The Last Song You Listened to Thread

Hi Juha,

I don't speak Finnish but the music does sound more country/western "truckie" than Arlo's folk version.
Steve Goodman wrote it and I think he had a better voice than Guthrie's but I like Guthrie's version better than his because of the memories it brings back to me (listening to it, not riding the rails ). Arlo took it to number 4 in the US

 

Hello Dave
Your post made me doubt my musical ear, which does not require a lot because I am quite unmusical even if I like to listen to music. I hadn't checked the thing before, but the googling gave the answer. Yes, "Hyvää huomenta, Suomi" is a translated cover of Steve Goodman's song, the lyrics are somewhat the same, even though it is a changed to truck driver's song. Goodman's original version is good, maybe he has too youthful and a clear voice for the song that tells an engine driver.
Hyvää huomenta Suomi – Wikipedia, the first line shows the fact.

Covers are sometimes a bit different than the original and at least here in Finland sometimes adapted to national culture. And especially earlier the local musicians were fairly often technically clearly less capable than the original artists. When I was younger, I listened almost exclusively to foreign music, especially English, because it was simply better. Well, we had a few good progressive bands and some talented lyricists. Nowadays situation is better.

It is partly to what one has used to. Here

The singer Tapio Rautavaara was very popular here from 40s to 60s and his voice was associated to workmen. He was also javelin throw Olympic winner from 1948 (London) and in archery Rautavaara won a team gold medal at the 1958 World Championships.

 

The video of Rautavaara's Yölinjalla reminded me my youth. I liked driving, also at night and because the video is rather old, it shows what most of the roads were and are here. In any case, the motorways are pretty tedious. At the time I liked The Rasmus' In the Shadows, at least partly because of the night time driving sections at the beginning and end of the video

 

Because I liked drive and had no difficulties to stay sober I was usually the driver during our evening and weekend leaves during my military service, the owner of the car(s), he was an "unofficial car dealer", on the other hand liked drinks. I remember when during our first weekend leave we drived to our home city and the city lights began to lighten the horizon, what a feeling. I liked this video maybe mostly because at the beginning it shows the arrival to Helsinki along the same route we used then. And all the streets shown are familiar. During my last schoolyears I went to discos about five nights per week and was active disco goer also through the next decade, so those nightly streets became very familiar. The lyrics are also pretty good but unfortunately in Finnish.

 

Try the live version from Get Your Ya -Ya's Out. The guitar solo will blow your socks off.

 

Another of my all time favourite Stones' songs.