Rediscovering ABBA

It's been a while since I listened to any music in a prolonged session, but today I've found myself with a background of ABBA for a while and loving it. ABBA were HUGE in the mid to late 70's which was a few years before my time as a music listener although my sister caught the ABBA bug. I only really found them after they'd split. They were remarkable on several fronts.

On first impression they are a typical pop band, that is just a surface impression. Not only did they pump out thumping tunes time after time, they did it in a language that wasn't native to them. They wrote classic pop tunes in a language they were not able to speak natively. From what I can work out, Benny and Bjorn did the English interviews in the ABBA heyday because they could speak English. Anni-Frid could also speak English, although I think that came later on; Agnetha never learned.

If that's accurate, the two girls were singing in a language they couldn't speak and harmonising like their voices were made for each other. If that wasn't enough, ABBA started as two single men, and two single women. Within the lifespan of the group they became two married couples, then two divorced couples, all in the glare of being the music industry darlings. If that wasn't enough they managed to produce wonderful music about all of that.

Everyone knows the akward silences, the sensitive old wounds, the history etc that steep the atmosphere when couples have issues. It's one thing to do that as one couple, it's something else when it's two couples at different phases, it's another level to have them doing that and churning out incredible tunes in the process.

For some reason Agnetha was always my favourite but until recently I could never put my finger on why. I found out recently that Agnetha hated the spotlight even when ABBA were the hot property around the world, being mobbed by adoring fans at every stop. Apparntly she hated performing. This is the nail in the coffin of anyones hopes of ABBA ever reuiniting. Agnetha has always been a Swedish home girl, happy to live life as a regular person. She never got that while ABBA were in full swing. I feel a kinship with her in that regard, that same feeling put a huge imovable object in the way of me ever having the hope of making money from playing the guitar.

Every creative band or group have a heyday, where everything lines up and they produce their best work. It could be a certain lineup, or a time where they were touring a certain location, or went through a phase exploring a style of music. ABBA had most of their career "in the zone". For me ABBA is all four people, there is no ABBA when one is removed. The chemistry between all four is electric.

The ABBA sound is the harmonising of Anni-Frid and Agnetha, although Benny and Bjorn occasionally do some vocals too. For those who escaped the ABBA experience, here's a couple of tracks via YouTube.

Take A Chance On Me

Does Your Mother Know