Be Your Own Pet: It’s Genius, I Swear
By: Various Scribes
Pugh Rogefeldt's Ja, Da A Da is special. If more people heard its music I think more people would agree that it's a pretty amazing slice of loose psych-y rock n roll from the late 60's, but I have never met anyone that I didn't already know who has ever listened to this record before. The fact that it was the first rock 'n roll record to be completely sung in Swedish means that most rock n' roll fans (in the US and UK especially) probably have not heard it already.
I first heard it about a year ago at a friend's house. 'Wow, what a laidback sounding groovy rock n roll record', I thought. I last heard it when we were in Sweden on our tour. I played it backstage. I figured we might as well listen to this.
I feel like it gets better and better every single time I listen to it. I notice a lot of new details in it all the time. It has so many nice little musical intro and outro passages. Man, I could go for a nice relaxing night of kicking back with friends.
I don't know too much about the record's back story I'm afraid, but the artist, Pugh Rogefeldt, is regarded as one of Sweden's best classic rock n roll icons. But I have heard from this man who was our promoter in Sweden that the third song from the record [at the moment of writing this I don't have my iPod so I can't provide the title to this song I'm talking about] was about his friend Jonee who was always busy getting high and spacing out on his responsibilities. I wouldn't have known that if our Swedish promoter hadn't told me, seeing as how it is i-n Swedish and all, but it does make a lot of sense because he does say "Jonee" every time the chorus comes in.
I was mainly drawn to it by its amazing guitar work and bass lines. It's a very strong record and every song is wonderful and just as important to the flow of the record as all the rest. Just listen to the first song, there are so many different, awesome guitar tones and bass lines going on all at once.
All in all, it's a pretty sensory-overload record. But it's not an underrated classic. I think if something is considered "classic" that it doesn't make it underrated. Underrated is a pretty overrated word.
by Nathan Vasquez