BO HANSSON DIED

Yesterday was a sad one for Scandinavian jazz nerds, a bunch of hip-hop heads (though a lot less than initially expected), and me. A hair model to those of us with severely wavy locks, Bo Hansson was more importantly a progressive organ noodlist who got so into the The Lord of the Rings in the early 70s that he wrote a soundtrack for the book which got him and his Hammond evicted from their Stockholm apartment.

Many will mourn his loss on the basis of Sagan Om Ringen and the myriad of boss record sleeves it was sold enveloped in. Others’ grief will be founded in the weird wizard and space-insect music he spent the rest of the decade composing. Me, what I will miss most is the soundtrack he wrote to Richard Adams’ Watership Down which, combined with the animated movie, conspired to give me a C- on my tenth-grade English test about the book. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. I won’t miss it at all. I’ll probably listen to it in the car on the way home. I’ll miss him. Bo. Well, that’s also not true. I’ll “internet-miss” him. Rest in internet-peace, Bo.

Also, here’s a place you can download his Watership Down soundtrack.

LEROY GUMPTION