{"id":20,"date":"2017-11-13T12:06:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/?post_type=chapter&p=20"},"modified":"2017-11-13T12:06:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T17:06:23","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/chapter\/introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction","rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"

I was born in 1946 in middleclass surroundings outside Stockholm, Sweden. Piano lessons in my youth went without any real progress. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Culturally Sweden was isolated with a state owned radio and later television with very limited output. It was like the eastern European states behind the iron curtain. At best, perhaps once a year a song with Louis Jordan or Big Joe Turner was heard on the radio. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Around 1956 records with Elvis Presley came to Sweden. Through my four year older brother I became absolute fascinated and soon had two other favourites whose records I also started to buy: Little Richard and Fats Domino. Still it was very rare to hear Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry on radio or in somebody\u2019s home.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

With Elvis in the army and Little Richard quitting R&R I lost interest around 1960 but after seeing the Beatles live in 1963 \u2013 while in England studying English \u2013 I started buying records again and Chuck Berry in particular.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Back in England in 1964-65 and 1967 I was exposed to many English blues cover-bands like Manfred Mann, Pretty Things, Tridents, Ten Years After, John Mayall and I saw the Rolling Stones, Animals, the Who and Jimi Hendrix while they visited Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I started buying the originals with blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Elmore James and Bo Diddley. From 1964 I was attending the American Folk Blues Festivals yearly. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Around late 1964 I heard soul records by Otis Redding, James Brown and Solomon Burke. I was not yet aware that these were brand new recordings while the best blues now released in Europe in most cases were recorded in the 1950s. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the spring of 1967 the Stax-Volt tour came to Sweden. Up until that time I was not that much different from other record collecting teenagers. Collecting records have been the number one hobby in Sweden for decades. If you heard a great song on the radio chances were that you might never hear it again unless you bought it. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Having bought a fair number of recordings with Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd, Booker T & The MGs and the Mar-keys I knew what to expect. But it was much better. I was ecstatic and made up my mind to go to America as soon as possible. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

A few months later James Brown came to Sweden. It was showmanship at a level never witnessed in Europe before.<\/span><\/p>","rendered":"

I was born in 1946 in middleclass surroundings outside Stockholm, Sweden. Piano lessons in my youth went without any real progress. <\/span><\/p>\n

Culturally Sweden was isolated with a state owned radio and later television with very limited output. It was like the eastern European states behind the iron curtain. At best, perhaps once a year a song with Louis Jordan or Big Joe Turner was heard on the radio. <\/span><\/p>\n

Around 1956 records with Elvis Presley came to Sweden. Through my four year older brother I became absolute fascinated and soon had two other favourites whose records I also started to buy: Little Richard and Fats Domino. Still it was very rare to hear Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry on radio or in somebody\u2019s home.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Elvis in the army and Little Richard quitting R&R I lost interest around 1960 but after seeing the Beatles live in 1963 \u2013 while in England studying English \u2013 I started buying records again and Chuck Berry in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in England in 1964-65 and 1967 I was exposed to many English blues cover-bands like Manfred Mann, Pretty Things, Tridents, Ten Years After, John Mayall and I saw the Rolling Stones, Animals, the Who and Jimi Hendrix while they visited Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\n

I started buying the originals with blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Elmore James and Bo Diddley. From 1964 I was attending the American Folk Blues Festivals yearly. <\/span><\/p>\n

Around late 1964 I heard soul records by Otis Redding, James Brown and Solomon Burke. I was not yet aware that these were brand new recordings while the best blues now released in Europe in most cases were recorded in the 1950s. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the spring of 1967 the Stax-Volt tour came to Sweden. Up until that time I was not that much different from other record collecting teenagers. Collecting records have been the number one hobby in Sweden for decades. If you heard a great song on the radio chances were that you might never hear it again unless you bought it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Having bought a fair number of recordings with Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd, Booker T & The MGs and the Mar-keys I knew what to expect. But it was much better. I was ecstatic and made up my mind to go to America as soon as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

A few months later James Brown came to Sweden. It was showmanship at a level never witnessed in Europe before.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-20","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/20\/revisions\/64"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/20\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks-dev.library.yorku.ca\/soulodyssey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}