The Downfall 1982. Why did it happen?

Excellent post, Johnny.

Your Point 2, especially. I find the One Of Us video awkward to watch.

I still find it hard to understand why the complete collapse in a couple of months, HOH was typical ABBA, and should’ve made the top 20 easily, but no, so alas I’ll agree with Johnny and it being a combination of all his comments, it’s something we will never quite comprehend.....

When did I say I don’t like the song? I never said that at all, as it’s most definitely the opposite. Are you confusing me with someone else? That and Lay All Your Love On Me are the best things on Super Trouper in my opinion.

Sorry, I didn’t explain myself very well in the last post. I agree with everything you said about the video, definitely one of the best (which is why I struggle with 1977 Agnetha ABBATar performing it).

I meant that it was quite a change of image from 1979 ABBA. The photo montage at the start almost seems like it’s from another age, not a year before. I meant it was the start of the looking crap ABBA, which One of Us took several stages further.

I was never a fan of the hairstyles Agnetha sported from The Winner Takes It All to Head Over Heels videos. She did have some better styles in that time but not for the making of the videos!

Poodle perms may have been in, but for me the classic ABBA look ended when she had it cut for the 1979 tour, and after that (or at least from The Winner Takes It All), it seemed she had several fights with her hairdresser (and lost). 😀

Frida changed her hair so often that it was much less noticeable, though that 1981-82 look was quite a drastic one.

@alib ,you make a very good point. The video of One of Us did not stop the song getting to #3 in the UK (and selling 500,000) Or getting to #1 in Germany.. It was after that the collapse happened. I think When All is Said and Done was commercial too but that should have been released before The Visitors album,. Both were in the tradition of a typical ABBA ballad. I have said before but the big gap for ABBA was not the 40 years between The Visitors and Voyage but the musical gap of the pop Super Trouper album to the more musical/theatrical The Visitors just 12 months later.

Head Over Heels was an attempt to be very poppy in the mould of Take a Chance on me, both the song and the video, I feel. But it felt a bit flat. Under Attack was just awful.

Alan , for sure, ABBA were coming to a natural end butthere was a complete collapse in sales in a very short time. Even with a below sub-par single like Head Over Heels you might have expected it to do better.

Had ABBA released singles in 1982 that were up there in terms of quality and commercial appeal as previous hits I think they would have had more success. How much, I don't know. But not the flops like we had in 1982...

I like the bass riff in Under Atracks. It's the vocals I don't like...The only Voyage tracks I prefer it too are Bumblebee snd Little Things.

1982 was a sad and disappointing end to ABBA's (then!) career. What would have been worse though was if they just continued. Dimishing interest and sales album by album. A pale shadow of their heyday.

If they just continued, we might have had a brief comeback if they decided to record I Know Him So Well but the trend would have been down.

If they continued we might not have got Gold, Mamma Mia! or the Voyage album and concert as there might not be such an interest in an active band past its sell by date. That said the 40 year wait between albums was rather long 😀

In the Guinness book of Number One hits, it did say that Abba had reached No’1 - No’7 in the charts with their songs, and mentioned HOH at ‘25, it did say that no other act had such a divisive chart career, obviously DQ at 16 in ‘92 ended that, and ISHFIY making top 20 also.

I support everyone’s report on ABBA’s downfall, I also want to add that I think the image of ABBA being two couples, and then two divorced couples affected their image as the public subconsciously thought that they were only together for financial reasons, plus ABBA’s own financial problems with all their investments etc. it seemed kinda crass to the public that Abba were releasing music from their retreat, not bothering to travel to promote anything, and with HOH going on about a woman who obviously has money, while Britain was in a recession with high interest rates was not the right image to go on.
ABBA’s image of two singers and two musicians was a bit old hat and sea side special too. In the aforementioned Guinness book it said that by late 81 ABBA were becoming more sophisticated and Adam Ant more aggressive, that Bucks Fizz and Shakin’ Stevens were the huge sellers. The 80s were truly about to start with Duran Duran, Culture Club, Wham! Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Could the One Of Us picture disc cause the huge sales in the single? I heard that it was issued a week later? I’m not sure if it’s correct. If it was, ardent fans would have bought two versions of the song. I remember reading that it was supposed to be a limited edition, but the original acetate was not destroyed and the picture disc was available everywhere, I remember picking mine up in a market stall! I was thrilled, was my first ever picture disc, and then to hunt down all the others, and try and get the elusive VV album one. I think it’s just the French one I have, not the UK one. Now Abba have loads of picture discs!

I remember the anniversary box set in 1984 having a plug on breakfast tv, by I think Mike Smith, I was desperate to get it, finally managed it probably about 15 years later.

Yes, there was a competition to win it, which I think we entered (didn’t win). Very stupidly I didn’t realise you could actually buy it and thought it was a case of winning it from Breakfast Time or not having it at all. How stupid of me, to think they’d made it just for a breakfast TV competition!

Having said that, I couldn’t have afforded it at the time (£25 was it?) and it was a long way from my birthday or Christmas.

Here's my tuppence worth. I might ramble a bit and get very long-winded, so bear with me.

ABBA's image took a very big swerve into middle age. To be fair, that started in the Super Trouper campaign: where we had been used to body-hugging costumes, we suddenly had four people in conservative evening attire. When they did resort to colourful costumes, they opted for those frumpy taffeta suits. The leather'n'lace "Downton ABBA" look for the Dick Cavett Show was an improvement, but they abandoned coordinated clothing after that. Which was fine. Apart from the cool black outfits from 1979, I always thought the stylised costumes were a bit too kitsch. But they needed a proper stylist to control their look from 1980 onwards. It's been pointed out already that Epic must have been anxious about the visuals - the 1981/82 single sleeves betray it. The sleeve for TDBYC was stronger because the photography was much better. But once again, they mismatched big smiles with a sad song. It's one of my peeves.

As for the music, the danceable bounce of old started to give way to far more balladry in 1980. Maybe four of Super Trouper's ten tracks had any danceability (by the era's standards). The first single from The Visitors - a much slower album overall - was a ballad. Pretty. Catchy. But a ballad. Nice for the Christmas market. Handy for people who wanted a stocking filler for their mum. And the picture disc was a cunning marketing ploy. But the video was the biggest WTF moment in ABBA's career.  Frida's up yours, Benny haircut was a shocker. She looked utterly desolate too. Very unFrida. Agnetha fared little better in a dress that took no prisoners and seemed to have nipple tassles?! Bjorn's beard added a decade to him, despite the try-hard leather/tiger print combo which screamed "mutton." Without Frida to vet his wardrobe choices, Benny morphed suddenly into some HR drone from Central Casting.

I was never crazy about it, but I get why they chose HOH as the second single. It's catchy and bouncy and more ABBAesque than anything else left on the album. Agnetha's vocal is terrific and the Third Voice is in fabulous form. Slight aside: has anyone noticed the strong similarity to the Thompson Twins' "We Are Detective"? ABBA's sound was still up to date. A slightly ballsier approach in the A&R department might have seen the wisdom in keeping The Visitors aside for release as a single. TFTPOO or one of the Dick Cavett live tracks could have been used as a B-side to HOH or any single from the album. 

Another bizarre misstep was the lack of personal engagement with the press and the public. No lip-synched TV performances. No chat shows. No Star Parade appearances. No "words and music" documentary. Am I right in thinking there was just one press conference from Stockholm and then nothing? I can't imagine Stig would have been laid back about this, so my hunch is that relations between Benny and Frida may have been too strained at that point. I could be wrong, but that's my gut feeling. If he was still sniping at her on live TV (Late Late Breakfast Show) more than a year later, I can only imagine what the atmosphere was like in December 1981. 

I'm not sure how reliable this anecdote is; you make up your own minds. A German journalist I know told me that one of the backing musicians - the name escapes me now - said that 1981 was difficult in the ABBA camp, that Frida really wanted out. He said that she wasn't back to her old, fun self until the HOH video. That may be why/how the solo album came about? So, yeah. That can't have been a nice time for either of them.

As for Under Attack richard , I think the chorus is undercooked. As you say, the richness of those unused Frida harmonies was a missed opportunity. I also think that the track should have built as it progressed. The second verse needs something to elevate it - more rhythmic percussion and/or a steadier kick drum. I still hate the synth solo; it sounds thin and nasal. I wouldn't mind if UA was included in the Voyage shows at some point, because I think the live band could give the track some needed oomph. As for the sleeve, I think I'm in a minority of one: I like it. It was appropriate for the sound and for the era. 

I’m in a Look-in group on Facebook, lamont, and I saw that article/ “Colour Centre” you mention quite recently. It read like they didn’t know what else do say about ABBA, they’d done lots of ABBA covers and Centre spreads over the years. I also wasn’t sure if they just picked the negative comments to use so that it supported the tone that Look-in was taking. I’m like Prince Harry, I hate the media and how it controls people’s thinking. I remember the article originally but had forgotten.

I love the “nipple tassles” comment, HOMETIME, I’d never seen it before but I’m not sure I’ll be able to see it again without laughing!

I didn’t know Frida wanted out in 1981. I don’t blame her at all for that and I’m not surprised. Having to see him after what he’d done to her would have been a good enough reason. She was the first to sell her shares in Polar (and made a killing as they fell heavily after, and Agnetha didn’t make nearly as much when she sold up a year later). I remember something about Frida wanting to leave in 1975 but that was more about turning 30 and not being sure where her life was going. They then gave her a lot of lead vocals and that helped to eradicate her unhappiness in the group.

I’d have preferred the actual photo for the Under Attack sleeve, not that drawing/photo hybrid (whatever it is). Agnetha looks especially odd in it and not a good likeness. I don’t think I’d even seen the actual photo until well into the internet years.

It wasn’t just the beard though for Björn. He looked like he was carrying a week’s shopping under his eyes. Agnetha’s face also seemed a bit puffy. Benny was completing his transformation into a bear (and I don’t mean the animal variety) and looked as though he was in an awful mood. Frida is the one that is most understandable and therefore forgivable.

One of Us had them looking crap anyway, but on a particularly crap day. None of them had ever looked worse (and thankfully wouldn’t again).

Perhaps I made that bit up about lead vocals! But Fernando, Money and Knowing all quite close together and Agnetha not having a look-in (in terms of singles, though she did have SOS) made me wonder if it was to help Frida’s confidence.

Anyway, that’s off-topic…

Is that when they’re all sat down smiling, lamont? I think it was used as a cover of the ABBA Magazine once. Yes, it’s a total contrast to the actual video.

johnny posted the Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch… I’d never thought about the “one of us” lyric in that, and obviously that was well before the actual One of Us. Some ABBA fans don’t think it’s funny but I’ve always thought it’s hilarious. I seem to remember some comments on a forum once asking if that meant they thought Frida looked like a man, and how offensive that was etc etc. They didn’t seem to get that the Not… team was made up of three men and a woman and the youngest and best looking of the men played Frida.