ABBA: Classic Or Dud?

(which just makes it even more dud)

2 of their best deep cuts and shoulda-been-singles are on Voulez Vous though; If It Wasn't For The Nights (a Top 20 ILX ABBA songs poll smash!) and As Good as New.

I've explained why I loathe Three Billboards yet blocked that "Chiquitita" scene.

I've no idea what they're getting at with it either; he's not a bad racist really because he likes Abba? I wonder if it's meant to be funny.

hot take: "Chiquitita" and "Fernando" are both among their worst singles

I never got the hate for "Fernando."

(I also never knew "Chiquitita" was particularly hated until now.)

"Fernando" is top 10 ABBA for me (it was actually @ 7, "Chiquitita" was 15)

I have a suspicion that "Fernando" and "Chiquitita" are harder to love if you grew up in a schlager tradition.

And didn't like schlager, I assume.

I didn't but I did grow up with ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold on near-constant repeat and they were clearly the lowlights of the compilation

(More ABBA Gold is the better compilation, anyway)

I'm kinda fine with schlager at this point but I'm also fine with Chas & Dave and I bring this up because the journey to be able to enjoy that stuff if you're from the continent* is what I imagine the journey to being able to enjoy Chas & Dave would be like for Brits.

* don't want to lump all of Europe together but in my experience every nation I've been to has an equivalent

song is mitigated by the fact everyone and EVERYONE sings 'chicken tikka you and I know' when it comes on

is this worse i dunno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGoWbJbgjbY

I'm kinda fine with schlager at this point but I'm also fine with Chas & Dave and I bring this up because the journey to be able to enjoy that stuff if you're from the continent* is what I imagine the journey to being able to enjoy Chas & Dave would be like for Brits.

* don't want to lump all of Europe together but in my experience every nation I've been to has an equivalent

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, March 13, 2018 3:20 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Had some very similar thoughts a while ago when I realised that the UK west country still celebrates The Wurzels as part of their regional identity, getting played at weddings and birthday parties. More than just 'Combine Harvester' too. Wouldn't mind a thread about regional novelty acts - the Proclaimers, Chas'n'Dave, the Wurzels, maybe even someone like Sleaford Mods could even count..

(xp) Of course, that is garbage. Anyway, if an ABBA album has "I Have a Dream" on it then it's simply not possible for any other track to be any dudder, duddlier.

(xp) Uh, I'm no fan of theirs but do you really want to label the Proclaimers as a regional novelty act to sit alongside the Wurzels?

*holds hand up slightly and murmurs* 'I Have A Dream' makes me a bit weepy when I hear it. I know it's sentimental dreck but it's a killer 'ambushed by unexpected emotion' song for me.

xp - maybe? is there that much in it?

If the Proclaimers are regional novelty act then I'd nominate the Pogues as the same, London Irish.

i guess The Wurzels are seen much more as a comedy act than the Proclaimers so maybe they're not part of it but 500 Miles is like a standard now and synonymous with Leith/Edinburgh to the rest of the country.

They're not from Edinburgh or Leith though.

But, no-one south of the Tweed can pronounce Auchtermuchty tbf.

it's synonymous with rugby lads on the piss to the rest of the country

well sure.

maybe "Thank You For the Music" is worse than "Chiquitita" but I ain't gonna find out.

Have you not heard "I Have A Dream"?

The 'Doris Day' version of Thank You For The Music is quite a fun little genre exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7pb1R1mXFw

Combine Harvester was massive compared to Brand New Key, i think many people back then (maybe even now?) were unaware it was a parody.

Exactly like Angelo and Fernando then.

hot take: "Chiquitita" and "Fernando" are both among their worst singles

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Tuesday, March 13, 2018 2:12 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

Fwiw, I don't think ABBA ever made a studio album that doesn't have at least one track that's far too corny for me. Even the last two LP's. Take the 1975 self-titled record, for instance: 'Mamma Mia', 'Hey Hey Helen', 'S.O.S.', even 'Tropical Loveland' and 'Intermezzo No. 1' are all superb, but then you've got unbearable crap like 'Bang a Boomerang' ...

Arrival has 'When I Kissed the Teacher' and 'Dum Dum Diddle' on it, both cringeworthy as fuck.

'When I Kissed the Teacher' cringeworthy? I think you'd best pack up your things and ride on out of town, stranger.

Yes, cringeworthy.

I think you spend too much time listening to lyrics.

On that song, they're fucking unavoidable!

Sometimes when I listen to 'Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimme!', I just wish that middle section would go on for a little bit longer. I love that groove.

I’ve always liked “I Have a Dream.” I think it’s a much darker song than the critical consensus suggests. Also, electric sitar (?) on ABBA’s attempt at a country song (??)? Fuckin sign me up.

I don't think it's supposed to be a country song, more like a Hitler Youth anthem.

Also electric sitar? Where? You mean the mandolins? (I think there are mandolins on it anyway).

I don't think it's supposed to be a country song, more like a Hitler Youth anthem.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, March 13, 2018 3:42 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uh citation very fucking much needed (are you thinking of ace of base or something)

I don't mean they literally wrote it as a Hitler Youth anthem, it just sounds like they did.

Always gave off a "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" vibe to me.

Originally they had a crack at writing a national anthem type thing, which ultimately ended up in Chess. It was called Nationalsang at one point, then Anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEUi1Pptb5c

Does "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" come from schlager stylistically?

I'd put it in with their rock'n'roll pastiches.

I was wondering if that was it, too, with the swing rhythm. It's always sounded European and old fashioned to me, though! Like, really old fashioned.

Why Did It Have To Be Me is pretty similar but maybe more schlager because of the male-female back and forth.

It's hard to say exactly what is and isn't schlager. One level is that it's just pop music and if it works it's broadly popular and that kinda makes it schlager.

The big Abba-as-schlager record is the original Greatest Hits, with He Is Your Brother, Hasta Manyana, Another Town Another Train, Fernando, Dance While the Music Still Goes On...

oh look it's a list of all the ABBA songs I can't stand

(the fact that the same band is responsible for "The Visitors" and "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" astounds me)

There's a good Chuck Eddy quote in Accidental Evolution about ABBA's stylistically underpinnings. I'll try to find it.

this song is fucking incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhr6tUE32YA