Thursday, December 15, 2011

Mauri Antero tickles people in the wrong place


The second album of M. A. Numminen, "Taisteluni" (My Battle, 1970) includes a lively and bluesy song called "Laki epäsiveellisten julkaisujen levittämisen ehkäisemisestä" (The Statute of Preventing the Distribution of Obscene Publications). What the singer Rauli Badding Somerjoki sings is a quotation of a genuine law.

That song got banned from the Finnish radio.

That's something in a nutshell, isn't it?

This is one of my favourite stories of all time, and Taisteluni (Available together with In Memoriam LP) is one of the best seminal Finnish avant-garde records along with "Vallankumouksen analyysi" (Analysis of Revolution, 1970, available on the "Arktinen hysteria" compilation) by Jouni Kesti & Seppo I. Laine, and "Shh!" LP by The Sperm.

You can find some information in English at http://www.phinnweb.org/early/ and
http://www.phinnweb.org/early/early_discog.html.

Other sources for texts Numminen turned into songs included a sexual reference book (for the song "Nuoren aviomiehen on syytä muistaa", A Young Husband Should Bear in Mind), horse cleaning instructions from Finnish army and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He is better known for his own lyrics. This is one of them.

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