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• Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:04 AM

  ABBA, yes

  When I heard the ABBA Gold CD a few years ago I thought, "Shit, how did I miss these guys?" I loved them. (Of course I'd known Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me.) I lived in a hippie commune in Cambridge from 1973 to 2000 and we were always looking for good music, but somehow ABBA, even with our disco forays, didn't get to the center of our radar screen.

  So after hearing the "Best Of" CD, I pulled down my trusty Rolling Stone album guides/encyclopedias and found these sad cynical shaming ABBA reviews of some of the best rock and roll I'd ever heard. One of my favorite parts of the '60s, of which the '70s was my favorite part, was the open-mindedness. And here those poor damaged alienated rock & roll critics had been keeping us from rocking out.

  So, well, my wife and I went to "Mamma Mia!" The Movie last night and I thought the whole thing might be possible, though I haven't seen the musical. Well, it wasn't. Or, as the NY Times said, it's hard not to have at least some grudging fun there. But it missed the point that ABBA - shoot, that Zorba - gets: You don't get to enthusiastic good times by trying to have enthusiastic good times. That's called addiction.

  But cynicism doesn't get you there either. That is to say, tacking on my moral, cynicism and and trying to have a good time are just masks unhappiness puts on. Meanwhile, rock on.

  Anyway, I'm going downstairs and put on some ABBA and eat lunch.

  Best -

  (More, for free: google "Rabid Fanatic" +"Monty Johnston". Or try "Egolessness" +"Monty Johnston")

  —Monty Johnston Read Monty Johnston's other letters
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