A tribute to Thore Skogman

In the beginning of December this year we got to know that Thore Skogman is dead. Quite a big thing in Sweden, I don't think there is one single person that can not sing a couple of his songs. The absolute all time champion of fast singing and incredible strange lyrics. A fantastic productivity - he made something like 1 000 songs during his life.

Nobody could write songs about so many odd things as Thore Skogman. We will never forget his songs for advertisements for loafs of bread, learning how to swim, eating rotten fish (Surströmming, a Swedish speciality) etc. Some of the best, and sometimes neglected, ones are about Christmas.

The first one, that I shared already last year, is "Julen är här". It tells about how people are eating too much food and keeps the doctor busy. Kids are fighting about presents, grownups are arguing etc. A tragic event worthy a native of the country known for many suicides, a musical companion of Ingmar Bergman or maybe rather Lars Norén.

The last ones are short songs for dancing around a Christmas tree, he made small changes in the traditional lyrics. If you wonder why the pig starts to fight it's because he doesn't want to get into the car just before Christmas. But suddenly they managed to take him to the butcher after all, sings Thore Skogman as cheerful as ever. Cold ham is a version of Kalinka, the Russian song, Kalinka in Swedish is close to "kall skinka" = cold ham.

* Julen är här (Christmas is here)
* Klappa på (Knock on the door)
* Tomtens renar (Father Christmas Reindeers)
* Två små röda luvor (Two small red hats)
* Skära, skära grisen (Cutting ham)
* Kall skinka (Cold ham)
* Så går vi runt kring ett julgrislår (So we are walking around a pigs leg)
* Ritscht Ratsch
* Hej alla svin (Hello all pigs)
* Grisen börja bråka (The pig started to fight)