What is a Swedish Raggare?

SWEDEN. Many have tried to translate the word Raggare. Teddy Boy, Greaser, Motorhead, Red Neck. 

Some have tried drawing parallels with similar existing groups in other countries. I have stopped translating. It’s impossible. Let me instead describe an emotional phenomenon in Swedish women and men that has formed generation after generation. By Lars-Åke Krantz. Translation Ellen Kay Krantz.

For the American and non- Swedish that wants to know what a Raggare is. Let me tell you a story that helps putting the pieces together.

A story about Little America and a very big country far, far away.

A fairytale that entails the burning desire a Swedish raggare feels and why there aren’t any equivalents in America.

Let’s begin.

Once upon a time. . .

Once upon a time there was a country called America. Steve, Rich and Diana lives in America.  They are 18 years of age. The year is 1958.  They are in possession of some magazines from the land of Superia.

Superia is located on the other side of the world and is 50 times bigger than America. Over there live 50 times more people and everything is more luxurious, cooler, tougher, more expensive and much much bigger.

The cars
Steve and Rich has seen the land of Superia in the movies. The streets are wider, house bigger and the cars..! Superia’s cars make daddies Buick Roadmaster look ridiculous. In Superia cars are 9 feet wide and 29 feet long. They have humongous engines with 2000 hp and are one of the most beautiful things Steve and Rich have ever seen.

The music
Diana likes music and has records with the new American star Elvis Presley but outside of the USA coast there’s a boat that illegally airs music from Superia! Forbidden music. THAT kind of music makes the new American rock’n’roll seem childish and akward. Superia’s music is so terrible groovy that people gather round the radios at night to get sucked into the new music no one can play or even have heard of in USA.

Dreams
Steve, Rich and Diana dreams of Superia where everyone are rich and happy and everything is 50 times bigger.

USA is planning to send a space capsule on a venture around the Earth 1959.
– Such an itty bitty silly thing to do.

Superia has already populated Mars. They do everything better, faster and they have money to create anything. Anything. 

Remarkable
Steve and Rich have managed to get hold of some magazines from Superia. They know a little of the language. They read and smell the paper of Superia and think it’s remarkable to be holding the same paper as the citizens of Superia on the other side of the world.

A Superia of their own
One year later Diana has managed to get a hold of a record from the number one music star of Superia. A sailor brought it home to Little America. You can’t buy it in stores in USA. Meanwhile Steve that works at the gas station, against the adversity from society, has bought a 9 feet wide car from Superia with 2000 hp.

Everybody calls him crazy but when he rolls on down the streets with his gigantic car they all send him envious looks. He’s got a standard of luxury in the car that no one has ever heard of in their lousy Cadillac’s. He picks Diana up and guess what. Steve can play Diana’s record in the car !!!

Bang!
Bang! Raggaren is born. In cars from the other side of the globe they are ahead of everyone else, outclass everybody and play a music that doesn’t exist that makes rock’n’roll sound dorky. In Superia they have other hairstyles and clothes as well. Diana and Steve belong to the working class and haven’t got much green. They read their used magazines, work hard, save up and sew clothes of their own that looks like the ones in the pictures. They read about how Superia saved itty bitty America in both World Wars. 

It grows
Riding in their car they meet others from other cities that also managed to buy a Superian car. They gather and drive in convoy in their humongous cars. They play Superian music, dresses Superian and dream about one day travelling there. On TV Superian movies are shown and one day a weird restaurant opens up that is totally foreign to everybody. Superian food !!
– Waow!

Lights in there are more colorful, bigger, brighter. The entire town is lit up by this restaurant. Average Americans are against it and thinks too much from Superia are imported and implemented but Raggarna loves it. They drive their huge cars, play their music, enjoy the new food and starts throwing in Superian words in conversations. It sounds cooler like that.

Years go by
Steve, Rich and Diana stay in the little town and turns into middle-aged hard working families. They save up, get better finances and buy even bigger and shinier cars from Superia. The year is 2014 and they are still driving cars from 1957 and 1959 during the weekends. There own cars of America has during this time gotten smaller, more boring with more plastic which brings these old Superian “air planes” to stand out even more in traffic.

Nowadays they travel to Superia every year and buy two gigantic cars to bring with them back. The children want one and they sell to their friends. They have lived their dream and achieved it. They have created a Superia in the Little America that they live in.

Today
Raggare as a group has grown into millions of enthusiasts that celebrate enormous Superia-meetings where the flag of Superia is hoisted in little tiny America.  They ride in the same old cars every summer, listen to the same old music, dress the same and Steve and Diana still got that Superian record from 1958. Sometimes they go for a drive in the car and listen to that, by now, scratched record. And as long as there’s gasoline to buy they will sit in the front seat remembering.

The End.

Therefore:

1. Raggare isn’t just about a simple interest of cars. It’s about love to the enormous country far, far away where everything was a dream. Where everything was better. The music, the movies, the cars, the clothes, the hair.

2. The Swedish Raggaren’s dedication can’t exist in USA because Americans hasn’t got a gigantic, unattainable country to dream of.

When they celebrate an old Chevy from 1958 and Elvis’ Jail House Rock that becomes the same thing as when a Swede celebrates a Volvo PV and remembers  accordion parties with Snoddas.

Get the difference? The fuel of Raggare, the euphoric dreams of the gigantic technical wonder from the other side of the world supplied us with a piece of the puzzle that only can exist outside of the US border and that has taken unsuspected dimensions in the country of Sweden, where the emotional bond has become a legacy for the next generation and grown into concerning a significant part of the population.

3. Americans can cruise down Van Neus Boulevard in Los Angeles as in American Graffiti but can never reach that out of body experience to come from a small, cautious country to an enormous, neon colored, unreachable futuristic country were you got the impression that everything is 50  times as big. There, is precisely where you find the innermost core of the phenomenon Swedish Raggare.

4. The existence of the Raggare is in high prosper and growing as a group. Nowadays you’re dreaming about another time, not about location. Dreams of the 50’s and 60’s. Sweden is today one of the wealthiest countries in the World were working- and middle class can create whatever they want.

Car collection, huge garage space, nostalgic coffee shop, weekend meets in 50’s style. Rod meets, Rockabilly parties, whole weeks in American 50’s- and 60’s style you name it and the growth is big. The Raggar phenomenon in Sweden is stronger than ever.

5. The latest wonderful madness is to fly over your American car back to the States to drive it down classic Lincoln Highway or Route 66. After that you fly it back over knowing you yourself rode it around “Superias” dreamlike streets.

6. The word Raggare will not let itself translate into a foreign synonym.

– It’s about the desire, the  urge, the hunt in catching the fleeing grain of gold in the horizon from the ultimate country that existed a long, long time ago.