Evert Taube

Infobox musical artist
Name =Evert Taube

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Img_capt =Evert Taube in the early 1940s (from sheet music cover).
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Background =solo_singer
Birth_name =Evert Axel Taube
Alias =
Born =Birth date|1890|3|12
flagicon|Sweden Gothenburg, Sweden
Died =death date and age|1976|1|31|1890|3|12
Stockholm, Sweden
Origin =
Instrument =Vocals, Lute
Genre =Folk music
Occupation =Musician
Author
Years_active =1918-1974
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.everttaube.info/ Everttaube.info] (unofficial)
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments = Audio|sv-Evert_Taube.ogg|Evert Axel Taube (March 12, 1890-January 31 1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He was born in Gothenburg, and brought up on the island of Vinga, Västergötland, where his father, Carl Gunnar Taube, a ship's captain, was the lighthouse keeper. His mother was Julia Sofia Jacobsdotter.

In 1925, he married Astri Linnéa Mathilda Bergman, a painter and sculptress. He died in Stockholm and is buried on the graveyard of Maria Magdalena Church on Södermalm.

Having spent two years (1907-1909) sailing around the Red Sea, Ceylon and South Africa, Taube began his career as a singer-songwriter and collector of sailors' songs, and on Christmas Eve 1908, on board the Norwegian ship "SS Bergen" headed for Spain, he performed "Turalleri, piken fra Hamburg".

Following a five-year stay (1910-1915) in Argentina, he developed an interest in Latin American music and introduced the Argentinian tango to Sweden in the twenties. Contrary to widespread perceptions, Taube did not work as a gaucho (cowboy) on the Pampas but as a foreman supervising workers who were digging canals designed to prevent flooding on the vast plains.

He is perhaps best known as a depictor of the idyllic, with motifs from the Swedish archipelagoes and from the Mediterranean, from a perspective every Swedish four-week holiday tourist could recognize. But he also wrote the most hitting anti-fascist anti-war poem in the Swedish language, "Målaren och Maria Pia", about the Italian war in Abyssinia, from the late 30s, as well as the anthem of the budding environmental movement in the 70s, "Änglamark" (originally written for the successful 1971 "Hasseåtage"-film "The Apple War"). He also invented Rap music independently with his poem Muren och böckerna in 1960, about a Chinese theme.

On his 60th birthday in 1950, Taube received the Bellman Award from the Swedish Academy and in 1960 he received an honorary doctorate from Gothenburg University. He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1970.

Among Taube's most famous songs are "Calle Schewens vals", "Min älskling (du är som en ros)", "Dans på Sunnanö", "Flickan i Havanna", "Änglamark'", "Så skimrande var aldrig havet" and "Så länge skutan kan gå".

Evert Taube is regarded as one of the finest troubadours in Sweden. There is a complete pavilion, opened in 2008, dedicated to him at Liseberg Theme Park in Gothenburg.

Children

#Per-Evert Arvid Joachim Taube (born 1926)
#Rose Marie Astrid Elisabet Taube (1928 - 1928)
#Ellinor Gunnel Astri Elisabeth Taube (1930 - 1998)
#Sven-Bertil Taube (born 1934)
#Kirsten Kruse

See also

*List of Swedes in music

Publications

* "Sjösalaboken" (1942), with illustrations by Roland Svensson.

His works in English

*"Sea Ballads & Other Songs" (1940) - (trans. by Helen Asbury)
*I Come From A Raging Sea (1967) - (trans. by Paul Britten Austin)
*CD: "A Talk While Dancing" (1999) - (trans. by Emily Melcher)

Biography in English

*I Come From A Raging Sea (1967) - (Foreword by Inga-Britt Fredholm)
*A History of Swedish Literature (1989) - (Ingemar Algulin)
*A History of Swedish Literature (1996) - (Lars G. Warme)

External links

* [http://www.everttaube.info/ Evert Taube's (unofficial) home page]
* [http://www.taubesallskapet.se/ Taube Society (Swedish only)]
* [http://www.abc.se/~m8169/taube/oversatt.html Helen Asbury's translations] at Evert Taubes hörna
* [http://www.allmusic.com/ Taube biography] at Allmusic - Enter "Evert Taube" in Artist/Group window.