Debbie Cameron & Tommy Seebach

Artist: Debbie Cameron & Tommy Seebach

LP: 7" single

Song: "I See the Moon"

[ listen ]

Here's a happy little ditty from 1980 that I picked up on my trip to Norway with my sister back in 2017. "I See the Moon" has Eurovision Song Contest written all over it...which makes sense, because that's where Debbie and Tommy worked together to create pop music magic in 1979, representing Denmark on the show. Incidentally, Tommy and Debbie both had the same birthday, September 14th, though he was born nine years before she was. 

 

[ Debbie Cameron: born September 14, 1958 ]

[ Tommy Seebach: September 14, 1949 — March 31, 2003 ]

The Savage Rose

Artist: The Savage Rose

LP: Your Daily Gift

Song: "Lightly Come, Lightly Go (Song For an Unborn Child - Sarah's Song)"
[ listen ]

Here's another beautiful thing I picked up at the Kirkland record store last weekend, before everyone died. I had never heard of The Savage Rose before, but they've evidently been releasing LPs since 1968 ("Your Daily Gift" is their fourth, from 1970) and they continue to be rather popular in their native Denmark. 

I'm fascinated by the blond, bespectacled and bed-headed identical twin brothers, Thomas and Anders Koppel, that are part The Savage Rose. Singer Annisette Hansen married Thomas and became Annisette Koppel. How did she choose Thomas over Anders? Did she ever get them mixed up? Is that Thomas she stands with, slightly apart from the rest of the group, in the open field in the photo below? And then in the large gatefold photo, we find the Koppel twins huddled together, separated from Annisette by a large, dry-looking tree. The twins look wistfully on as Annisette coyly plays footsies with another blond hunk in the band. Could that be guitarist Nils Tuxen, who replaced Flemming Ostermann after the release of the group's first album? 

Visit Wikipedia here and here and here and here and all will be revealed. 

As I gaze at Anders and Thomas, I can't help but think of the handsome identical twin brothers who work at my local neighborhood Fred Meyer. Swarthy and friendly, they wear the company uniform and sport matching mustaches. They always seem to be working the same shift, doing the same work. Yesterday they were stacking oranges. Once, a few months ago, I entered an aisle containing boxed rice and found the twins standing on footstools across from each other on opposite sides of the aisle. They were conversing good-naturedly as they added more product to the shelves. I had the sudden urge to film a music video right then and there!   

[ The Savage Rose ]

Jorgen Ingmann

Artist: Jorgen Ingmann

LP: Apache

Song: "Pepe"

[ listen ]

Somehow it seems a tad less offensive when a Scandinavian person dresses up like a "ferocious-looking" Native  American chief than when folks here in the USA do it. Jørgen Ingmann took the title track of his 1961 "Apache" LP all the way to #2 on the American charts, and "Pepe," which perpetuates an entirely different set of ethnic stereotypes, peaked at #15 on the singles charts in Germany. You can read more about the life and career of guitar virtuoso Mr. Ingmann, who'll be celebrating his 87th birthday next month, on Wikipedia here.

Snapshot

Artist: Snapshot

LP: Souvenir

Song: "Sorry Sir"

[ listen ]

The final record store I visited on my trip to Washington, DC last week was Som Records on 14th Street NW, a few blocks from all the others clustered together on 18th Street. Just like at Red Onion, I found lots of great stuff on my first visit to Som Records several years ago, and they had plenty of neat records for sale this time too. This 1983 dance-pop record by Snapshot, who're sorta like B-52s-meets-ABBA at the ESPRIT outlet store in Denmark, is just one of the interesting things I found. These gals evidently don't like playing with toy soldiers, and this particular copy of their "Souvenir" album once belonged to a Johnnie Akim-Willimas of Tåstrup, but that's all I was able to learn about this dynamic Danish duo from the LP sleeve, and I couldn't find much English-language info about them on the web either. If anyone can fill me in, it would be appreciated. I did, however, manage to dig up this wonderful Snapshot video from 1984:

Snapshot on YouTube:

[ "A la Carte" ]
 

[ the outside of Som Records — Washington, DC ]

[ the inside of Som Records — Washington, DC ]

Keld & the Donkeys

Artist: Keld & the Donkeys

LP: Det Er Så Skønt

Song: "Det Er Så Skønt"

[ listen ]

Here's a lively tune from a 1967 Danish record I picked up at 2nd Avenue Records during my brief Portland getaway last month. In the late 1970s, Keld evidently traded in his Donkeys for some gal named Hilda and they've been making hits together ever since. You can read about that here, join the Keld & the Donkeys Facebook group here, and click the video link below to hear someone's interpretation of a popular Keld & the Donkeys song as played on a Yamaha PSR-S900.

Keld & the Donkeys on YouTube:

[ "Ved Landsbyens Gadekær" ]

 

 

Nina & Frederik

Artist: Nina & Frederik

LP: 7" single

Song: "Mango Vendor"

[ listen ]

This lovely calypso number from great Danes Nina & Frederik van Pallandt goes well with my Monday morning coffee. Singing together since they were tots, Frederik & Nina got married (to each other) in 1960, a year after this 4-track 7" EP was released. Sadly, the couple slit up just nine years later. Frederik and his second wife were killed by pirates in 1994 on the day after his 60th birthday, whereas Nina went on to a career in Hollywood, appearing in several Robert Altman films in the 1970s and '80s. You can read more about this handsomely-dressed duo on Wikipedia here, then read about them separately on IMDB here and here.

[ Frederik von Pallandt: May 14, 1934 — May 15, 1994 ]

[ Nina von Pallandt: born July 15, 1932 ]

Ole Hoyer

Artist: Ole Hoyer

LP: Eric Soya's "17"
Song: "Reflections In the House"
[ listen ]

I picked up this soundtrack for a few bucks when I was in New York City earlier this year. It's evidently from a sexy 1965 Danish film chronicling the transformation of a naive seventeen-year-old boy who, through a series of erotic escapades, gradually turns into a man. I like this track in particular because you can actually hear young Jacob drifting innocently, lazily, nakedly through his house at dusk—when suddenly he sees his reflection in the hallway mirror and notices his jutting erection! Puzzled and bewildered, he fondles it and it responds by nodding in silent approval. This both excites and confuses Jacob, so he touches it again and... well anyway, it's a nice song. Here (in green) is a Danish person's film review from IMDB, with the soundtrack liner notes in pink below that. I've also included photos from the back of the LP with captions of dialogue taken from the film.

I first saw Sytten in Denmark when I was about 19. Being
the right age and in the right place, I LOVED it. It captured
the Denmark I had come to love better than any other Danish
film. Back in the States at age 23, the film turned up in my
college-town theater, so I took my fiancé in order to "share
some of my Danish experience." What I thought was a fun,
boyish romp, was for her, the dirtiest thing she had ever seen.
Now that my own sons are past that age, I'd love to see it
again to see how it plays in my memory. I particularly re-
member the funniest scene with the lad struggling with
masturbation and the local priest trying to, literally, help
him out with it, "So we can repent together later." Then,
after his own awkward experience with one of the farm
girls, entering the farm house and seeing the maid on her
knees scrubbing the floor. She had been coming on to him
even though she was old enough to be his mother, but now
with some experience under his belt, he quietly sneaked up
behind her and gave her the thrill of her life. The older
woman/young boy is a recurring theme in the Danish
coming of age novels I've read, and this supposed
autobiographical portrait of the writer fit right in.


* * * * * * *

Eric Soya's "17" — The Motion Picture for people over 18!

"ERIC SOYA'S '17'" is, as the name implies, a very personal
film. Soya, a 71-year-old Danish author, wrote the autobio-
graphical novel '17' in such a way as to recapture the confusing,
sometimes humorous time in a young man's life when he
passes from adolescence to manhood.

The film is a faithful study of the teen-ager's sexual awakening.
Annelise Meneche, in her debut as a film director, has created a
remarkable "period piece." That is, she has brilliantly recaptured
the aura of relaxed and gracious living so much a part of pre-
World War I Denmark. Critics have applauded the handsome
costumes, and the delightfully Edwardian atmosphere,
lovingly photographed in color.

The film's hero is Jacob Petersen, a widowed Professor's son,
who finds himself in that awkward stage of youth, keenly aware
of the presence of lovely girls, but still too immature and inex-
perienced to know what to do about them. But before the motion
picture runs its course, with the aid of several enthusiastic
young ladies, he learns his lesson well. Some of the scenes
reach the epitome of film frankness. Miss Meneche, in de-
lineating Jacob's sexual breakthrough, places "Eric Soya's
'17'" in the same controversial category as Mai Zetterling's
"Loving Couples" and Jorn Donner's "To Love."

But while some may find the film slightly shocking, no one
will fault the unusually excellent music. Setting the mood for
this story of young love, Ole Hoyer has purposely composed
a brilliant score. His title theme is tender and wistful, very
much in the same mood as Max Steiner's popular
"Theme From a Summer Place."

There are other enchanting highlights: the bouncy, barrel-
house piano of "Pioneer Express," the carnival gaity of "Danish
Pastry." "Erotic Imaginings In the Garden" comprises a variety
of themes. Beginning with a Mancini-like romantic piece (later
reprised in the love theme "Jacob and Vibeke") that flows into
the out-of-kilter chords, signifying the young man's confusion,
it eventually leads into sedate chamber music—an amazing
melding of three entirely different musical styles.

Hoyer's film score is indeed something different. Just as
Ingmar Bergman made moviegoers the world over take note
of the cinema of Scandinavia, so Hoyer now takes it a
step further with the first important Danish film score
ever to be recorded in America. Deservedly so. Listen!

"I've never been sexually awakened before."

"I will awaken you!"

"Nice ruffles."

"Hey, what's this?"

"Hold on.... I think I just started my period piece."

"It says here that we're invited!"

"You ain't nuthin' but a hound dog!..."

"Jacob, please!... must you always reach the epitome of film frankness!?"