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Post by gary on Dec 1, 2022 9:41:49 GMT
I have been playing Fleetwood Mac a lot lately, and reading up a bit about them. The five albums by the ‘classic’ line-up are all good, Rumours especially of course. When Christine McVie sold the rights to her songs recently, as many other artists are doing, I was interested to read that she wrote about half of Fleetwood Mac’s hits, leaving Nicks and Buckingham with about a quarter each. Although Nicks especially was far more well known, McVie really was the biggest talent in Fleetwood Mac. Some of her songs are superb, especially Songbird IMO.
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Post by gary on Nov 28, 2022 10:05:33 GMT
I finally went to see ABBA Voyage last night. (Yes, I know, I should have been earlier!) I liked it very much. I had goosebumps throughout the show, particularly earlier on (TV, HIYS, SOS, KMKY). The avatars are quite amazing, and you can almost believe ABBA are really there. The song selection is excellent, particularly the non-singles.
A couple of gripes. It’s short. Only about an hour and a half. That’s not good value. And that’s especially true when you consider you have to sit through two irrelevant cartoons and a song sung by the backing group. (Why did ‘Bjorn’ not sing DYMK?)
But overall, great stuff. I will go again, but will probably wait to see if there are some set changes. If you haven’t yet been, go!
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Post by gary on Nov 23, 2022 23:38:47 GMT
You’re not alone, Martin mjc, although we do seem to be in a very small minority. I have played Voyage many, many times over the past year, and I just don’t get it, even though I very much wanted to. I am actually envious of the people who seem to love it. The first two singles, which are good if not excellent ABBA songs, led me to think that the album might be very good, but the other eight tracks are mediocre at best. I Can Be That Woman, No Doubt About It and Ode To Freedom aren’t too bad, I guess, but When You Danced With Me, Little Things, Keep An Eye On Dan and Bumblebee are among the worst songs ABBA have ever recorded. The vocals are better than we had a right to expect, but Benny and Bjorn have really lost their touch. And as for the production, it has almost none of the old sparkle. I am surprised (yet envious, as I say) that most fans are so approving. Voyage is far removed from the ABBA I love.
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Post by gary on Nov 22, 2022 5:42:31 GMT
Johnny, I’m surprised that you say that even your favourite albums of all time (nice choices, by the way, especially Rumours) have a lot of padding. My favourite albums would only be favourite albums because they do not have padding, that is, they are good or excellent the whole way through. They would need to have some absolutely outstanding tracks too. My favourites include Born To Run, Blood On The Tracks, Ziggy Stardust, Blue and Arrival, all of which have no padding, IMO.
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Post by gary on Nov 11, 2022 23:49:37 GMT
I’ve seen a few comments about Money, Money, Money not being so popular these days. I’m not so sure. One up-to-date measure - views on YouTube - suggests it’s still quite in favour. It’s ABBA’s eighth most viewed video, with 92 million views. That’s ahead of SOS, Super Trouper and Knowing Me, Knowing You, all of which I would have assumed were more popular. I like it a lot anyway.
Not sure I would class Two For The Price Of One as having great music! IMHO, etc, etc, it’s one of the three abominations of the ABBA catalogue, along with I Am Just A Girl and Little Things.
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Post by gary on Nov 11, 2022 15:28:56 GMT
Yes, that’s pretty good. They’re definitely making a bit more effort.
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Post by gary on Nov 10, 2022 11:56:16 GMT
For those of interested in sales stuff Voyage has sold 2.5m worldwide. While that is well down on previous albums we are in the 2020s now and that is a very good result. abbasite.com/articles/abba-celebrate-25-million-copies-of-voyage-worldwide/I also read elswhere it has sold a very impressive 760k in Germany. Probably about 460k in the UK and over 200k in the US and 100k in Framce. About 1.5m for those four countries There’s no doubt that Voyage has been very successful. Although the headline figure of 2.5 million would make it one of ABBA’s worst-selling albums, it’s a different world now, as you say. A better indication of success is the fact that Voyage was the second-best selling album of 2021. I doubt they ever achieved this in their glory days of the 1970s (though I may be wrong).
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Post by gary on Oct 25, 2022 15:24:54 GMT
I have always loved MMM. Frida's singing wonderful on this song. I was thinking what two songs Kept it from reaching number 1 ? I can't remember that far back Ha Ha. Money, Money, Money spent four weeks at number three in the UK charts, in three separate runs of one week, two weeks and one week respectively. They were kept from getting higher by Showaddywaddy, Queen, Johnny Mathis and David Soul. I didn’t remember that! It’s all on here: www.officialcharts.com/artist/8604/abba/
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Post by gary on Oct 23, 2022 9:55:39 GMT
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Post by gary on Oct 20, 2022 21:50:12 GMT
The Name of the Game is here. Not too bad.
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Post by gary on Oct 9, 2022 0:25:38 GMT
Re: the latest link; If somebody could find a credible source where Bruce Springsteen says he loves ABBA, I will die a happy man. I second that. Springsteen is my favourite songwriter, and he has excellent taste in music too!
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Post by gary on Oct 7, 2022 8:22:00 GMT
I hadn’t thought about it before, but that 1977 Brit award nomination is quite amazing. Arrival’s competitors are all absolute classics. I might prefer Arrival to the other three but they are all the type of album that turns up in all-time lists.
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Post by gary on Oct 1, 2022 8:07:13 GMT
I must be the only ABBA fan who has never had a copy of ABBA Gold!
Gold 2 is a good idea. That title should be commercial. With some promotion, it could sell well.
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Post by gary on Sept 16, 2022 13:49:40 GMT
Fernando is now available.
It’s quite flowery!
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Post by gary on Sept 14, 2022 15:43:29 GMT
I’ve removed the quoted post from the two posts above, but only because neither were referring to anything in it but to something else entirely. I’d prefer to avoid discussion on that issue as it’s nothing to do with ABBA and could be very divisive. Thanks Alan. You’re right.
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Post by gary on Sept 13, 2022 16:46:51 GMT
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Post by gary on Sept 8, 2022 19:10:23 GMT
Thanks, I had never heard Red Christmas. I prefer the tune without the lyrics.
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Post by gary on Sept 2, 2022 10:05:05 GMT
I can see a comparison between KAEOD and Nobody’s Side. But the latter is one of my favourite non-ABBA B&B songs, and the chorus is sublime. It could easily have been an ABBA single, as I believe Bjorn said not long ago. The chorus of KAEOD has no charm at all, apart from being sung by A&F.
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Post by gary on Sept 2, 2022 9:02:22 GMT
Maybe. But I think if they could still come up with the likes of KMKY or TWTIA, I am sure they would. Sadly, I don’t think they can.
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Post by gary on Sept 2, 2022 8:26:06 GMT
Yes, it's hard to believe that at this moment a year ago, we were eagerly awaiting an announcement and still didn't know whether there was going to be a new album. Now we are so familiar with it and a lot of discussion about it has gone under the bridge since then. Talking of which, on the subject of KAEOD, I see it as a strong track but perhaps not in the traditional ABBA sense. The Scandinavian melancholy in the verses is so strong, delivered extremely well by Agnetha, and the melody of the verses is quite beautiful too. Then there is the dramatic chorus - I find the chorus to be OK but melodically a bit of a comedown from the verses. I love the 'SOS' ending though. I think the drama of KAEOD comes from B&B's experience in musical theatre, which I think had an influence on much of this album. For me, this album blends ABBA with musical theatre and perhaps BAO, so is not a pure ABBA album, which is understandable as things moved on from ABBA for the four members over those 40 years. Thanks gamleman. See my reply to michal. Yes, I can see the influence of musical theatre. And yes, it doesn’t sound like the traditional ABBA sound. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (though of course I love traditional ABBA) as long as there is something else to ‘replace’ it with. Chess and Kristina certainly work, particularly the former. I agree that it is obvious that things will have changed after 40 years. And perhaps I simply shouldn’t have hoped for something that sounded more like what I knew and loved. Yet the clear favourite song on Voyage among fans is Don’t Shut Me Down, and that (to me) is the most traditional ABBA-sounding song. That suggests that I am not the only one who hoped for a bit more traditional ABBA (and a bit less BAO).
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Post by gary on Sept 2, 2022 8:08:42 GMT
Can someone explain to me what it is that they like about Keep An Eye On Dan? I'm not sure if I can explain it. It is indeed one of my absolute favourites from the album right from the beginning. I like EVERYTHING about it. The dark theme, the sinister sound, Agnetha's emotional vocal delivery, the part where Frida joins in the monotonous part before the chorus starts, Benny and Björn's backing vocals that respond to the lines sung by Agnetha and Frida... I think I could find more details which I have fallen in love with the song for. Thanks Michal. I can’t think of an example at the moment, but I sometimes find that if someone explains to me why they are so passionate about something, that enthusiasm is infectious. I guess it helps me see something in a different way, or appreciate aspects of a song/album/anything that I hadn’t considered before. Recently, I have been giving Voyage another thorough listen, in the hope that I could find something that I had missed. I would very much like to like it more.
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Post by gary on Sept 1, 2022 16:45:56 GMT
Can someone explain to me what it is that they like about Keep An Eye On Dan? I know it is a favourite of many fans. To me, it has very dull verses, a production without any spark, and one of the most uninspired choruses of any ABBA song. It could be by anyone if it weren’t for Agnetha. Even among the overall mediocre album, it stands out (though it’s not the worst track by any means).
[Hides]
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Post by gary on Aug 29, 2022 19:17:28 GMT
Hamlet is a beautiful clip of music. But I wonder if it eventually evolved into Chiquitita? It reminds me of that quite a lot.
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Post by gary on Aug 20, 2022 7:18:44 GMT
As I’ve probably mentioned before (!), I am not a big fan of the Voyage album. I think one of the problems is the absence of Tretow. Voyage somehow lacks a ‘spark’ in its sound, compared with previous albums, and I think that spark is Tretow. Of course, it could also be that the songwriting is not up to scratch…
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Post by gary on Aug 13, 2022 13:34:49 GMT
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Post by gary on Aug 5, 2022 14:52:36 GMT
The latest lyric video (Thank You For The Music) is an improvement over the last two. Might be nice if they did a Frida-led song though.
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Post by gary on Aug 5, 2022 8:26:06 GMT
Option B. In November. To be honest, the whole concept didn’t excite me very much, but everyone I know who has seen it says it’s terrific, so I’m in. And it’s a nice present for my partner’s birthday. I paid £66 each for tickets in BL G. I hope they’re decent seats as £66 was about the lowest price.
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Post by gary on Aug 3, 2022 18:20:01 GMT
I simply prefer them. I doubt I could make a strong argument for Another Town, Another Train being a better song than The Visitors.
The Visitors is a middling ABBA song for me. I like the verses a lot, but the chorus and the instrumental parts seem like a bit of a rehash to me. Still, even a middling ABBA song is pretty darn good.
I’m amazed that someone could rate No Doubt About It above Dancing Queen and SOS! 😀
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Post by gary on Aug 1, 2022 19:59:45 GMT
OK, I’ll have a go:
40 Another Town, Another Train 39 Gonna Sing You My Lovesong 38 That’s Me 37 The Day Before You Came 36 Cassandra 35 Angeleyes 34 Should I Laugh Or Cry 33 Ring Ring 32 Super Trouper 31 Soldiers 30 Money, Money, Money 29 As Good As New 28 Honey, Honey 27 I Let The Music Speak 26 Mamma Mia 25 I Am The City 24 I’ve Been Waiting For You 23 Hole In Your Soul 22 I Wonder (Departure) 21 Bang-A-Boomerang 20 Dance (While The Music Still Goes On) 19 Kisses Of Fire 18 One Man, One Woman 17 My Love, My Life 16 Move On 15 When I Kissed The Teacher 14 Tiger 13 Our Last Summer 12 Chiquitita 11 One Of Us 10 If It Wasn’t For The Nights 9 Eagle 8 Summer Night City 7 The Winner Takes It All 6 The Name Of The Game 5 Take A Chance On Me 4 SOS 3 Fernando 2 Dancing Queen 1 Knowing Me, Knowing You
Album breakdown: Ring Ring 2, Waterloo 3, ABBA 4, Arrival 7, The Album 7, Voulez-Vous 5, Super Trouper 3, The Visitors 3, Voyage 0, Miscellaneous 6.
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Post by gary on Jul 28, 2022 16:10:25 GMT
Thanks truedogz. I’m surprised Benny thinks TYFTM is a bad recording. Although it’s far from a favourite song of mine, I think it’s a fantastic recording. The production work on The Album is the best of their career, in my opinion.
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