BO HANSSON: MUSIC INSPIRED BY WATERSHIP DOWN (1977)
1) Born Of The Gentle South;
2) Allegro For A Rescue; 3) Legend And Light; 4) Trial And Adversity; 5) The
Twice-Victory; 6) The Kingdom Brightly Smiles; 7) Migration Suite.
Even after ʽRabbit Musicʼ, the furry bunnies from
Richard Adams' novel still plagued Bo's mind so terribly that he had to
dedicate his entire next album to the little guys, making this his second record
completely «inspired by» a literary work. The original Swedish release was
called El-Ahrairah, after the name
given to one particular trickster rabbit in the book, but for the international
market, it was apparently thought that a more explanatory title was in order —
or perhaps the record industry people
thought the name sounded too Arabic for the eyes and ears of the Western public,
and would trigger visions of hijacked planes and terrorist attacks.
Regardless, the album never charted even with a
«safe» title, and its total lack of commercial success was one of the factors
responsible for Bo's subsequent withdrawal from the music scene. Indeed, given
that the age of prog rock's «coolness» was long gone, in 1977 you had to
conform or combust, and it is quite evident from these tunes that Hansson had
no wish whatsoever to set aside his personal muse and suck in any of the arena-rock,
disco, or New Wave influences. Instead, he just used up the last drops of
credit he'd earned from the success of Lord
Of The Rings to do the same thing as always — and then faded away.
The few tepid reviews I have seen of this album
were mostly dismissive, with «nothing new» being the most often repeated
motive. This is surprising, because, from a general point of view, ever since
making his mark with the Tolkien tribute, Hansson had kept on making «nothing
new» records on a steady basis, and if we are to maintain accuracy, El-Ahrairah actually sounds more
different from Attic Thoughts than
the latter does from Magician's Hat.
For one thing, the compositions tend to be a bit louder, angrier, and more relying
on electric guitar playing than ever before — possibly to capture some of the
dynamic spirit of the book, but possibly also because he wanted to brush away
the illusion of creating «progressive elevator muzak», and put together some
tunes that would force the listener to pay more attention.
Indeed, on the opening multi-part suite ʽBorn
Of The Gentle Southʼ, the composer pulls all the stops — tempos, tonalities,
moods shift constantly like the wind, going from slow soul-burning Floydisms to
spinning polkas with psychedelic guitar solos to grand gospel passages to
vicious blues-rock blasts to whatever else is imaginable. Whether all these
ingredients are cohesive enough to form an impressive whole is up to you to
decide; personally, I happen to feel that none of the ideas are given enough
time and space to blossom properly, but then, I could probably say the same of
quite a few classical concertos and symphonies, so let's just say that I find
the suite easier to pay attention to (because of its dynamic jumps), but just
as generally unmemorable as any average Hansson composition on the previous
albums.
The best tracks, in my opinion, are ʽLegend And
Lightʼ, where there is an interesting contrast between Bo's solo piano passages
(merging music hall with avantgarde jazz) and the grand anthemic resolutions in
the «chorus» parts, making the track a «teasing» experiment worthy of Zappa;
and ʽThe Twice-Victoryʼ, whose main stately theme, slightly reminiscent of the
spaghetti western style, is probably the most successful stab at grandiosity on
the album — too bad it is never given enough time and space to bl... oh, okay,
never mind.
Unfortunately, I am at the disadvantage of not
actually having read the source novel (there's only so much fantasy that I can
digest, which is not very much), so it is hard for me to understand how these
musical themes truly relate to that entire rabbit business. Even more
unfortunately, it is hard for me to visualise any concept to which this music, as a whole, would be applicable.
There is Bo's usual strain of sorrow and melancholia stretching throughout the
entire work (those are some fairly morose and somber rabbits indeed), but that
is not nearly enough to blow one's mind — although I have to admit that out of
all four albums, this is easily the one that tries to invoke the spirit of
grand tragedy on the most regular basis. If only these invocations didn't
usually end up sounding like «Pink Floyd lite», the album could have been
1977's dark masterpiece — as it is, it's more like 1977's dark coffee-table.
Bo Hansson did make one more record later on in
his career: the Swedish-only Mitt I
Livet came out in 1985, never got an international release, never came out
on CD, and remains a little-heard obscurity (so I have no way of ascertaining
whether it is in the same style or if he finally decided to make a transition
to synth-pop). Twenty-five years later, he died, and to this day, he remains generally
revered in a small circle of connoisseurs — a curious figure, capable of
inspiring chivalrous devotion and
agonizing boredom, sometimes at the same time. Whatever be the case, he may not
have written the best Tolkien soundtrack ever, but one thing is certain: he did
manage to forever change my casual perception of rabbits.
Nice review, as always! I really recommend reading the novel though. I know a lot of people who aren't fantasy fans at all, and still love this book.
ReplyDeleteJust going to throw my two cents in that Watership Down really is excellent. Don't be fooled by the bunnies - it's really not much of a children's book. Check it out if you have the time.
ReplyDelete