There have been a few biting, hard hitting satirical songs emerging from Sweden’s Comedia label over the last few years directed at the Russian leadership.
Now it’s the turn of Vlad’s alter ego, the Donald, the scourge of Ukraine, the guy who went from hero to zero in my estimation and why I won’t ever trust a real estate salesman again, to face the music.
The protagonists are CO57, an international group led by Swedish music activists. Hm. Shouldn’t that be activist musicians? Sounds like they’re agit-propping for music?
Anyway, band names like that always attract me even if they are confusing or concerning. Working in the air transport business I know that CO40 is a group of city mayors, globally, whose mantra is – wait for this – to limit any individual, anywhere, to a private, leisure air journey once every three years.
Fortunately I don’t think there is any connection with CO57 which by the way does stand for Cobalt-57, a radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of approximately 271.8 days. The things you learn in NMC…
Was it what they did Litvinenko with?
CO57 released a 32-second long digital sound collage, ‘Putin’s Last Words’, a while ago, a series of pig oinks, snores and someone going “blah, blah, blah”, which is a damn sight more than Zelenskyy got from him in Istanbul. It has so far garnered 1.75 million streams.
This time they’ve trumped that one – pardon the pun – with a two-track mini EP, ‘Trump, not even Jesus would forgive you!’ which includes the 33-second long ‘Trump and Musk talk incontinence’ and which also features the Swedish duo Northern Harmony & Gas’ acoustic version of the classic song Dear Mr. President, originally released in 2006 by Pink, featuring the Indigo Girls and which targeted George Dubya Bush for some – no – most of his executive decisions.
(Music connoisseurs will know that there is another song with the same title by 4 Non Blondes and which is superior in my book, but that’s by the bye here).
CO57’s catchphrase is “nobody knows more about Trump than we do”, and clearly they’ve got something on him.
‘Trump and Musk talk incontinence’ is a masterpiece of its genre, whatever that is, taking pig noises and the articulation of “blah, blah, blah” to another level. And I’m not kidding. It is exactly what Monty Python or Viv Stanshall and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band would have been doing right now and they would have ensured that a way was found to broadcast it into every home in the USA.
For those that consider it a novelty song I’ll tell you what one of those actually is by offering you ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ by KAJ (from Finland) which is Sweden’s Eurovision entry this year and the bookie’s favourite to win it. Loreen must be turning in her…well whatever she turns in.
I’d vote for ‘Trump and Musk talk incontinence’ over it any time. Is there any chance of a late substitution?
‘Dear Mr President’ is well worth a listen as well; a stark, cutting, macho and impressive interpretation of the original.
Find them on:
CO57 – you can’t. No socials that I can find.
Northern Harmony & Gas:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063557434640
