I'm sick of the widespread stereotype image of musicians. They don't really do anything, do they? Only music, but how hard could that be? It's just easy living without any demands. Musicians are bohemians and don't like to make any plans. Instead, they simple turn on their musical tap and create in the spur of the moment. It comes without any effort just as in the fictitious land with many names; Schlaraffenland (german), Cockaigne (english), Pays de Cocagne (french) and Luilekkerland (dutch). Read more here (opens in a new window). However, every single musician I know is the total opposite of this tiresome stereotype. They are all hard working individuals, driven project leaders and entrepreneurials, masters of logistics and multitaskers by birth. In fact, most musicians could set up a complete circus including the trapeze in no time. And what about the bohemian approach? The work ethic is extremely strong: "Early is On Time, On Time is Late, and Late is Unacceptable". Ask any musician and you will hear the truth.

In several blog entries I have made the prediction that the best years for the genre have come and gone. Are we already at the point where we are looking back and remembering? A warning bell should ring when you're looking more back than forward. The state of Wisconsin's motto is incidentally: "Forward". Very apt for Wisconsin's fastest band, .357 String Band. Ten years ago they released their second album "Fire & Hail". Read all about it here (opens in a new window). In this well-written article you can follow the rise and fall of streetgrass. It also captures the zeitgeist. .357 String Band closed shop with two farewell shows in Milwaukee and Green Bay on 25 and 26 November 2011. They didn’t go quietly into the night. I've been thinking a lot about why this particular band concerns me. An explanation is the monumental injustice: their interest for traditional music, the strong commitment, the unparalleled brilliance, the ridiculously low return on their work, all deprivations of family and friends and ultimately the unbroken view of life despite the lack of commercial success. What is the explanation to why it never took off for the band? Most important, the lack of strategies to make their music and the band known. The band was extremely bad at marketing themselves and hated it at the same time, which isn't a good combination. The band had its entire focus on playing and touring. A little naive perhaps, but to retain their integrity and just do what you believe is not so bad either. ”Rest easy boys, you did well”.

One of many remaining things on my bucket list is to attend a Slim Cessna's Auto Club (SCAC) show. A bucket list should meet the criteria of threshold of originality and have a certain difficulty level. SCAC are Denver-based and rarely tour outside the US and I live in Sweden. I think these facts tick in the two boxes. Therefore, I almost choked on my coffee when I read in the morning paper that they played yesterday (on March 30th 2018) at ancient Berns in Stockholm just 5 km (3 miles) from my home. SCAC were supporting Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats (a band complety unknown to me). How could I miss this? I follow SCAC on Facebook and get regular updates. I knew very well that they were in Europe, but I didn't notice that they were touring in Scandinavia. So close, but out of reach. The chances are slim that they will come again soon. Then I regained new hope. Maybe I could catch them on the tour? SCAC were playing in Dublin 18 & 19 April and I was going there on a weekend trip. But, we arrived the day after, 20th April. To miss SCAC twice in two weeks is quite of an achievement. I felt equally baffled and bitter when we passed by the old Olympia Theatre, located in Dame Street. The tour poster (left) smirked at me. At least, that's how I felt. SCAC were supporting another band. The very thought of SCAC opening for another band is contrary to my values. In my world they are always the main attraction. To miss SCAC is a heavy burden to bear alone. It would feel good to be able to blame someone else, at least partially, for this cock-up. Burden-sharing is a good principle, but on what basis is the burden to be shared? In this case, it's fair to use the 50/50 principle. SCAC could be a little more informative and promote themselves better, especially when they are touring in the Old World. On the other hand, I need to be more attentive and follow up news better (if I had checked out the European tour I would have come across the show in Stockholm). The fact that SCAC was coming to my little corner of the world wasn't really in my imaginary world. I will not make the same mistake again. Two days ago I read that they're coming to Europe again (May 31 through June 23), but not to Scandinavia. I'll have to take this matter under close consideration.

This blog post is another piece in the puzzle of how I became the Ambassador. It's been a long and winding road. I guess I am old as the hills now. 37 years ago today I experienced the best show so far (nothing indicates that an upcoming show is going to surpass this); Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in Stockholm 1981. The show was part of "The River Tour", a concert tour that took place in 1980 and 1981, beginning concurrently with the release of the album "The River", read more here (opens in a new window). Under the first and second leg of the tour he played songs that for some reasons had been left out of the album of which some were released in 1998 on the compilation box, ”Tracks”. The US part of the tour was critized for its loss of dynamics and its strong emphasis on the new album. Normally, the Boss would shuffle up and deal from his albums. The album was also thought of as too gloomy to fit live performances. "The River" is by many regarded as his finest hour. Personally, I prefer the debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and his early and unreleased songs on the bootlegs "The Demo Tapes - circa 1971-1972" and "Before the Fame". A danish company, ICO, arranged four shows in Scandinavia. Initially, just one show was announced in Stockholm (May 7th). Whether or not the second show the following day was already decided (but not announced) or was just made space for (to be decided) is a matter of dispute. However, venues and bands are inflexible objects, which points in the direction of already decided. Tickets to the two shows were also sold at the same occasion (very practical). I have come across information that you could buy an unlimited number of tickets. This information isn't consistent with my recollection. To my mind you were allowed to buy no more than 10 tickets per person. We needed 20 tickets. To support my recollection; we needed to be two persons in the queue at all time. Bruce Springsteen had issued a directive that tickets should go to fans at firsthand and not to the staff at the record company or to the music industry in general. The ticket price, 85 SEK (approximately $10) was affordable (in the price level of 2018 it's approximately 250 SEK or $30). I still have my ticket (see top right). The old tickets seems to be valuable. I noticed two tickets for sale on internet the other day at the bargain price of $100. There were no arenas for music shows back then. In fact, arena rock didn't exist in Sweden. The venue (Johanneshovs Isstadion) was built in 1955 as an outdoor arena. A roof was added in 1962. It was mainly used for ice hockey games. The capacity was 15 000 (that is, with the ice rink covered). The venue wasn't suited for music. There were non negligible problems with acoustics and free view. The venue is getting demolished in 2020 to give room for a new residential area. Poly drug users will be replaced by hipsters. I'm not convinced that this is an entirely good thing.

The show on May 8th 1981 in Stockholm became legendary. Not only did it surpass the show the night before (which was awesome). The show is considered by many to be the best of all the European shows and is very well documented. Read the set list here (opens in a new window). Despite prohibition of photos and tape recording (see ticket above) the concert was both depicted and recorded. In fact, there are two swedish vinyl bootlegs "Follow that dream" and "Teardrops on the city". The two vinyls have despite the acoustic problems been rated as: "Ridiculously overpriced, impossible to find even at the ridiculous price, these two three record sets nonetheless rank as the very best sound quality of any Springsteen live bootleg and that's saying something.” Read more about what the real bootleg aficionados thinks here (opens in a new window). If you don't want to spend your money on bootlegs and have three hours to spare you can listen to the complete show here (opens in a new window). The two shows got overwhelming reviews in Swedish evening papers. The highlights on May 8th were "Prove It All Night", "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", "Independence Day", "Who'll Stop the Rain?", "The Price You Pay", "The River", "The Promised Land", "Because The Night", "Point Blank" and "Can't Help Falling In Love". There were a lot of interacting with the audience during the show including long and heartfelt monologues about his upbringing. I must confess that my attention was divided between what was going on stage and the lovely inner city girls (explanation below). Bruce Springsteen was already a star, but unspoiled, humble and deeply grateful for his audience. Everyone of them. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band played 31 songs of which 12 were taken from "The River" album. There were also a few covers (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Woody Guthrie, Elvis Presley and Beatles). The concert started 8.00 p.m. and ended 12.00 p.m. (including a break). We missed the last commuter train home, but we didn't care because we were bewildered, happy and tired. When I listen to the show after all these years it brings back memories. 

Back in my days there were basically two ways to get tickets; by physical queue or telephone queue. You could also take your chances on the black market (limitations in the number of tickets per person and the risk of tickets being sold a second time were hot topics at the time). The two latter methods, telephone queue and black market, were unreliable. You could get disconnected for no reason and all hours of waiting would be wasted. The black market could come up with nothing, ticket prices could sky-rocket and/or tickets could be fake. Some friends and I decided to go for physical queuing (be there or be square). Rumours began to spread that the queuing had begun. We were ready to move fast. One of us with a fresh driver license drove erratically to Hötorget in the central of Stockholm with our stuff; camping chairs, folding table, quilts, sleeping mats and bags, thermos and mugs and, last but not least, a backgammon set. It was deep winter. The tickets were sold at a small sheet music and record shop, Svala & Söderlund. It was housed in the big Concert Hall at Hötorget. We got a queue ticket. We practiced two shifts (day and night) and camped for a week. I did two or three night shifts. I couldn't sleep a wink. The night shifts were weird and you were approached by very odd existences who came up to the surface at nights. It was surreal; queuing below the stairs of the Concert Hall looking out on a big open square which during the day was filled with vegetable vendors, staring at the stars and at the same time freezing your butt off. The atmosphere at night was very friendly with interesting conversations. I got acquainted to a couple of lovely inner city girls. The song "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins ran constantly on someone's boombox (I know what you think, but the song can't be that bad. Sons of Perdition made a spooky cover of it). The last days the queue began to look like a refugee camp. We had a low queue number and got great seats. Due to "inconvenient working hours" the night shifters got the best seats on the parquet towards the middle on the second row.

Epilogue

A month after the show I graduated, said goodbye to class of 81', got drunk at the graduation party, a hangover followed, returned my rented dinner jacket (tuxedo) and had the weekend off before it was time to report for mandatory military service at Gotland Artillery Regiment (A7) located outside the town walls of Visby, which is arguably the best-preserved medieval town in Scandinavia and listed as an UNESCO World Heritage. The lovely inner city girls came by on their cycling holiday, left a note in the regiments sentry box and that evening we went for a drink together. We said goodbye for the summer. Then came the fall. 

"His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off" (Job 18:16, King James version). Life is full of trials and tribulations, hardships and difficulties, heavy burdens and struggles, and other problems. Job really got his share. My tiny problem in comparison is that the flow of rare and hard-to-get cds seems to have dried up. My daily trawling leaves me with net meshes. I used to be so lucky. Of course, the drying up is expected when the difficulty level rises and there's only a few missing albums out there that eludes you. I've developed and trimmed my search methods and added some new contacting and stalking methods. They missing albums should sooner or later come out for sale. Economic theory predicts that when streaming services emerged the market is expected to be flooded with used cds. This hasn't happened yet and the question is why. Is it idleness or astuteness? Maybe the vinyl resurrection plays a part (even compact cassette is rising). Used cds are generally cheap today. CD copies (or at least some of them) will be rarities and maybe the present owners are waiting for that moment to sell off. The most probable explanation for the dessication is that old farts like myself like to hold on to our pieces of plastic no matter of what format is trending at the moment. For that scenario there's no method.