I wish I could take credit for finding this video of Pia Sundhage playing the guitar and singing a Swedish Joan Armatrading-ish track. My archive isn't that deep, however. So we owe a big thank you to Jen O'Neil of She Kicks (via twitter @SheKicksdotnet) and also @DandalBs, who explained that this is a "happy revolutionary song from the 1970s" and shared the following translation (of the title? lyrics?): "we are the legends for those who come after us." Indeed.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Another Reason to Love Pia Sundhage
I wish I could take credit for finding this video of Pia Sundhage playing the guitar and singing a Swedish Joan Armatrading-ish track. My archive isn't that deep, however. So we owe a big thank you to Jen O'Neil of She Kicks (via twitter @SheKicksdotnet) and also @DandalBs, who explained that this is a "happy revolutionary song from the 1970s" and shared the following translation (of the title? lyrics?): "we are the legends for those who come after us." Indeed.
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Since I'm usually only on Twitter, I take the opportunity to use a lot of words.
ReplyDeleteThe song is called Rocksamba, even though it really is neither rock nor samba. It was a kind of anthem for Swedish radical youth in the 70s. The lyrics are pretty softspoken and non-threatening, several references to lullabies and children's stories. The gist of it is something like this: You say we are so small and the world is so big and we can't change anything. But day by day it's becoming clearer that we can make it, we can destroy it that opressed and enslaved. We are the legends for those who come after us.
The video is from a game show on Swedish TV two years ago, where Pia was the special guest of the week. And since the love for singing isn't unknown - she was instrumental in putting together a couple of song recordings for both the national team and her club Jitex in the 80s - it was a pretty natural thought to invite her up on stage.
Pia was a teenager when this song was popular and it seems to have stuck with her. She had a one hour show on national radio this summer just after the World Cup and had Rocksamba on her playlist. Among the artists on that list you could also find Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Bob Dylan, Melissa Etheridge and Simon & Garfunkel. But no Joan Armatrading.
I accidentally deleted a comment, but am posting the record of it from my email - because its excellent:
ReplyDeleteIn deed. As a Swede, I am very proud of Pia Sundhage, and impressed by this performance.
The lyric you cited is just one line, albeit a famous one. The main message of the song as a whole is that we'll make it, each day makes it clearer, we'll defeat what opressed us, we shouldn't listen to the ones telling us that we can't understand the world or the ones telling us that the history has ended.
Info about the band that wrote and originally performed the song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoola_Bandoola_Band
Pia also played this song on her "summer talk" (a tradition in Swedish national radio where famous swedes get 1½ hour to talk and choose music) last week. See http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2071&artikel=4548992