Follow TV Tropes

Following

Music / Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/75440d64701e86517fb689b2ecf15e83.jpg

Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä (Translation: "Guilted Jackets and Steel of Toledo") is the third studio album by Finnish Progressive Rock band YUP. It is a Concept Album with a story about singing detective Henri Blavatsky and his investigations on an evil family and a suspicious factory that stuffs mattocks and guilted jackets using dead people's hair.

The album is sung in Finnish and was released by indie label Elmerecords in 1994.


Tracklist:

  1. "Tyttö jota rakastan" (The girl I love) (3:18)
  2. "Minä olen myyrä" (I am a mole) (4:45)
  3. "Huonot uutiset" (Bad news) (3:04)
  4. "Älä astu kauppiaan päälle" (Don't step on the merchant (5:30)
  5. "Pää puhuu" (The head speaks) (2:52)
  6. "Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä" (Guilted jackets and steel Of Toledo) (5:16)
  7. "Mitä elämän jälkeen" (What's after life) (4:39)
  8. "Soljan käsittely" (Handling of Solja) (4:03)
  9. "Kuonamagneetti" (Drossmagnet) (3:39)
  10. "Taivaiden Maisterit" (Masters of heaven) (7:15)


Principal Members:

  • Jarkko Martikainen - lead vocals, guitar, lyrics, composition
  • Valtteri Tynkkynen - bass, backing vocals, composition
  • Jussi Hyyrynen - guitar, backing vocals
  • Tommi Kärkkäinen - keyboard, backing vocals, percussions
  • Janne Mannonen - drums, backing vocals


Characters

  • Henri Blavatsky - Singing detective
  • Volmar Pätsi - factory owner, bastard
  • Sinfonia Pätsi - factory owner's wife, bastard
  • Maila Pätsi - Volmar's daughter, idiot
  • Veli-Pekka Pätsi - Volmar's son, idiot
  • Solja Pätsi - Volmar's sister
  • Jepson - the bultler, dense
  • Abro Paukku - the merchant
  • Felix - a cat

Troppatakkeja

  • Added Alliterative Appeal: On Minä olen myyrä: "Sairasauton sedät ei sano sitäkään!"
  • Alliterative Title: Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä, anyone?
  • Answer Song: "Huonot uutiset to Minä olen myyrä"; Rich bastards Volmar and Sinfonia Pätsi's response on Henri Blavatsky terrorising their dwellings like a mole.
  • Artistic License – Religion: Heaven in Taivaiden Maisterit. Christ kicks Pontius Pilate into a hot spring; The houskeeper keeps a speakeasy instead of the house. The incomers are voted by the masters of heaven who fly around with their divans.
    • Also, there is dessert served in Hell.
  • Bank Robbery: On "Älä astu kauppiaan päälle", but has no real effect on the story.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: "And iron spacejunk rained on their heads" are the last words of the album. It might be completely dada, though.
  • Character Signature Song: Naturally, because some of the the songs are "sung" by characters.
    • "Minä olen myyrä" to Henri Blavatsky
    • "Älä astu kauppiaan päälle" to Abro the merchant
    • "Kuonamagneetti" to Volmar Pätsi
  • Crisis of Faith: When Abro notices that Herni has made it to Heaven. He loses his temper and starts an uproar... But fails completely and gets infected by vermins.
  • Clueless Detective: Henri Blavatsky is not especially good detective. He's actually around as mad as everyone else in the story.
  • Concept Album: As explained in the intro.
  • Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Volmar Pätsi refuses to regret in "Kuonamagneetti". What happens to him is never told.
  • Death Takes a Holiday: The Grim Reaper spends all the money on alcohol and is too drunk to take Henri's spirit to hell.
  • Disposing of a Body:
    • Abro's still living severed head is taken into a cupboard in the factory; Bad thing there happens to be a casette recorded next to him.
    • Henri's spirit buries his badly damaged corpse in Volmar's flowerbed.
  • Dying Clue: In the cupboard Abro's still living severed head records everything he knows to a cassette, keeps it in his mouth and spits it into a garbage bin while the bad guys move him around the factory. He dies later.
  • The Fundamentalist: Abro seems to be one on the last song, though his religiousness is not noted of on th earlier songs. However, he gets very mad when he sees that Henri, who has never touched the Holy Book, makes it to the heaven.
    • Songwriter Jarkko Martikainen has also written a novella about the same subject on his book Pitkät Piikit.
  • Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Volmar's factory manufactures products, especially guilted jackets, using dead people's hair as raw material and enslaved bald people as free labour. Then they are shipped into Cuba or Calcutta.
  • Hell of a Heaven: "Taivaiden Maisterit", "The Masters of Heaven", is about this: Nobody, including Jesus or Saint Paul, seems to be happy in hell. Deeply religious Abro finds extremely depressing that Henri, who has never touched the Holy Book, can shamble around.
  • "I Am" Song: Minä olen myyrä, I am a mole.
  • Indecipherable Lyrics: Most of track 6 "Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä", and some bits on "Taivaiden Maisterit".
  • Losing Your Head: "Älä astu kauppiaan päälle" is about Abro's living severed head bouncing around the town; In Pää Puhuu it records evidence about his "death".
  • Lyrical Cold Open: The title track, with "Granito chore" and "Hallelujah".
  • Non-Appearing Title: "Kuonamagneetti" and "Pää puhuu".
  • Off with His Head!: Some idiot lays his foot on Abro's neck and stomps.
  • One-Word Title: Kuonamagneetti
  • Private Eye Monologue: The first song, "Tyttö jota rakastan (Girl I love)" is not about the girl Henri loves, but about the eccentric situation on the town and an overview of it's crime.
  • Rabid Cop: When Henri learns about the factory and the jackets he starts to tear open people's jackets with his knife made of steel of Toledo. He also terrorized the suspect's manor, throwing their Corvette to the channel and breaking their furniture.
  • Re-release the Song: "Minä olen myyrä" and "Huonot uutiset" were originally released on "Minä Olen Myyrä EP" in 2014, but were recorded again for the main album; The EP versions were rather demo-ish and "primitive" according to the band. Huonot uutiset was also rearraged with classical music instruments and two singers.
    • The whole album was also remastered by Polygram/Universal.
  • Severed Head Sports: Älä Astu Kauppiaan Päälle. Abro's head gets, for example, kicked by a soccer star. In addition, the head still lives.
  • Song Style Shift: A lot of this.
    • "Taivaiden maisterit" starts with acoustic guitar and singer/songwriter stuff about heaven, turns into something like epic rock for refrains, has some improvisation jazz bits and even some hardcore-esque stuff about vermins.
    • The song "Toppatakkeja ja Toledon Terästä" is mostly fast progressive rock but has an ending about lost love interest right from any mainstream unfortunate love song. And it fits.
  • Spoken Word: "Pää Puhuu", The Head Speaks. Never played on gigs. Something between a radio play, plot element and a joke, according to the band.
  • Surprisingly Sudden Death: The main character, Henri, is killed in the sixth song. He gets overdriven by an unnamed daredevil and doesn't realize his mortality until his limbs rain on him.
    • He gets into Heaven in the last song though.
  • Title-Only Chorus: "Älä astu kauppiaan päälle"
  • Title Track: "Toppatakkeja Ja Toledon Terästä"
  • Vomiting Cop Henri's spirit vomits on his own corpse; talk about gruesome Finnish proge.


Alternative Title(s): Toppatakkeja Ja Toledon Terästä

Top