2007-01-09 M.A. Numminen - Kielletyt laulut (The banned songs)

Yesterday me and Jo went to see M.A. Numminen and Pedro Hietanen performing in Stoa (The Cultural Center of Eastern Helsinki <- that I found from their website). We enjoyed of good music and interesting thoughts and memories of 60’s that Numminen shared with us. But first a conversation between me and Jo after the gig.

Jo comes from the bathroom.
Jo: Is this bad area?
Me: Umm… yeah kinda, why?
Jo: They have blue lights in toilet.

Well I didn’t know East-Helsinki was so bad area, that even library toilets have to have blue lights.

When I was a child I knew Numminen and Hietanen better as Gommi the Rabbit (Numminen) and Pommi the Cat (Hietanen). The best I know their song Kookospähinä (it was about breaking a coconut). Well later I found out that he Numminen had been doing a lot other kind of music too.

So back to the gig. We heard banned songs and stories happenings behind the songs and some interesting thoughts of Finland’s history from a sociological/philosophical point of view (if I dare to say so). Although most songs were in Finnish we heard also one song in English (based on the Ludwig Wittgenstein‘s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and was part of The Tractatus Suite ), two in German (Heidenröslein and in encore Wovon man nicht sprechen kann) and part of Naiseni kanssa eduskuntatalon puistossa (With My Woman in the Parliament Park, composed by Unto Mononen) in Esperanto.

All in all Kielletyt Laulut gig was very fascinating and entertaining gig. I do understand why these songs (like Jenkka ulkosynnyttimistä (A Song about vulva, never recorded), Naiseni kanssa eduskuntatalon puistossa, Mitä nuoren aviomiehen on syytä muistaa, Rakastuneessa ihmisessä, Opiskelijaelämää, Talvisota rock (Winter War Rock) caused * some * negative reactions. But on the other hand I see nothing evil in them, every woman has vagina and clitoris and perineum for example. And as Numminen himself said there wasn’t any real reason to ban them and they wouldn’t get banned nowadays.

Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing M.A. and Pedro performing again. It was a good gig. (Aww… I gotta get the album where is the German language cover of Yes Sir, I Can Boogie.)

Music /