History Music / CarlMichaelBellman

* WretchedHive: Stockholm. Taken UpToEleven in "Proud City!", which opens with what can only be described as a long rap about someone trying to make their way through the city at rush hour.

* MeaningfulFuneral: Epistle 81, "Behold, How Our Shadow", with its detailed and [[TearJerker heart-rending]] depiction of a funeral, has become one of his most enduring songs, performed by everyone from balladeers to Music/{{Candlemass}}.

Most of Bellman's songs are narrative stories, revolving around a group of characters living in 18th century Stockholm. Also the songs are often quite humorous, so they are kind of like episodes of a sitcom. However, a lot of the humour comes out of a VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance that isn't apparent today, in the way he mixed Biblical figures with drunkenness and lewdness, causing several scandals during his life. In a way, his social and artistic experimentation was so successful that we later on can't easily see the humour intended.

Most of Bellman's songs are narrative stories, revolving around a group of characters living in 18th century Stockholm. Also the songs are often quite humorous, so they are kind of like episodes of a sitcom. However, a lot of the humour comes out of a CognitiveDissonance that isn't apparent today, in the way he mixed Biblical figures with drunkenness and lewdness, causing several scandals during his life. In a way, his social and artistic experimentation was so successful that we later on can't easily see the humour intended.

* BadAss: Lorenz Mollberg

Bellman's songs are still very much a living part of Swedish culture. Many contemporary musicians (including {{Candlemass}} and {{Marduk}}) have recorded versions of one or more of his songs, and you can still hear some of his songs sung by rowdy partyers if you stroll through Stockholm's Old Town late at night.

->(Do you think your grave is too deep? Very well, then take a drink.\\
->-- Fredmans epistel n:o 21

** In ''Glimmande Nymf'', the original text goes from classical references to panic to comic disaster during a sex act.
** In ''Gubben Noach'' and other songs the patriarchs of the Bible are portayed as lewd drunkards.

-->Move over, Norström; your fiancée belongs to all of us!
* NoSexAllowed: So averted...

* WretchedHive: Stockholm

Carl Michael Bellman was an 18th century Swedish songwriter, and is still considered by many to be Sweden's greatest poet... [=EVER=]. Even if one thinks he has been surpassed later on, he fills the same role in Swedish music and poetry as Shakespeare does in English theatre: every later practicioner will have a relation to him. His main works are the Songs of Fredman (''Fredmans sånger'') and the Epistles of Fredman (''Fredmans epistlar''), each including some 70 songs, many of which are about four major forces that ruled 18th century Stockholm; [[TrueArtIsAngsty angst]], [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex lust]], [[DrowningMySorrows booze]] and [[DeathIsDramatic death]].

One interesting thing about Bellman's songs is that they are mostly narrative stories, revolving around a group of characters living in 18th century Stockholm. Also the songs are often quite humorous, so they are kind of like episodes of a sitcom. However, a lot of the humour comes out of a CognitiveDissonance that isn't apparent today, in the way he mixed Biblical figures with drunkenness and lewdness, causing several scandals during his life. In a way, his social and artistic experimentation was so successful that we later on can't easily see the humour intended.

* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: Jergen Puckel (though tecnically he's half-German).
* JuxtapositionGag. Used in just about every song.

* TheAlcoholic: All the chracters of the songs, and Bellman himself.

Carl Michael Bellman was an 18th century Swedish songwriter, and is still considered by many to be Sweden's greatest poet... [=EVER=]. His main works are the Songs of Fredman (''Fredmans sånger'') and the Epistles of Fredman (''Fredmans epistlar''), each including some 70 songs, many of which are about four major forces that ruled 18th century Stockholm; [[TrueArtIsAngsty angst]], [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex lust]], [[DrowningMySorrows booze]] and [[DeathIsDramatic death]].

One interesting thing about Bellman's songs is that they are mostly narrative stories, revolving around a group of characters living in 18th century Stockholm. Also the songs are often quite humorous, so they are kind of like episodes of a sitcom.

''Ulla Winblad'' is a "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean seamstress]]" and the target of Fredman's mostly unwanted affections.