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That’s not quite correct. She did have a shorter style just prior to her son being born in December 1977, and it’s also a bit darker. In the video for Take A Chance on Me it’s still noticeably shorter but gradually grows back so that, by the time of the Summer Night City video, it’s back to pretty much its usual length (and, indeed, colour).

Therefore I’d say Agnetha-Tar is also early 1977.

Top of the list of possibilities for next year would definitely be a live album of what’s in The Movie, overdubs and all. Many of the songs sound better than the original studio recordings.

I would imagine that nothing else was overdubbed except exactly what’s in the film, though this would at least include anything where dialogue is spoken over it. As ABBA were making The Album at the time, as well as filming additional scenes for The Movie, it’s unlikely that overdubs were done for anything else. I imagine Lasse Hallström presented them with the finished film, to which they added the overdubs. Even if that’s all there is, I’d settle for that on an audio release.

Not sure I’d want a true audio release of a 1977 concert. It’s believed to exist, for a Royal Albert Hall show, but I’m so used to how they sound in The Movie that it would probably be a disappointment!

Apparently the rehearsal footage is shown at the museum. I haven’t been so wouldn’t know. I did go to the exhibition thing in London in around 2010 that was effectively a prototype of the museum, but can’t remember if it was screened there.

Not long got back from it. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but the behind-the-scenes footage was good if a little short. I don’t think I’d seen any of it before.

That’s an exaggeration, and quite an unfair one. I don’t think anyone has said it’s “very bad” or indicated as such. What people have done is give their opinion of the song or expressed likes/dislikes based on their own music tastes and preferences. Even with ABBA, there are some songs that are unpopular and no one is afraid to say so (I Saw It In The Mirror, Two For The Price of One etc).

But with Agnetha, it seems that there are some who think she’s beyond criticism or that we don’t have the right not to get down on our knees and worship everything she does. Plenty seem to be coming out of the woodwork to jump to her defence. The forum gets labelled “sour” and we are accused of being “stuck in the past”. “My Colouring Book was 20 years ago” (emphasised as though it’s more like 50). This is absolutely hilarious when you consider that, Voyage aside, ABBA’s music is between 41 and 51 years old.

I wonder, had this been a Frida album, would there be as many jumping to her defence if anyone dared to express a dislike of a song? I’d say the same for BAO as well but I know not that many people even bother with that (myself included).

What unites us on here is ABBA, not what any individual member does outside of it. We aren’t obliged to like anything and everything they do, anymore than we’re obliged to like every single ABBA song.

If you like Jörgen Elofsson’s other work, then you might like this, but if, like me, you don’t, then it makes it hard to pretend to like, whether an ABBA singer is singing it or not.

It amuses me how low some Agnetha fans will go to support her. Exaggerating, belittling, shaming, trying to make out that absolutely no one has a word to say against this song other than on here. And above all trying to stifle it, as though we have no right to give such an opinion. I’m afraid these people don’t come out of this well.

I know that there has been some concern about negativity on this forum. Foreverfan is taking a break partially because of that. I do get this - negativity isn’t really good for anyone’s mental health. There’s also been a point raised that haven’t we moved on from this discussion about Agnetha’s song? I agree we perhaps need to, but at the same time I do feel it’s necessary to defend the forum against what I consider to be unfair and unjust comments. Great if you like the song, but do you really need to resort to these tactics against those that aren’t as keen as you?

That really isn’t the issue though. My Colouring Book had songs that were more than 30 years old (I haven’t researched it but probably much older than that). The songs had stood the test of time, and most of all they had inspired Agnetha in her formative years. For that reason, it remains her most personal of her English-language albums. And she even co-produced it.

Where Do We Go From Here? is, like most of “A” (aside from the one song she co-wrote herself) little more than Jörgen Elofsson featuring Agnetha Fältskog on vocals*. Personally, I don’t see it as a disservice to Agnetha to not be that keen on it. Looking at the list of his songs to date, there was not one (of the ones I knew) that I liked. Therefore quite an achievement that I liked any of “A” at all. And most likely the only reason I do is because of her vocals.

What might have worked is if they’d not given us the song’s title, single artwork or the teaser that it might lead to a completely new album. If they’d given us the song without any of that, out of nowhere, there wouldn’t have been any hopes dashed. We might have accepted it better. But that title and artwork promised so much, even after the disappointment of there being no completely new album. The one thing they did keep secret was that it was yet another song co-written and co-produced by Jörgen Elofsson, but the revelation of that was simply another disappointment…

And that video… let’s create a fantasy image of Agnetha that is very loosely based on the reality of 45+ years ago, but doesn’t really look much like her at all.

* He wrote or co-wrote every song on “A”, including this new song. This contrasts with Mike Chapman, who co-wrote just one song of 12 on the album he produced. Eric Stewart wrote four of 13, including two co-written with Agnetha (and one of those was only a b-side). Like Mike Chapman, Peter Cetera co-wrote just one track of 10. Therefore no one has the dominance on an English-language Agnetha album that Elofsson has. Of her Swedish albums, Bosse Carlgren may have co-written 10 of 11 tracks, but at least all of those were in tandem with Agnetha herself.

gazman, I think he’s referring to an El Salvador pressing on RCA (which has the two Spanish versions). It’s on Discogs.

evilincarnate, feel free to correct me if it wasn’t that one you were referring to!

And me too for Mrs Slocombe, juvenile humour or not.

I’ve just been reading up on Love Thy Neighbour. As even Rudolph Walker defends it (he’s been in EastEnders for over 20 years) I have to wonder if it’s been a case of others being offended on his behalf. He regrets the programme's reputation in a "very politically correct climate" and asked in 2003 why "We can't take the piss out of each other and laugh". He also said, “In nearly every show, the white neighbour was shown to be wrong".

The Black and White Minstrel Show is pretty much impossible to defend. Not sure how that was ever considered entertainment.

It’s just been announced that Mike Yarwood, famous impressionist in the 1970s, has died aged 82.

The ABBA connection is, of course, his Christmas Day show in 1978 that saw the UK premiere of If It Wasn’t For The Nights, as well as a performance of Thank You For The Music (both mimed of course).

There was also this take-off of Larry Grayson’s Generation Game featuring ABBA. Janet Brown, who played Isla St Clair, died in 2011. Amusing also for ABBA’s (scripted) impressions of Larry.



I remember when it was shown. We went to my grandparents’ house that day. We saw If It Wasn’t For The Nights there but got home in time for the rest of it. My brother recorded Thank You For The Music on his cassette recorder, but that was a complete let-down as it wasn’t a new song anyway, and I think we were hoping it would be. For some reason he didn’t record the Generation Game sketch, even though just the audio of that would have been worth hearing again. I had no recollection of how IIWFTN went (even when I heard it again many months later, it didn’t seem familar). I was a bit annoyed at the time that we weren’t home for that, so that he could have recorded that too.

Little did anyone know that on the day it was shown, Björn and Agnetha separated (so the story goes? They spent Christmas Day together for the sake of their children, and then one of them left that night). The Mike Yarwood show was filmed around two weeks before. Björn and Agnetha come onto the Generation Game spoof set holding hands, even though, in all likelihood, the decision to separate had already been made.

Er… well maybe yourself, Colin and perhaps johnny care about chart positions but not many others do these days. With albums, it was always about overall sales rather than highest chart positions. johnny has pointed out in another topic that Claire from Steps album has dropped from 2 to 102 in just a week, so her number 2 placing last week is pretty much irrelevant.

I think you still miss the point… the money is to be made from live performance these days. Whereas in the 70s and 80s, tours broke even (or even made losses) but the increase in album sales more than made up for it, these days it’s exactly the opposite. There’s no living to be made from recorded music these days, only from playing live. However, ABBA would have been offered (and accepted) a very large carrot to make Voyage.

It was the same with the first two Voyage singles. I wonder what the reasoning was to release them on a Thursday? Was it so that there was a convenient excuse if they didn’t do as well as expected? I suppose with Voyage, it was the live broadcast. They perhaps thought more people would watch it (and the resulting news stories) on a Thursday rather than a Friday. It must have affected chart positions for those Voyage singles though.

It would be interesting to know what the download sales were for the Thursday (for both the Voyage singles and this). Perhaps quite low if hardly anyone downloads anymore.

I do wonder why anyone downloads. What are you getting for your money? A digital file. Why not just stream from YouTube for free?

My “bold statement” line wasn’t meant to be too serious either, but I think it was more jj’s defence of your comment (which reads as being serious?) that I did find quite bizarre. If it wasn’t serious then that’s fine, but I read it and thought “is this for real??!”

No one? That’s a bold statement!

Not sure it’s fair for this be compared with Voyage, is it? The only thing the two have in common is that Agnetha sings on both.

In fact, it can’t really be compared with the bulk of Agnetha’s solo work. Different times, different writers and different producers. The only songs it can be compared with are the other ten tracks on “A”, being as they have Jörgen Elofsson in common as co-writer and producer. It may as well be credited to “Jörgen Elofsson feat. Agnetha Fältskog”.

That in mind, I’m not sure this song is better than any of the other ten (even the Gary Barlow one). Difficult to say, when I’ve only known it a week, and the others for ten years.

One minor similarity is that a few lines (the reprise of part of the first verse) are made to sound like she’s singing down a telephone, like the first part of I Keep Them On The Floor Beside My Bed.

I’ve just had a look at Jörgen Elofsson’s credits on Wikipedia, and I have to say that, aside from Agnetha, there isn’t a single song of his (that I’m familiar with) that I like! In that respect, it makes it easier to distance Agnetha from it. If you don’t like or are indifferent to this song or the original “A”, it might simply be that you’re not into Jörgen Elofsson’s work.

It’s terrible for anyone to have an opinion different to your own? We’re all supposed to be gushing with praise are we?

I know someone that doesn’t think much of the song, particularly the vocal manipulation (they describe it as “Agnetha-bot”). They are on a well-known ABBA Facebook group but haven’t posted on there about it for fear of being attacked. And perhaps the group itself is suppressing any negative sentiment, I don’t know. But I am fed-up of guests posting on here and trying to shame the members and the forum. We’re having a discussion and people are giving reasons for their dislike or indifference towards the song.

It has grown on me slightly. The vocal effects don’t bother me as much now. It’s only when she sings the title in the chorus that it doesn’t sound very much like her but I can live with that.

I remember being quick to proclaim “A” as her best English album when it came out. But after a few months I didn’t play it for years and it fell out of favour, though I became re-acquainted with it earlier in the year and played it quite a few times. I suppose what I’d like is more of Agnetha in it. She co-wrote one song which has a bit of depth, but like joseph I’m more of a fan of My Colouring Book. That’s how to do a covers album.