Misplaced Pages

Flickorna på TV 2

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
1979 single by Gyllene Tider
"Flickorna på TV 2"
Single by Gyllene Tider
from the album Gyllene Tider
LanguageSwedish
A-side"Himmel no. 7" (double A-side)
Written6 May 1979
Released10 December 1979
Recorded13 August 1979
StudioEMI, Stockholm
Genre
Length3:50
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Lasse Lindbom
Gyllene Tider singles chronology
"Flickorna på TV 2"
(1979) 		"Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly"
(1980)
Audio
"Flickorna på TV2" on YouTube

"Flickorna på TV 2" (The Girls on TV 2) became one of Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider's early hit songs. The song was written by Per Gessle and Mats "M.P." Persson, and was released as a single on 10 December 1979. The single had a double A-side, with "Himmel No. 7". However, most attention was brought to "Flickorna på TV 2", and one week later the single was re-released as a double A-side. The single topped the Swedish singles chart on 22 February 1980. "Flickorna på TV 2" was re-released in 1989.

Writing and recording

Comedian Hasse Alfredson partially inspired the lyrics of "Flickorna på TV 2".

Gyllene Tider vocalist Per Gessle and guitarist Mats "MP" Persson co-wrote "Flickorna på TV 2" on 6 May 1979 at Gessle's home in Halmstad. Gessle attributes the song primarily to Persson, stating that it is a "typical MP-song" that was "way too intelligent to have been written by me ". Initially, the song carried completely different lyrics written by Gessle and held another title, "Farlig terräng" ("Dangerous Terrain"), with the composition being inspired by the Elvis Costello and the Attractions song "Watching the Detectives" (1977). Neither Gessle nor Persson were particularly proud of the song, which had been conceived during a hectic songwriting marathon that had its origins in a phone call received by Gessle from EMI Records A & R man Kjell Andersson on 23 January 1979; EMI had expressed interest in Gyllene Tider's eponymous yellow EP (1978), to which Gessle had falsely claimed that the band had several of compositions ready.

A 1974 revue by comedic double act Hasse & Tage led to the lyrics of the song being re-written at a later date. The revue, named Glaset i örat (The Glass In The Ear) featured a song by Hasse Alfredson called "Hon och jag" ("Her and Me"), which featured the comedic dirty line "Det enda jag får sätta på är teveapparaten" ("The only thing I get to turn on is the television set"). The dirty pun appealed to Gessle, who sought to write an equally dirty song about celebrites on television featuring similar puns. The lyrics of "Flickorna på TV 2" were partially inspired by the television presenters who commonly figured on Sweden's Television's Channel Two (nowadays SVT2), as the television set in Gyllene Tider's rehearsal space was tuned to that channel. The women included Inger Egler, Ing-Margret Lackne, Gunilla Linder, Ing-Marie Montero, but in particular presenter Lotta Magnusson (mother of comedian Peter Magnusson) was later revealed to be the primary subject in the song.

"Flickorna På TV 2" was initially recorded as a demo that was the eleventh track of a cassette tape that Gessle mailed to EMI in Stockholm. On the cassette label, he wrote that he regarded the song as a bonus track merely intended to showcase the productivity of him and Persson, as "Flickorna" greatly contrasted in sound and style of their other music. However, it was in due to EMI's in-house record producer Lasse Lindbom's enthusiastic response to the song that they decided to record it during the sessions for their eponymous debut album in August 1979. "Flickorna" was recorded during Gyllene Tider's second week at EMI's studio 2 in Skärmarbrink, and was put to tape on 13 August 1979. At the time the studio used a 16-track recorder, which the band used to their advantage by utilizing it for several overdubs. Lindbom produced the sessions, in addition to mixing the song together with Gessle, Persson and Björn Boström.

Composition and lyrics

As recorded by Gyllene Tider, "Flickorna på TV 2" is a song written in C major that has 87 beats per minutes. It opens up with a drum roll by Micke "Syd" Andersson. Although it adheres to the band's new wave style which features distinct power pop influences, it deviates from most other material that would appear on their debut album by featuring a distinctive reggae rhythm. As such, Andersson's drumming pattern features a one drop rhythm that prevails across almost the entire song. Author Jan-Olof Wikström calls "Flickorna" an "old reggae-sketch", but also as a genuine representative of reggae rock, in part due to Costello's influence but also due to it being "danceable". "Flickorna" is characterized by it's distinctive repetitive rhythm guitar strum pattern, which occurs only every other beat. Most of the song's chord progressions occurs at the tail end of every verse, which is followed by a brief, fast chain modulation in the form of a circle progression in between every other verse.

Musically, "Flickorna På TV 2" features an uninterrupted, 40-second long guitar solo overdubbed at the end of the second chorus that was entirely improvised and shredded by Mats "MP" Persson. In addition to singing the song, Per Gessle contributes by playing tremolo rhythm guitar, which provides a counter-melody at the end of the guitar strum patterns during the instrumental sections of the song. Göran Fritzon contributes both electric piano and a Farfisa combo organ to the song. However, the electric piano contributions are largely buried in the mix, whereas his organ parts provide nothing more than the basic rhythm, primarily only playing chords across the song, with brief exceptions during the chain modulations. Due the band's youthful willingness to experiment, Andersson additionally overdubbed timbales and cabasa onto the backing track in addition to his regular drum set.

"Tänk att få sätta på TV 2, tänk att få sätta på flickorna på TV 2. Tänk att få sätta på TV 2, tänk att få sätta på flickorna på TV 2."

The song's ending verse, which features sexual puns that were controversial upon release.

Lyrically, "Flickorna På TV 2" features four written verses, 2 written choruses alongside a written outro, all of which are seperated by instrumental breaks. The lyrics tell the story of a young man, who, after being exhausted from work and the city, decides to turn on Channel Two on the TV, eagerly longing to see the presenters after the weather forecasting and sports reports. Popular Swedish news program Rapport is mentioned by name during the song. During the choruses, the protagonist declares that the TV presenters on Channel Two are "what makes the world go around", as he gets increasingly more sexually aroused with every verse. He claims to get willingly seduced, before "snorting like a bull" and claiming that the presenters have turned him to an animal. The outro lyrics are made up of a word play that solely works in the Swedish language; the protagonist wants to imagine turning on Channel Two, but intersperses this with imagining having sexual intercourse with the TV presenters at the same time.

Single track listing

1979

  1. "Himmel No. 7" - 4.34
  2. "Flickorna på TV 2 - 3.50

1989

  1. "Flickorna på TV 2" (Remix '89) - 7.18
  2. "Himmel No. 7" - 3.50
  3. "Flickorna på TV 2" (7" version) - 4:34

Personnel

Personnel according to the liner notes of the 2007 re-issue of the album Gyllene Tider.

Charts

Weekly chart performance for "Flickorna på TV 2"
Chart (1980) Peak

position

Sweden (Topplistan) 1
Sweden (Poporama) 3

References

References

  1. ^ "Flickorna på TV2". Sverigetopplistan. 1980. Archived from the original on 17 December 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  2. ^ Lind 2021, p. 65.
  3. ^ Gessle 1989, p. 5.
  4. ^ Wikström 1997, p. 17.
  5. ^ ""Alla tiders Gyllene Tider"". Hallands Nyheter (in Swedish). 24 October 2013. Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  6. ^ Andersson 2021, p. 46.
  7. Wikström 2013, p. 37.
  8. Wikström & Roos 2019, p. 68.
  9. ^ Amster, Harry (14 July 2004). "Gyllene Tider laddar för premiär". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  10. ^ Oxblod, Aino (24 January 2023). "Flickorna på TV2 handlar om henne – så gick det sen". Femina (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 13 July 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  11. ^ Brännström, Linus (20 January 2023). "Så gick det sen för "Flickorna på TV2"". Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 26 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  12. ^ Andersson 2007, p. 9.
  13. Wikström & Roos 2019, p. 36.
  14. ^ Wikström & Roos 2019, pp. 36–37.
  15. Wikström 1997, pp. 17–18.
  16. Andersson 2021, p. 39.
  17. ^ Wikström 2013, p. 45.
  18. Vikström 1997, p. 18. sfn error: no target: CITEREFVikström1997 (help)
  19. ^ Andersson 2007, p. 4.
  20. ^ Wikström & Roos 2019, p. 37.
  21. ^ Wikström 1997, p. 18.
  22. Heiding 1992, p. 187.

Sources

External links

Gyllene Tider
Studio albums
Compilation and live albums
Videography
Singles
other famous songs
Related articles
Categories:
Flickorna på TV 2 Add topic