01	Your Sign / My Sign						03:08
	02	Open Air Shop						05:33
	03	You Be Free						01:28
	04	Oh Baby Where Have You Gone?						02:11
	05	A Girl I Knew						04:37
	06	Everybody Must Know						02:56
	07	Savage Rose						02:41
	08	Her Story						04:36
	09	White Swans' Marriage Clothes						02:25
	10	Sleep						01:57
	11	You'll Be Alright						03:17

The Savage Rose 1968
POLYDOR 184-144 DENMARK

Your Sign / My Sign
Open Air Shop
You Be Free
Oh Baby Where Have You Gone ?
A Girl I Knew
Everybody Must Know
Savage Rose
Her Story
White Swan's Marriage Clothes
Sleep
You'll Be Alright

[PERSONNEL]
Annisette (vo)
Ilse Maria Koppel (haarpsichord/piano)
Flemming Ostermann (guitar)
Jens Rugsted (bass)
Alex Riel (drums)
Anders Koppel (Organ/vocal)
Thomas Koppel (piano/vocal)


Savage Rose
Date of Release 1968

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Their debut is their lightest and most charming effort. Waltzing melodies give way to thunder-of-doom bass runs, and the storybookish lyrics have a forlorn, yearning quality. With its oddly hollow sound, one is never really sure whether the tone is supposed to be playful or ominous. - Richie Unterberger

Annisette - Vocals
Anders Koppel - Keyboards
Ilse Maria Koppel - Keyboards
Thomas Koppel - Keyboards, Vocals
Flemming Ostermann - Guitar
Jens Rugsted - Bass, Vocals

1968 LP Polydor 543031
1968 Polydor 181 144



Savage Rose [Denmark]
Savage Rose (68), In The Plain (68), Travellin' (69), Your Daily Gift (70), Refugee (72), Pop History Vol. 15 (72), Dodens Triumf (72), Babylon (73), Wild Child (73), I'm Satisfied (7?), En Vugge Af Stal (??), Solen Var Ogsa Din (77)

Savage Rose are a Danish band from the late '60s and early '70s. Apparently they released several albums but I only know of two, which are the two I have. In the Plain, released in 1968, is drenched in the psychedelia typical of that time, though there is some foreshadowing of the progressive revolution that was to begin full-force the following year. There are three keyboard players who play piano, organ and harpsichord. There's also recorder, accordion and steel guitar in addition to acoustic and electric guitar. Lead vocals are provided by Annisette who somehow manages to sound like a sexy and diminuitive wildcat! Actually, I'm reminded just a bit of Cindy Lauper. Her vocal styling gives the music drive and energy as she gives her all. There are also some softer moments of piano and vocals giving a folkish quality to some songs. Your Daily Gift follows along the same lines but is both more mature in style and folkier in influence. Annisette's voice is also more powerful than ever. Highly recommended if you are a psych fan but I don't think the Sympho/Prog crowd would like this very much.

This Danish band was quite popular in Scandinavia. It's said their first album was outsold only by the concurrent Beatles release. They certainly posessed a sound all their own, and while the overall style of In The Plain is definitely psychedelic, it has elements that can be described only as progressive. Masterminded by brothers Thomas and Anders Koppel, and starring the soulful voice of the diminutive Annisette, who has been stylistically compared to Janis Joplin but really sounds like no one I've ever heard before. Her high-pitched voice may sound grating and shrill to the uninitiated, but one would hardly expect to hear such an impassioned singer in a Scandinavian band. The band had a very distinctive line-up, bass, guitar, vocals and drums along with piano and organ, played by Thomas and Anders, and harpsichord played by Thomas' wife Ilse. The sound created by the three keyboards interacting is quite original. The band also experiments with auditory landscapes on the dreamy "God's Little Hand" and the beautiful "I'm Walking Through The Door." The rest of the album is psychedelic rock-soul of the highest order, with the odd folkie touch; as on "Evening's Child," which has Thomas playing a Persian santour (hammer-dulcimer). The closing track, "A Trial In Our Native Town" with its laborious Vanilla Fudge tempo, gurgling cathedral Hammond organ, roaring guitar and Annisette's aching vocals, is one that is sure to make psych fans salivate. The other album I have, Your Daily Gift, is more folk-prog than psych-prog. Ilsa Koppel took maternity leave from the band, reducing the line-up to a six piece. Some of the tracks are pretty lame and dated sounding, like "Listen To This Tune From Mexico," with its inane lyrics and Vegas-lounge organ. But "Speak Softly" is a beautiful R&B oriented ballad, one of Annisette's best vocals performances. "Tapiola" is a seven-minute free improvisation, pretty interesting stuff. "Unfold" is a sort of country-rock-folk mix with slide guitar joined by harpsichord! The title song closes the album appropriately, the bright, optimistic lyrics neatly contrasting with the sad, gloomy tone. The minor-chorded piano, and brushed drums work well for this song, the use of accordion adds a creepy element.

Savage Rose
Formed 1966 in Denmark

One of the most well-known rock groups from Continental Europe, Denmark's Savage Rose recorded a wealth of intriguing and eclectic progressive rock in the late '60s and '70s. In their early work, one hears faint echoes of the Airplane, Doors, Pink Floyd, and other psychedelic heavyweights combined with classical jazz and Danish-Euro folk elements. Their arrangements rely heavily on an incandescent, watery organ that sounds like nothing so much as psychedelic aquarium music. The most striking aspect of the band's sound, however, was the vocals of lead singer Annisette. Her childish wispy and sensual phrasing can suddenly break into jarring, almost histrionic wailing, like a Janis Joplin with Yoko Ono-isms, and eerily foreshadows Kate Bush's style.
Stars in their native land, Savage Rose also achieved a bit of underground success abroad, and several of their albums were released in North America. Between 1968 and 1978, the group released nine albums, moving from vaguely psychedelic rock and the heavily gospel-influenced Refugee to the nearly classical ballet score Dodens Triumf and the folky, nearly all-Danish Solen Var Ogsa Din (their first eight albums were sung entirely in English).

Always a radical band - the Black Panthers even invited the group to play at a benefit for Bobby Seale after hearing one of Savage Rose's records - they took the extremely radical step of withdrawing from the studio entirely by the end of 1970s to focus on using their music to support leftist political causes. Although they continued to make music and perform, they were often heard at benefits and free concerts, actually playing in Lebanese hospitals, schools, and refugee camps at the P.L.O.'s invitation. They eased back into recording in the early '80s with Danish-language efforts on small labels, eventually getting back into the mainstream music business with established distribution. Their mid-'90s album, Black Angel, was their first English-language recording in many years, and a substantial Danish hit. By this time the only remaining members from the original band were Thomas Koppel and Annisette (now his wife); Koppel also records and composes symphonic music as a solo artist. - Richie Unterberger


1968 Savage Rose Polydor
1969 In the Plain Polydor
1969 Travelin' Polydor
1970 Your Daily Gift Gregar
1971 Refugee Gregar
1972 Pop History Polydor
1972 Dodens Triumf Polydor
1972 Babylon Polydor
1973 Wild Child Polydor
1978 Sole Var Ogsa Din Sonet
1995 Black Angel Mega
1998 Tameless Mega