Per and I go way back--way, way back. Not only have I been lusting after him for over 20 years (Gods, I feel old! ) but my Dad's family is mostly Scandinavian in origin, and I found out from an aunt who's into geneaology that I had an ancestor back in the 1400's who was some kind of high official in the Swedish province of Halland--the capitol of which is Per's hometown, Halmstad. Pretty cool, huh?

My direct experience with this particular Swede, however, began on a cold evening in March of 1991. That was the night that I happened to turn on MTV just in time to catch about the last third of the video for the Roxette song "Dangerous," and the progression of my thoughts went something like this: "Wow, what a neat song... and gosh, that lady's pretty. And just who is that handsome devil with the voice, and the hair, and the eyes, and the earring, and that grin... and... and...?"

I've been a Roxette fan ever since, even though it hasn't exactly been an easy job; other than a brief period during the early 90's, they've been popular pretty much everywhere except America. At least import CDs are more easily had these days, thanks to the Internet--finding them when I was still in high school was rather a trial. And particularly since I was buying not only Roxette albums, but also stuff from Per's first band Gyllene Tider (Swedish for "Golden Age") and his and Marie's solo careers. It was all in Swedish, and my friends thought I was crazy for spending as much money on it as I did, but whether I understood the lyrics or not didn't matter. I just wanted to hear as much of those two voices as I possibly could, because, odd as it might sound, I could trust them.

When I first got into rock music, it was frustrating to find that often I would only like one or two songs, or perhaps one particular album, out of any given band's entire repertoire. I had more pocket money than a lot of kids my age because I had a job (my parents owned a small business and paid me for helping out) but I still didn't want to waste it on albums that might have only a handful of good songs. But with Roxette or Roxette-related music, I knew I never had to worry--it seemed as though neither Per nor Marie could make a bad record alone, and whenever they teamed up, it was just magical. (To this day, they've only made a couple of albums with anything on them that I actively disliked--and considering the size of their catalog, that's a pretty good record!) Their songs were like old friends, something that I could always count on no matter what else might be happening. They kept me company when I was lonely, celebrated along with me when I was happy, and helped me cope whenever I was sad. I count it one of the marks of Per's genius as a songwriter, actually, that I like his sad songs just as well as the upbeat ones, because the emotion in them is so pure that it acts as a sort of catharsis. I can sink into the sadness and really feel it for those three or four minutes, then let it fade away with the last notes of the song. Roxette songs almost never leave me feeling depressed.

And, as if that wasn't enough, Roxette also brought me into contact with the first true friends I think I ever had. I'd always been rather the odd man out as a kid; I grew up entirely in small towns (by US standards, anyway--usually the population was fifty thousand or less) and between a lack of "normal" interests, too many brains for my own good, and a natural bent toward introversion, it probably doesn't come as a surprise to hear that I had trouble making friends. I never stopped wishing I had more of them, but it just wasn't in the cards with such a limited pool of people to choose from, and eventually I learned to get by on my own. By the time high school rolled around, in fact, I was so used to doing my own thing that even the "counterculture" cliques held little appeal; most of them were, really, as strict about their own code of conformity as the jocks or the preppies, and I was far too independant-minded to be interested. But then I discovered Roxette, and I knew I couldn't be the only one in the world who saw how great this band was. There might not be any other fans in my own town, but they had to be out there somewhere, all I needed to do was find them. So I did the first thing that any die-hard fan would do: I joined the fan club, and, from there, a multi-national network of pen pals.

I still remember that time with a lot of fondness. It was such a thrill to go out to the mailbox each day and find letters addressed to me, particularly if they had an airmail mark and cool foreign stamps, and I learned so much--I credit that whole experience with making me less of an American and more a citizen of the world. I might never have met my penpals face-to-face, but they meant the world to me, and I really regret losing touch with pretty much all of them. I went through a very rough personal time in the mid 1990's, and I barely had the energy to drag myself out of bed in the morning; the idea of writing letter after letter about all the pain I was going through was just too much. I've managed to reconnect with a few of my old pals via the Internet, but there are a lot still out there that I'd love to get back in touch with. So if you remember writing to a girl in Cheyenne, Wyoming at about that time (1992-1994ish) please, drop me an email!

Going back to Per himself, though--Gods, the lustful fantasies this man has inspired. He is quite a good-looking fellow (and one who's aged remarkably well) but if I had to pick my favorite of his features, I think I'd be torn between those sparkling dark eyes and his voice. The way he sings just sends shivers down my spine; he probably wouldn't win any awards from a strictly technical standpoint, but to my ears, at least, there's a great deal of inherent sensuality to his singing. Particularly on lower notes, his voice takes on this husky buzz that just drives me to the edge of sanity, and I never, ever, get tired of listening to it.

Quite apart from being a hunk, though, he really is very talented. He's definitely one of my favorite lyricists ever (which is all the more remarkable when you consider that English isn't his native language) and he seems able to hit both ends of the pop spectrum--upbeat and ballad--with equal ease. And I have to mention the demos; Roxette has developed a reputation for sticking demo versions of various songs on the B-sides of their singles, and there are even a couple of bootlegs out there which consist entirely of unreleased demos. And these are invariably fabulous, not least because Per often does lead vocals on the demo tracks, even the ones that Marie Fredriksson sings on the album versions. It's sometimes obvious why the final version was given to Marie (much as I love his voice, Per just simply doesn't have his band-mate's vocal range) but from a musical perspective, the demos are jaw-droppingly well-done. As one writer put it, "The amazing and frightening truth... is that Roxette songs have that glistening studio finish from the moment they emerge from Per Gessle's head, if not before then." (Click here to visit that writer's website; he's reviewed a number of Roxette CDs, and I can confidently state that when it comes to this band, he "gets it.")

So laugh at me if you must, but I've been searching out anything by or related to Roxette for a long time now, and I have the feeling that I'll continue to do so for a long time to come...