It goes good with Halflings' Leaf

May 2, 2010 2:13 PM

Need some good music for a lazy Sunday? Bo Hansson, Swedish prog-rock organist recently passed away and he may have just what you need. So sit back and listen to some tracks off his most well known album Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings: Leaving Shire/The Old Forest & Tom Bombadil/Fog on the Barrow-Downs Black Riders/Flight to the Ford At the House of Elrond & The Ring Goes South Journey in the Dark Lothlorien Shadowfax Horns of Rohan and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields Dreams in the House of Healing Homeward Bound/The Scouring of the Shire The Grey Heavens

Bo had got the books from a girlfriend and as everybody else he was captured by the story.
Bo borrowed an apartment from a friend who was abroad for some time and when he came back after three months he found himself without a home. He had been ejected by his landlord, the neighbours had complained because Bo had used the apartment to compose the music and record the demo tape...

posted by P.o.B. (18 comments total)

Bo Hanssen is every hip hop producer's [not so] secret weapon, and if not he should be.
posted by Kirk Grim at 2:24 PM on May 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

every hip hop producer's [not so] secret weapon

Yeah, here are just a few examples.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 2:26 PM on May 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Interesting sound. I've never heard of Bo Hanssen before. Thanks for posting this.
posted by mmmbacon at 2:39 PM on May 2, 2010

This is great stuff. Thanks.

Incidentally, Tolkien claimed that it was nicotine/tobacco he was talking about, and this does seem to be valid.

But I think that other leaf might work better.
posted by anarch at 2:48 PM on May 2, 2010

Here's another example.
posted by Catblack at 3:12 PM on May 2, 2010

Grey Havens.
posted by thescientificmethhead at 3:20 PM on May 2, 2010

He co-wrote Tax Free, too!
posted by interrobang at 5:01 PM on May 2, 2010

I have this record...

Somewhere.
posted by Windopaene at 5:30 PM on May 2, 2010

From Bo's official website:

Hansson & Karlsson toured Sweden several times, from large folk parks to small clubs. They played a memorable gig as support for Cream in Stockholm 1967 and they had a one night long jam session with Jimi Hendrix at Klubb Filpis. Hendrix was a big fan of Hansson & Karlsson and he recorded their composition Tax Free. He also planned to record a version of their Triplets, but unfortunately he died shortly before having the chance.

Now wouldn't that have been a great rabbithole for Hansson & Hendrix to go down? It would have been close to the kind of ethereal "sky church music" that Hendrix wanted to explore.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:08 PM on May 2, 2010

Oh, man, now I totally know what to play during D&D this week. Sincere thanks, and a ".".
posted by redsparkler at 8:30 PM on May 2, 2010

Holy cow. My parents had that on LP.
posted by zamboni at 8:50 PM on May 2, 2010

A track of his came up on itunes shuffle earlier today. No idea he'd passed.

"."
posted by omnidrew at 8:51 PM on May 2, 2010

Now wouldn't that have been a great rabbithole for Hansson & Hendrix to go down?

Supposedly they did some stuff and it was recorded:

the sound engineer Anders Lind, had followed Hansson & Karlsson from the cradle to the grave. He recorded the live album Rex and is still sitting on the tapes from the jam session with Jimi Hendrix.

I don't know why you would anyone would sit on it rather than release it.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:13 PM on May 2, 2010

I don't THINK I'm making this up, but I believe that Bo literally and figuratively passed the 'psychedelic swedish organ guy' torch on to Eric Malmberg by giving him one of his first organs. He has a few great solo albums, but his work with Sagor and Swing is my favorite by far, particularly this album. Strongly recommended if you enjoy Bo.
posted by domakesaypat at 11:25 PM on May 2, 2010

TOLKIEN MUSIC LIST is an (old) effort to list every song inspired by Tolkien. I wonder if people write songs and name them after more recent fantasy books like Martin's or Erikson's.
posted by ersatz at 3:28 AM on May 3, 2010

I still have the vinyl sitting in my collection, from the days when I was grabbing the early days of electronica.

Now I'm waiting for news of Rick Wakeman, so I can dust off his records as well.
posted by arzakh at 4:31 AM on May 3, 2010

I too have had this on vinyl forever, and I can remember first hearing it on Triad--Third Ear Radio in Chicago, circa 72/73. Bought a cd copy as soon as I could locate one, not an easy task, but doable. I was pleased to hear someone call it sthg like "the only decent album based on LoR." Bo Hannson was a prog genius.

.
posted by beelzbubba at 11:24 AM on May 3, 2010

Yeah - RIP Bosse.

Another man done gone.

He taught me a few guitar licks in the kitchen of Daddys Club (Stockholm) way back in the sixties. He and Janne Karlsson rehearsed on a barge in the middle of town I remember. Boz Scaggs used to jam along with them. for a while. They were big for a while on the prog scene..
Support group for Zappa once - even appeared in a Tati movie.

Hansson och Karlsson made a comeback in the nineties, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Filips club (where Jimmi Hendrix famously played with them one night) at my restaurant Babajan at Stockholms Ethnography Museum. They later scrapped the idea of using the original PA system - with only 30 watts nobody noticed when the show had actually begun.
By then Mr Karlsson was a popular celebrity (actor) but poor Bosse was in such bad shape that it was touch-and-go if he would even turn up , never mind get up on stage. He did though, heroically. Which led to further gigs and yes, domakesaypat, became a mentor for Erik Malmberg.

While getting the reunion party together all the old anecdotes got re-told.
Bosse was a musical genius yes - but was hopeless at life's more mundane aspects.
Like money.
Sometimes they had to beg the repo man on bended knees to let them finish the gig before carting off the organ.

One still hears the occasional snatch of their music in todays culture programs on the TV.
Gets about a nanosecond of exposure as the end -credits roll.
He died (penniless?) in Monument - a flophouse just down the road from here.
If I'm not mistaken - one of his first records (an EP!) was titled Monument.

I must dig through my dusty crates of vinyl and check.
posted by jan murray at 4:10 PM on May 3, 2010