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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
And isn't that how all of us would like to be able to describe our lives here on Earth?
Some years ago, I learned that ABBA was the ancient Aramaic word used to address God.
See: http://www.bibletexts.com/glossary/abba.htm
Since then, I've felt there must be some important clue to life's ultimate meaning to be found somewhere in the lyrics to "Dancing Queen." I've yet to complete my analysis, but I think one of the keys to ultimate undersanding just might be found through feeling "the beat of the tambourine." "Oh, yeah!"
In researching the lyrics to the song, I found a listing for a grainy video of the original performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. I had no idea it existed. Lyrics aside, Les McCann's piano is irresistible, even for Abba fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OawoYrv9OUY
or maybe someone can confirm this for me.
But I had heard that Dancing Queen was one of Saddam Hussein's favorite songs.
It leaves me in titters thinking this clod, in one of his palace rooms would be listening to this song, swaying like a little girl, miming the singer.
Mmmm, "Eagle", one of the great lost psychedelic pop gems!
Kudos also extended to "When All is Said and Done", "Why Did It Have to Be Me", and "Cassandra". I never cared for "Dancing Queen", but love many of the lesser-known ABBA songs.
Why does the auther refer to the band in the plural? "ABBA are..." etc.? It's the name of the band, it's a singular word, and it should be used as a singular noun.
I love ABBA. Much to the chagrin of spouse and friends. The ABBA Gold CD is in my car right now. In 8th grade, 1979/80, I won a dance contest and the prize was an album...I got REO Speedwagon, and promptly traded it for ABBA Gold. It became a favorite. I remember staring at photos of Anna and just wishing I could be her. So blonde and blue eyed and Swedish and amazing.
A few years later I went through the punk phase too...but always had a place in my heart for ABBA.
My favorite song from ABBA is Chiquitita....the live version. I think it was done as a benefit song for UNICEF. It's such a beautiful and moving song. 28 years after that dance contest, I am still listening and loving it.
I refuse to see Mama Mia, the show or movie. People say oh you love ABBA, have you seen Mama Mia? I can't. I just have this intensely personal relationship with ABBA songs and I don't want them to be in any other context but mine.
I love your letters, and your ABBA memories (and yes, I am THAT slow to pick on the sexual subtext of "Dancing Queen). Thank you.
I had meant to mention the influence and impact ABBA has on contemporary artists, and dance and techno today. Oopsie.
I don't get it, I think the whole Abba resurgence or reappraisal is based on nothing. They are worse than cheesy, all their songs that I know anyway are bland, sterile, uninteresting, no humor, wit or swing, and don't rock at all! I am no hipster or musical snob by any means, although I try to listen to a lot of fairly eclectic stuff, I love good pop and also have soft-spots for a lot of guilty-pleasure 70's stuff that a lot of people would call cheesy, but I just have never gotten much pleasure, guilty or innocent, from Abba songs, and I don't see what the jubilation is about. They are certainly no Raspberries or Badfinger, that is for absolute sure.
richforman
TURN OFF THE ABBA!
This crap is dammaging your brains. It will turn you into zombies. That's right. This is zombie music. You are being brainwashed!
I can't turn on the television without a Mama Mia commercial appearing on any channel I tune in every 15 God damn minutes! It's freaking me out man. I don't know how much longer I can take it.
ABBA sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks singing commercial jingles.
If you people continue to listen to this it will ruin your ability to appreciate actual music. Just turn off the ABBA before it's too late. Your very sanity is at stake
Mary Elizabeth, I'd appreciate if you would qualify what you mean by 'seriously beloved.' Are you using the term 'seriously' to connote that ABBA's popularity is rooted in some sort of deep 'seriousness' of their work or the respect afforded it, or are you using the term hyperbolically, like a valley girl saying 'I SERIOUSLY love this new neon headband'?
I'll grant that ABBA deserves as much respect as Madonna or any number of other major pop success stories for their ability to craft highly professional, listenable, and enduring pop tunes, and though they don't suit my personal taste or aesthetic, I don't mind shaking a leg to 'Take a Chance on Me' or crooning along with 'Fernando' if it happens to pop up on the radio when I'm traveling.
But comparing the Beatles to ABBA is like comparing Bob Dylan to Tin Pan Alley. ABBA, from its inception, was making commercial dance music. While the Beatles started out with a similar goal, they ended up going a lot further with the pop form, which is why my brow furrowed when I read the comparison in the title for your piece.
It's silly for people to let their fur stand up over pop music assessments, but there does seem to be a useful distinction here. The Beatles--at least, from 'Revolver' on--led a vanguard of artistic and intellectual experimentation with pop music forms and had an influence that stretched far beyond the realm of pop. ABBA, it seems to me, was always and forever a commercial hit machine with no artistic goals other than to make catchy tunes that would get people dancing and feeling good.
Making people dance is an absolutely valid purpose for pop music (we'd probably all be better off if fewer groups were trying so hard to be taken 'seriously'), and while I don't revere ABBA or, say, the Bee-Gees or the Doobie Brothers or Madonna or Michael Jackson the way I do the Beatles and the Who or even U2 and Radiohead, I dig their tunes and recognize them as 'classics' of a sort. But I don't have any problem comparing 'Dancing Queen' to, say, Kool & the Gang's 'Celebration' or Lionel Richie's 'All Night Long,' and I don't hear anyone trying to compare those dudes to the Beatles. It would be fairer to compare ABBA even to Elvis rather than the Beatles--the King, after all, despite his phenomenal originality and influence, was always a tightly controlled pop product whose music was primarily meant to be danced to.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
