Joachim Nielsen better known as Jokke, was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

. He was the frontman of Norwegian rock band Jokke & Valentinerne

Jokke & Valentinerne

Jokke & Valentinerne were a Norwegian rock band. The late Joachim "Jokke" Nielsen was their frontman, songwriter and lead singer. Unlike many other Norwegian bands at the time, Jokke & Valentinerne wrote their lyrics in Norwegian....

, the brother of cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

 Christopher Nielsen

Christopher Nielsen

Christopher Nielsen is a Norwegian comics artist. He is especially known for his subcultural depictions. Nielsen got his first comics printed in 1980 after entering a competition in the Norwegian anarchist magazine, Gateavisa. Only three years later he got his first album published...

, and son of the artist John David Nielsen. He is considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in Norway.

Jokke & Valentinerne (Jokke and the Valentines) were formed in 1982 consisting of Nielsen on guitar and vocals, his longtime partner May-Irene Aasen on drums and Håkon Torgersen on bass. The band went on to become one of the most popular bands in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

's underground rock scene. Their first album Alt kan repareres (Everything can be repaired) was released in 1986.

Much of the band's lyrics were about alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

, and Jokke had a reputation of frequently getting drunk on stage. In 1992, he created a scandal when he received Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy awards) visibly drunk and/or under the influence of drugs. Still, one must not dismiss his lyrics as being shallow drinking songs. All his lyrics, including the much-played and catchy Øl ("Beer"), have a deeper tone describing a harsh lifestyle with drugs, alcohol and general anxiety towards the society and the people close to him. Nielsen's lyricism is closely related to the American writer Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...

, in describing societal underdogs, misfits and so-called anti-hero

Anti-hero

In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...

es. Nielsen's lyrics show strong sympathy for people who are somewhat scarred by life, and in addition, are deeply working class-conscious. The Norwegian poet Rudolf Nilsen

Rudolf Nilsen

Rudolf William Nilsen was a Norwegian poet and journalist.He was born in Kristiania on 28 February 1901. A child of the working class, Nilsen became part of the left-wing revolutionary movement and joined the organisation Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbund .In 1921, he stood trial for...

 and musician Alf Prøysen

Alf Prøysen

Alf Prøysen , was a writer and musician from Norway. He was born at Rudshøgda in Ringsaker. Prøysen was one of the most important Norwegian cultural personalities in the second half of the twentieth century, and he made significant contributions to literature, music, TV and radio.His childhood was...

 are two other influences, in both a literal and a musical sense.

By the mid-1990s, Jokke had developed a heroin addiction, and had several stays at rehabilitation clinics. By the turn of the millennium, many of his close friends believed that he had conquered his addiction. However, he died suddenly of a drug overdose in October 2000, aged 36.

In 2005, a double tribute album entitled Det beste til meg og mine venner (The best for me and my friends) was released, which featured cover versions of Jokke's best known work from Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 artists.
Later that year (around Christmas time) a single was released featuring three previously unreleased songs, called Tomgang.

In November 2005 a proposal came up in the "old town" of Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 that Nielsen should get a street in the new part of Oslo (Bjørvika) named after him. In December this proposal was declined. The committee agreed instead that he could get a street in Grønland

Grønland

Grønland is a neighbourhood in central Oslo, Norway. It is served by several tram and bus lines, as well as the Oslo Metro at the Grønland Station....

, Oslo. This street is now called "Joachim Nielsens gang" and the sign for it came up in September 2006. The closest neighbor is a bar and a theater. They also suggested to put up a statue of him, but his family did not approve of this.

Hayseed Dixie

Hayseed Dixie

Hayseed Dixie is an American band which began in the autumn of 2000 with the release of their first album, A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC. The band performs a mixture of cover versions of hard rock songs and original compositions in a style that is a unique fusion of bluegrass and rock music and are...

covered "To Fulle Menn" ("Two drunk men"), a song written by Jokke.

Jokke & Valentinerne

• Alt kan repareres (1986)
• Et hundeliv (1987)
• III (1990)
• Frelst (1991)
• Alt kan repeteres (1994)
• Spenn! (greatest hits) (1995)
• Prisen for popen (greatest hits) (2002)

External links

• Jokke discography - A complete discography.