ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2022 May - Aug

Story Of A Heart and Heaven And Hell and even I Know Him So Well might well suit Agnetha and Frida. Lyrically, the first two are in the same (overly) detailed scene-setting that Bjorn favours: dressing gowns, art snobs, rowing on a lake and the, uhm, back of a bus. IKHSW is a slightly different kettle of fish, featuring the work of an outside lyricist. OK, so we had Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody on Ring, Ring so it's not entirely without precedent. So why not let ABBA have a crack at these Andersson/Ulvaeus compositions? Heaven And Hell - a pale retread of The Winner Takes It All, I'd argue - is relatively unknown by the general public, so it'd be down to the media to blow its cover, so to speak. The other two? The undeniable authorship aside, there will be many who'd regard them as cover versions and "evidence" that B&B's creativity had "dried up" when it came to writing a new album. Not that those opinions should be given much regard, but still.

That said, I think ABBA versions of these songs could find an ideal home in a career-spanning retrospective.

evilincarnate mentioned recycling the chorus of One Night In Bangkok. I think B&B sort of attempted that for Gemini with I'm A B*tch When I See Red? <draws discreet veil>

If other songs from "down the back of the sofa" (good analogy) are to be considered, something less well-known like When I Close My Eyes and I Am The Universe might appear somewhere on my wish-list. Or why not get Bjorn to write (better) lyrics for Frida's  I Don't Wanna Be Alone? The recent book suggests that there are a couple more Lyngstad demos for Shine that might have worked better with ABBA. Has Agnetha a song or three knocking around that could work for ABBA? It would be great if another ABBA album were to include writing contributions from the women.

Talking of the "Shine" album while we're discussing remakes, "Slowly" is an obvious candidate. I would like to hear A&F together on this song and I think it would suit their voices as they are now. However, in the unlikely event of ABBA recording some B&B songs from the 80s and 90s to acknowledge this era on an ABBA retrospective album, I think the key milestone to mark would actually be "I Know Him So Well".

And why not a four-way writing credit too? Imagine if something they all had a hand in writing turned out to be one of the best things they did?

I was thinking during their original career, six months after the release of an album they were well into recording the next.

It's amazing now thinking about it but a studio album every year. It seemed so normal. I thought the 16 month wait between The Album and Voulez Vous was long...and now we had a 40 year wait!

I certainly favour the recommendation mentioned above that if any of these older tracks were to be recorded by ABBA now, that they be included on a career-spanning retrospective (or perhaps as b-sides/bonus tracks etc.).
I should clarify that my preference remains that any potential follow-up to 'Voyage' consist of original compositions and I particularly like the suggestion of Agnetha and Frida contributing in this manner - an excellent idea.
PS The "down the back of the sofa" analogy is amusing, that gave me a giggle.

He might be open to the idea of collaborating with Agnetha? I actually think he probably sees Agnetha as being the writer that’s the most equal to him, though maybe they’d clash as both write music.

In one of the many interviews Agnetha did for her album “A” (it’s starting to seem hard to believe now, considering she’s only done the one Swedish radio interview for Voyage), she mentioned she had gone to see Benny and played him the whole album, as though his opinion was important to her. There was an indication that he was disappointed she’d only written one song for it (and even then only by a lot of encouragement), so I think he’d be open to the prospect of a collaboration. Agnetha probably isn’t interested though.

Good pics. It's all building up now.

On the question of the Voyage tracks being on a future compilation, I don't think it would be this year.

Too soon, maybe the Voyage album can have some sort of rival or the first two songs at least get lots of streams.

Maybe around the 50th anniversary of Waterloo in two years time.

Really like the New Costumes, l can see the real ones all being put on display somewhere in the future, the guys look so realistic, in those images, but the Girls look a little odd, kind of Ghostly, Frida looks a tad Vacant, and Agnetha more like a Bloke in Drag, but have previously seen much better likeness in previous Clips, probably just the lighting, or a slight malfunction?

Frida and Agnetha look like they've been on the lash. But they are just a couple of stills.

I have actually some photos of me that don't look like me at all. 😀

It seems Agnetha and Benny have always been quite close to each other and you're probably right that Benny appreciate Agnetha's songwriting abilities. You reminded me of an interview with Benny from the time when it was revealed Agnetha would release a new album ("A") and he commented that he hoped she had composed the songs herself, as she was a talented songwriter.

LOL! For many, at least you Can't say Benny has been on the Lash! This Time..

Discussion halted somewhat, so I’ll air some thoughts I had, was thinking if ABBA’s new songs being used for 3rd Mamma Mia movie, I could see Sky & Sophie splitting up with Sophie having an alcohol problem, (Cher character!! Can’t remember the name) takes Sophie under her wing.) Their son is called Dan! Dan has a boyfriend (Fred, My Mama Said.) Meryl appears as a Ghost again and sings with Cher & Sophie “I Still Have Faith In You”
Harry gets proposed by a guy (I’m Harry not the kind of guy you’d marry.) Sophie goes to big city (I am the city) succumbs to night life.
At the end meryl appears to Sophie and starts to sing Don’t Shut Me Down, and whole cast joins in!

Need to iron out more details to get the Oscar!

Wee bit of fun.