Också Sam J Lundwall har verkat i ABBAs skugga. Han har gjort skivor
tillsammans med Michael B Tretow, ABBAs ljudmixare, och skrivit låttexter till
Anni-Frid Lyngstads soloprojekt ("Syrtaki"). Men det är ju klart, Sam J
Lundwall har ju knappt aldrig existerat enligt sf-fans, eftersom de är gröna av
avund varje gång någon blir bättre än kotteriets genomsnitt.
/ Rickard
---- On Sun, 13 May 2018 20:57:20 +0700 Ahrvid <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote ----
THE SCIENCE FICTION WRITER'S SECRET CABARET LIFE - IN ABBA'S SHADOWIDÉ, VETENSKAP & SKÖNLITTERATUR
I happened to find a couple of books about Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, the
legendary ABBA Manager. The first book was titled Stikkan (by Oscar
Hedlund, Sweden Music Publishing AB, 1983) and then I found
Schlagerkungens krig - Abba och Hoola Bandoola på Stikkan Andersons
slagfält, "The Hitsong King's War - Abba and Hoola Bandoola on the Battle
Ground of Stikkan Anderson" (by Klas Gustafson, Alfabeta, 2016). Biographies
about people in the entertainment industry is something I have always found
interesting
The most interesting things that emerges is that one of Stikkan's best
friends was the author Börje Crona, who unfortunately died last year (Feb
14). He was a musician in younger days, but later became perhaps best known
for writing science fiction - or "sandkvist" as his wife Annikki called the
genre. Anyway, Börje and Stikkan were best buddies in the 1950s and toured
as a music and comedy duo, sometimes a trio. Börje mentioned at one point
that he knew Stikkan, though I didn't reflect on the matter at the time. But
in the Stikkan books we learn more. Börje Crona is mentioned quite often, in
one book on 13 pages and in the other on 12. (I have also read Marie Ledin's
and Petter Karklsson's book Min pappa hette Stikkan, "My Father was Stikkan"
- Ms Ledin is Stikkan's daughter - but Börje Crona isn't mentioned there.)
Listen now...
The Touring Life Begins
Stikkan toured in smaller places in the early half of the 1950s to his own
guitar playing. At the same time he met his future wife Gudrun he also met
Börje Crona "a funny guy from Stockholm who became a piece of cream on the
now legendary mashed potatoes "(says Hedlund's book). Stikkan had written a
reasonably successful song called "Cream on the Mash" ("Grädde på moset").
Stikkan and Börje met each other in 1949, as they both began studying at
their "Folkhögskola" ("folk high school", Ingesund's Folk Music School) and
became room mates. And they were tight until at least 1955 when Stikkan was
married to Gudrun, because Börje was at their wedding that year and even
remember the wedding waltz that Stikkan had written (but never published).
Börje was one year younger and interested in jazz. He was a regular on the
Nalen club in Stockholm, the centre of Swedish jazz, and used to appear on
the smaller Harlem stage, which was breeding ground for Swedish amateurs.
In the interview Gustafson made for his book (in Copenhagen 2 August,
20015) Börje says:
"It started with that I was on Nalen one evening and the presenter had no
acts to present. He said that anyone coming up to sing a bit would get five
crowns. I was in desperate need for money and rushed up and sang something.
The pianist, the almost blind Reinhold Svensson, said that was very easy
money. That was my only merits in music."
All guys on Nalen were known as Dudes ("Snubbar") so Börje became known as
The Dude on Ingesund.
Stikkan said that Ingesund became important for him:
"Because for one thing I met Börje Crona, and another thing was that I
could reach out with my songs."
PR flyers and vodka
They started to tour. They offered the event organisers in the Värmland
province either a 30 minutes program or a program with two parts 20 minutes
each. According to a PR flyer they offered "funny acts, laughs, guaranteed
to make the audience happy" (approx translation).
Börje tells a story in the interview about a unhappy arranger who came to
them and with deep regrets said. "Sorry boys, I have really tried..." Would
they have to cancel? No audience?
"No, it was worse," Börje said. "I haven't been able to get you any
vodka..." /In Sweden known as "brännvin"./ We drank bravely. I had been so
nervous when our cabaret in Arvika opened that I had poured a lot of booze
into myself. It almost ended in a disaster. There was a sudden pause during
which I had to enter the stage and improvise. I could hardly stand on my
legs!"
It had been an almost full house, thus Börje's nervousness, with nearly
150 people in the audience this Saturday in March in 1950. And the show had
started at 11 pm, or "Better late than never" as the ad for it had stated.
The show was called "Cream on the Mash" from Stikkan's song and students
from the music school had been a part of it. They later formed a trio
together with another friend from the school, Bengt Bernhag (who was to mean
a lot for Stikkan later), a the trio called themselves "Stig Andersson and
His Mushy Cream Drops. (Stikkan would later drop an "s" from "Andersson".)
On page 42 in Hedlund's book, Börje and Stikkan show up on a PR photo -
Börje with crossed arms and he looks a bit mysteriously angry - with the
caption: "Event organisers expected genuine 'artist cards' and the Cream
Drops went to the photographer." As a duo they called themselves the Cream
Drops ("Gräddklickarna") or sometimes Stig Andersson's Cream Drops, "an
attraction on a national level". In Gustafson's book we see the trio on a PR
flyer advertising several of Stikkan's songs. Stikkan is in themiddle,
Bernhag sits on the right, and to the left we see Börje laying down, all of
them over a picture of a big guitar. In the ads they call themselves
"spectacle makers" and "crazy artists".
More from Hedlund's book: "Börje Crona and I had invested in a Stockholm
trip in the spring of 1950 and successfully negotiated with Georg Eliasson.
'Cream on the Mash' was sold and published ... It was Crona on a leave /from
the "Folkhögskola" / who succeeded in interesting Roffe /Bengtsson/ for
'Tivedshambo' " so Roffe recorded Stikkan's song on Börje's suggestion.
"Tivedshambo" was one of the last songs ABBA sang, by the way, an a capella
performance with a new text when Stikkan was the main guest of Swedish TV's
"This Is Your Life".
Börje lodged his friend Stikkan with an aunt in Djursholm (posh Stockholm
suburb) while he himself had a temporary job, he says in Gustafson's book:
"I dropped Stikkan of on Norrmalm Square. He'd be around there while I
worked, and then I came along and picked him up."
Stikkan spent the time having a look-around in Stockholm, among other
things the so called mutoscopes (movie machines with pictures that you
cranked) in the Birger Jarl Passage. They showed e g lightly dressed girls.
"I wondered what he thought about them, but Stig said he never tried them
since they coasted 10 öre /about 2 cents/. He was terribly economical. Mean,
you could say.
The First Record
At the same time they recorded their first record in a sort of
record-it-yourself studio in the Gröna Lund fun fair, called "Din egen röst"
("Your Own Voice"). It was Stikkan's songs "Putte Fnask" (slang for "little
boy") and "Baciller" ("Germs"). The record is shown in Gustafson's book and
is probably in the archives of the Västergötland Greater County Museum, in
left-over material from Stikkan which has been donated there. (Gustafson
mentions that he has visited these archives.)
Beside their studies they also toured, during weekends and vacations,
later on outside the Värmland province (where Ingesund was situated). Börje
was brought to Stikkan's hometown Hova and meet his family. They continued
their shows after they had left Ingesund. Stikkan would later begin training
as a teacher in Karlstad and Börje got a job as a journalist on the
Afton-Tidningen newspaper in Stockholm.
The critics didn't always have much positive things to say about their
show. Börje tells us:
"One reviewer wrote: They are as usual: Bad songs and worn-out jokes. That
stuck with Stig. He returned time and again to this thing with worn-out
jokes. He didn't think it was correct, but it was true.
They had their show in for instance Brömsebro and Huddinge. They had a
month-long engagement on Boulevard, a cabaret theatre on Ring Street in
Stockholm, where they were alternating with The King of the Pickpockets, The
Singing Speed Cartoonist and the nude model Lena. Striptease was banned, but
it the model sat still it was art...
"She sat in a pose and the lights were turned off and when they were
turned on again she sat in another pose For the last show we had to do some
prank, so when the lights went on for the fourth or fifth time it was me and
Stig who sat there.
Known from the Radio
Through contacts with the radio man Georg Eliasson (who also wrote the youth
sf book Space Pirates) received an invitation to play in the "Breakfast
Club", Sigge Furst's hugely popular radio program.According to Hedlund:
"And 'Cream on the Mash' then got its big break and you turned up in
weekly magazines and began to think in larger terms than amateur cabarets in
Arvika and Grums ... Börje Crona thought it was a pity that this would
cruelly compete with both Tre Knas and Carl Gustaf Lindstedt, but that's
showbiz - tough! "
Hedlund tells us:
"Together with Börje Crona and Bengt Bernhag, they had the experience from
The Cream Drops since 1950 and now, as you say, the 'Stockholm scene' was to
be conquered. It was difficult! It was things like 'The Unknown Half-hour'
on the Nalen club and small shows here and there. But with 'It Will Be No
Wedding' ('Det blir inget bröllop') in 1954 ... it began ease up. Swedish
Radio gave us 20 minutes one afternoon, Sten Carlberg produced the program
which consisted of two amateurs, borrowed jokes, our own songs as well as
Walle Söderlund's orchestra. There was just one channel at that time, the
National Program, so it felt great. "
The duo Crona and Andersson recorded ten songs during the years 1954-55,
of which seven had text and melody by Stikkan, two were from abroad with
Swedish translation by Stikkan and one was a parody of Swedish "schlagers"
(hit songs).
Aftonbladet newspaper wrote about the duo that they were "funny record
makers. 'Det blir inget bröllop på lördag' ("There won't be a Wedding on
Saturday") was also made in six (!) other more conventional interpretations
by other artists. In Crona's and Andersson's version it didn't sound like an
ordinary 'schlager', but instead became more like a cabaret act. The version
was filled with 'crazy whims', changes in rhythm, birdsong, a cock crowing
- certainly inspired by the film "Hellzapoppin'" (Swedish title "Den
galloperande flugan").
The Pay Becomes Pants
It's when Stikkan did his military service that he got a leave to go to
Stockholm. At Stockholm Central (Stikkan says in Hedlund's book) "Bengt and
Börje waited and received me. Immediately we took the fateful stroll to
Vanadisplan and Phillips which then was there at the classic address 16
Gävle Street." They
also visited Nils-Georg's music publishing:
"It was Börje and I who stepped in. In an unlikely mess of notebooks,
cigarette plates and old coffee cups, and we finally distinguished two
people: Georg Eliasson and then great piano celebrity Stig Holm."
They bought the songs "Cream on the Mash" and "Tivedshambo" for 100
crowns, and:
"First, Crona and I went out and the money was just enough to buy to
gabardine pants, but it wasn't enough for a whole suit. Then we went and sat
down in the grass outside the City Hall where I re-wrote ''Cream on the
Mash'. ... Then the creamy drops Andersson & Crona had a triumphant
homecoming to the red 'Änglaro' barracks, and the pants had a real shine
about them. "
The Dude Jazzed and Smoked
The music duo lived at the same place, a folk high boarding school in
Ingesund. According to Hedlund's book:
"The students were lodged in red barracks between the pine trees, and one
of them was called Änglaro which, as a result of Stig Andersson's accession,
as the name seemed like an exaggeration became 'Bänglaro'. /Pun lost to
translation/
'It was the boys for themselves and the girls for themselves ... at least
it was so intended within the rules of the school system. We stayed on the
lower floor /it is Gudrun talking/, the guys on the top. Stikkan's best
buddy was Börje Crona, called The Dude ('Snubben'), and nobody had so
handlessly fallen outside the folk education ideals. The Dude smoked in
secret. He brought with him genuine jazz records from Stockholm and America!
"
Gudrun says more about Stikkan's tours: "He / Stikkan / went around and
was a 'comedy couple' with different partners, e g Roffe Bengtsson, Minimal
Åström. Börje Crona, Akke Carlsson. "
They also appeared in the Folk Parks:
"Hey, now we are in Glava ... that'll make you glad, ah!" /pun 98% lost in
translation/ With this smashing start, Stikkan, Bengt and Börje 'The Dude'
Crona stepped up on the swaying folk park stage planks. There came more
mosquitoes than audience. "
Börje Crona did not continue his artist career, while Stikkan, as we know,
went further in the entertainment industry. The book mentions that Börje
started selling illustrated limericks (which he called mumricks) and took on
as a tourist tour leader, but the book misses that he also worked at the
newspaper Afton-Tidningen in Stockholm (which must have been before and/or
until 1956, because AT was folded).
Afton-Tidningen was owned by the Swedish unions' federation (LO). But
Börje can't in Gustafson's interview recall that he and Stikkan ever talked
about politics. The subject wasn't of interest to either of them
How they broke up
It was Börje who wrote the dialogue and sketches to their show, and Stikkan
made the music. It was when Börje wanted to contribute to their music
numbers that it went sour.
"I had begun making songs of my own and wanted them in our stage show.
That was the end of our cooperation. HE must be in the centre.
Gustafson tells how Börje during the interview outs up his hand as a stop
sign, to show how much Stop it became.
But that must have been after Stikkan's and Gudrun's wedding in the summer
of 1955 that the Cream Drops went sour, because Börje was invited to it.
Afterwards the newly-wed moved to a small one bedroom flat in the Stockholm
district of Södermalm, where Börje visited on occasions. It had only cold
running water and the loo was outdoors in the yard. On one visit he was
urged to be quiet and still. The electricity meter had stopped but there was
still electricity in the cables - which meant that the electricity wasn't
metered, and was free.
"They moved extremely carefully so that no vibrations in the floor would
make it run again. I happened to stomp the floor so that the electricity
meter began turning again, They never forgave me.
Perhaps it was this that became the final straw in their partnership.
Father of Görel
As far as I know Börje played the bass, but if I'm not wrong also guitar,
when he was touring with Stikkan (I have a memory image of guitar hanging on
the wall of the Cronas on Döbelns Street). He was a funny guy who liked a
good joke and often carried a little hip flask from which he'd offer a small
snaps. As you may know he is he also the father of actress Görel Crona. I
met him in the audience once when Görel performed with the Park Theatre in
Vita Bergen, Stockholm.
He and his wife Annikki often sent Christmas cards with pictures of
themselves in flower-decorated holiday clothes on the beach from a sunny
South Sea island, where the couple transported themselves during the winter
months to avoid snowy slush in the Vasastan Stockholm district.
The Book That Was Massacred
In addition to being a tour leader and selling stories to the rags he worked
as translator and released a large number of humour books (several with his
"mumricks"). But He was also one of Sweden's most productive sf short story
writers. He had just one novel in print, which he called Kling from the
Space Police ("Kling vid Rymdpolisen"). But that book was so badly massacred
by the typesetter - a guy known in fandom, we may call him B - that when it
was published under a new title World in Danger ("Värld i fara"), Börje had
to buy a newspaper ad and apologise for that the sorry excuse for
'typesetter' had filled the book with faults, missed jokes and above all
'four-letter' words. He was ashamed and sorry that he thus couldn't show the
book to his old mother, he later said. (Story on that in Swedish, see note
below.)
However, he also published five short-story collections on Delta, between
1977 and 1983 (see https://w.wikipedia.org/wiki/Börje_Crona ;), wrote in
Swedish Galaxy already in 1960, later in both the Jules Verne Magasinet and
Nova SF - and we also published him in Teknikmagasinet, with the fine short
story "The Power Is Mine" ("Makten är min").
The Twist-End Master
As a short story writer, he wanted a good, workable idea and often used a
twist-end, in the tradition of O Henry and Fredric Brown. One Crona story
portrays sport fishing, from the perspective of the fish. Another tells how
amputated limbs are useful in music-making. Another tries to measure the
plants' emotional life. We have a story based on the notion that there is a
hyper space - but you can not travel faster than the light there, you go
even *slower* than in normal space. At the 1979 SF-Kongressen he let the
audience participate in the writing of a story, found in one of his
collections as "A Buried Dog" ("En hund begraven" - one Mr Engholm was one
who contributed). He has written about time travel, invasions from space and
nuclear war - all with the same healthy cheerfulness. Börje Crona wrote
snappy and entertaining, but the almost mandatory final twist-end could
sometimes be rather over-strained.
Börje Crona has accomplished the story with sf history's *worst* twist
end. The title has s,lipped from my memory but the story is about a robot
stranded a strange planet. Its electricity begins to fail, but the planet
has water. The robot succeeds in getting electricity and the answer to how
it has been done is the twist-end of the story. I warn sensitive readers!
This twist-end can cause stomach pains, acute constipation and pain in the
hair ... when you in desperation tear in it. Here, with some hesitation, the
end of that story:
"You've heard of wattery porridge!"
/A so-and-so attempt to rescue a totally useless pun.../
Epilogue
In the obituary in Dagens Nyheter March 9, 2017, the image of the Dude as
the Man of Twisted Ends was confirmed. A nurse who attended to him as he was
dying was named Lisett /"ett" is Swedish for "one"/, and Börje Crona's last
words in his life are reported to have been:
"Is your sister named Listvå?" /"två is Swedish for "two"/
--Ahrvid Engholm
More on Börje Crona (and some on Stikkan):
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Börje_Crona ;
(https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%25C3%25B6rje_Crona&prev=search)
The Cream Drops' videos on Youtube, "There Is A Shimmer around Grandfather's
Days": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=646n3ogLUws ;
And "There Will Be No Wedding on Saturday":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBLFSu4xJuU ;
Stikkan and Börje with "Our New Teacher is Whacky":
https://www.last.fm/sv/music/Stikkan+Anderson+&+Börje+Crona/_/Det+är+knas+på+vår+nye+magister
An LP by Stikkan Anderson where Börje Crona appears on some tracks:
https://www.popfakta.se/sv/utgivning/e/a7cf64c6-c09a-455f-a9ff-8cfac0a1aa00/stig-stikkan-anderson/
"A Little Kiss in the Spring", which Börje recorded tigether with Roffe
Bengtsson:
http://testicanzoni.mtv.it/testi-Povel-Ramel_27580/testo-En-Liten-Kyss-Om-Våren,-Rolf-Bengtsson-Och-Börje-Crona-23340699
The text (try Google Translate) of a Stikkan song which Börje Crona
apparently recorded alone (but with orchestra and choir), "It's Great That
He's So Nice": http://textarkivet.atspace.cc/det_ar.htm ;
A Börje Crona discography with eight recordings:
http://78-varvare.atspace.cc/borcro.htm ;
Another Börje Crona-discography with nine recordings:
http://www.thorsven.net/BDABBA/Musiciens/m09409.htm ;
A really nice short story (in Swedish, try Google Translate) about how
Christmas is re-invented after the Great Atomic War:
http://sv.svenskanoveller.wikia.com/wiki/En_riktigt_gammaldags_jul ;
The Börje Crona obituary in newspaper Dagens Nyheter (through Google
Translate):
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=https://www.dn.se/familj/minnesord-borje-crona/&prev=search
"The Life of Stig 'Stikkan' Anderson", a short video in English presenting
Stikkan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FV7GXbgbhc ;
"A Walk with Stig L Anderson", another portrait in English about Stikkan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8se31UdZung ;
Stikkan Anderson on Radio Luxemburg (very bad sound):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo0nI55sod0 ;
Börje Crona vists a film premiere with daughter Görel and grandson Gabriel:
http://finest.se/galleries/sa-olika/attachment/347752/ ;
Börje himself tells in a transcript from an sf convention (in Swedish, try
Google Translate) how Kling from the Space Police/World In Danger was
massacred: www.lysator.liu.se/lsff/mb-nr20/verstteri_och_versitteri.html
Not Börje Crona, but ABBA doing "Tivedshambo" (with English subtitles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0hbNGQPOuU ;
In later years, Börje Crona re-released many of his books (including all his
sf books) as E books, and they are available via e g Adlibris or the
libraries.
-----
(Engelsk version av den uppdaterade Börje Croina-artikeln från i går.
Observersa att länksamlingen sist är utökad jämfört med i går. --AE)
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