Wigwam: In the far North, the band was influenced by Traffic and The Band

In the late 60s progressive rock was just coming around. It was a British phenomenon that spread to the continent. The lyrics were an early indication of something big happening with the first few Wigwam albums. Other than that, 1969-75 was the "organ trio" band. Progressive Rock had not got to the Genesis and Yes stage yet when Wigwam started.

King Crimson was an early example of lyrics and instruments to use. But it was Traffic that inspired Pembroke and Gustavson. Ian McDonald followed the band from the start and reviewed the albums in 1974:

Those were notes by Ian McDonald (NME) on Tombstone Valentine. Yes, there is a likeness to Traffic. And Jim's Save My Money and Name somewhat resembles the Band tune below. Having met Pembroke twice and listened to his records with Wigwam for years I was pretty sure it was always the lyrics that caught his attention. The Band had a song out on an early album that Wigwam covered. It was an album cut, but many a fan picked out this song from Cahoots rather than the more popular "When I paint my masterpiece." Wigwam played a number of Band tunes live, such as Chest Fever, which gave Jukka a chance to show his skills.

"The Moon Struck One"

Julie and little John Tyler lived in the house next door

We would be the great triangle and to this we swore

Julie was my sweetheart, little John was my cohort

And all the wild horses in the world couldn't keep us apart

Once we went for a swim in the noonday sun

And promised to return before the moon struck one...

Pembroke had always had a thing for America in his lyrics. Hard Top Lincoln appeared in the 80s. By 1990 he had ended up in Kansas City and made a few reunion gigs in summers in Finland. Finally the band had a comeback in the early 2000s and made two worthwhile albums. These reflected his interest in America and the scenery there. Jim was particularly interested in Native Americans and their legends.

Back to the Band, Jim's playful lyrics appeared to follow the Band song in Save My Money and Name:

I was never the same kind of fan of The Band as Jim was, but did look into a number of the albums just because of the Wigwam connection. For me, the hit collection CD would have been emough.

Pembroke wrote an autobiography in his last years. Look for it, probably in Finnish, under the Like publisher site in the fall.

https://like.fi/

Back to Ian McDonald. I'm not sure if he came back to comment on the Wigwam lineup past 75. Here we see Pembroke come to his own, and the band really was not a copy of any progressive rock style. It had synthesizer, but it sure was not ELP. The band later came to call it "deep pop." I think Jim's lyrics came to stand out a bit better in that style. The better keyboard player, Kotilainen, was only on board for one of their 70s albums and two in the 2000s. Thus the keyboard became a lesser force in the live band. It was no longer anything like Traffic.