Reflections on: ABBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMuEywHxcw
ABBA. I can bore anyone within listening distance with my talk about ABBA. Now, I quit playing music the year ABBA won the Eurovision song contest ( 1974 ) with a little tune entitled 'Waterloo'. After I quit, I didn't follow music much for a while. I did get one of their early albums -- I believe it was 'Waterloo' -- but lost track of them. Partly due to my being quite busy with work and family, and partly due to my consciously trying to stay away from listening too much, as I would have missed playing. Too, here in America, ABBA was not as popular as in the rest of the world; probably mainly due to the fact that they did not tour here until 1979, and in the USA, we have some misguided notion that we won't like nor buy music from anyone who doesn't tour.
Even though The Beatles had put the lie to that years earlier. Still, those in charge of promoting music in America did not promote those who did not tour for them. Wasn't for the fans. It was for the promoters.
Anyway, it has taken me over 30 years, but today, I am as big a fan of ABBA as I am of anyone. In fact, moreso. Thanks to the internet, sites like YouTube, and dedicated fans all over the world, I was able to catch up on ABBA's career. I have been at times awed, astounded, flabbergasted, amazed, and overwhelmed by the sheer greatness of their music, their talent, their ability, and their personalities.
They became masters in the studio, live on stage, and in pioneering the new promotion technique of music video. Despite the thousands of musical artists around the world, some good, some great, and some who shouldn't give up their day jobs -- only rarely does a magical event occur that brings together just the right people to create works of art that will last as long as humans are around to appreciate them. ABBA was one of those miracle rarities. As has often been said, had any one member not been there, or chosen to leave before ever really getting started, none of that great music would exist as it does today.
And exist it does, and experiencing a resurgence that is wonderful to behold. With the stage play 'Mamma Mia' being one of the top money makers in stage play history, and the followup film having great success worldwide, the band that was second only to The Beatles in worldwide record sales is once again selling. A band, I can point out, that has not recorded anything together since 1982 except for a special birthday tribute to a friend in 1986. A band whose members have not appeared in public together more than twice since 1982.
That their music can still bring people to their feet, can still get toes tapping and hands clapping and make even the dourest listener break out in at least a small smile is yet another tribute to how really good they were. Special, it goes without saying. In a era when we seem determined to put everything in a box, whether it fits or not, their music defies classification. There is rock there; there is pop; there is a flavor of almost any genre of music one can think of, even classical.
They were dismissed by many as being a 'disco' band, back in the 70's. It wasn't true: in fact, I have only heard one I would even calssify as 'disco', and no, it isn't 'Dancing Queen' ( listen, really listen, to the arrangement and the melody of that song's music -- and if you can still call it 'disco', then you have a ear with more metal in it than the Brooklyn Bridge ). That one song was 'Voulez Vous', and even it really defies classification. In the end, it is simply a masteful artistic arrangement of instruments, tempo, melody, and voice. Just as is all their music.
Ah, yes, the voice. Rather, voices, for early on in their career they discovered that the 'key' ingredient to their award-deserving sound lay in the combination of the voices of the two ladies of ABBA. The two 'A' s, as it were -- Agnetha and Anni Frid ( Frida ). Two extremely talented solo performers prior to ABBA, this was part of the miracle that created ABBA; when they sang together, there was a new voice that was created that was the equal of having a new instrument, one no one else could use because it couldn't be manufactured. There is a whole 'nuther' post, for the future.
Today, though, I write this here because we approach yet another new year and I get reminded again of ABBA and their music. In 1979 they wrote, and included on the album 'Super Trouper' in 1980, what has become my favorite New Year's song. The music and lyrics are both beautiful and powerful, and the lyrics themselves have just as much meaning today -- maybe even more -- as they did in 1979. It is a song for all of us, everywhere, and a message for everyone who has felt pain and sorrow and has felt this particular year that there may be no hope left.
The song is 'Happy New Year'. Simple, plain, to the point.....and I hope any who read this will take a moment to search for and listen to it, no matter what your personal opinion is of ABBA. Or you can follow the link at the top of this post, for a wonderful YouTube widescreen version of the official video from 1980.
ABBA. I can bore anyone within listening distance with my talk about ABBA. Now, I quit playing music the year ABBA won the Eurovision song contest ( 1974 ) with a little tune entitled 'Waterloo'. After I quit, I didn't follow music much for a while. I did get one of their early albums -- I believe it was 'Waterloo' -- but lost track of them. Partly due to my being quite busy with work and family, and partly due to my consciously trying to stay away from listening too much, as I would have missed playing. Too, here in America, ABBA was not as popular as in the rest of the world; probably mainly due to the fact that they did not tour here until 1979, and in the USA, we have some misguided notion that we won't like nor buy music from anyone who doesn't tour.
Even though The Beatles had put the lie to that years earlier. Still, those in charge of promoting music in America did not promote those who did not tour for them. Wasn't for the fans. It was for the promoters.
Anyway, it has taken me over 30 years, but today, I am as big a fan of ABBA as I am of anyone. In fact, moreso. Thanks to the internet, sites like YouTube, and dedicated fans all over the world, I was able to catch up on ABBA's career. I have been at times awed, astounded, flabbergasted, amazed, and overwhelmed by the sheer greatness of their music, their talent, their ability, and their personalities.
They became masters in the studio, live on stage, and in pioneering the new promotion technique of music video. Despite the thousands of musical artists around the world, some good, some great, and some who shouldn't give up their day jobs -- only rarely does a magical event occur that brings together just the right people to create works of art that will last as long as humans are around to appreciate them. ABBA was one of those miracle rarities. As has often been said, had any one member not been there, or chosen to leave before ever really getting started, none of that great music would exist as it does today.
And exist it does, and experiencing a resurgence that is wonderful to behold. With the stage play 'Mamma Mia' being one of the top money makers in stage play history, and the followup film having great success worldwide, the band that was second only to The Beatles in worldwide record sales is once again selling. A band, I can point out, that has not recorded anything together since 1982 except for a special birthday tribute to a friend in 1986. A band whose members have not appeared in public together more than twice since 1982.
That their music can still bring people to their feet, can still get toes tapping and hands clapping and make even the dourest listener break out in at least a small smile is yet another tribute to how really good they were. Special, it goes without saying. In a era when we seem determined to put everything in a box, whether it fits or not, their music defies classification. There is rock there; there is pop; there is a flavor of almost any genre of music one can think of, even classical.
They were dismissed by many as being a 'disco' band, back in the 70's. It wasn't true: in fact, I have only heard one I would even calssify as 'disco', and no, it isn't 'Dancing Queen' ( listen, really listen, to the arrangement and the melody of that song's music -- and if you can still call it 'disco', then you have a ear with more metal in it than the Brooklyn Bridge ). That one song was 'Voulez Vous', and even it really defies classification. In the end, it is simply a masteful artistic arrangement of instruments, tempo, melody, and voice. Just as is all their music.
Ah, yes, the voice. Rather, voices, for early on in their career they discovered that the 'key' ingredient to their award-deserving sound lay in the combination of the voices of the two ladies of ABBA. The two 'A' s, as it were -- Agnetha and Anni Frid ( Frida ). Two extremely talented solo performers prior to ABBA, this was part of the miracle that created ABBA; when they sang together, there was a new voice that was created that was the equal of having a new instrument, one no one else could use because it couldn't be manufactured. There is a whole 'nuther' post, for the future.
Today, though, I write this here because we approach yet another new year and I get reminded again of ABBA and their music. In 1979 they wrote, and included on the album 'Super Trouper' in 1980, what has become my favorite New Year's song. The music and lyrics are both beautiful and powerful, and the lyrics themselves have just as much meaning today -- maybe even more -- as they did in 1979. It is a song for all of us, everywhere, and a message for everyone who has felt pain and sorrow and has felt this particular year that there may be no hope left.
The song is 'Happy New Year'. Simple, plain, to the point.....and I hope any who read this will take a moment to search for and listen to it, no matter what your personal opinion is of ABBA. Or you can follow the link at the top of this post, for a wonderful YouTube widescreen version of the official video from 1980.
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