‘Rock Me’ - and Bjorn’s big moments
Jan 13, 2024 16:58:08 GMT
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Michal, angela, and 3 more like this
Post by iiwftn on Jan 13, 2024 16:58:08 GMT
Now, from what I’ve gathered, ‘Rock Me’ isn’t universally loved on this forum. But I personally like the song very much and rank it a remarkably high #22 position on the ABBA Top 40 thread.
There are two visual performances of the track that I particularly love. One, the TV studio performance from Australia (1976?) and of course, the ABBA: The Movie clip, also from Australia, but in 1977.
In the rather charming tv studio performance, the camera is zoomed in on Bjorn who looks well pleased with himself. Benny and his bow tie seems to be enjoying this one too, tinkering away at the piano and doing a little dance as he rubs shoulders with Frida. Agnetha meanwhile treats the audience to a bit of backside wiggling, facing the audience only on choruses, thus giving Bjorn most of the limelight.
But it’s the Sydney concert version where the song embeds itself into ABBA history. Whether the viewer likes this song or otherwise, there can be little doubt that the ‘Rock Me’ clip is one of the highlights of ‘The Movie’. In ‘The Movie’ performance of ‘Rock Me’, unshackled Bjorn throws the kitchen sink at it, prowling the stage, growling the lyrics straight into the eyes of the audience. He is on fire here.
The difference between the two aforementioned mentioned clips, apart from one being live, and the other lip-synced is that in the concert version, Bjorn ditches the guitar and runs free. All those early years, yodelling along to folk songs with to the Hootenanny Singers and strumming an old acoustic are a distant memory here.
This was a statement of intent from Bjorn. He was telling us “I’m the lead singer now”. And in order to do that, he had to change his image from musician to rock star; a shiny one-piece, figure-hugging, satin-clad rock star; a 70s Harry Styles of you like, but with a Luke Skywalker hairdoo.
And of course, the success of ‘Rock Me’ on the ‘77 tour meant that Bjorn didn’t stop there. Two years later, with ‘Does Your Mother Know’, Bjorn was back in the limelight and minus the guitar. For ‘Does Your Mother Know’, Bjorn was minus his guitar both in the promo video, tv performances and the ‘79 tour, the latter seeing him running up staircases and leaping off in tight blue lycra. One wrong slip and that suit could’ve ripped horribly at the buttocks!
But did the sight of Bjorn without a guitar work visually for Does Your Mother Know? Not for me it didn’t. Again, this isn’t meant to be a dig at Bjorn, but he looks much better on stage with a guitar slung around his neck, even if it was hardly plugged in half the time. Without the guitar, he’s left looking rather small and awkward in 1979, clapping his hands and sliding up to Agnetha whom he’d just split up with. It’s all rather uncomfortable.
But back to the ‘77 clip from Sydney, and here’s my point. Despite the Bjorn’s excellent efforts, and even though the song is very good live, and despite the fact that the audience is going wild and everyone’s enjoying it, there is one thing about that particular clip that stands out and elevates the song to a higher level: the two women of ABBA.
You just can’t upstage Agnetha and Frida. I love the two blokes in ABBA. They are genius songwriters and Bjorn himself is a very good singer for certain. But on that Sydney stage, Frida has the audience in the palm of her hand the entire night and on the last chorus, as the song is striped down, there is dazzling Agnetha, doing her thing and looking like a gazillion dollars stood next to Bjorn. Even as the ‘backing singers’ here, the women are still the stars of the show.
And this beautiful footage comes with ‘Rock Me’ as its soundtrack. For that, I am grateful to this song.
There are two visual performances of the track that I particularly love. One, the TV studio performance from Australia (1976?) and of course, the ABBA: The Movie clip, also from Australia, but in 1977.
In the rather charming tv studio performance, the camera is zoomed in on Bjorn who looks well pleased with himself. Benny and his bow tie seems to be enjoying this one too, tinkering away at the piano and doing a little dance as he rubs shoulders with Frida. Agnetha meanwhile treats the audience to a bit of backside wiggling, facing the audience only on choruses, thus giving Bjorn most of the limelight.
But it’s the Sydney concert version where the song embeds itself into ABBA history. Whether the viewer likes this song or otherwise, there can be little doubt that the ‘Rock Me’ clip is one of the highlights of ‘The Movie’. In ‘The Movie’ performance of ‘Rock Me’, unshackled Bjorn throws the kitchen sink at it, prowling the stage, growling the lyrics straight into the eyes of the audience. He is on fire here.
The difference between the two aforementioned mentioned clips, apart from one being live, and the other lip-synced is that in the concert version, Bjorn ditches the guitar and runs free. All those early years, yodelling along to folk songs with to the Hootenanny Singers and strumming an old acoustic are a distant memory here.
This was a statement of intent from Bjorn. He was telling us “I’m the lead singer now”. And in order to do that, he had to change his image from musician to rock star; a shiny one-piece, figure-hugging, satin-clad rock star; a 70s Harry Styles of you like, but with a Luke Skywalker hairdoo.
And of course, the success of ‘Rock Me’ on the ‘77 tour meant that Bjorn didn’t stop there. Two years later, with ‘Does Your Mother Know’, Bjorn was back in the limelight and minus the guitar. For ‘Does Your Mother Know’, Bjorn was minus his guitar both in the promo video, tv performances and the ‘79 tour, the latter seeing him running up staircases and leaping off in tight blue lycra. One wrong slip and that suit could’ve ripped horribly at the buttocks!
But did the sight of Bjorn without a guitar work visually for Does Your Mother Know? Not for me it didn’t. Again, this isn’t meant to be a dig at Bjorn, but he looks much better on stage with a guitar slung around his neck, even if it was hardly plugged in half the time. Without the guitar, he’s left looking rather small and awkward in 1979, clapping his hands and sliding up to Agnetha whom he’d just split up with. It’s all rather uncomfortable.
But back to the ‘77 clip from Sydney, and here’s my point. Despite the Bjorn’s excellent efforts, and even though the song is very good live, and despite the fact that the audience is going wild and everyone’s enjoying it, there is one thing about that particular clip that stands out and elevates the song to a higher level: the two women of ABBA.
You just can’t upstage Agnetha and Frida. I love the two blokes in ABBA. They are genius songwriters and Bjorn himself is a very good singer for certain. But on that Sydney stage, Frida has the audience in the palm of her hand the entire night and on the last chorus, as the song is striped down, there is dazzling Agnetha, doing her thing and looking like a gazillion dollars stood next to Bjorn. Even as the ‘backing singers’ here, the women are still the stars of the show.
And this beautiful footage comes with ‘Rock Me’ as its soundtrack. For that, I am grateful to this song.
