ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2022 Jan - Apr

Eddie, I haven't noticed your points being ignored but I don't always pay close attention to what's going on here. I find that many of the things that I say are ignored or rebuffed, but I try not to take it personally - I just assume that what's interesting or important to me is not always of interest to the others. Indeed, I ignore things that I'm not especially motivated towards, so I can't blame others for doing the same.

George: I was around the first time. I remember them from childhood and I think I've got the original 45s in my record collection - sad but true!

Why do people have to say such bloody stupid things??!!! George, if you felt that way, why do the programme!? Oh, I know, good publicity was it???! Why oh why can't there be a, serious, TV show about ABBA where all the performers/contributors show some decent respect!!? I've never felt the need to explain why I love ABBA, if others don't, that's fine, but why say such a thing on what was supposed to be a tribute?? (a poor one at that)! I get a little tired of ABBA being portrayed as "just good fun"! they are far more than that! my rant for the day over lol!!

There is definitely not going to be a new single to coincide with the opening of voyage, so I assume not a deluxe version of the album either.

For me, hearing ABBA's unfinished or tryout or rejected, archived material would have the same sort of fascination and appeal as being granted the privilege of being able to see an artist's skechtbooks - provided the artist didn't mind. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, anyone? Or is that pitching it too high? Not for this music fan, it isn't.

justabba, that's an insider information or do you just assume it because otherwise it would have been already officially announced?

Yes I like that I went to see Leonardo De Vinci Sketches about tree years age and it was great to see how his mind worked on all those drawings. But Benny and Bjorn don't seem to like letting people hear unfinished works.

I like the idea of silence being added before bonus material. Ideally, it'd be a standalone track ten seconds of silence so that there isn't an annoying "pause" when the last track is added to a playlist and/or when the album is played on shuffle, or the order reprogrammed. But that's a personal niggle and might be a worthwhile sacrifice to protect the integrity of the original album.

Given that we have the spectacle of the show and a massive milestone anniversary happening - 50 years: who'd'a thunk?! - maybe it would be a fantastic opportunity to pull together all the loose ends in a celebratory new release. I'm talking about an anthology, of course. It could give a more forensic look at the hits and album tracks in the shape of a music-focused documentary controlled by ABBA themselves. It'd make a comfortable place for things that weren't appropriate for the time they were created, and juxtapose them with key hits/versions that emerged instead. So while its sound was at odds with the album, the earlier version of DYMK could be fully mastered and released. The single edit of IIWFTN for instance. The Chiquitita Story would be nice too. And JLT, of course. The four unreleased 12" mixes that Michael B Tretow made in the early 1980s would have an ideal home here. 

I think it'd be unrealistic for such a release to be only outtakes and demos, but structuring the set around the monster hits and the chronology of the group's evolution could be something fantastic. Especially if it were paired with TV/DVD/Netflix type documentary. Knowing the sales pitch that would have to stitched into it, there could be a thread that looks at how the songs were put together for the Voyage show. Cue a couple of live versions from the show. Lots of behind-the-scenes footage from ABBA's mocap days. Footage from the studio during the Voyage sessions. 

Extensive sleeve notes and/or filmed interviews can explore stuff they were less enthusiastic about at the time, which have been forgiven or become more interesting with the passage of time. "Sombrero? We'd just been bingeing on burritos and Tequila and we went into Tex-Mex overdrive with the arrangement and lyrics." Or "I hadn't really thought that the catastrophe of being hit by a train wasn't the greatest analogy for being kissed." Sorry, just guessing at some of the sleeve notes/quotes from the accompanying DVD.

A boy can dream, eh?

And, @eddie , I don't think people are talking over you or ignoring you. It's great to see you contributing so comfortably. But none of us really gets direct traction from all our posts. When the same themes get revisited so often on this forum, I think people simply run out of things to say in response. Sometimes you get people at the right time, other times it's crickets. For instance, I'm far too longwinded with everything to really trigger discussion. But that works for me: I like to get it off my chest while the idea is still fresh in my head. Then, when it's out there, I see typos and/or that I've not been as clear as I intended, so I edit. It must be tedious for everyone. So there isn't often much room in all of that for replies. You, me, many others: we sometimes get responses; more often, we don't. It's important not to take that personally. People have other things going on. When all is said and done, it's just a music forum.

HOMETIME, we are thinking along the same lines regarding an anthology. I put forward an example album tracklist a few weeks ago but there are probably gems that I hadn't thought of - for example, what are the four unreleased 12-inch mixes that Michael B Tretow made? I think ABBA should drive this project in choosing songs that were key for them, including non-singles. However, I'm having my doubts that either B&B or Universal would be inclined to undertake such a project. They seem more interested in catering for the mass market with the established material through either ABBA reissues or the Mamma Mia movies than trying to please their loyal, long-serving fans. OK, we've had a new album, but we only got that because it was part of a huge money-making scheme. I think to put out a compilation that is different from Gold, they would need to be convinced that it could be sold to the mass market.

Eddie, I also hope that the Mamma Mia bandwagon doesn't continue and there isn't a third movie, or is it already in the can? I haven't heard anything about B&B working on the soundtrack, so I assume not, but I can unfortunately imagine this being their next port of call after the Voyage show has established itself.

No I know,  it's not for me to reveal how I know,  except to say the source is impeccable. 

Foreverfan - I don't understand why Benny mentioned two unfinished tracks. It only adds to speculation - and disappointment from some fans if nothing comes of it.
In an interview a few years agi Benny did so the then 2 new songs - faith and shut, would be old songs by the time the show started and it might be an idea to have new songs for the show.



Gamleman - I feel they may have missed the boat. Unless there are new songs this year and ideally brfore the show starts, it will be a damp squid if anything is released.


Eddie - we're on the same page. I think fans should just accept we had a comwback album - after 40 years and not keep expecting more.

According to CMP's Complete Recording sessions, the four tracks remixed were The Visitors, Take A Chance On Me, On And On And On and Lay All Your Love On Me. Despite having commissioned the remixes, Benny and Bjorn "didn't like that kind of thing" and the mixes remained unreleased.

Johnny, I'm glad we both agree. Time to leave ABBA in peace.
Gamleman, wasn't " Lay All Your Love On Me " the very first record single to be released on 12 inch ? Generally I am not keen on ABBA remixes. I prefer listening to the songs as they are

Eddie - 12 inch singles were around in the disco era from the mid 70s.

Lay All Your Love on Me was the first to make the UK Top 10 on sales of 12" alone. It was not available on 7". Had it been - and released earlier I reckon it would have been a bigger hit.

@eddie, you're probably thinking about how LAYLOM was the UK's best-selling single on 12-inch for a little while, until it was overtaken by New Order's "Blue Monday". This 12-inch release was just the album version though, not an extended remix, and the same for O&O&O on the B-side. The strange thing was that the video for O&O&O is an extended version with an extra verse. I often don't care for extended mixes either, as they can be quite tedious, although they can be good. Part of the delight of buying a 12-inch single was that you sometimes got a previously unreleased bonus track in addition to the B-side, something that ABBA never exploited.

undertheappletree, "An Anthology - Pure Gold" or "Pure Gold - An Anthology" sounds quite good. But could we trust Universal to seek out everything that ABBA ever recorded? Somehow, I think not.

Re a Deluxe "Voyage", Christmas is the traditional time to do these re-releases and they may want to mark one year since the initial release.