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Post by HOMETIME on Jan 18, 2023 16:21:29 GMT
Well put, richard . If it were recorded today, I think it's safe to say that that lovely 19-second guitar and strings intro on Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! would be cut, to start the track at the hooky synth riff. A single with a 38-second intro would be unusual these days. Likewise the 50-second passage comprising only bass, strings and some muted vocalising. It feels like the production was influenced by the newfangled 12" singles filling dancefloors back then. It seems to be a fashion/trend on Spotify, where 30 seconds counts as one stream. I can see the point in editing a track for radio - advertisers want enough hits to draw the listeners to the shows that carry their ads. Longer songs mean that fewer hits get played in the timeframe of the show. Also, certain edits can ensure that the hooks/choruses are hit sooner and sometimes more frequently, which means they get embedded in the listeners' consciousness more easily. Apart from the sometimes tedious 12" mixes, I seem to remember a fashion for slightly longer singles in the 80s. There were intros - some of them quite long - instrumental solos and even codas. Nowadays, the tracks seem to shrink around the vocal passages. And those tracks seem to condition us to expect shorter recordings. If GGG had originally been shaved to such a short running time, I wonder what we'd have thought if the 4:45 version emerged from the vaults now? Would we have lauded the editorial wisdom behind the released version? Would we have declared the longer version suitable for an album version and/or 12" single? It's still shorter than Chiquitita (5:26) and Voulez-Vous (5:11). While I'm glad to have it as a rarity, the radio edit of The Visitors seems to suck some of the brilliance out of the track. Some tracks (IMO) need whole new mixes to support a changed running time or function at their best as a single. Thanks for that info, gazman . I'm a little surprised that the US/Canadian edit hasn't yet found its way to YouTube. |
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Post by Alan on Jan 18, 2023 17:23:49 GMT
I think the edit of The Name of the Game on The Singles was an error, as the timing was still listed as 4:53 on the label and inner gatefold. It can’t be for vinyl length. There were six tracks on Side 2 of The Singles, but the full length version had appeared on Side 2 of Greatest Hits Vol 2 which had seven tracks.
I honestly don’t know how I didn’t notice it at the time. The Singles was one of my few ABBA albums (I generally got whatever my brother wasn’t interested in) so I played it loads. However, I remember hearing the original version of Gold once (I think it was in a cinema) and noticed the edit straightaway.
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Post by joseph on Jan 18, 2023 20:37:36 GMT
The intro to Gimme Gimme Gimme is a thing of beauty and it would be criminal to remove it. The ominous sound totally sets the song up and is one of AꓭBA's greatest ever intros. Likewise the bridge section. This hacking and shortening of things is a sign of the times and indicative of the swipe generation, people with the attention span of a gnat.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2023 22:23:10 GMT
The intro of GGG is the best part of the song imo.
Yes, people have shorter attention spans these days or it seems that anyway.
The preamble for DSMD could have been edited out (as the intro for SNC was). Edited out for the single not album track.
The edited single version may have got more casual listeners (with shorter attention spans) into the song more. The full length version still available on the album.
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Post by gary on Jan 19, 2023 8:48:15 GMT
Yes, the intro to Gimme Gimme Gimme is one of the very best ABBA ‘bits’, maybe even the best ‘bit’ of all. The rest of the song is a bit average by ABBA’s standards. The verse and the chorus are both a bit uninspired, and I’ve never liked the title. It sounds cheap, if that makes any sense. Still, the song has more than stood the test of time.
Is this thread becoming the go-to thread? 😉
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Post by richard on Jan 19, 2023 12:19:15 GMT
I agree about the crass title. Didn't Bjorn once say something about his interest in the sung sound of song titles? Gimme, Gimme, Gimme; Honey Honey; Money Money Money...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2023 12:53:52 GMT
I'm in the camp of leave well alone! DSMD is glorious as it is, I love watching reaction videos where almost everyone lights up just before the "I believe it would be fair to say" kicks in and I think the slow start gives more 'punch' to that part if you know what I mean!? People aren't expecting it, then BAM!! Great bass in DSMD!
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Post by gary on Jan 19, 2023 17:54:41 GMT
^ Definitely leave DSMD as it is. It’s a nice intro.
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Post by Alan on Jan 19, 2023 23:21:11 GMT
I’m not sure there was ever any need to edit Gimme was there? I’m assuming it got played on the radio as normal. And the video was an edited version and that’s all that would have been shown on TV. It would be sacrilege to edit out its instrumental break, that’s one of the best parts of the track! Atlantic in the US might have done it but no reason to anywhere else.
I always loved the fact that Gimme opened Greatest Hits Vol 2. There was something quietly confident about opening up a greatest hits with the newest single. It was similarly the first track on the short-lived Number Ones compilation but that was mainly thanks to Madonna sampling it.
I used to quite like the Eagle edit (the proper one, not the awful 1999 re-creation) but I’ve gone off that considerably.
Don’t Shut Me Down is only four minutes long. Plus it seems to have done extremely well without an edited version.
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Post by gary on Jan 19, 2023 23:32:58 GMT
Amazing how opinions differ, but it would be pretty boring if they didn’t! I think the worst thing about GGG (apart from the title 😉) is the long instrumental break, which adds nothing to the song. But I can see about the song pulsing with energy. I guess I’m just not so keen on ‘disco ABBA’ (except Summer Night City). I prefer ‘pop ABBA’ and ‘ballad ABBA’.
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Post by HOMETIME on Jan 20, 2023 8:08:08 GMT
I’m not sure there was ever any need to edit Gimme was there? I’m assuming it got played on the radio as normal. I remember that radio presenters used to talk over the instrumental section, and many took the opportunity to fade early, or crossfade into a track by another act. But the hooks would have been embedded in the listeners' brains by then. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2023 11:18:21 GMT
This thread has morphed from the Voyage singles to the editing of Gimme Gimme Gimme.
I've heard GGG on Magic Radio and they edit out the bridge section, very clumsily.
The Name of the Game was edited on Magic of ABBA and The Singles as they were vinyl era albums and lots of songs on a side. That Magic of album was on K tel who were released compilation albums crammed with tracks which meant editing or poor sound quality.
Back to Don't Shut Me Down I was only talking about an edited single version and leaving the song as it was on the album. A video and vinyl edition would have been a good idea too. I think, on balance four singles was probably too much. The couple released after Voyage were never going to do well.
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Post by Alan on Jan 21, 2023 16:34:16 GMT
That Magic of album was on K tel who were released compilation albums crammed with tracks which meant editing or poor sound quality. Was The Magic of ABBA an American release? I’d never heard of it until you mentioned it. Looking at it on Amazon, it’s on the “Warner Special Products” label in association with K-Tel and also mentions Atlantic (a Warner label and ABBA’s then US licensee). Dated 1980, it has eight songs per side, only one more than Greatest Hits Vol 2 that had the full-length version of The Name of The Game. It contains both Angeleyes and Voulez-Vous, the only compilation of the time to do so. Seems a bit poor that this sub-licensing was going on during ABBA’s hit-making existence. CBS in the UK only did the same later in the 80s, offering ABBA out to Pickwick, Telstar and anyone else that asked. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2023 22:42:26 GMT
It was released in America and quite a few countries in South America with 8 songs per side. An Australian version was also released with 10 songs each side.
It was part of K-tel which did not register/comply with rules by the RIAA so not eligible for gold or platinum awards in the US.
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