Carl-Gösta "Kaggen" Hansson
Born 1956. The first rock´n roll year. Grow up in Bredbyn, 40 km:s from Eagle Sheild Bay (Örnsködsvik), Ångermanland, in the north part of Sweden.
First band: the Sheep Heads (my sister named us). 1965. We built our guitars out of woodpie5ces and the drumkit out of emty paintbuckets that we gathered from around our small village. We made terrible noice and had a gig on a lorry platform during a mid summer parade.
Didn´t bother to play a real guitar until I was in my teens. Still struggle with my attempts to play it. I love guitars and have two Tokai Breezy Sound which I play through a Fender Twin Reverb. Have also a Tokai AST-56, a modified stratocaster model which Stevie Ray Vaughan posed with for Tokai adventisements in 1985 (se the Guitar Player with Eric Clapton on the cover from that same year).
In the 60´s I listened to The Beatles (of course), saw them in the television program "Drop in" in 1963 and it made an impression that still last, almost as inspirering was Creedence Clearwater Revival live at the Royal Albert Hall, in Swedish television in 1970. I wanted to wear leather pants like John Fogerty, have a flannel shirt, drive a motorcycle and play in a rock´n roll band.
In between I had liked The Hollies, The Kinks, The Who, The Animals, Spencer Davies Group, Rolling Stones, The Monkees (ouups!), Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and Swedish bands like The Shanes, Hep Stars, Tages and Ola & The Janglers. During the 70´s I listened to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cream and Jimi Hendrix again.
I discovered Bob Dylan , George Harrison as a solo artist, dug The Doors, Derek & The Dominos, Steppenwolf, The Allman Brothers Band, Mountain, Deep Purple, Santana, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Uriah Heep and Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke, Norrbottens Järn, Ulf Lundell, Eldkvarn, Rekyl, Hoola Bandoola band, Rolf Wikström, Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, John Fogerty, Janis Joplin, Peter Tosh, John Mayall, the original Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, The Clash, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Segar and the Silver Bullet Band, Crosby, Stills, Nash and especially Neil Young, Patti Smith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Band. One of the biggest moments of my life was to see a fresh Bruce Springsteen with the E Street Band at the Concert Hall in Stockholm in 1975.
In 1978 I had bought a Fender telecaster with a Traynor amp and became a fonding member of Kylans Rockorkester. I tried hard to create some valid songs, sing and play within the group. Before that I had fallen in love with the blues of Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf (my all-time favourite bluesartist), Robert Johnson, BB, Albert and Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley and Otis Rush. By the 80´s I felt that the true spirit of rock´n roll had sort of dried out due to the soon spread and common use of synthesiers and drum machines. I´m in favour of Keith Moon, John Bonham and Pelle Henricsson type of drummers.
Anyway, I bought a stratocaster from 1963 while I was still with Kylans Rockorkester and listened to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Nicks, Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan again, all the bluesmen again, Lou Reed, Willie Nile, Little Steven, U2, Suzanne Vega, you see the list get shorter, maybe it´s because I´m growing older, The Bangles, Tonio K, Robbie Robertson, George Harrison one more time, Neville Brothers, Hank Williams and then were the 90th:s where I had trouble pronouncing INXS, a band that I liked for a while, Nirvana also, at least their first hit song, sold my tele and strata that I had used with Kylans and bought a 12-string Rickenbacker when Roger McGuinn made his come back and a Susanna Hoffs Rickenbacker limited edition because it´s so cool, I discovered singers like Mary J Blige, Lauryn Hill, Susanna Hoffs, Sheryl Crow, Maria McKee, Refugees, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Van Morrison (a bit late, eh), John Fogerty again and John Kays Steppenwolf alive and kickin, Rage Against the Machine and Little Stevens "Born Again Savage", Thåström, Fleetwood Mac with Bickingham and Nicks when I stared to buy back the LP:s that I sold in 1991, then I can´t remember any more from that decade besides that I started to play and sing in a group called "de Omutbara".
Now in the 21:st century I have a girlfriend who turns me on to feminist rock´n roll. I have to learn a lot of new names like Babes in Toyland, Sleater Kinney, The Donnas, L7, Throwing Muses, Ani di Franco, Bikini Kill, Indigo Girls, lots of energy in that bands which for some unknown(?) reasons are never to be heard on the radio. I think rock music is always best when it´s connected to some sort of social movement, in this case feminism. But that´s a sociological thought.
You see I have an ordinary job too, as an Ph D Sociologist, working at the Sociologist Department at the Umeå University, maybe that disqualifies me as a real rock´n roller like Dregen, Keith Richards or Thåström.
I have always admired Per Gessle for quitting school, travelling to London and buying a Rickenbacker guitar. Also have admired Kjell Lövbom for moving to Stockholm and become the Kee Marcello of Europé, Johan Norberg made sort of the same kind of journey and I like reading his columns in the guitarmagazine Fuzz. Those guys had guts! PJ Harvey and Joan Osborne I discovered and liked all by myself, the same goes for Lisa Miskovsky and Sahara Hotnights. By the way Stevie Nicks is still shining and Jeff Beck plays guitar better than ever.
However, I think the 21:st century is finally the right time for Kylans Rockorkester, we have still to produce some great rock music that havent yet been heard. Watch out! Until that you can relax to de Omutbaras CD "Skyldiga för kärlek" from 2001.
