THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,282) The Tages — “There’s a Blind Man Playin’ Fiddle in the Street”
From the best Swedish band of the 60’s (see #286) comes a ’68 pop psych delight and their last A-side to reach the top 10 in Sweden. “Retrospectively . . . considered a nod to the Beatles, with Roger Wallis [Radio Sweden] jokingly naming it ‘There’s a Blind Man Playin’ Fiddle on Penny Lane’ on his radio shows”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street) OK, not the streets of London, the streets of Gothenburg! The song was “inspired by a man that often could be seen playing a violin on the streets of Gothenburg”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street)
The song is “‘unbelievably catchy’ owing primarily to the chorus . . . a ‘wonderful creation'” (GT staff review, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street), “‘another one of Tages best’ . . . [with a] chorus [that is] an ‘earworm singalong’ that would get stuck in your head, ‘whether you like Tages or not'”. (Hudiksvalls Tidning staff review, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street) “We though it was pretty cheeky and cool to combine folk tones with rock and pop”. (bassist Göran Lagerberg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street)
Wikipedia tells us that:
On 4 December 1967, Tages released their fifth studio album Studio. A blend of psychedelic music, rock and Swedish folk music, it was largely written by bassist Göran Lagerberg and producer Anders Henriksson. . . . [who had] introduc[ed] them to elements of Swedish folk music . . . . Lagerberg aspired to follow-up Studio with a release that was even more folk-influenced. . . . Studio had become a commercial failure . . . . [taking] a toll on the band, particularly Lagerberg, who considered the album to be “some of the best” he had written’ . . . . [H]e decided that the follow-up single . . . would be “more commercial” . . . . Lagerberg took inspiration from an almost “mythical figure” that could be spotted playing the violin on the sidewalks and town squares of Gothenburg, Tages’ home town. Though initially shrouded in mystery, the man in question was confirmed to be a real individual, namely John Eriksson. Eriksson . . . was allegedly divorced by his wife during the mid-1920s, leading to him “hiking to Gothenburg” and spending “up to sixty years of his life” there, playing the violin “in sorrow over his lost love”. . . . Despite having sufficient promotion in Sweden, the single was a relative chart failure compared to earlier releases. . . . spen[ding] four non-consecutive weeks on the chart. . . . In the UK, despite being fairly promoted by British Parlophone, the song failed to crack the [charts]. . . . [T]he single was met with critical acclaim in the Swedish press. . . . Lennart Wrigholm . . . . states that as was the case with Studio, record buyers felt alienated by Tages “endeavours” with folk music that they “flat out refused” to purchase the band’s records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Blind_Man_Playin%27_Fiddle_in_the_Street
As to the Tages, Richie Unterberger opines that:
The[y] were without a doubt, the best Swedish band of the ’60s and one of the best ’60s rock acts of any sort from a non-English speaking country. Although the group’s first recordings were pretty weak Merseybeat derivations, in the mid-’60s they developed a tough, mod-influenced sound that echoed the Who and the Kinks. More than any other continental group, the Tages could have passed for a genuine British band . . . . Big throughout Scandinavia, the group actually made a determined effort to crack the English market in 1968, playing quite a few U.K. shows and releasing records there; they failed, and disbanded at the end of the year.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tages-mn0000155257#biography
And Nostalgia Central tell us that:
The band released a number of singles and LPs in their native Sweden to considerable success, making the Swedish Top 10 more than a dozen times. Though remembered as one of the finest non-English speaking bands of the 1960s, they failed to ever really break into the US or UK markets. In . . . 1967 . . . they signed directly to Parlophone and one of their singles . . . was the (at the time) very controversial She’s Having A Baby Now which many radio stations refused to play because of the subject matter. The Tages also produced one of the world’s first psychedelic albums, named Extra Extra in 1966. Then they wanted to create a pop-music that was totally Swedish by learning old Swedish folk-music. After this, they produced their fifth and last album – named Studio – at Abbey Road in 1967. The album is very influenced by Swedish folk music and psychedelia and is remembered as the finest album from the sixties from a non-English speaking country (it has been called the ‘Sgt Pepper Of Sweden’).
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-t/tages/
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