THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,034) Lea Riders Group — “Dom Kallar Oss Mods”/”They Call Us Mods”
From one of “the most powerful rhythm & blues based Swedish 60’s bands” comes this ’68 B-side and title track to the Swedish flick of the same name. It is a “towering 1968 psych masterpiece” (Swedish Progg Blog, http://swedishprogg.blogspot.com/2018/08/made-in-sweden-complete-albums-1968-1970.html?m=1), “[I]nspired psychedelic madness” that is the band’s “shining moment . . . with a grinding guitar riff and birdcall blasts of guitar distortion backing the garbled English-Swedish lyrics of failure and alienation” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-lea-riders-group-mn0000788055#biography), “[a] free form freakout stepped in guitar . . . . with a few seconds of chill out strings for a closer and voila, I’ll have a pint of whatever these critters are on, thank you very much…”. (Lindsay Hutton, liner notes to the CD comp Searchin’ for Shakes: Swedish Beat 1965-1968)
Who were the Lea Riders Group? They came from “little Oland[, Sweden] and conquered the whole country and was also talked about abroad as a ‘raw, dirty and genuine blues and r&b group'”. (https://web.archive.org/web/20140107210435/http://www.hawkey.se/lea_riders_group.htm) Discogs tells us that:
As early as 1961, Hawkey Franzén together with two friends formed the band Red River Band . . . . More members were added and after 1963 they called themselves Lea Riders Group. Many members came and went, but the founder and frontman Hawkey Franzén was always in the band. After playing at schools and party places . . . the band got the chance in 1966 to play in Stockholm. There, they quickly made a name for themselves . . . . A number of singles were recorded and released by Philips. They . . . got to record some of the film music for Dom kallar oss mods. . . . In mid-1968, several of the members felt that gigs and altercations did not lead the group forward, and the group disbanded in May of that year. Out of the ashes of Lea Riders Group, Made in Sweden was formed shortly afterwards . . . .
https://www.discogs.com/artist/930201-Lea-Riders-Group
Richie Unterberger adds that:
The Lea Riders Group weren’t the best Swedish band of the ’60s, but in a field crowded by imitators of British Invasion acts, they were one of the most original. Nothing else they did was nearly up to that level of inspired psychedelic madness [of “Dom Kallar Oss Mods”], although they did release five singles between 1966 and 1968 (all of their other songs were entirely in English). Guitarist and singer Hawkey Franzen wrote virtually all of their material, which pursued a jagged rock-blues line and some petulantly rebellious lyrics . . . . A pretty strange group in the context of mid-’60s Sweden. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-lea-riders-group-mn0000788055#biography
As to the movie, the pool of lust tells us:
The first in Stefan Jarl’s Mods Trilogy, the film documents the life of two teenagers, Kenta and Stoffe. With interviews from the two boys and their friends about their hedonistic lifestyle, and what their future holds, the film explores the highs and lows of mod life in 1960s Stockholm, Sweden.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062900/
You can check out the movie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeOQvSpa5nU.
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