Three friends from Gothenburg, singer Thomas Engstrom, guitarist Jan Rognås and bassist Janne Gustavsson, formed the band Shaggy in 1973 with Englishman Thomas J. Ryan (org, voc) and Austrian drummer Kurt Kastner. Two years later, they recorded their debut album Lessons For Beginners at Tal & Ton Studios in Gothenburg, which was released in the same year on the small Swedish label Royal. It is one of the first Swedish hard rock releases and offers energetic, English-language heavy rock with progressive elements, based on varied guitar and keyboard playing. The instrumental title track even incorporates classical arrangements by Grieg and Brahms. Later that year, they performed as the opening act for The Sweet at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg in front of over 5,000 spectators.

Despite further live performances, this remained their only release, which also failed to generate any interest among buyers. The band broke up in 1978. Today, this extremely rare Swedish hard rock LP is one of the hardest to find hard rock vinyl records of the 1970s.