60s Garage Rock & Psychedelia in Finland @ pHinnWeb
60s Garage Rock & Psychedelia in Finland @ pHinnWeb
I'm afraid any possible examples might be really scarce, but
I have included here some artists, who might not be strictly garage rock
or psychedelia, but whose some tracks could well be there too, if there
was a
Finnish version of Nuggets or Pebbles...
The contents of this page are admittedly a mixed bag, since the 1960s still
found Finnish rock music in its infancy, and only the following decade found
a more serious approach to rock in Finland.
However, in the 1960s Finnish pop and rock music scene underwent many
changes, starting with the rautalanka
scene (a home-grown variation of instrumental surf music and such international
bands as The Shadows and The Ventures, where old Finnish folk songs and traditional melodies
found modern electric guitar renditions) and following closely such international trends as the folk boom, Beatlemania,
and rhythm'n'blues and blues revival that started in the mid-60s Great Britain;
all the way to soul music, psychedelia and early progressive rock. All styles in their turn finding their
domestic proponents on these Northern shores.
Despite these developments, such genres representing "the old dance music" as tango, waltz
and foxtrot were still huge in the
1960s Finland; the frustrated rock bands touring Finnish countryside
often
threatened with physical violence if they refused to perform these
traditional styles to their rural audiences. Iskelmä -- the light
middle-of-the-road pop for the older audiences -- naturally ruled supreme; being always considered
a smart career move for a performer who had "matured" from the beat group years.
Therefore, a peculiar thing
about Finnish scene has always been the fact that the same musicians
could be found playing as varied and diverse genres as with the early
beat groups, rhythm'n'blues, rock and pop music in general,
psychedelia and progressive rock; even jazz, soul and funk. This can
explained by the relative smallness of local music circles in a country
where everyone knows virtually everyone else, and also the rapid
succession of musical trends, which was prevalent in the 1960s and early
70s.
Nevertheless, some rare gems could
be found among these early guitar bands and beat groups, who by their nature were often not much more
than fly-by-night, in an era when rock music was not considered a
life-long career option; not to speak about the tracks that were just little
curios in the total output of their creators more adjusted to accommodating the
conservative domestic tastes.
Background reading:
See also:
Atorox 1966: a YouTube channel dedicated to the "Finnish
Nuggets" of the 1960s
A
lengthy and very informative thread on GaragePunk.com, June 2006
Finnish Nuggets? Introduction by pHinn
So, how about Finnish psychedelic music or wild garage-style
bands in the late 1960s?
The
Bands
All Finnish entries @ Beyond The Calico Wall blog,
maintained by pHinnWeb
