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Post by gazman on Feb 12, 2020 22:18:29 GMT
It has crossed my mind that 'Ah, Vilka Tider' is quite a difficult ABBA song to access these days.
I have it on my Swedish copy of '18 Hits', where it is the final track. It did not feature on the international version of that release; nor does it appear on either the 'Ring Ring' 2001 CD remaster, or the 'Ring Ring' Deluxe Edition CD/DVD.
I am not sure else where it shows up.
It's quite a charming song from the early ABBA period, in my view. Perhaps because it had no English-language equivalent, it has been deliberately missed from other releases. I'm also assuming it was a B-side in Sweden, but can't remember...
Does anyone else like this song?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2020 23:06:16 GMT
To be honest, although it is a quaint little ditty, I only once listened to it online.
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Post by abbafan456 on Feb 13, 2020 2:36:49 GMT
I'm the kind of person who likes every single ABBA song (I have my most favorite and least favorites, but I don't hate any ABBA song), and while Ah, Vilka Tider isn't a song I listen to frequently, I quite enjoy it. I like how it's a song that all of them sing on together.  |
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Post by Alan on Feb 13, 2020 7:32:15 GMT
A few other releases it has appeared on: Pa Svenska - 1994 CD of pre and during ABBA solo recordings along with all Swedish versions of ABBA songs recorded (widely available in the UK at the time, though quickly deleted). Japanese 30th Anniversary albums box - appeared on exclusive bonus disc (main CDs are 2001 issues but in original UK album artwork). The Complete Studio Recordings (either version) - appears on version of Ring Ring exclusive to the box. I have the track via the second and third releases above. I never got the first one. It’s a bona fide ABBA recording as it contains all four of them (so in that respect, more of an ABBA song than, say, Santa Rosa or She’s My Kind of Girl) but Björn and Benny’s dislike of the track, coupled with the fact it was never recorded in English, make it the rarest commercially-released ABBA recording. It was intended to appear on the deluxe Ring Ring but I think B & B vetoed it, and instead they saw fit to include inferior recordings of ABBA songs by other acts (though significant as these acts recorded them first). Link to Pa Svenska tracklisting: eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=5202430th Anniversary Albums box: eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=316127Complete Studio Recordings: www.abbaomnibus.net/news/complete_studio_news.htm |
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Post by gazman on Feb 13, 2020 9:29:45 GMT
Thanks Alan - that's all really interesting. I never owned a copy of that 30th anniversary Japanese box, although I have a friend who owns one.
I suspect a copy in good condition sells for an absolute fortune now!
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Post by Zeebee on Feb 13, 2020 21:52:27 GMT
I never heard Ah, Vilka Tider until I got The Complete Studio Recordings. I like it, even though, not understanding Swedish, I don't know what they're singing about.
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Post by Alan on Feb 14, 2020 12:56:07 GMT
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Post by chron on Feb 19, 2020 16:40:47 GMT
First time I've heard this. First impression is of how much of a certain time and a certain style it is (stone me, it's Bobby's even more trying other brother!). Curious to imagine ABBA, as young as they were when this was recorded, enthusiastically engaged in peddling such an anaemic brand of good-time schlager for the blue-rinsers to sway from side-to-side to. It's a world away from what they were shortly to transform into, and several worlds away from where we are now. The other thing that strikes me about it is how relatively ineffective the basic four-voiced chorus - when all four sing the same lines in more-or-less the same way at the same time - is. Once they'd started to really explore the dynamic/dramatic subtleties of support-singing, and the weaving in of multiple harmony lines and lyrical counter-play (the acme of all this forever being Knowing Me, Knowing You), a new world of exciting possibilities opened up. Still, nice to hear Benny's slightly nasally tones fairly to the fore on this; as I've stated a few times, I prefer his voice to Bjorn's, and it's a shame that he dropped out of taking even occasional lead vocal duties so early on.
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Post by josef on Feb 19, 2020 17:39:39 GMT
I've heard it, but can't recall when or where. Wasn't keen. Forgettable. Not my cup of tea. Like most fans, I'm not keen on absolutely everything ABBA recorded- most of it, but certainly not all.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2020 22:59:51 GMT
And that's why their career is nothing short of a miracle: this is how Swedish pop music was supposed to sound like at the time (particularly on the chart list Björn was used to inhabiting - in fact, I strongly suspect that he's the main force behind both music and lyrics, which make Dum Dum Diddle sound like TS Eliot;, Google Translate cannot make them any shallower). But that's also why hearing it today, in hindsight, only increases my admiration for the group. They didn't emerge from the head of Zeus, it's like watching home footage of a future Formula 1 champion taking his first driving lessons...
Hard to believe only a couple of years separates it from SOS, isn't it?
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Post by Michal on Feb 20, 2020 5:28:01 GMT
And that's why their career is nothing short of a miracle: this is how Swedish pop music was supposed to sound like at the time (particularly on the chart list Björn was used to inhabiting - in fact, I strongly suspect that he's the main force behind both music and lyrics, which make Dum Dum Diddle sound like TS Eliot;, Google Translate cannot make them any shallower). But that's also why hearing it today, in hindsight, only increases my admiration for the group. They didn't emerge from the head of Zeus, it's like watching home footage of a future Formula 1 champion taking his first driving lessons... Hard to believe only a couple of years separates it from SOS, isn't it? It never ceases to amaze me - not only the way they evolved but how quickly they did. Maybe that's one of the reasons they are so reluctant to let us hear the unreleased stuff and actually the very reason why it remained in the vaults - they were getting better so quickly that they regarded the songs they had written just a few months earlier as inferior to the ones they were working on at the moment... I sometimes tend to compare them with another favourite songwriter of mine - Per Gessle. It seems to me that his songwriting journey is almost the opposite of Björn and Benny's - sometimes I feel that he had his best moments with Gyllene Tider and early Roxette and with passing years his writing was getting more and more uninspired. Back to Åh Vilka Tider - I hardly ever listen to it but I can't say I don't like it. I have the På Svenska CD so I got familiar with the song quite early. Not something they should be proud of but no need to feel ashamed of too. |
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Post by gamleman on Jun 27, 2020 10:05:19 GMT
This is one of my least favourite ABBA songs but it's OK for a quick 2.5-minute listen. It's a song that I think would have more appeal in English. I don't think anybody responded to one of the original questions about its B-side status. It was the B-side of the Swedish version of Ring Ring. So surprisingly, it was chosen for quite a high-profile release in Sweden. My Swedish penpal sent me her copy of this single in the late 70s. Now it's also available on the re-issue of this single in the 40th anniversary singles boxset.
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Post by synthx on Jul 22, 2024 15:53:06 GMT
It's a very silly song, but it's a lot of fun and I enjoy it a lot. It's a shame how difficult it is to get a hold of it. I it through the Complete Studio Recordings.
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