Big fans of Memphis Evans will be able to immediately call to mind the image of former St. Olaf German professor Hanno Klassen as featured on the cover of the Great Uncle Helmer album old man will travel. I recently heard that Hanno has passed away and felt like sharing some memories of that day.
I am sorry to hear that Hanno died. I only met him once - the day we took the photos we used for that CD - but he was quite extraordinary. We took about a hundred pictures that day. He was very patient and kind to Karl and I and he seemed to enjoy the experience. The whole time he was talking about what it was like to be in Berlin around the time of WWII, talking about his relationships, and singing songs. I can't think of anyone else I've ever met who was quite like him. One of his songs went something like this:
Cars and highways. These will pass away. Only the trees will remain.
Wind and grass - these things will remain.
His perspective on our music was that he liked the vocals but was not as fond of the "electronic" other sounds. I guess we did technically use electric guitar and bass, but that is probably the least electronically manipulated album I've ever made. This perspective was eye opening to me and I liked it. R.I.P.
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Thanks for the info on Hanno. One of the amazing things to me is that I had Hanno for German class at St.O in 1961 and 1962. He was a younger man then and a good teacher as I recall.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, Hanno! I belive I knew him as the happy driver of a baby blue convertible car. He had to ask me several times if I was "a swimmel?" (Lake Michigan was a stones throw away). Finally I understood; no, I couldn't swim. In the rather conservative setting of the MBS he was a bit flamboyant. In a good way. One of the best memories of my small-kid-time.
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