The Lyrics

For most Swedish art-rock groups, the content of the song lyrics was significant. All but one group consistently sang in Swedish. It was common for the lyrics to address topics such as friendship/personal love, social outsiders, future, war/peace, freedom, religion, life, death, nature, and society. (This aligns with the earlier presented survey of popular music in a broad sense during the 70s.) The content of the lyrics was influenced by the zeitgeist and sometimes by the music movement’s critical stance towards society, either for or against. The lyrics were meant to be politically or socially critical, aiming to provoke the listener to react and perhaps take action for or against something.

“I want to make people think about their situation and start lifting anchors! Letting go of old thought systems and patterns.” Interview with H. Lundin from Kaipa in MM No. 7, 1976, by P. Guldbrandsen. “Text and song were very important,” “the lyrics always dealt with some (social) subject,” and, “we thought that we absolutely should sing in Swedish,” from an interview with Dimmornas Bro. “Dealing with problems, universal, societal problems. With clear stances for change.” Swedish lyrics with their own perspective on things, partially political texts but not according to conventional norms. From an interview with Trettioåriga Kriget.

Texts that were philosophical contemplations of life, death, future, freedom, religion, and nature were present in most groups. “There was a lot of discussion within the group about lyrics… weighing words…” ‘Nature-poetic texts that matched the music and sometimes with a touch of social critique.’ From an interview with Kaipa. The poetic quality of the text was important for most groups. The group Solar Plexus even used texts from Swedish authors like Lars Forsell and Nils Ferlin.

According to interviews, many of the groups put a lot of energy into creating poetic, melodious texts with engaging content. For the group Trettioåriga Kriget, the lyrics were significant and had to be “poetic.” “Singing-worthy poetic lyrics with softly undulating rhythm” (From an interview with D. Lundquist). The group Dice was one of the few that attempted to tackle deeper subjects such as the causes of mental illness, war, greed, death, and similar themes, and it was also the only group that consistently had English lyrics.

The function of singing in art-rock, as a melody-bearing instrument, led to lyrics not being the most important aspect for some of the groups. The lyrics were often constructed afterward to fit the music. “Writing lyrics was a word-crafting without any specific individual importance.” From an interview with Miklagård. Moder Svea described their approach to writing lyrics in an interview: “influenced by other lyrics… sometimes with a political connection or a fairy-tale form… thoughtful lyrics.” Some examples of titles that can illustrate what the groups wanted to convey: Sociopolitically or socially engaged: “Skenet Bedrar” (Kaipa), “Familjespel” (Overture), “Hellre gycklare än hycklare” (Solar Plexus), “Disease” (Dice), “Göm dej” (Dimmornas Bro), “Björns Trädgård” (Moder Svea), “Handlingens Skugga” (Kriget). Philosophical contemplative texts/titles: “Promenader,” “Dagarnas skum” (Ragnarök), “Ankomster utanför Tiden” (Anna Själv Tredje), “Sagan om Ringen” (Bo Hansson), “Undran vid Havet” (Horizont), “Dundrets Fröjder” (Samla Mammas Manna), “Saturnus Ringar” (Älgarnas Trädgård).

Excerpt from the lyrics of Kaipa’s “Skenet Bedrar” from the record sleeve illustrating the group’s socially critical side:

“With a touch of bitterness from powerlessness, we see all promises slip through our hands. Beautiful views, grand words like fertile soil where everything can grow in the land of dreams, they lack anchoring in our reality, disappointed, one knows we shout and we take, but appearances are deceiving. The higher up the Power Holders sit, the more we shall doubt for the villains of the grandest format always find their way to the top.”