Povel Ramel

"Ramel" redirects here. For the Eastern Pomerania town Rahmel, see Rumia.
Povel Ramel

Povel Ramel (second from left) and Hans Alfredson (second from right) being hosted by a student association at Lund University in 1999
Background information
Birth name Povel Karl Henrik Ramel
Born June 1, 1922
Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden
Died June 5, 2007 (aged 85)
Lidingö, Sweden
Genres Vaudeville
Occupation(s) Singer, musician, writer
Instruments Vocals, piano
Years active 1939–2007
Labels Pygmé Musikförlag

Baron Povel Karl Henric Ramel ([ˈpoːvɛl ˈɾamɛl]; June 1, 1922 – June 5, 2007) was a Swedish entertainer. Ramel was a singer, pianist, vaudeville artist, author and a novelty song composer. His style was characterized by imaginative wit, both verbal and musical.[1] He took inspiration from US and UK 'crazy' style humor and created his own personal Swedish version, unusual combinations of lyrics and music, word play, pastiche and general unexpectedness. He wrote approximately 1700 songs, skits and monologues, and he is regarded as a legend and an institution in Swedish entertainment.[2]

Early life

Povel Ramel was born in Östermalm, Stockholm into an affluent noble family. His father, Karl Ramel, was a lawyer. At a young age, Ramel found a loving audience for his talents in the family nurses, maids and cooks, and also his parents. His family often went on extensive holidays, and on such an occasion, on a beach in Belgium, when Povel was two years old he stepped on a nail. With the wound infected Povel was not expected to survive, although he recovered, with a slight permanent injury.

Ramel's school-life was troubled. He cut classes, often going to Skansen, an open air museum and zoo, favouring their monkey house. To avoid getting into trouble, Ramel told his teachers that he had lost his attendance book, thereby getting a new one, while showing his parents the old one, free from absence remarks. However, one day his father spotted Ramel visiting the monkey house. Subsequently, his father tried sending Ramel to various schools, but with little success.

At the age of 15, Ramel accompanied his parents on a car trip. There was a collision and Ramel's mother, Märta Tesch, died the following day in hospital. His father died a few months later.

Career

After his parents' death, Ramel was raised by his paternal aunt, who recognised his artistic potential. He went to art school, but his infatuation with painting did not last. However he developed a love for playing the piano and for words, as he became inspired by musicians such as Bing Crosby, Fats Waller, British trumpeter Nat Gonella, Spike Jones and British dance band leader Harry Roy. Entering Aftonbladet's talent hunt, Vi som vill opp in 1939, Ramel sang and yawned his own composition, "En sömnig serenad" ("A Sleepy Serenade"). By this time Ramel was already a prolific songwriter. His aunt wrote the lyrics to one of his songs, "En vår utan dig" ("A Spring Without You"), which he recorded. Ramel's lyrics are noted for their humor and dramatic wordplay. Musically he was able to adopt styles from most types of music for his own purposes.

Later, when called to do his military service, his foot condition kept him out of active duty, and he was given an administrative role. When studying the military code, he learned that most everything was forbidden. But, with no rules to be found against Boogie Woogie Walzes,he dutifully wrote Johanssons boogie-woogie-vals, the song that was later to become his first hit.

STIM (a musical copyright agency) required the record have a label banning its airplay. As a result, the sales were minimal. Then a friend at the record company sent a copy with the label pulled off to Radiotjänst (The Swedish Broadcasting Corporation), and the sales jumped. Ramel was hired by Radiotjänst in 1945, which ushered in a new era of radio entertainment. With several series of innovative radio shows featuring the crazy style of humor, he became a household name in Sweden.

Knäppupp

In 1952 Ramel and Felix Alvo started the Knäppupp AB (Unbutton Inc.) company. The Knäppupp vaudeville shows were popular with Swedish audiences.[1] His first vaudeville show was "Akta Huvet" ("Mind Your Head") and Ramel made his entrance hanging from a cable over the auditorium. The show opened at the Cirkus theatre in Gothenburg in 1952. Knäppupp AB also produced a number of movies, such as Ratataa in 1956. Ramel also had several pub shows such as, "Karamelodier". "Karamelodier" is one of Ramel's typical puns, as the word karamelodier is a combination of the words "karamell" (bon-bon), "Ramel" and "melodier" (melodies).

Some of his most famous songs

Gynga is a broken Swedish version of Gunga (Swing/Sway)
This song was written by Povel on the M/S San Blas, in a storm, and sung at the stage in San Blas later.
Swedish language version of On Top of Old Smoky
Swedish language version of I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, featured in My Life as a Dog
Presented with some "laughing types" as the engineer's laugh "Hoho hooooooooo" (Like a steam whistle), "ping-pong laugh" Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
A song about the fact that no dolphin would ever become a singer, as they are (as sung by Ramel) all too smart.
Anticipating rap music.

References to current events

Ramel was not interested in political satire or in lampooning public figures, and only a few of his songs refer to current events. There are a few exceptions:

Karamelodiktstipendiet

In 1983 Ramel founded Karamelodiktstipendiet, a prize annually awarded to a Swedish entertainer or group of entertainers. It is intended for renewers of the Swedish language or related musical advances. The prize was presented by Ramel in Hagaparken in Stockholm. The name of the prize is a pun similar to the one described above, referring to "karamell" and Ramel; "dikt" means poem and "stipendie" scholarship. Thus the recipient is not only awarded a monetary prize, but also a bag of candy and a poem written by Ramel himself. After the ceremony everyone is offered fried pigeon, which most guests politely abstain from eating. The prize, according to the founder, is enough to make the recipient economically independent, at least for the rest of the day (it was 20.000 SEK until 2007 when it was increased to 25.000 SEK).

The 2007 ceremony was led by Ramel's children Mikael and Lotta, due to their father being confined to his home after heart surgery.

Holders:

Bibliography

Povel Ramel wrote a number of books, his first in 1945, though his main focus was always on his music. Here is a list of his books (not including the many book of lyrics that he published):

Från Asar till Wasar

In this book, Ramel presents himself as an 'eternity-human', born in the ice age. He describes the history of Sweden "as it was" from the old Norse "Asar"-gods to Gustav Vasa. He also has some 'eternity-friends' and an 'eternity-dog' called Missräkningen (The miscalculation).

Min galna hage

Ramel's pasture is said to have corners. 5 of them. It is a crazy pasture.

This book has sections, called corners. These are:

Knäppupplevelser

This book is about the time of Knäppupp. It came with a vinyl album with the same name, and is really hard to find today.

Lingonben

This is a lyric book with some famous songs (like Naturnbarn, and Johansson's boogie woogie vals) and some less well known songs by Ramel (As Balladen Om Kung Styggfrid {The Ballad about King Wickedfrid})

Tänk dej en strut karameller

With sheet music to many of Ramel's most popular songs. The title is also the title of one of Ramel's songs.

Min ordkynniga penna

This includes some random poems and writings of Ramel, as "How to Convince an American Businessman"

Vanliga palsternackan för gottegrisar

Vanliga palsternackan is a play on the famous Swedish almanac, Vanliga Almanackan (The ordinary almanac) It includes some strange ideas such as a list of kings who died from overeating (with space to keep the list up-to-date) This book was co-written with Hans Alfredson

Följ mej bakåt vägen, Povels Livs-stycken del 1

This begins with Ramel's youth and ends when he married his wife in 1949. He describes many things of his life, such as when he, as a child, cut big holes in his clothes, to find out what it was like to be poor! Ramel choose to not call the book his 'memoarer' (memoirs), as that would sound too boring! "Följ mej bakåt vägen" is also a title of one of Ramel's songs.

Förflerade Lingonben

This is a longer edition of Lingonben with some well known and less well known unknown songs.

It has been reprinted many times, most recently in 1997.

Som om inget hade hänt, Povels Livs-stycken del 2

This is Ramel's 'life-parts' part two, including the Knäppupp years, which includes a section from the book Knäppupplevelser.

Djur I Dur

This book includes a CD and sheet music to some new and some old songs about animals. especially those poor animals that never had a song written about them, such as Acke Asgam (Acke Carrion Vulture), Gary Gråsugga (Gary Isopoda) and Tvigge Tvestjärt (Tvigge Earwig) who crawled far into grannie's ear.

Upcoming: Povels "life-parts" part 3

Ramel is said to have almost completed this book.

The Knäppupps

Other revues

The year of the opening is listed. Normally the revues stayed in production for two years, but, for example, Pratstund med Povel only stayed 1 year.

Filmography – Selected examples

Radio Shows

Television

Povel Ramel at Allsång på Skansen

At Allsång på Skansen, on June 27, 2006, Povel sang many of his well-known songs to a melody of a different well-known song. A quite uncommon way of rendering old songs!

The whole song (preceded by a version of Side by side performed by Povel on piano) may be heard at Sveriges Television's webpage here. The recording lasts 9 minutes 41 seconds.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nationalencyklopedin article about Ramel
  2. ↑ "Varför skulle nån köpa en zebra?" Interview in Dagens Nyheter November 2, 2006, retrieved June 12, 2011

External links

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