Kent, the swedish u2-ish rock band has followed me for 10 years. Their collection of B-sides of their first five years was the birthday gift of two friends back then. It was the band i listened to when i left my first serious girlfriend on the subway to Stockholm Centralstation for me and El Salvador for her. It was their albums that helped me through several traumatic experiences.
It was lyric lines like
I trängseln utanför
Sen december ingen snö
Jag följer efter dig
genom könDu stryker fingrarna
lätt mot min kindOch i ett ögonblick
då allt står still
så får jag en chans att säga
allt det jag aldrig sagt
så får jag en chans att ge dig
allt det du aldrig haft
Men var för feg
In the crowd,
late December, no snow
I follow you in the queue,
you caress my cheek, and in a moment when everythings still,
i get a chance to say what i never said to you,but i was too weak.
Translation: Andy Planck.
The quote is from the song Chance from the B-side collection. It describes much of the situation my life was back then. We move in time. It begins in my parents kitchen. The radio is on. They have a show where people can congratulate and a woman wishes the song Ingenting for her Boyfriend. I get extatic. I get knocked over. I download the album namned ”Tillbaka till samtiden”. I listened to that album very much that autumn on the way towards 20th birthday. I listen to lyric lines like
Stockholm vaknar långsamt, På droger och på sorg, Snön hyr ut sin oskuld till hela Kungsholms torg Det känns som när jag kom hit way back in 93 en ynklig rad av fotspår En okänd kontinent.
