I guess we're already quite off track here, so let me push for the early 60's Swedish instrumental group The Shanes, from Tuollavaara just outside of Kirunavaara (-vaara stands for mountain in a language I don't understand), the city that once was considered as the largest city of the world (20 000 square kilometers). This is straight miner's kids in their mid- to late teenyears. Heard them severeal times at a dancing hall deep in the woods close to the mighty Big Luleå river - yes, there was a Little Luleå river, too!
When they were about to record their first 45, Gunfight Saloon, in the spring of -63, the producer wanted The Shanes to were Lap's caps for the cover. The Shanes refused. We ain't no Samojeds, they said. And so it was.
But The Shanes invested in samething else at that stage of their career - they later moved to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, and became very succesfull - and that was red Fender guitars and bass. When we speak of the tone of the Stratocaster, this is the sound I hear in my mind. And listen to that rhythm guitar, too. What a sound! Like a fast tight creek in the Sami country.
In the fall of -64 I negotiated with Svante, the bass player of The Shanes, about buying his P bass. Couldn't afford it at 16, with no steady job (Hey, that sounds like a title for something: 16, with no steady job!), so I bought a Höfner violin bass instead. Like $15 cheaper.... As Ricky Nelson put it, so elegantly: Fools rush in!
Anyway, Laddies & Gentlemen.... Bring 'em on, son....... The Shanes, and their second 45, from the late summer of '63: Pistoleros!!!
