Yeah yeah, Swedes have their Abba, but we've got Armi & Danny.
Welcome to Finland!
NB. The video is made in 1978.
After that watch this video too. It gets better in the end. My Mum has taken her dance lessons from that chap.
If you still can, you might enjoy more of
Moskau.
10 comments:
Finland stands between Sweden and Russia. We have been part of the both countries and after our independence Germany came and burnt Lapland. So that's where I come. Let's leave the light hilariousness for Abba and add the holy melancholy now.
Armi and Danny were actually lovers. Danny had a wife and a mansion in Sweden. Armi was Miss Finland 1976. She stood by Danny solid as a rock, until she took too much wine and died lonely few years ago.
Why don't you go and listen again their love song.
"Holy melancholy" - Have you been listening to the first Kiila album?
I'm kind of intrigued by the Armi & Danny story. But I'll have to remain that way for a few more hours. Because of ludicrous internet security precautions I can't watch/listen to anything streamed whilst at work. Apparently our network's "more secure than MI5"! God alone knows why. Well, him and our IT manager, I suppose.
Oh, and Track 5 on Heartcore is called Verbranntes Land. A reference to the burning of Lapland? Remembering what that track sounds like, it seems like it could be.
Oh, I have been some days ago. "Holy melancholy" is so depressing, but if you read Schopenhauer whilst listening to it, you might actually get the idea what it is to live in Finland in November.
I haven't heard "Verbranntes Land", but it could be. I was actually referring to the last video.
Danny looks exactly the same now! He was interviewed today on radio Helsinki. Did you hear it?
Erm, no I didn't. He creeps me out. I'm sure I will have dreams where an albino Tom Jones sings: May I put my carrot in your blender?
I actually like the odd dancers in video walking strangely, though.
I've (finally) seen the Danny and Armi video now (I'd forgotten I was going to be out tonight). You're right, coming to it with the knowledge of Armi's alcoholism, and the love affair not being publicly acknowledged until after her premature death(?), it is difficult not to find it terribly touching and poignant:
- Danny's fake plastic smile. Was he a "pretender" after all? Was that why Armi ended up the way she did?
- Near the beginning Armi asking "what about tomorrow?" then turning her head away towards the darkness as her smile fades.
- The bitter dramatic irony as the couple disappear into the heavens to be happy and together. We know better. Foreshadowing the fate of their doomed love affair, the video then fades to black.
- The tune's air of wistful melancholy (more so in Armi's vocals than Danny's), yet the dancers clown and caper as if in another altogether happier video. Even they cannot respect the sincerity of Armi's feelings for Danny. The contrast almost seems grotesque.
Oh, alright, I did laugh as well, but it really is oddly poignant. Both despite and because of the comedy dancing. And this site reckons that Slobodan Milosevic was the choreographer... well, if that's true, the mind just boggles. That would be a whole new level of surreal.
Oh, and the bobbing chicken heads in the dancing lesson video! Like every wedding reception disco I've ever been to. Except without the annoyance of having to make small talk with strangers.
My thoughts exactly. It's quite interesting how all the given background information moulds our interpretations of it. Without that knowledge the video is just odd, amusing, annoying and whatever, just in the way most of the people have seen it.
Well, it's just like the difference between your blogs. When I first visited 4'33" it was empty, but now I'll bring all the given information with me and
I never can experience it exactly the same it was in the first place.
Seeing that Armi&Danny video in the end of 70's was different too. I have a very vague memories about them posing together in the photos, smiling in their sky-blue spaceship uniforms. I remember how all the adults around were whispering how beautifully perfect they would be together.
The Finnish version has slightly different words. Danny doesn't sing about her wine tasting lips, but something like this: "You're so sweet, your body is unbelievable, if I may touch you, it makes me shiver" (gee, was I listening to that in the age of 5?).
Anyway, after her death, when knowing all the facts, I can't watch that with innocent eyes anymore. When I see their smiling faces it reminds me of the lyrics of the Finnish, very infamous post-punk band Mjölk (a Swedish word for milk):
"Vaikka suuni hymyilee niin sen takana hampaat itkee" (altough my mouth is smiling, the teeth behind are crying).
>>yet the dancers clown and caper as if in another altogether happier video>>
That might also be due to the odd mentality of Finns, just like in the Learn disco-video. The dancers are like a mixture of Scandinavian sailors and Russian matushkas. First they learn the funky disco steps and then choose the music, which appears to be a German parody of living in Moscow. Slobodan Milosevic definitely has nothing to do with Finland, though :)
That was what struck me too. It really is a strange thing the way that what you know, and what you expect to see, can alter your perceptions. That video was an excellent demonstration of it.
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