Hallock Hill

Baby Grandmothers, “Somebody keeps calling my name,” Baby Grandmothers (Subliminal Sounds 2007)

Originally released in 1968, this track is a classic piece of Swedish garage rock. Amazing guitar that brings Hendrix and Cream to mind, and the band’s live show was known for its extended, modal, improvised playing. The emphasis on the blistering lead guitar work of Kenny Håkansson (who later went on to found Kebnekajse) does not undermine the amazing rhythm section of Bengt Linnarsson (bass) and Pelle Ekman (drums). The band supported Hendrix during his December 1967-January 1968 gigs in Sandviken, Gothenburg, Copenhagen and Stockholm; this the tour where Hendrix was arrested in Gothenburg for trashing his hotel room and cutting his hand on a broken mirror. This track is one of the rarest garage/psych Swedish singles of the era, released in Finland rather than their native Sweden, and believed to have been pressed in about 300 copies. Subliminal Sounds lovingly re-released it, with six other tracks, in 2007, the project painstakingly collected and researched by Dungen’s guitarist Reine Fiske.

I realize this is a far-out non-sequitur from Richard Skelton, but that is how my mind works.