got the whole circus rolling and it STILL keeps it rolling. Reporter? Yes – I’ve been writing about hard rock since 1988, met every hair metal band and NWOBHM-band there is, and then some. Been to thousands of concerts all over the world, lost track of how many. It’s a huge passion, something I’ll never get tired of.
Been singing in bands and as a solo-artist, you’ll find my cover of Savatage’s “Summer’s Rain” on youtube if you search for “Summer’s Rain” and Daniela. Done radio. TV. Managing bands, arranged the rock club Hard Break. Rock-DJ… I’m sure there are more fancy titles I can add to that list, but let’s just call it “music fan” to simplify things.
Music is the greatest love of my life and this blog will be about…. Rock’n’roll.
Subscribe if you want, drop me a line if you feel like it at lita77@hotmail.com
I guess that’s enough for now. Welcome and let’s see where this goes! J
Welcome
I was sitting here last night, trying to think of a good way to start this music-blog, when the news hit Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…. Gary Moore died in his sleep at the age of 58.
First I couldn’t believe it – it had only been posted on one news-site and then spread by fans and music-sites. But no “real” news-site even mentioned it. I chose to believe that it was just some kind of hoax.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that for more than ten minutes, because before I knew it, BBC published the news on their site too.
The shock and the sadness that’s spreading all over the music world now is unbelievable. Another guitar-hero has left us. It feels like it really wasn’t his time to go already.
The first LP (that’s what it was back then – vinyls…) I ever reviewed was Gary Moore’s “Victims of the Future”. The year was 1984 and I was 15. I loved that record. I loved “After the War” too. Actually, I liked most of his rock-albums. I wasn’t a big fan of the blues-era but you can’t escape the fact that he was a very influental musician and guitarist.
It’s a terrible loss to the world of rock. Gary – R.I.P – and say hello to Randy and Jimi from all of us down here….
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 