Ulf Lundell

Ulf Lundell (born November 20, 1949 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish writer, poet, songwriter, composer, musician and artist. Lundell made his debut in 1975 with the LP "Vargmåne" and was immediately hailed as "Sweden's Bob Dylan". In 1976 his first novel, the autobiographical "Jack" was published. Lundell was influenced by musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and other beat poets. Lundell is one of the central figures in Swedish rock music and he is one of the most important influences on Swedish musicians writing and singing in Swedish. His biggest hit up until today is "Öppna landskap" from 1982, a song once proposed to be Sweden's new national anthem. Apart from the obvious link to Bruce Springsteen, Lundell has also let himself be influenced by artists like U2 and especially The Edge and his special guitar sound. The references to U2's "Achtung Baby" are very present in Lundell's releases in the years after "Achtung Baby". Another link to U2 is the fact that U2-photographer Anton Corbijn is the man behind the camera on Lundell's albums "Man Utan Kvinnor" (1996) and "Club Zebra" (2002). His latest release is the massive collectors box: Under Vulkanen 1972-2007. (14 CD's of unreleased material plus 2 DVD's containing b-sides, songs from compilations and other material. 104 of the songs included in the box are so-called "never heard before"-items.) He also published his latest novel "Vädermannen" (The Weatherman) in the spring of 2008.