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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
And it was when I was a kid of about 7 or at 8 years of age. It was such a stirring song. I loved the words too which I can still remember in bitts and pieces. One line I do remember went - "There was something there for you and me for liberty Fernando." I've never felt like ABBA ever left popular music. They were great and loved all over the world.
.. though the music is not that great. Abba were very much a staple on the radio in the 70's, so they are good to listen to for nostalgia, though when I did buy an album of their greatest hits a few years ago, I found that it was nice to hear the old songs and sing along a bit, but that musically they really didn't stand up to being listened to more than once or twice. I guess Dancing Queen is probably about the best of their songs.
No matter how sophisticated the productions are, which I have no doubt of, they tend to appeal more to the musically unsophisticated who want a good tune, words you can understand, and songs that tell a story--and there's nothing wrong with that, even if it is not really my cup of tea.
That is why this cheesy group is so beloved.
for all the same reasons the author says. But also, it's damn good workout music. All I'm really looking for in a workout is something happy to keep me moving. ABBA qualifies, hands down. Happy, upbeat, fast, I can sing along in my head. All good.
That's all I can think to say about the groups mentioned in this article, dissimilar in every way except they all used, or tinkered with, bouncy orchestration on occasion.
What separates them is degrees of talent, timing and luck, The Raspberries had the least talent, but Eric Carmen managed to come up with one of the greatest singles of all time," Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" that blows everything ABBA did out of the water. But one record, no matter how good, doesn't make for a long, and respected career.
Badfinger for all their talent, and they were far more talented that both the Raspberries and ABBA, have become the Poster Children for how to get screwed over by the music industry. By the mid-seventies their career was in shambles, leading to two members of the band committing suicide in 1975 and 1983. If you can find any of their records they're definitely worth picking up.
That leaves us with ABBA, not the most talented, (they're not Badfinger, and definitely not The Beatles) but talented, but more importantly they were lucky. They always seemed to have the right song at the right time, particularly in Europe, where they were much more popular than in the U.S. However I think the biggest reason for their longevity,when it comes right down to it, is the songs are nothing more than ear candy. And ear candy can be addictive, full of hooks to pull you in and lyrics that are easy to sing along with, while not challenging you in anyway. I've never heard of anyone becoming introspective while listening to ABBA. The same can't be said about Badfinger, just listen to "Carry On Till Tomorrow " from Magic Christian Music. Come to think of it just listen to the whole album.
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.
My father, a Southern-but-WASP-ish gentleman who was probably around 40 when "Fernando" was released, heard that song when it first came out and became an instant, committed ABBA fan, remaining one for the rest of his life (He died about 5 years ago).
In 1999, I was listening to G. Gordon Liddy's radio show one day(not because I like his politics), and he started playing bits of ABBA songs, and telling about how he had discovered ABBA while he was in prison, and about how listening to the band's records there had lifted his spirits. It was touching.
I've always been amused and intrigued by how many ABBA fans are older white guys. I don't mean to come off as patronizing towards older white guys, or towards the band itself. I'm an ABBA fan now. But I wasn't when I was a teenager, back in the 70s. Back then, they were "Top 40," and you couldn't be cool and like Top 40 at the same time.
I wouldn't call ABBA "cheesy." They were a class act, and they cut some really beautiful tracks.
Millions of old white guys can't be wrong.
That was the turning point for seventies hipsters: if Elvis said ABBA was cool, then ABBA was cool.
Going after them on a long since disproven charge of "cheesiness" now is major missing-the-boat-that-sailed-thrity-years-ago--as if you hadn't heard that Karen Carpenter is also cool and went after her for being MOR or Tom Jones for being vulgar. Well, d-u-fuckin-h.
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
