Letters to the Editor

Knowing me, knowing ABBA How did a cheesy Scandinavian pop group in jumpsuits and blue eye shadow become as seriously beloved as the Beatles? By Mary Elizabeth Williams [2008-07-18]

• One of the few bands that actually awe me

  in how their songs are constructed. Sometimes, to entertain myself, I will parse out the individual bits and pieces that, together, comprise the song Dancing Queen. The number of pieces and their variety is staggering, yet the whole thing gels.

  It also gels in other ways, the song sounds different when it is played loud vs soft. And one thing I noticed a lot of good songs have is this tension between slow and fast. Dancing Queen lolls along at a pace that sounds like it should be faster but also seems tense and frenetic in other ways.

  The whole construct reminds me of things like the Mona Lisa smile, where if you defocus she looks like she is smiling, but in focus she is not as smily.

  Few other music producers' work seems as interesting as that of the ABBA guys. The few I can think of-- Fleetwood Mac, particularly Sara, Springsteen's Born to Run, and, more roughly, some of the "Sparkle in the Rain" era Simple Minds, with their complex "glorious noise" assault of sound (as described by Bono at the time).

  Voulez Vous, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Name of the Game-- all sweet and sexy.

  NEXT UP: my personal "love" Jihad-- I want to see Colour By Numbers era Boy George and Culture Club treated to a big time bittersweet production-- the freed male soul unwrapping himself from male stricture and beguiling 1980s London.

  -- brightstar65
  [Read brightstar65's other letters]
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