Ragnar Borgedahl

Biography

Björn Ragnar Borgedahl (Stockholm, Sweden, December 10, 1949 - June 5, 2017) was a Swedish singer-songwriter. Ragnar Borgedahl was a selfmade artist in the 70s left-wing progressive musical movement in Sweden. He worked as caretaker in Stockholm near Humlegården and recorded in his spare time his own music in a cellar. When he sent in the tapes to the Swedish radioshow "Bandet Går" (the tape is running) they became so popular that it directly led to the recordings of his two albums in an early...

Björn Ragnar Borgedahl (Stockholm, Sweden, December 10, 1949 - June 5, 2017) was a Swedish singer-songwriter.

Ragnar Borgedahl was a selfmade artist in the 70s left-wing progressive musical movement in Sweden. He worked as caretaker in Stockholm near Humlegården and recorded in his spare time his own music in a cellar. When he sent in the tapes to the Swedish radioshow "Bandet Går" (the tape is running) they became so popular that it directly led to the recordings of his two albums in an early Dylan style, Hum, Hum Från Humlegårn (1974) and Sagan om verkligheten (1976) (The fairytale of the reality). Humlegården is a small park in Stockholm that was a popular place for flower power and prog people at the time. It is of note that on his debut album, two of the musicians were well-known DJ's on the Swedish radio, Stefan Wermelin and Dick Blomberg. Borgedahl got a big prog-hit with the song "Hum Hum Från Humlegården," which as the years have passed has remained a classic proggsong. Ragnar Borgedahl was popular with all and a bridge in the conflicts between the political part of the progressive musical movement and the more flower power part of the same.

After his music career he has been owner of the well-known video store Casablanca in Stockholm for nearly 20 years. In 2003 the popular Swedish artist Lars Winnerbäck did a cover version of "Hum hum från Humlegården," which reached the top of the Swedish hitlist Tracks. Borgedahl commented that the new version of his song was "great" and the newborn public interest led finally to the CD reissue of Ragnar Borgedahl's old album shortly after. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.