Today we have met Andres Lokko, who work as a music critic at the eveningpaper Expressen. Andres is also a scriptwriter for Killinggänget, a group that have made a number of humoruos tv-programs and films.
Andres saw hist first Springsteen concert in 1981, at Hovet, Stockholm. As he knew only one song (Hungry Heart) he was completely surprised by the intensity and energy, and he still ranks that show as one of the best he has seen. Since then he hasn’t seen that many Springsteen concerts, he didn’t feel that was necessary since it would be almost impossible to top the preformance in 1981.
“What makes Bruce Springsteen a unique artist is that he has the ability to merge serious monologues about his upbringing or political statements with tremendous partyrockin’. He is also one of the very best actors in the musicbusiness, because his performances are very carefully staged to make people feel that they are taking part in a onetime experience. This night he is singing for them only, and that kind of spontaneity can only happen in a very carefully directed show.”
Andres also told us that one of the reasons the swedish media, and especially the eveningpapers Aftonbladet and Expressen, write so much about Bruce when he comes here is that the papers have developed a style which is centered very much around events. This started in the mid eighties and have reached it’s peak today when the papers writes endless articles about the Eurovison song contest or what happens in the most popular reality show. It’s also Andres opinion that this “eventjournalism” has created the use of stars, bumblebees or other symbols for rating the concerts, instead of longer articles that analyse the show in a deeper way.
Andres also said that the reason Bruce have gotten so big in Sweden is that swedes are suckers for melodies. And Bruce knows how to turn out songs that get you straight in the heart. “Take a song like Drive All Night, it’s so beautiful in it’s simplicity. Here Bruce manage to combine an extremely romantic ideal with very ordinary things. In the lines ‘I swear I’ll drive all night just to buy you some shoes’ the man isn’t giving his girl diamonds or pearls, just a pair of shoes. That’s very moving.”
If Bruce has one hidden tallent that is seldome noticed, Andres like to point out his ability to write very simple about complicated things.
We also talked a bit about the fact that Bruce has become almost as untoucheable as Ingmar Bergman in Sweden. It’s very hard to write a bad word about Bruce. This may be the result of the swedish music critics beeing rather hesitant about Springsteen’s performances during the late seventies and early eighties. “Now they regret it and give him high ratings on old merits rather than on what he actually performs today”, said Andres.
We thank him so much for a very interesting interview and move on to our next meeting with critics Måns Ivarsson and Mats Bråstedt on Saturday.