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Post by chron on Jul 27, 2020 16:32:26 GMT
I wonder why he decided to zap his account rather than opting to take some time out and leaving it on 'reactivatable' hold? At any rate, cheers for your keen and calibrated contributions down the months and years, onlyabba4me; your appetite for all things stat-related will remain a wonder, in its way.
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Post by chron on Jun 29, 2020 18:40:38 GMT
The premise of the franchise is that the story is built around *ABBA* songs. New Andersson/Ulvaeus songs performed first by Meryl/Cher/Amanda Seyfried/Lily James/whomever and not by ABBA cannot, by definition, be ABBA songs. If the members of ABBA have gone to the trouble of recording them and if they are of a standard that satisfies the group, I can't imagine for a second that they won't be released by ABBA. It was a far-fetched thought, but I was thinking that if they weren't able to come up with another way of presenting them to their satisfaction, extracts from the songs, as performed by ABBA, could be used as incidental music for a film, without the group making an appearance (PLEASE no appearance!), and could then be released in full on an OST album or something. I don't know enough about the M-M films to judge how preposterous that sort of idea is, although it would represent a departure from usual practice, and would clearly be a fairly horrid prospect for any ABBA fan repelled by the idea of the films.
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Post by chron on Jun 29, 2020 15:25:01 GMT
I don't think it will turn out this way (nightmarish prospect indeed). I guess Agnetha and Frida will have a say in the matter and I can't imagine they would resign to returning to a recording studio after such a long time just to make "demos" for the new Mamma Mia movie. Good heavens no. They will be ABBA songs first that might be used later in mm3. A movie takes years to write, cast produce etc Well yes, it seems a mad idea, but the handling of the new tracks has been so clumsy that I could see them using something like a new MM film/soundtrack as a face-saving 'escape route'. A new film would indeed take a while to put together (although from the outside - I've never seen either of the two existing ones - the Mamma-Mia films look to be formulaic, and a new one wouldn't represent much of a stretch, conceptually or formally at least), but then Bjorn and co. have already demonstrated that they're quite happy to bide their time with regard to the release date for these tracks. If it were up to me I'd put them out as a stand-alone - maybe strictly DL/streaming - single or EP release just to get them out there to head-off all the anticipation, but I think ABBA, for whatever reason, feel that the songs need to be hitched to a bigger project of some sort (so that the two can act as promotion and hype for each other for one thing, I suppose). At the same time I think that that an entire new album of varied, quality material is beyond them at this point; new albums are created by working groups, and ABBA can't be considered a working group at this stage, so they're somewhat stuck in terms of finding a 'carrier' for the new songs.
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Post by chron on Jun 28, 2020 23:46:53 GMT
Judy Craymer wants ABBA, to let her use, 'The 4 New Songs' in Film 3. If that happens - before ABBA's originals are released - we could end up in a horrible situation. That would be, if she were allowed to use them, and then Benny & Bjorn said, that there was now 'No Point', in ABBA releasing them! That would be a Nightmare for Fans! I pray that we get the '4' New Songs from ABBA and not solely in a 'Mamma Mia!' 3' - if it is ever made! I can see it panning out this way. Considering how drawn-out the saga of the new songs has become, with still no clear idea of how they can best be presented to the world, package-wise, and I can imagine B&B leaping at this as a way out of the woods - whack the new songs on the soundtrack album of Mamma Mia 3, providing the film gets made (and the promise of being able to include the new songs might help get it made). A more depressing prospect than having them tied into the ABBAtars thingy, frankly.
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Post by chron on May 12, 2020 23:00:15 GMT
1 pt - The Visitors 2 pts - Tiger 3 pts - Summer Night City 4 pts - Move On 5 pts - Hole In Your Soul 6 pts - Dancing Queen 7 pts - SOS 8 pts - Eagle 10 pts - Name Of The Game 12 pts - Knowing Me, Knowing You
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Post by chron on May 7, 2020 23:03:47 GMT
There appears to be a second-hand copy of the Arrival Deluxe available through a third-party seller for £16.99 plus a quid-and-a-bit postage (which isn't much use to the OPer, I realise).
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Post by chron on May 5, 2020 23:26:18 GMT
An odd business - quoting someone's post and then adding a few lines that didn't originally feature, making it look as though the poster of the original reply had written them. Accidental, though, surely; the additional lines were almost certainly meant to be a response to onlyabba4me's reply, but due to a formatting error became part of the quote.
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Post by chron on May 4, 2020 22:02:38 GMT
Great to see you back and posting, onlyabba4me. Your desperate-sounding mid-March post had a few of us seriously concerned about you (presumably you've read some of the replies it provoked). Hopefully you're coping better now than you were then (the fact that you feel up to making contributions here again would certainly would suggest so).
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Post by chron on Apr 20, 2020 13:08:21 GMT
I wonder if you also dislike the way Swedes pronounce "ABBA". You do realise that English people pronounce "ABBA" quite differently to the way Swedish people pronounce that word, don't you? What I'm saying is, who's to say your idea of the correct pronunciation is necessarily the "correct" or "better-sounding" one? [...] I was making no claim on correctness, just expressing a personal peeve. I tend to dislike long 'a' sounds (the way people from Southern England tend to say 'bahth' for bath, 'Newcahrsle' for Newcastle, and so on, grates equally). It's just a subjective quirk. I reckon I know how Europeans pronounce ABBA without having to click on that link - slightly drawn-out first syllable, and a percussive, 'bouncy' second (down and up!).
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Post by chron on Apr 18, 2020 22:25:18 GMT
God, I dislike the American pronunciation of ABBA - "Ahbah".
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Post by chron on Mar 26, 2020 18:50:55 GMT
I'm not inclined to do this if some of the songs from ABBA Gold are getting a bye into the final. No song should have the right to slip through the initial thinning out process (it's going to be a yawner if Dancing Queen or The Taker Wins It All romps home for yet another win).
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Post by chron on Mar 24, 2020 15:21:46 GMT
Have you had any submissions yet? Sorry RBM, but I have to admit I haven't really got much urge to do this. Despite whatever twists can be added to the selection process, what it will lead to is just another numbered list of ABBA songs at the end of the day.
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Post by chron on Mar 23, 2020 23:55:23 GMT
Having suggested all that, I still think it'll be hard to avoid a predicable result. I'm inclined to select the fifty songs to be put up for selection for the final by choosing every other (i.e. every second) song from the old Megarate list, so that we get a bigger range of less typical ABBA songs. Sorry, I'm just causing confusion here, Rubber Ball Man! Maybe I should remove my oar.
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Post by chron on Mar 23, 2020 23:00:11 GMT
The way to do this would be for all of us to nominate fifty songs and send them to you via private message. You then select the twenty-five most popular choices and those are the songs that 'go through' into 'The Final'. Then we each award our 1 through to 12 point scores. Obviously the choices should only come from the original studio albums and/or single A sides; that adds up to a good number for us to do the first thinning-out process. Gracias Por La Musica and the live album are to be excluded from consideration; it would make no sense to have the English language version of Fernando up against the Spanish language version of the same song, or a live version of something up against the definitive studio version. No single 'B' sides. There might need to be one or two other stipulations that I can't think of right now.
Rethink: how about using the top fifty songs from the 2016 Megarate, we put those in personal preference order and submit the list to you. Here they are:
01. Dancing Queen 02. Knowing Me, Knowing You 03. The Name of the Game 04. SOS 05. Take a Chance on Me 06. One of Us 07. Like an Angel Passing Through My Room 08. Fernando 09. The Winner Takes It All 09. Summer Night City 11. Eagle 12. Lay All Your Love on Me 13. The Visitors 14. When All is Said and Done 15. Mamma Mia 15. When I Kissed the Teacher 17. Money, Money, Money 18. If It Wasn't For the Nights 18. One Man, One Woman 20. Soldiers 21. Chiquitita 22. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) 22. My Love, My Life 22. I've Been Waiting For You 22. As Good as New 26. The Day Before You Came 26. Kisses of Fire 28. Slipping Through My Fingers 29. I'm a Marionette 29. Move On 31. Our Last Summer 32. Hole in Your Soul 33. Angeleyes 34. I Let the Music Speak 35. The Piper 36. That's Me 36. Tiger 38. The King Has Lost His Crown 39. Waterloo 39. Voulez-Vous 41. Should I Laugh or Cry 42. Super Trouper 43. Head Over Heels 44. Happy New Year 45. Ring Ring 46. Bang-A-Boomerang 47. I Wonder (Departure) 47. Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) 49. Lovers (Live A Little Longer) 50. Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
Edit: Cassandra and Elaine eliminated, being 'B' sides; Lovers' and Gonna Sing You My Lovesong included instead, as the next two from the old countdown
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Post by chron on Mar 22, 2020 19:35:03 GMT
I suppose that's true enough (thanks for taking that crack of mine in the right spirit). I thought about going with Disillusion, but while it has a lovely start, it quickly runs out of road.
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Post by chron on Mar 22, 2020 19:01:55 GMT
1 - I Saw It In The Mirror Dear God! What's possessing you?!
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Post by chron on Mar 22, 2020 18:31:14 GMT
Nice little idea! First thought - plonk down all your favourites - instantly rejected, since this selection will constitute an album in effect, and the tracks will have to compliment and contrast, to form a pleasing(ish) whole. On that basis also, I'm not going to sequence them chronologically, I'm going to try and go for a bit of tonal blending:
1. Eagle (painful, having to rule out TNOTG, HIYS and Move On from selection!) 2. Another Town, Another Train 3. SOS 4. The King Has Lost His Crown 5. Knowing Me, Knowing You 6. Suzy-Hang-Around (Dance (WTMSGO) is the best on Waterloo I think, but I can't integrate that here, so I'll go for this personal favourite Benny lead vocal track) 7. Me And I (selects itself as the stand-out from an otherwise notably lacklustre album) 8. Slipping Through My Fingers
Bonus: Lovelight Just remembered about the existence of the unjustly maligned Crazy World (possibly Bjorn's best lead vox, in that he sounds invested, and the arrangement is very nice - really like that little repeating piano figure of Benny's).
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Post by chron on Mar 21, 2020 18:11:22 GMT
Just a quick one for all those who've been understandably concerned about onlyabba4me after his most recent post: he's been active and posting today in another forum, which I take to be a very promising sign. If you happen to come in and read this onlyabba4me, I hope you're feeling at least a little better. Maybe you could post a quick line to reassure all in here who've been worrying about you, that you're no longer feeling quite as rough as you were? All the best to you in the meantime.
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Post by chron on Mar 15, 2020 23:59:05 GMT
I'm really sorry to hear you're going through such a rough time of it. You're a vital face around here, you must know that. I know I've said a few things about your devotion to stats, but your grasp of and energy for that side of things is thoroughly impressive, and there should always be a place for that sort of interest and focus here, for those that enjoy it. This is the first I've learned about some of the problems you've been facing (and have been facing for a long time, it would seem). I wish you'd said something about them earlier (although I accept it's often a difficult thing to do), because it sounds as though you're having to contend with a lot on a daily basis, and this place ought to be more like the sanctuary you want it to be. I have to hold my hand up and say I haven't especially tried to make it that way (banging the drum quite a bit as I have done for lively-cum-heated discussion and debate, but for decent reasons, I think or hope). All I can do is try harder to make a contribution that will make it more like a place you feel welcome and valued in. Goes without saying really, but the release of the new material is bound to give this place a shot of vitality again, when it happens, and the dread will disappear as space for some positive back-and-forth opens up; the delays and some of the misinformation surrounding the new tracks has narked all of us to some degree, but I'm sure their release will mean a new lease of life for this place. I'm going to stick around here for a bit, if you feel like talking a few things over. Hoary old cliche coming up, but it's true: just keep plodding on, with defiance if nothing else. Give these problems enough time and they'll start to lose their power. Please never think or say your life is worthless.
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Post by chron on Mar 11, 2020 1:26:50 GMT
If the "desert island" angle fantasy is to be taken seriously, and not just a roundabout way of listing 'the songs you like the best, and want to show off with' As Rich says, his format of eight tracks is taken, pre-formed, from a long-running British radio show. I've hardly been the most avid listener to the show down the years, but I don't remember forming the impression that people had ever picked songs in order "to show off with". People seem quickly to grasp the implications of the idea of being alone, and the solace-value a limited selection of 'salvaged' music would have, and seem to pick tracks that have either had a strong effect on them, or that they feel would help get them through this time spent in isolation. There's nothing really to 'take seriously' about the conditions, since everyone seems, either explicitly or tacitly, to acknowledge that the task is impossible, which is why it's fun to do: delicious frustration! (I'd probably ditch all eight tracks, if I could have with me a decent set of wind chimes.)
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Post by chron on Mar 10, 2020 19:00:32 GMT
Gosh, am shocked. Not even one ABBA track? How strange. In another forum a while back I took part in a fun thread themed around selecting your top hundred pop/rock tracks (some of us, myself included, included the stipulation that you could only select one track per artist). It's a forum where, while not especially flagging up my admiration for ABBA, I've not hidden it either, and where I'd have no qualms about being seen to select a favourite track of theirs. That said, when it came to picking my hundred, no ABBA track featured anywhere, and I think that would still be the case if I were picking today. I'm really fond of what I consider to be the best of their work, but it isn't life-blood to me, I realise again. I'd find it hard to make anything other than a start on homing in what I might pick for a 'desert island' eight, but with every musical style to choose from, the following three would be certainties (all instrumentals, broadly coming from the proto-electro or treated acoustic ambient field): Ashra - Deep Distance (still a great title! Fitting, but without forcing an interpretation). Soaring, astral synth piece, anchored around a simple three-note modulating bass sequencer riff. If paradise exists as a place or a state of mind, this is the theme tune. Every single second of this is precious and perfect, from the opening minute, as two airy synth lines begin to climb and swoop and intertwine over and over above that hypnotic riff, right down to the oboe-ish sounding synth solo at the end (which has occasionally reduced me to rubble; you don't want it to fade, while knowing that the fact that it has to fade - into the distance, of course - is part of the power). The wind-effects in it date it a bit, but they never tip the balance, being judiciously used, and they still hold up pretty well): Harold Budd/Brian Eno - The Silver Ball. Stately, reflective treated piano piece, bittersweet rather than melancholic. Solacing, revivifying, memory-triggering, all that arm-round-the-shoulder stuff. Could withstand a thousand playings (probably consecutively!) without losing its power: Vangelis - Reve. Fender Rhodes (or soundalike) heaven! Effectively a different flavour of the Budd/Eno vibe, with a beautiful dappled, Mediterranean feel to it: I could easily see me ending up with no tracks featuring vocals, if I were to continue with the task. As I've got older, instrumental music has come to mean far more to me (or maybe it's that I've become a bit fed up with the sound of the human voice).
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Post by chron on Mar 1, 2020 2:02:06 GMT
Like the 3rd cover option of the train . Maybe with a silhouette of each member in separate windows If you look again you'll see I put silhouettes representing the group in - two in the windows of the train in the foreground, and two in the windows of the one in the distance (to start with I put them all in the windows of the foreground train, but then had another think about the cover being for a parting album). There's a fair bit of space separating the heads of each pair; in fact, they're each in a separate carriage. Four individuals travelling on the same trains together, alone. Here it is, made larger: Edit: in case anyone's wondering, I should make it clear: I had no hand in creating the main picture itself, just found it and added some elements. I ought to find out who did do it - I think it may've come from an animation film. Looking at it again, I'm wondering if that's not just one long train, snaking its way around a particularly bendy stretch of track; I suppose even if that's the case, the gist of the idea of them being shut-off from each other is still conveyed (this is just a quick mock-up anyway: if it were to be developed, two separate trains could be incorporated).
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 22:21:29 GMT
As an alternative to Aubade (morning music): Yeah, apparently an aubade is a song about lovers taking leave of one another after a night spent in each other's arms (Richard Linklater creates a sort of visual aubade at the very end of the film Before Sunrise, showing a number of locations that the Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke characters had wandered through in Vienna during a single afternoon, evening and early morning they spent together before parting, shown deserted in full morning light).
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 21:41:34 GMT
There was a video that went with that poster (done as a donation drive for prostate cancer research), done after Bob had passed on. It used digitally manipulated footage of Monkhouse, voiced by someone who could do an accurate impersonation of his voice (and it's here).
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 20:27:11 GMT
That Audrey Hepburn chocolate ad is another of the same sort. Creating digital effigies seems all sorts of wrong as a way of practising remembrance, or a way of relating where and who we are now to where we, and those now no longer here, were in the past. CGI likenesses trivialise the complexities of remembering, and of feeling regret, and of trying to make sense of the passing of time.
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 20:03:05 GMT
Just struck me that that last one is not a million miles away from the front cover of Echo & The Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here album.
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 19:57:00 GMT
Two Philip Larkin-inspired ones (Clive James - RIP - nabbed the line used in the first one, first for an essay on Larkin and more recently for a book of his collected pieces on the poet, effectively ruling it out if someone ever tried to rule it in. Makes a wonderful title though):
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 17:01:49 GMT
Agree about Martin's third suggestion. Ah, there were three of them ('So Long' being a straight rip slipped by me!). Okay, you convinced me; it's a three-way tussle between 'Ring Ring The Undertaker', 'ABBA: The Ashes' and 'Respirez-Vous?'.
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 16:46:44 GMT
This whole conceit is outright ghoulish and exploitative when the artist is no longer alive (how can we ever know that they would've been happy to be 'resurrected' like this, and in order to keep a number of people they undoubtedly never knew in life on a nice little earner?). With the core members of ABBA all still alive, the macabre aspect would be side-stepped for now, but I'm still betting the show will have a weirdly thin and lifeless feel to it, suspending disbelief being a conscious process and hard work, if you 'know the score' beforehand and you're being asked to do it for longer than a few minutes.
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Post by chron on Feb 29, 2020 15:49:35 GMT
Self-referential pun titles never have legs in the long run (unless perhaps they're really tenuously oblique), that's the problem. Their appeal is instant, but they age quickly; they're the wrong way to go for something meant to have long-term,'permanent' value. So thanks, but no thanks, to: "Departure (I Shouldn't Wonder)", "Hisses Of Pyre", "Quit-itita", "Lovers Still Die", "The Reaper Takes It All", "Our Last Supper", "Happy Last Year", "On And On And Off", "Lay All Your Soil On Me", "The Way Old Friends Die", "Dead. Over. Deal.", "Now All Is Said And Done", "Not One Of Us", "Slipping The Rings Off Our Fingers", etc, etc (I'll obviously hold my hand up and say that Shoshin's suggestions were a lot more acceptable, no question, with the latter one being a genuine goer).
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