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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
ABBA picked up from where the Mamas and Papas left off. Remember them, people? The Ms&Ps did beautiful, harmonious folk-pop ballads that hit the Top 10 regularly throughout the mid-60s. Unfortunately the group imploded as a result of overlapping personal and musical "issues" and deserted us much too soon.
Enter ABBA, filling the void and building on it, and not letting their own intertwined private matters affect the music. They quit while they were still ahead - a rarity in pop music - and are now on their second or third generation of fans.
P.S. This week's "People" magazine has a where-are-they-now article on ABBA. All still alive, well and happy; again a rarity in the pop music biz.
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")
that European tradition ... more American folk and blues ... I can bear celtic folk for about 30 seconds and then my teeth hurt, I appreciate how exquisite it is, even as I change the channel. Polka's fun to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Loathed the BeeGees too.
Unless I've been missing something Abba is funk-less... and without the funk, y'mightaswellbe listening to Lawrence Welk.
You made me think back to my Madison days in the late '80's when you said, "polka's fun, but you wouldn't want to live there!" In Madison, there was a POLKA STATION! 24 hours of hoppin' fun! Great housecleaning music; only in Wisconsin...I'll have to find out if it still exists...
Gayle--You hit the nail on the head when you said ABBA picked up where Mamas and Papas left off. It never occurred to me before, but there are a lot of similarities between both groups; I think if you really liked one you really liked the other. Makes me wonder if there's another quartet of men and women with excellent harmonies around the corner?...
Apparently many do not agree - especially in Europe --that Abba was a 'cheesy' pop group. According to findings of a Europe-wide poll when asked which group would you most like to see reform, Abba came in second (first was Pink Floyd, no real surprise). Third choice was Guns N'Roses. I came across this info almost a year ago from Billboard.biz
Why is it that we ascribe a negative connotation to "cheesy?" Some of the best gourmet foods in the world are cheeses? There's Velveeta, and then there's Brie. It's up to the individual to decide whether any kind of music, drama, etc., is Velveeta/cheesy...or gourmet brie cheesy!
ABBA is silly music to be treasured for that reason. Any group that can turn a nothing song about a teenager into a three minute pop opera ("Dancing Queen") has a unique sensibility, like Phil Spector in his heyday.
Speaking of sensibility, I've never enjoyed an ABBA song as much as the drag queen version of "Mamma Mia" featured in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, with Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving giving it their all.
Just perfect.
Someone whose taste in music is based on what you're "supposed" to like to be cool.
I'd like to point out that all music is bad when taken out of context. Bach is not funky. It's difficult to swing dance to Iron Maiden. Yet, judged by the standards of their own genres, Bach and Maiden are both excellent.
I can enjoy ABBA music while recognizing the elements of it which are considered "bad." Synthesized strings, whee! Can't get me enough of them synthesized strings! Cornball lyrics: my favorite lyrics come from "Nina, Pretty Ballerina"
Nina, pretty ballerina, now she is the queen of the dancing floorThis is the moment she's waiting for, just like Cinderella
(Just like Cinderella)
If you can listen to "Nina" with a straight face you're stronger than I am. It's a terrible song. Which is exactly the point. It's fun to listen to because it's bad. That's what "cheesy" means.
Not all ABBA music is quite as cheesy as Nina, but most of it benefits from not being taken too seriously. It has dated. It was a little silly when it was brand new. What makes it classic as opposed to simply laughable is that it has seeds of greatness in there with the silliness. The ladies have lovely voices. The songs are full of energy. The tunes hit the sweet spots.
Someone further up the thread mentioned Bob Dylan as an example of "good," "serious" music. I haven't been able to listen to Bob Dylan with a straight face ever since a friend pointed out that he sounds like Eddie Murphy doing a Buckwheat impression. It's all context. Listen to Dylan starting from the assumption that it's supposed to be funny, and you'll discover Dylan has at least as many hokey, ungrammatical lyrics as ABBA in their heyday.
I could drop all the right names to be perceived as having cool taste in music. But that's a loser's game. You know who was the epitome of cool taste in music? Kurt Cobain. He was so damn cool he blew his own brains out because he became popular, and if popularity is proof that music sucks, that meant he had to suck. He left a note explaining all this. While he lies in his grave, considerably less cool people managed to stay alive and write songs, which, while they might not equal the songs Cobain would have written if he were alive, greatly surpass the songs he's written while dead. Cobain considered himself greatly superior to Eddie Vedder, aka the soulless corporate sellout, yet they're really brothers in spirit: Vedder is such a dumbass that he's been sabotaging his own songs to keep them from being "too catchy" because he doesn't want to be popular anymore. Wait a minute... isn't it supposed to be all about the music? What's the difference between damaging the music so the suits will like it and damaging the music so the suits DON'T like it? Not much. Well, maybe a little, actually... the latter wins in terms of meanness. So now meanness is supposed to be some sort of moral victory?
I can't help but laugh at brightstar saying some college radio is "listenable" and saying he liked Pearl Jam. Poor old Cobain is spinning in his grave at that one.
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
