|
Post by hejiranyc on Apr 8, 2019 17:57:08 GMT
In an age when most legacy artists have stopped releasing new music and are only concentrating on touring endlessly on the back of their old catalogs, it is so refreshing to hear about a group of septuagenarians feeling inspired to be creative. Surely, the Abbatar project was the catalyst, but, still, there must have been a pent up desire over these past 35 years to finally bring the ABBA story to closure. I just hope they filmed the recording of the new album and are willing to release a documentary on Netflix.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Jan 22, 2019 23:43:53 GMT
Well, looking on the bright side of things, it seems like the longer this gets drawn out, the more *potential* songs they seem to be suggesting. Who knows? By 2020, we may actually be looking at an album's worth.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Oct 21, 2018 19:02:14 GMT
Cher has landed a number 3 chart position in the USA with her album 'Dancing Queen'. That is a stunning result, and matches her best solo album performance in that chart (I understand she had a number 2 US album jointly with Sonny many years prior). Apparently the album sold c. 153,000 copies to do this..... Well, she pretty much put her thumb on the scale to pull this off. The purchase of a pair of tickets to Cher's upcoming "Here We Go Again" tour in the U.S. automatically gets a free download/copy of her new album; this still counts towards her total sales. This is an impressive number no matter what, but one wonders how many copies she would have sold if she wasn't giving it away with the purchase of concert tickets (an arena tour, no less).
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Oct 1, 2018 15:23:32 GMT
Her only challenger, for the No.1 Album, is Rod Stewart's New Album, which will be his 8th UK No.1 Album - if he beats Cher.... Good grief... is it 2018 or 1978? The more things change, the more they stay the same? Hey, I hear Barbra Streisand's new album is dropping soon...
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Aug 16, 2018 15:40:53 GMT
Stockholm is a gorgeous city, even without the ABBA connection! And yes, Oslo is not so great. Bergen is the city to go to in Norway! Totally agree! Bergen is so beautiful and historic. One of these days when I actually have time to wander, I want to explore the entirety of Norway; it is simply the most beautiful place in the world.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Aug 13, 2018 20:55:47 GMT
You should get a copy of "The ABBA Guide To Stockholm", it's on sale at the museum! I know! The problem is that I am only in Stockholm for a few days, so I would have liked to do some advance planning. Still, I will probably peek through it once I am at the museum. In fact, the museum is pretty much my main purpose to visit Stockholm; I actually need to transit through Oslo to reach the high Arctic, but I've been to Oslo before and it's... kind of a snooze, if I'm being honest. So I'm going a little bit out of the way to get my ABBA fix in before Oslo. Of course, I would have visited Stockholm eventually regardless of the museum... but the timing just kinda worked out to squeeze it in this time.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Aug 7, 2018 19:23:56 GMT
My upcoming vacation starts off with a few days in Stockholm, so I am wondering if anyone can help me with some must-see ABBA-related sites to visit. The museum and the old Polar Studios site are a given. What else should I check out? I'm really interested in seeing the room where the cover of "The Visitors" was photographed, but all I know is that it is in a building somewhere in Skansen Park.
So excited!
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Aug 7, 2018 19:04:52 GMT
So we got a movie centered Donna, then her daughter, so why not grandma Cher for MM3? She has basically already recorded the soundtrack. Doesn't have to be a terribly original plot - story of teenage lovers who got torn apart in the war; Fernando struggled in life and Cher went on to much fame and fortune, but her life was never complete without Fernando. Then they reunite passionately... but there is a secret twist that is unveiled at the end. I'm sure they could even get Andy Garcia to come back and do it; it isn't like his dance card is terribly full these days. I think an entire musical film built around Cher playing a character who is basically a drag version of Cher amidst a background of ABBA songs would be perhaps the greatest feat of modern cinema.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Jul 30, 2018 20:16:18 GMT
I suspect that Track No. 10 is "Fernando." She probably couldn't announce it because it would have sabotaged sales of the MM2 soundtrack. I seriously doubt that it's a new song because, unless it was originally recorded under the ABBA banner or features all four members, it's not an ABBA cover. And if it was as historic and grandiose as a full-fledged ABBA (feat. Cher) reunion, you know it would have been front page news for months. As it is now, this is being treated as an "oh, by the way, I recorded an album of ABBA covers" afterthought.
I think the tracklist is disappointing. The best covers are obscure songs that were originally flawed or forgotten, but then polished up and given a new lease on life. These are all popular, iconic songs that are perfect as-is and can only be sabotaged. I would have loved to have heard her take on "I Let the Music Speak" or "Lovelight," which are already great, but a Cher treatment would have been really interesting. All this being said, I wonder how Cher tackled Agnetha songs like "Winner Takes it All," which is way beyond her natural range. I'm assuming she either dropped the key by a number of steps or she re-worked the chorus melody.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on May 4, 2018 0:37:58 GMT
To be honest, I would be very surprised if ABBA has invested much into this scheme. If it's like any other live touring act, they probably have major promoters lined up in each market who have probably offered them some upfront money as well as a nightly guarantee and/or a percentage of the gross. And since this will be playing on six continents simultaneously, they probably have plenty of funding for this scheme. We already know they are doing this with a live band, which seems kind of pointless to me. But I could also see it becoming something like a variety show with dancers, aerialists, actors, etc. For example, they could recreate the "Super Trouper" album cover onstage with actual performers surrounding the holograms. I can't imagine that they could sustain the attention of even the most ardent ABBA fan for 90 minutes with just a hologram.
And, by the way, that hologram performance by Michael Jackson is creepy af.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on May 3, 2018 18:32:22 GMT
I have tried to have an open mind for the ABBA-tar concept, but I'm just not feeling this. At all. I can imagine maybe paying $15 to see something like this in a movie theater. But given the live band setting, they are clearly targeting theaters or arenas with this tour, which completely disinterests me. I actually find it rather sad that "live" performance has come to this - that it is all pre-programmed with no potential for mistakes or spontaneity. Perhaps I would be a smidge more interested if, say, one or two members of ABBA were actually on stage *live* at some point to give a speech or an introduction - at least then there is some potential for a special, spontaneous moment. But the way it is described thus far seems tantamount to watching a movie. A cynical cash grab that really does nothing to further their musical legacy.
In some ways this reminds me of the Coldplay concert I attended last summer. I tried to enjoy it for what it was. But the entire show (with the exception of a few "unplugged" songs) was built around an orchestra of pre-recorded keyboards and backing vocals. I just could not get past that. I felt like the biggest tool paying all this money to listen to some AV tech playing files from a Mac Airbook.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on May 2, 2018 17:02:39 GMT
They recorded last June and they are still not finished? Yikes. I dunno... to me, that is not a good omen of things to come. I mean, if they were unqualified stupendous pieces of work, they would have probably finished these songs and announced them a long time ago. Could it be that they listened back to the raw tracking footage and felt that they needed a lot of work? Or were they struggling to get the right sound, e.g., "Summer Night City," and they handed the tracks over to other producers to see if they could be salvaged? Were there multiple trial-and-error iterations of these tracks? Or even worse yet, did the vocals require a lot of digital post-production? A more tangible reference point for these new songs may be the sound of Agnetha's voice on her 2013 solo album, which sounds heavily, heavily autotuned and manipulated to sound, dare I say, "younger." What I dread is the idea that A&A's vocals would be digitally altered to sound like their younger selves. I want these new songs to capture everyone as they are today, even if there is a bum note or a raspy syllable here and there. Yes, the vintage ABBA sound was very polished and highly produced, but they were also very organic sounding.
Anyway, considering what is perhaps the longest dry spell in recorded music history, I look forward to anything from these people.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Oct 1, 2016 20:06:18 GMT
Rock bands in the 70s did not release a live album after every tour. Some bands like the Rolling Stones, have multiple live albums, but most only have one. Maybe Abba decided the concert footage from The Movie was more than enough of a live album. Maybe they didn't release one after EVERY tour, but live albums back in the 70s were definitely more important to an artist's career than they are today. In the case of Peter Frampton and Cheap Trick, their live albums propelled them from relative obscurity to superstardom. However, in the case of ABBA, I'm not sure if a live album would have really helped them in the States. I know I am in the extreme minority on this, but I think it all boils down to quality, and I just don't enjoy live ABBA recordings like I enjoy their studio albums. As a (mostly) studio band, the breadth of their sonic landscape was unmitigated by the limitations of the live sound or the use of many musicians to achieve the perfect sound. Unfortunately, those elaborate arrangements and vocal parts didn't translate to the stage very well. The beauty of the ABBA studio recordings was the ability to hear each vocal and instrumental part distinctly and to appreciate the intricate studio craft. It wasn't meant to be played in cavernous hockey arenas with all of the sound coalescing into a big pile of mush. They certainly tried hard to recreate the large sound field of the recordings, but it just ended up sounding flat and sloppy to my ears. Another thing to keep in mind is that live albums are mostly about capturing the spontaneity of live performances, so it really benefits bands who improvise or do extended free-form jams. By contrast, ABBA kept to a very tight script and, with the exception of Benny, none of them were exactly virtuoso instrumentalists.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 29, 2016 5:39:05 GMT
Yes, I've read about this. And it's causing quite a stir in the Fleetwood Mac world, especially all of the antipathy towards Stevie Nicks, who continues to refuse to participate in these Fleetwood Mac recording sessions because she can't stand the thought of being stuck with Lindsey Buckingham in the studio. Of course, she didn't say it in so many words, but she has certainly made veiled digs (thrown shade) at Lindsey while doing print media promotion for her upcoming solo tour. But what I love most about this article is Christine's continued love for her craft and her band, and the fact that, at the age of 73, she wants to keep going and going. ABBA should take after her example! That being said, perhaps it was a good thing for ABBA to split up when they did. Even though they all seemed amicable all the way to the end, who knows what raging storms they kept under tight wraps? Having to continue working with your ex(es) has to take a psychological toll after a while, especially when they re-marry, have more kids, etc. That being said, I can totally understand A and A wanting to take a break from working with B and B (and vice versa). But why didn't A and A ever work together on their own projects (like B and B)? Just based on their onstage chemistry, I got the vibe that they were super-close, like, practically sisters. Even during their final full(ish) live performance on the Dick Cavett Show in 1981, they were linked arm-in-arm, hip-to-hip for most of the show... like best buddies. Even without B&B's songs, I could imagine that they would have been quite a successful act. Even at their reunion in June, even though they sounded shaky at times, that unmistakable harmony/blend was still there.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 29, 2016 5:00:16 GMT
Here's another perspective on the statement that white boys shouldnt be allowed to play blues, or whatever. I've lived in the USA all my life, and I've played in several working blues bands, in the southern usa, where blues are still somewhat popular. Every single one of these blues bands, was racially mixed... black guys and girls and white guys and girls, working together, to make music. There was no discrimination whatsoever, just people digging the music, and, every other blues band on the circuit, was the same way. One of my closest friends was a bass player who is black. This is what he told me about all this, I'm paraphrasing, but this is the gist of it - "White boys didnt steal the blues. They saved the blues from going extinct. If it wasnt for people like Elvis and the Rolling Stones, blues would have been forgotten. White musicians saved it from obscurity. And Chess Records would have gone out of business if it wasnt for all those American white boys buying up all those Muddy Waters records." Another black guy once told me, "Black people dont listen to blues anymore. My young nephew is into rap and he says blues are "Sharecroppers music". You dont see young black musicians playing blues, not usually. They like rap and hip hop and r&b. Only the older black generation still likes blues. The only young musicians playing blues, carrying it forward, are white." None of these are absolute truths, there will always be exceptions. And there were some white rock artists that were notorious for ripping off the old blues masters. Even so, there was already precedent for that... the blues tradition was built on openly borrowing from others and no credit given. Sure, this all changed when money came into it, and I'm not excusing these bands that made a mint off old blues tunes and didnt properly credit the authors... if you could even figure out who the author was. In my opinion, the reality is completely the opposite of all that. The guys that stole that music are the exception. The fact that you ever heard blues at all, is probably because white musicians found musical solace and inspiration in the blues. Its curious to read someone saying "so and so shouldnt be allowed to play certain music" on an Abba forum. That's like saying gay men shouldnt be allowed to play Abba songs because nobody in Abba was gay. That's silly too. OMG, it's like a game of telephone around here. I never said anyone wasn't "allowed" to make any music. People can do whatever they want. But I am still entitled to my opinions (along with everyone else... everyone else is entitled to MY opinions. LOL). I just choose to feel that, unless music comes from an honest, genuine place, it's not worth my time and attention. Indeed, you may have a point about white people carrying the torch for blues music. But I don't know whether it is better to leave it as a pure, unspoiled relic from history, or whether it's worth having to deal with all the crap contemporary blues music. It is so simple in structure and is so repetitive; blues sets the bar pretty low for mediocre musicians.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 29, 2016 4:47:59 GMT
Sept 20, 2016 23:23:13 GMT 1 hejiranyc said "I did specify that Fleetwood Mac (Rumours lineup) and ABBA both split up in the 1980s... but, yes, ABBA preceded FM; however, as I understand it, they never really officially broke up, so the real "end of ABBA" is really up for debate. One could make the case that "ABBA Live" was the final ABBA album, which was released only one year before the last Rumours-era album "Tango in the Night." " Actually FM did not "split" in the early 1980s, well, not permanently, just took a long time to come up with another studio album. ABBA's last studio album was in 1981, last recordings in 1982 - that's when they split. "ABBA Live" is not a studio album - but a live compilation. "Tango in the Night" was FM's last studio album with the Rumours line-up. You simply can't make the case to ABBA Live being the last ABBA album... On other issues you raise, regarding race and music, I pretty much agree with Wombat. Why shouldn't White people play blues or disco - or indeeed Black people do say Heavy Metal or Classical? Black is a colour not a culture. Let's not either have self-imposed musical apartheid. As for disco, ABBA's attempts were not that great - compared to other artists doing that genre, or indeed ABBA's other material. The best disco acts in the late 70s, were mainly Black - Chic, Sister Sledge, Earth, Wind + Fire, Gloria Gaynor etc...However, arguably the biggest disco act of that era was the Bee Gees - white as far as I could see. Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was apretty big 'disco' hit though... My understanding is that ABBA made a conscious decision to take a hiatus at the end of 1982 and they just ended up never feeling the need to come back from hiatus (and it didn't help that members were selling off their shares of Polar Music). There was never a defining catastrophic event that drove them to issue a press release announcing their dissolution. If anything, they made pointed efforts to dispel any rumors of a pending break-up all the way to the (fuzzy) end. In fact, I recall seeing an Agnetha interview from 1983 in which she stated that they were just taking a break and doing side projects for a while. The 1986 live album seemed to be a half-hearted effort to help keep ABBA relevant after so many years of inactivity, as if they were buying time while they were recalibrating and trying to figure out how to make a comeback. By contrast, Fleetwood Mac (Rumours line-up) ended when Lindsey Buckingham *officially* announced his departure in 1987. One day they were together. The next day, they were no more. I never said that X people are not allowed to play the music of Y people. It's just my personal OPINION that white guys singing the blues generally sound phony and affected. And there is a difference between "borrowing" or being "influenced by" vs. wholesale appropriation. I won't go into all that again...
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 29, 2016 4:30:19 GMT
" But I do have an implicit bias when it comes to white people, especially English musicians, playing music that directly borrows/appropriates the music borne of the oppression of black people in the American South (Blues)" then you must hate most of rock music in the 70s, and, all the riffs Abba AND Fleetwood Mac lifted over the course of their successful careers. Listen to Ring Ring or the end of Waterloo. Actually its everywhere. The end riff of The Chain. Half of all rock and roll can be traced back to Chuck Berry, who took most of his from 12 bar blues. And what about Abba doing disco, which wasnt exactly about oppression, but still borne of a primarily black form of music, funk? "As white, heterosexual men in a white, heteronormative society, what gives them the right to be singing the blues? " oh boy. You got to be kidding. Because only black people can feel true sorrow, right? Good lawd, just a wee bit dramatic? LOL I did state "I mean, I like "bluesy" musical riffs incorporated into the structure of a song (like much of Led Zeppelin's catalog), but I think Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac took that all the way to wholesale appropriation ." To put it another way, it's one thing to wear a kimono-style top (like all of ABBA did at one point), but it's another thing to tape up the corners of your eyes, stick chopsticks in your hair and run around bowing to people whilst speaking "Engrish." There is "borrowing" and being influenced by a different "ethnicity" and then there is wholesale theft/mockery/exploitation of an ethnic group's culture. It is a fine line between tasteful/respectful and being offensive. It is one thing to wear a hip hop T-shirt, but it's another thing to do blackface. It's the difference between Eminem, who really pretty much paved his own separate lane adjacent to black hip hop music, versus Vanilla Ice, who tried (and failed epically) to appropriate black hip hop culture, complete with speech affectations. All that being said, I am not completely discounting Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac from a musical standpoint. My criticism is mainly that they came across as inauthentic to me; the music just didn't seem to come from a genuine place. In a nutshell, black people in America were/are systemically oppressed; white men, especially heterosexual white men are not. Every white, heterosexual male in America (and the UK) should be thanking their lucky stars that they don't have to deal with the daily impediments of being female, GLBT or a minority in white male-dominated society. Just telling like it is. Disco, unlike blues, was not borne of the pain and hopelessness of black people. If anything, it was borne of celebration... like a decadent, hedonistic outgrowth of Philly soul. It was more about having a good time than trying to convey a message. Yes, it is sometimes goofy to hear some white people do disco (ever heard the Ethel Merman disco album??), but it's all good fun.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 21, 2016 3:42:26 GMT
Another shared trait: both band names are derived from combining elements of band members' names! Not easy to compare and contrast the two bands, though, when one had a fixed line-up throughout its history, and the other went through several distinct incarnations and shed line-ups like skins. I'm going to take issue with the statement that FM released their most seminal works in the mid to late seventies; a number of tracks by Peter Green's FM are stone classics that will be played and revered as long as popular music is (Albatross, Oh Well, Black Magic Woman, Man Of The World, Green Manalishi). I love the Buckingham/Nicks era, but the 'classic' band for me will always be: Green, Spencer, Kirwan, McVie and Fleetwood. Green had one of the most soulful blues voices ever, and he and Danny Kirwan were a couple of guitar mavens. Unlike Johnny I also think that FM had plenty of musical range, and across line-ups: sweetly wistful instrumentals like Albatross, World In Harmony, Earl Grey and Sunny Side Of Heaven look forward to ambient easy-listening soundtrack fills; Underway (especially the long version) is a gorgeously dreamy long-form instrumental jam that predates the more beatific, drony strains of prog by two or three years at least; Dragonfly is a lovely bit of hippie-era pastoral balminess, and the Tusk title track, with its blend of martial rhythms, shout-out chorus and snatches of barely coherent spoken muttering is still one of the oddest tracks to become a hit in the singles chart. Good point about the name! I hadn't considered that. I also like/love the various incarnations of FM to varying degrees, but for me, all of the planets were in alignment for the Rumours lineup. Indeed, Peter Green was an extraordinary talent, and "Then Play On" is pretty decent album. But I do have an implicit bias when it comes to white people, especially English musicians, playing music that directly borrows/appropriates the music borne of the oppression of black people in the American South (Blues). It just doesn't ring true to me, as if they are merely imitating Robert Johnson. As white, heterosexual men in a white, heteronormative society, what gives them the right to be singing the blues? I mean, I like "bluesy" musical riffs incorporated into the structure of a song (like much of Led Zeppelin's catalog), but I think Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac took that all the way to wholesale appropriation; it just sounds phony-baloney to me. Sorry! Much better were the underrated, overlooked string of "middle" period albums featuring Bob Welch (and Danny Kirwan, at times).
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 21, 2016 3:23:13 GMT
No. Only superficial differences eg two couples that split up. The "Classic" Fleetwood Mac lining of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lyndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks lasted beyond the early 1980s to Tango in the Night in 1987, well after ABBA split... However, ABBA could have re-invented themselves as a Fleetwood Mac type group after the release of Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name of the Game and The Album. This short period, was perhaps closer to Fleetwood Mac than the bubblegum pop they practiced before. If you compare Arrival and Rumours - the former is stuffed with childish, throwaway pop songs, the latter a collection of timeless collections. Arrival was bought by kids and had a limited shelf-life, Rumours bought by adults and sells to this day. Knowing Me, Knowing You is a song that Fleetwood Mac could have sung. (Dancing Queen is a pop classic of course, I'm thinking more When I Kissed the Teacher, Dum Dum Diddle, Why Did it Have to Be Me, Tiger, That's Me - when I say "childish, throw-away pop) ABBA had a more of a musical range than Fleetwood Mac. On The Album, Eagle, One, Man, One Woman, The Name of the Game, Move On, could have been Fleetwood Mac songs. Fleetwood Mac never tried to embark upon disco, pure pop, or musical genres - which ABBA did I did specify that Fleetwood Mac (Rumours lineup) and ABBA both split up in the 1980s... but, yes, ABBA preceded FM; however, as I understand it, they never really officially broke up, so the real "end of ABBA" is really up for debate. One could make the case that "ABBA Live" was the final ABBA album, which was released only one year before the last Rumours-era album "Tango in the Night." You raise an interesting point about ABBA's musical development vs. FM. I never saw it as "ABBA is for kids and FM is for adults," but in hindsight, the contrast in subject matter on their seminal breakthrough albums is striking, despite their similarity in age. While FM was writing about sex, love, breakups, and drugs, ABBA was writing about dancing, dating and going to school. However, I do think "The Name of the Game" as an FM song is a bit of a stretch; it was a bit musically/vocally rangy for FM, which, by comparison had much simpler compositions. But, yes, "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is definitely in the FM lane, even featuring a somewhat Christine McVie-ish vocal from Frida. You also raise a valid point about musical range. FM pretty much stayed strictly in the pop/rock genre with not a single jazz chord in their entire catalog. I think it's either a symptom of extreme musical discipline or a symptom of extreme musical myopia. But, yes, ABBA fearlessly mined the depths of every musical genre from country rock ("Santa Rosa") to soul ("My Mama Said") to glam rock ("Hey, Hey Helen") to torch song ("I Let the Music Speak") to disco (pretty much all of "Voulez Vous") to a blatant Beach Boys rip-off ("Blue Hawaii") and every possible variation of 70s/80s pop, including shameless schmaltz. ABBA's output and evolution within a short 8-year period is quite stunning; it is only comparable to the Beatles in my opinion. Meanwhile, after being together (on and off) for over 40 years, the Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" lineup has only released five albums.
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 20, 2016 23:57:41 GMT
I too have wondered this. On the contrary, for me ABBA was my first love and Fleetwood Mac came in later. There are many parallels, but the writing, recording and toring process is a bit different. Writing: On the rumours line-up there are 3 main writers with a different style of writing: Stevie wrote poems, that later became songs, Christine wrote only when shee needed the come up with some songs for an album and Lindsey, well, I don't know so much about his style. Also, both ABBA and FM all got a bit of a writers block in some point in the game, but unlike FM who put their "songs from the block" on albums, ABBA scrapped most of them. Christine wasn't too strong on Tusk, Lindsey on Mirage and Stevie on Tango. Recording: ABBA worked on a song without any breaks for other songs. Meaning, if they started to work on, say, The Day Before You Came, they would record everything and work on it until it was finished. Fleetwood Mac on the other hand worked a bit on one song, a bit on the other and so on. Like The Chain was at first recorded as Keep Me There at the start of the Rumours sessions and was finished at the very end of these sessions. Sure, there were exceptions here. Touring: ABBA certanly weren't too keen on the strain of touring, because all members except for Bjorn had little children waiting at home. On the Fleetwood Mac side only Mick had children in the touring days, John's daughter was born later in 1989 and Lindsey's kids in the early 2000s. Also, FM had a tour after each album, but ABBA had a few tours in the Nordic countries between 1972 and 1975, a big tour in 1977 and one in 1979+1980, if you count the Japan tour alonside the 1979 tour. Also, there is the thing that Fleetwood Mac is still an musically active band, unlike ABBA. To sum it up, I agree with your points. Indeed, the songwriting approaches taken by B&B vs. FM is quite dramatic. I can appreciate B&B's meticulous approach, but somehow I think the world has been robbed of tons of "vault material" due to their tendency to abort songs in mid-gestation if they were not working out for some reason. By contrast, Stevie Nicks is notorious for her vault of demos, unreleased studio takes and completed tracks that never got released for various reasons (and honestly, they remained unreleased for good reason!). I was surprised to see how little ABBA toured, even during their peak stardom. By contrast, FM embarked on multi-year tours after each album release. And when they released solo albums, they embarked on solo tours. And when there were no new albums, they still toured just for the heck of it... even today. The mind boggles at all of the decades of live music we could have enjoyed if ABBA shared FM's love of touring. But then again, much of the allure of touring for FM involved the ingestion of copious amounts of various substances and "marching powders" while ABBA went through the touring grind sober as a judge. I really could not imagine the thought of "meeting 20,000 of your friends" every night without at least getting a good buzz on!
|
|
|
Post by hejiranyc on Sept 20, 2016 5:07:14 GMT
Hi, y'all. I'm late to the party. Twenty years after buying "ABBA Gold," I have just gotten around to exploring ABBA's albums. Honestly, I think I was spooked away after hearing the cheesy bubblegum of "Honey Honey" and "Bang a Boomerang," but after randomly finding "The Day Before You Became" on YouTube, I was intrigued anew. Needless to say, I have been in serious ABBA mode for the past month or so, listening to all of their albums back-to-back, and I really have to kick myself for not exploring ABBA sooner; it's some seriously good stuff!
Anyway, full disclaimer: Fleetwood Mac (Rumours lineup) is my first love, and they will always be. But as I have peeled back the layers on ABBA, I can't help but notice the strong parallels between these two very different bands. A superficial, cursory glance reveals that:
-Both bands came to superstardom around the same time. -Both bands released their most seminal works between 1975 and 1979. -The members of both bands are similar in age. -Both bands are technically bi-national (since Frida is originally from Norway). -Both bands featured two strong female lead vocalists at a time when it was unusual for bands to have a female lead singer. -In both bands, one of the female vocalists had a thin, reedy timbre, while the other had a more dusky, velvety, husky tone. -In both bands, one of the female vocalists was the "sex symbol" while the other had an earthier, idiosyncratic beauty. -Both bands were comprised of two couples who broke up... -...and the lingering tensions made it difficult/miserable to continue working together. -Both bands stopped recording in the 1980s after recording one very 80s-sounding album (although Fleetwood Mac continued onward with different personnel). -Members of both bands went on to enjoy successful solo careers.
But upon closer examination, ABBA and Fleetwood Mac share exceptional musicianship:
-Benny & Bjorn were incredibly gifted songwriters/producers/arrangers, just as Lindsey Buckingham was for Fleetwood Mac. -Benny & Bjorn were studio junkies, just like Lindsey Buckingham. -The vocal harmony arrangements on ABBA and Fleetwood Mac albums were the most extraordinary in pop music, which can be attributed to B&B and Lindsey's love of the Beach Boys. -The singles from each of these bands had the most infectious, catchy pop hooks, yet their albums still included stunningly left-field works, e.g., "I'm a Marionette" vs. "Tusk." -Although both bands embraced commercial success, they were also intensely dedicated to perfecting their craft and striving for greater artistic heights.
This being said, I do find it interesting that the Fleetwood Mac phenomenon has been largely fueled by the dramatic backstory of the splitting couples within the band, yet in the case of ABBA, it's barely a footnote. Perhaps it's because ABBA has pretty much refused to talk about their private drama. By contrast, forty years after the fact, you can't get Stevie Nicks to shut up about it!
|
|