Subliminal Sounds
Tom Zacharias was something of a renaissance man: Sweden's first malepin-up, a successful film and television producer, singer andsongwriter of a string of well-received LPs, and the mastermind behind Belinda and Belinda's Daughter,to my knowledge the only albums ever to have been conceived and createdspecifically to be sold from ads in the back of porn magazines. This isthe sort of thing that could only have happened in the Sweden of theearly 70s, with the sexual revolution in full swing and people waitingin lines around the block for mainstream erotic films like I Am Curious Yellow.In 1973, Zacharias was approached by businessman, inventor andastrologer Stefan Brydolf, who proposed that he write, perform andproduce two concept albums of erotic rock, along with an accompanyingerotic novel. The novel was written, and the LPs were recorded with thehelp of Sweden's finest session musicians, and everything sold fairlywell. The next logical market was North America, so Zacharias recruitedNew Yorker Suzy Heine to translate and re-dub the lyrics in English,and ads were placed in US men's magazines like Screw and Hustler.Unfortunately, they never received even one order, and the album wasshelved. Now Sweden's Subliminal Sounds have released this collection,which gathers together the never-before-heard English language tracks,together with both of the Swedish LPs. I have rarely heard anything asfunny or as shocking as the first six tracks on this disc; funky 70sacid rock with completely over-the-top pornographic lyrics. Startingoff with a sleazy fuzz-guitar solo, "Dirty" quickly erupts intoalarmingly direct pornographic provocation: "You want to suck a cockand lick a hairy pussy/And wear sexy underwear and paint your face/Youwant a cock up your ass and rubber ducks in your bath/You'd like toscrew every sailor in the place...You want a 10-year old virgin to useand abuse/You'd like your friends to gangbang your mother-in-law/Whileyou watch it all and jerk off on her shoes." Singer Suzy Heine eruptsinto perverse Karen Finley-style shrieking, detailing every sexualperversion imaginable: S&M, incest, rape fantasies, foot fetishismand homosexuality are all celebrated with equal zeal. What's mostamazing is the infectiously funky jamming by the session musicians,which is really quite good, a terrific specimen of mid-70s acid-funk.It's tempting to compare it to porn soundtrack music, but I don'trecall any porn soundtracks with music this accomplished. A closerparallel might be Blaxploitation music, an apt comparison, becauseZacharias often reminds me of a Swedish Rudy Ray "Dolemite" Moore. Fornon Swedish-speakers, this disc loses a little bit of momentum aftertrack six, because the remainder of the tracks are from theSwedish-language LPs, but the music is still fun. Belinda isabsolutely essential; I don't where else you'd get to hear suchlanguid, trippy rock music accompanying lyrical refrains like: "There'sa he-man on the sofa with a hard-on, giving me the go-ahead sign/Aboutfour cocks at a time is all I can handle, with someone sucking mine."
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