*Note-
This review contains Swedish words which has been quite roughly translated.
Eddie Meduza or
Errol Leonard Norstedt which was his real name is probably one of few artists that I share the same opinions with,
Eddie was a man who wasn’t shy to say anything that would piss off other people, he sang about everything, both bad and good stuff.
Eddie Meduza was his stage name, he came up with this name when he was watching a TV program about some jelly fishes called ‘’Meduza’’. He was born 1948 in Sweden’s southern parts and passed away somewhere in 2002, unfortunately he had a strong relationship with the bottle during his lifetime which was one thing that contributed to his downfall, he was sober for a while but the damage was already caused. People from all over Sweden loved him and he was also hated by many, but the difference was that the people who was living in the same poor or average situation as
Eddie were the people who loved him. All these persons who lived a wealthy life and had luxurious homes, jobs, and such were the people who hated him, but I guess that there were exceptions as well. He had the ability to bring forth the peoples opinions and thoughts about the ‘’good living’’ people with his obscure, gross and most of the time serious and funny music, and he could also walk away with it. Politicians, the police and celebrities, groups (like the punk-movement and rappers), and other well-known Swedish people were often attacked by his sick humour but he could also sing about people he had met at certain situations during his life.
Eddie Meduza was never a talented musician but he had the ability to write catchy songs and understandable, serious and funny lyrics, his music was a mix of various genres, there was rock, blues, rockabilly, country, rock ‘n’ roll and everything was mixed up into one piece of music. It could also sometimes be clean country or rock ‘n’ roll, it didn’t have to be a mix of other music genres, but it was most of the time very catchy, light and simplistic music. The instruments which were used in his music were often electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, accordion and harmonica. He thought once that he wanted to strike big in the music industry and he recorded some albums totally in Swedish and sometimes totally in English, and there was some exceptions where there were both English and Swedish vocals. He became famous most because of his lyrics, not for his musical skills, his lyrics could be summed up by these words:
sex,
booze,
cars,
fights and
party. These are some lyric themes that was often included in his records, he did also sang about hate towards people and groups like punk-kids and rappers, the song called
Punkjävlar (Punk Bastards) was a kind of a battle song against the punks song called
Raggare Is A Bunch Of Motherf***kers,
Eddie won that battle but it was the punk rockers who got a record deal. But there were not only bad and offensive songs he got create, his English songs were most of the time very friendly, then he often sang about how he was missing old girlfriends and friends, hanging out with friends, more party, cruising on his motorcycle or his cars and of course love.
Dom Dåraktigaste Dumheterna Digitalt (Röven 1) (The Dumbest Stupidities Digitally (A** 1)) was recorded in 1989 and it was one of many other records that never was seen in music stores, this one did though include songs that were more ‘’friendly’’ and it also has a great variety regarding his bottomless variety of lyrical themes, some of these songs could also be called as classics because most of these songs are often included in his material.
Mera Brännvin,
Punklävlar,
Hakan,
Gasen I Botten and
Va’ Den Grön Så Får Du En Ny would be the songs that I would call as classics, and
34:an,
Såssialdemokraterna,
Glasögonorm and
Dunder Å Snus would be ’’lesser’’ classics. I mentioned that this album has a huge variety of lyrical themes,
34:an for example is about an old house which is about to get demolished,
Undanflykter is about the peoples horrible excuses when it comes to drinking alcohol, he means that the people just can’t say that they are about to buy or get some booze without to come up with a bad excuse why they bought or got the booze.
Mera Brännvin is a song when he glamorizes alcohol, he mean that alcohol is the greatest thing ever created.
Såssialdemokraterna is a perfect example where he sings about politicians and their perfect life, he himself is working and working, he hardly gets any money while they live in luxury, everything start off very good but then everything has gone straight to hell.
Glasögonorm is a song when he sings about the time when people teased him in his childhood, he used to launch his anger towards people with glasses so I would feel better. Even when he had grown up he would still be beaten up so he started to workout and got lots of strength but there was a setback, his own eye sight got worse, and talk about irony huh? There are two filler tracks (well, they are not even tracks since there are no instruments in them),
Studiostädare Börje Lundin and
Bröderna Lundin Rensar Studion are they called and are nothing but
Eddie’s own voice in different sounds.
Bröderna Lundin Rensar Studion is a good example when it came to attack well-known Swedish people, here there are two brothers who are drunk and decides to beat the crap out of a Swedish producer called
Bert Karlsson.
Personally I love this album, it has some of the greatest and most well-known songs from
Eddie Meduza and these are the original songs too, many of these songs has also been re-recorded (which sounded somewhat better though) and was released on a double disc before he died. There are both small and huge negatives about this album; I start with the small negative ones: Some of these songs are just garbage or just unnecessary, another thing would be the production. The overall sound feels a bit thin and flat but you can still hear all the instruments very good. The huge negatives are that if you don’t understand Swedish you will have a huge problem with this album because it is sang totally in Swedish, this means if you don’t know Swedish you will have no clue of what he is singing, the second thing is that this record is pretty much impossible to get unless you find it on internet stores or outdoor markets. I have no idea of how much of
Eddie’s music got outside Sweden so if you thought you could find this album in a local music store then I have to make you disappointed. Either way, if you thought this man’s album sounded interesting even if this is sung totally in Swedish you are very welcome to check his music out; this was a very special and unique man, many has followed his footsteps but no one will ever sound like
Eddie Meduza.
English Track Translation (in order)
• More Snaps
• Volvo
• Glasögonorm = Negative curse to people who wears glasses
• The 34
• Punk bastards
• Social Democrats
• Full Throttle
• The Rat In The Pot
• The Chin
• Westgothic ballad (a song about a stupid farm boy)
• Torgny’s Sweaty Face
• You Can Have A New If It Was Green
• A Coat From Velinga
• Studio cleaner Börje Lundin
• Excuses
• Sweden’s Company
• Rumble And Snus (snus = a Swedish type of tobako drug)
• The Lundin Brothers Cleans Out The Studio
Positives
+ Many classic songs
+ Great variety when it comes to lyrics and themes
+ Very catchy and funny songs
Negatives
- Non-Swedish speaking people will not understand a word in these songs (unless you happen to speak Norwegian since it is very similar to the Swedish language)
- The overall sound feels a bit thin / flat
- This record would probably be impossible to find these days
Recommended Tracks
-- Undanflykter (Excuses)
-- 34:an (The 34)
-- Punkjävlar (Punk bastards)
-- Mera Brännvin (More Snaps)
Not one of his all time greatest records but it is definitely one of his best because of the ‘’gentle’’ themes, this album will be given a 3.5/5
. I recently bought an Eddie album and my dad has the double-disc so expect two reviews from me very soon. :p
