ABBA VIDEO - Jim Colyer

It seems everyone took credit for the first rock video, but it was ABBA who created the form. The Waterloo, Ring Ring and SOS clips are definitely recognizable as rock videos. By 1976, ABBA had fully defined the musical form which would prevail into the 21st century. If this is not understood in America, it is because their videos had no forum. In the 1970s, rock video had not taken over television. This happened after the rise of cable. ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold are commercial releases of their slickest video clips. The early clips display the raw energy that characterized ABBA in the 70s. The later ones are more situational, more a product of the format itself. As with the albums, the clips capture a maturing process. The videos that ABBA did are the only ones that satisfied me until Shania Twain. ABBA dramatized about 30% of their songs. I have arranged them chronologically, breaking down the commercial packages and adding the ones that were omitted. ABBA VIDEOGRAPHY 1 Waterloo - ABBA began their video onslaught right after Eurovision. A bust of Napoleon is flashed. Agnetha wears her blue cap and pantaloons. Frida has on her cowboy shirt. Benny is on the upright piano. Bjorn plays his Star Wars guitar. All are young and eager. Agnetha said there is a museum in Stockholm that houses these costumes. The Swedish Waterloo is performed in a bandshell. 2 Ring Ring - ABBA used the peacock fashion of the disco years to their advantage. The wide lapels and platform shoes did not distract from their music. Agnetha's two-piece showcases her assets very well. 3 SOS - Shots of the group looking up. They are dressed for cold weather. Blurred double images. 4 Mamma Mia - The girls are stunning. Agnetha's white outfit laces up in front. Bjorn stomps his foot as Agnetha and Frida turn back to back. I love the shot of them looking perpendicular to one another, a profile against a full face. They used this technique often. The video enhances the staccato effect of Benny's keyboard. An infectious sound. Benny wears his leopard jacket. 5 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do - Benny and Bjorn play saxophones. The ladies have glossy sex appeal. 6 Bang-A-Boomerang - They go for a comic book effect. The impact of lovers coming together is compared to the wallop packed by super heros. 7 Fernando - Around a campfire. The setting sun reflecting on the water, the stars. Keeping props to a minimum. 8 Dancing Queen - Note Benny's keyboard introduction. The girls wear dark jumpsuits in a disco. They sing "see that girl" and point to the dancers. They swing and sway. Frida bobs, and Agnetha uses her eyes. 9 Knowing Me, Knowing You - Winter scenes. Both couples hugging and kissing. An alternate clips uses boating scenes. Sailing is a favorite sport among Stockholmers and a pasttime enjoyed by the quartet. Stockholm sits on The Baltic Sea. 10 Money Money Money - Frida does the lead in a wide-brimmed hat. Benny drives the car. Swedish crowns, U.S. dollars. 11 When I Kissed The Teacher - Agnetha kisses him twice, once at the skeleton and again over her geometry. The teacher is infatuated. 12 My Love, My Life - Close up of Agnetha's reflections. Where's Frida? 13 Tiger - Agnetha drives. 14 That's Me - In our faces. We get to know them. 7 clips came out of Arrival. 15 Eagle - The girls, wind-blown with scenes of a soaring eagle. Swirling colors and Agnetha's searching eyes! The alternate was part of The Movie. 16 Take A Chance On Me - The girls dance around the guys who sit moping. They roll their eyes and wink at the audience seductively. Agnetha is a knockout. The long curve of her back is incredibly sexy. She wears a red flower in her hair. An alternate aired on The Midnight Special in American. 17 One Man, One Woman - Frida looking great. Overlapping faces. 18 The Name Of The Game - They play Swedish parchesi. The alternate was part of The Movie. That ABBA was able to make two clips of several of their songs during this period is evidence of their strength. 19 Thank You For The Music - Agnetha in her rabbit outfit. Tongue, eye and hand movements. The girl with the golden hair. 20 SummerNight City - Hot number. The girls stroll through images of night. Frida jives, and they sing back to back. Dawn appears, and they crawl home. Af Chapman off Skeppsholmen and The Royal Palace. 21 Voulez-Vous - Discoteque atmosphere with dancers. Benny goes wild. Agnetha shakes it in skin tight pants. She smiles and lights up the world. 22 Chiquitita - In front of a giant snowman. 23 Does Your Mother Know - Bjorn's lead. 24 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! - Agnetha does the lead in the studio. We get our first look at Michael B. Tretow. This was done the day they left for their U.S. tour. The instrumental interlude is absent. 25 Super Trouper - ABBA stands in the midst of a circus troop. The Super Trouper is the big spotlight, and Agnetha points to it during the song. 26 Happy New Year - Agnetha sings after the party. The circus people again. Agnetha is a living doll, the flower of womanhood. She joins a depressed Bjorn at the window. 27 The Winner Takes It All - Agnetha puts on a sad face as Frida gets both guys. Her face is reflected in Benny's piano. Red heels and blue eye shadow. Black and white photos heighten our sense of the past. 28 Lay All Your Love On Me - Terry Byrne did this one for his club promotions in Chicago. He packs action shots into the framework of The Day Before You Came. A condensation of ABBA's career. 29 On And On And On - Stills before a concert audience. The ladies become butterflies. This video is used to introduce the group. An extra verse is tacked on. Humpty Dumpty. 30 Head Over Heels - Frida is Agnetha's good friend. She primps and goes on a shopping spree. Bjorn is a riot as her henpecked husband. 31 When All Is Said And Done - Frida in green. She looks out to sea from a rocky coast. Looking over their shoulders while walking away foreshadows the impending breakup. 32 One Of Us - Agnetha moves into her new flat after leaving Bjorn. She paints and hangs wallpaper. Among her things is a book called The Divine Garbo. When the Swedish press was irritated with Agnetha, it called her the new Garbo. Greta Garbo was Sweden's great movie star during the 1930s who became renown for her reclusiveness. Youth and beauty are temporal. There is this idea of becoming different people at different times. It may derive from the failure of art to capture life. No sooner is the picture taken or the ink dried on the line than we have outgrown it. 33 Hovas Vittne - They put on the Waterloo garb, Jumbo boots and all, for Stig's 50th birthday in 1981. Stig joins in, and there is flag waving. Sweden's flag is a yellow cross on a blue field. Hova is Stig's home town. Hovas Vittne means Hova's witness. 34 The Day Before You Came - Agnetha makes eyes and has an affair with a stud she meets on a train. 35 Under Attack - Flashing red light. Warehouse setting. The four converge and exit through the front door. Droidlike demeanors forecast techno. 36 I Am The City - The moods of this giant creature in fast motion. A fan put this together. Cousin Larry pointed out the siren in the beginning. ABBA left an incredible amount of material on video. ABBA GOLD, MORE ABBA GOLD, THE STORY OF ABBA and ABBA THE MOVIE constitute the core collection. These 4 tapes are indispensable to any collection. It was not easy to get ABBA video in the U.S. The struggle lay in the difference between American and European VHS systems. Europeans use PAL tapes. Transfer is expensive, and copies of copies suffer in quality. I took what I could get. My listing is chronological. ABBA was all over European television after the Eurovision contest. 1 Ring Ring on THE TOMMY COOPER HOUR (1974) - The women are lighthouses, beacons to the musical mariner. Agnetha's hair is nearly waist length. 2 STARPARADE on German TV - During Waterloo, Frida points at the audience in her customary way. The couples pair off for Honey Honey. Plenty of romance! 3 German TV - Bjorn is duck walking for Honey Honey and So Long. Frida in black slacks, Agnetha in a skirt. 4 SWEDISH FOLKPARK (1975) - The Swedish Folkparks are often mentioned in interviews. The Hep Stars and Hootenanny Singers toured them habitually. So did Agnetha and Frida. ABBA does Waterloo in a carnival atmosphere, rides and everything. They look like they stepped out of an Elvis movie. 5 Swedish TV - Wearing the blue panther and yellow cat, Agnetha and Frida spring full-blown from my most redolent fantasies. Two strapping fillies coming through the stretch neck and neck! They do Waterloo, and we learn Sweden hosted the 1975 Eurovision, as it should be. MOMARKEDET originated in Norway. 6 SOS was done for the SEASIDE SPECIAL. MADE IN SWEDEN FOR EXPORT (1975) links ABBA with other Swedish favorites and sends them on their way. It is a short set: Mamma Mia, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and So Long. ABBA emerges from a crate lowered onto a dock. Dock workers labor with Benny's piano while the girls do Mamma Mia. They go on a picnic for I Do, I Do and are serenaded by saxophones. This is from the days when the couples were in love. Agnetha and Frida are gorgeous. Their beauty is awesome! With So Long, it is Amazon time. Their dance is done beneath a strobe light. Frida and those long legs! The enthusiasm is contagious. It comes across the years. ABBA made appearances on the weekly rock shows of the 1970s. AMERICAN BANDSTAND drew SOS and I Do, I Do. Dick Clark relates to them very well. Bjorn speaks the best English. Benny is second, Frida third and Agnetha fourth. Still, Agnetha is the one we want to hear. "8 millions." They wore their cat costumes about a year before retiring them, showing them off in different countries. On Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, they performed Waterloo, SOS, Rock Me, Dancing Queen, Fernando and Mamma Mia in their white jump suits. Both guys play guitar on Fernando. Another time, they did about the same repertoire with different costumes. Agnetha wears the green cape and white flaired pants. Watch her throw her hip to one side. Magnificent! Frida dresses in a white cape and skirt. Agnetha and Frida are Swedish Wonder Women! Waterloo and SOS were part of a comedy sketch on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. They sing for passengers on a sinking ship. It must be The Titanic. DINAH! was offered Fernando. Dinah Shore tried to get Benny and Frida to marry on her show. They politely declined. THE BEST OF ABBA (1976 MUSIKLADEN SPECIAL) set the pattern for later shows. 9 songs are punctuated by short question and answer periods. They wear blue suits and bow ties for Honey Honey and Mamma Mia. Each suit sports a different flower. Agnetha and Frida whisper shyly to one another like school girls in class. Benny and Bjorn talk candidly about their control over every aspect of their music. They are an industry within an industry. It shows to what extent they wanted to be involved in this. I long to take it beyond the vicarious. I want to step into the television and be a part of it. I had no idea they were doing these kinds of shows back then. The auras around them during Fernando presage Olivia Newton-John's disco movie, Xanadu. Dancing Queen is electric. There was a Swedish ABBADABBADO and one for English audiences. There are interviews as we visit the small house where Benny and Bjorn compose. They discuss their approach to songwriting and the importance of melody. Agnetha tells how nervous she was when she made her first record and how her father brought her to Stockholm. She is so beautiful and innocent looking! Frida talks about the fun of performing. All 4 are open to the questions put to them. They are quite articulate. The show includes the video of When I Kissed The Teacher. For Money Money Money, they don their Roaring 20s outfits. Flappers! Agnetha swings her arms and prances. Dum Dum Diddle is delicious. The Swedish ABBADABBADO contains material edited out of the dubbed one. Of the baby pictures, Benny is the most recognizable. Even without the beard. They take a night time spin in the elusive Tiger video. There is a short piece of Stig doing Tived-Shambo which means Waltz In The Tived Forest. Back in the States for a kids' show called WONDERAMA, it is standard fare. Mamma Mia, SOS, Fernando. Karate outfits. The kids love it. Benny greets them in Swedish. ABBA IN POLAND begins with introductions on the plane. Benny explains the significance of the inverted B. It represents two couples. Each B is turned toward one of the As. Nina, Pretty Ballerina accompanies their arrival. Bjorn and Agnetha are reunited after taking separate planes. Agnetha is wearing her Superstar sweater. Once in Studio 2, they do a set of 7 numbers. Agnetha pouts and knits her brow during My Love, My Life. Frida can not suppress her little wiggle at the end of Knowing Me, Knowing You as Agnetha smiles in deference. The ladies are quite beautiful during the pause of Fernando, two flowers in a vase! Plastic pillows fall during Tiger, and Fernando is repeated as an encore. They wear white, their karate outfits and jump suits. Something in the relationship between Benny and Bjorn is that there is a tacit understanding for Bjorn to be the one who takes the kidding. It is voluntary. He is the butt of the jokes when joke time comes. Benny retains his dignity. An example is on the plane when Benny says of Bjorn, "Yes, he's a bit backwards all the time." There are exceptions. On a later show, they kid each other for growing beards to hide their round faces. In the 1976 AUSTRALIAN SPECIAL, ABBA lip synched 12 songs from their early albums. Hasta Manana and Tropical Loveland are surprises. They show native animals and talk between songs. Bjorn has a snake, Frida a opposum, Benny a cockatoo. Agnetha prefers the park ranger. Skirts come off for Waterloo, and Agnetha gives her all in Honey Honey. So Long ends with their little dance. Flying arms and hair! While in Australia, they did 5 COMMERCIALS FOR NATIONAL, an electronics firm. They are shown using sound equipment and home appliances. The jingle is to the tune of Fernando. ABBA THE MOVIE The big rock movie of 1977 was John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever. The music was provided by The Bee Gees. The film was such a box office hit that it forever labelled The Bee Gees a one album group. A decade later, they were still trying to shake their association with it. In the shadow of Saturday Night Fever was ABBA The Movie. It was a success around the world but barely made a ripple in the U.S. It took 12 years before I saw it. ABBA The Movie is about a deejay named Ashley who follows ABBA around on their Australian tour in hopes of getting an interview. They lead him to Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Along the way, he tapes comments from fans. At the film's end, he catches the group in an elevator and gets his interview. Mixed in with the plot are scenes from the concerts. Frida struts boldly in hot pants, prowling the stage like a female Elvis. Agnetha teases the crowd with her bottom for Money Money Money and He Is Your Brother. She knows what she is doing! They provide a cross section of what had been done up to that time: Tiger - When Agnetha flashes her eyes, we are mesmerized. She is on us in an instant. We are hers! ABBA is a feminist group. The women are the stars. The men maintain a low profile. This makes for a more palatable situation. Agnetha and Frida serve as role models for young girls and provide fantasizing males with a veritable feast. Money Money Money - The Money Money Money video is always shown when ABBA's finances are discussed. In The Movie, the concert version is accompanied by scenes of ABBA merchandise being sold. Hype surrounded them as it did the marketing of Elvis and The Beatles. He Is Your Brother - Agnetha and Benny mix it up. Intermezzo no. 1 - Benny gets his turn to show off. Waterloo - The orchestra leader dressed as Napoleon for the Eurovision. Mike Watson posed for the album jacket. I've Been Waiting For You - Waiting for Ashley. The Name Of The Game - Two videos within the film center around Ashley. The Name Of The Game is Ashley's dream. He lives out his fantasy of getting his interview with ABBA. They treat him like royalty! Note that the song is packed with questions as an interview would be. The second bona fide video is Eagle. Ring Ring - Little girls do the singing. Why Did It Have To Be Me - Frida stalks uninhibitedly. She is a tigress on the hunt, stalking her prey. Her microphone stand becomes a barbell as she flexes her bicep. Get On The Carousel - Lena Andersson is a backup singer. I'm A Marionette - They put on blonde wigs, and again we see the paradox, one woman with two distinct personalities. In the mini-musical, The Girl With The Golden Hair, the girl receives local recognition, braves the world at large and finds it a rat race. She becomes robotic, imitating herself. This seems to be Agnetha's story. The prologue by the mime adds to the surrealism of it. We all overextend ourselves from time to time. Dancing Queen - The long introduction builds the excitement. The ladies make an entrance! So Long - Saying goodbye to Australia. The dance at the end brings back the big band era. The girls are in unison. Eagle - The waking interview takes place during Eagle. Our heros came flying, and Ashley loves hearing their stories. Like good friends, they answer his questions. This time he is not dreaming. The bird is a bald eagle. That does not mean he has no hair. It means his head is white. "Bald" is an old English word for white. Thank You For The Music - Signature tune. Agnetha gets a surge as Benny and Bjorn watch from the control room. Benny later told of how The Movie started out as just their desire to have a personal record of their time in Australia and grew until it became a feature length film. Benny, like the others, has a way of understating accomplishments. Such a contrast to the exaggerations of most music celebrities! The Movie contains a press conference in which the 4 respond to what seem to be impromptu questions. The thing that comes across is their knack for keeping stardom in perspective. The Movie was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the same guy who directed the videos. It builds onto A Hard Day's Night. The Beatles travelled to London for a television show. ABBA flew to Australia for a concert tour. A Detailed Summary Of THE MOVIE It is sunrise in Sydney, Australia. Kangeroos are awakening, and disc jockey Ashley Wallace is wrapping up his all night radio show. Ashley meets with his boss and gets an assignment, to interview ABBA. Suddenly, we are at the airport. ABBA's plane has landed, and they are in the terminal. Agnetha hugs a security officer. Ashley is at the airport by misses them. He rents a car and drives to the press conference. He gets hung up in traffic and misses them a second time. At the press conference, ABBA fields questions about money, travelling, drugs and Agnetha's bottom. Ashley stalks them unsuccessfully at the Sydney Opera House where they have convened for a photo session. We cut to the concert. It is night time and it is raining. Ashley show up. This time, he can not get in because he has no press card. Short on cash, he is harassed by a ticket scalper. Bjorn comments on the rain. They leave the stage to fireworks. Meanwhile, Ashley is lying to his boss by telephone. He runs out and buys ABBA merchandise. He tracks them to Perth. In Perth, he interviews fans using his tape recorder. He sneaks into the concert. ABBA's bodyguard catches him and throws him out. He tries to get to them in their hotel. ABBA is reading reviews on their beds. Agnetha's bottom is big news. The bodyguard hears the ruckus outside the door, and Ashley is ushered out. That night in his own bed, he dreams of ABBA, and Agnetha and Frida dote on him. His dream is interrupted by the phone. He tells his boss he is trailing them to Adelaide. In Adelaide, the road crew struggles with the stage. Benny tries out the seating. Vendors sell buttons and posters. Two little girls argue whether or not ABBA is sexy. Ashley is getting desperate. He boards the plane for Melbourne. There is pushing and shoving as ABBA enter their room. The look on Agnetha's face says this bit of confusion may have been real. In Melbourne, Ashley crashes the barrier. Stig promises him an appointment early the next morning. He attends the concert that night assured. The audience light sparklers, and Frida takes one. The unlucky disc jocky oversleeps. He is awakened by the passing parade. ABBA make their final appearance, waving from their balcony. Ashley thinks all is lost. He refuses his belated press card. Then the elevator opens, and there they are. ABBA! His job is saved. He gets his interview. Ecstatic, Ashley beelines to his radio station. His cab driver is the same actor who plays the bodyguard. The cabby gives a funny but scathing criticism. The program airs in the nick of time. As ABBA gets on their plane, Benny expresses regret about leaving. The big jet wings its way back to Stockholm. Back on their island, we spot them through the window of their summer house. Agnetha plays with a daisy. Credits roll. The camera pans the archipelago. A guest spot on the 1978 OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN SPECIAL was part of ABBA's push into America. They perform Dancing Queen, Fernando and Take A Chance On Me. Dancing Queen sounds more rhythmic, more Americanized. There is a jam session with Olivia in the mold of Elvis' '68 Comeback Special. They do Jailhouse Rock which was the first record Benny ever bought. Olivia Newton-John is an Australian version of Agnetha. Her popularity was partly due to her not becoming a mother until she was nearly 40. Agnetha had two children while still in her 20s. Motherhood affects the career of any aspiring singer or actress. It is hard to be glamorous between diaper changes. This is why Agnetha developed as a composer instead of Frida. Frida had her kids even younger. Frida's opera is nice. ABBA was on STARPARADE for German television. Dressed as they were for the Olivia Special, they do Take A Chance On Me, Eagle and Thank You For The Music. A show from Switzerland was built around an interview in the studio. Beneath gold discs on the the wall, they discuss their deteriorating image in the Swedish press and the effect of women's liberation groups. The MIDNIGHT SPECIAL showed excerpts from their early videos. Their current hit was Take A Chance On Me. God! Those were great years! The group's popularity spawned parodies. Dr. and The Medics mocked the Eurovision Song Contest, and The Muppets got into the act with Take A Chance On Me. Not The Nine O'Clock News had fun with Super Trouper, and French and Saunders with The Winner Takes It All. Collectors even prize TV ads for ABBA's albums. ABBA IN JAPAN is a special they did for Japanese television. The usual method was to do TV specials in countries as a softening up process, then follow with concerts the next year. Group members offer bits of information between songs. For 3 numbers, Agnetha and Frida wear shiny red and blue body suits. Very sleek! Frida's form is awesome on Tiger. She dwarfs her Japanese dancing partner. Both women are statuesque, listed at 5'8". Frida weighs 125 pounds. Agnetha weighs 123 pounds. They don their animal costumes for Waterloo. This is what you call animal magnetism. Foxy Frida! Two seldom performed songs are included, That's Me and If It Wasn't For The Nights. Thank You For The Music is the closer, an ABBA tradition. There are a number of costume changes. Agnetha and Frida always dress in a similar manner but never identically. Sometimes it is a different colored sash or a different species of flower. Their complementary looks and movements produce an effective stage presence. Their clothes were designed by Owe Sandstrom. If It Wasn't For The Nights was done again on the MIKE YARWOOD SHOW (1978). Watch Agnetha look from side to side as she sings "staring at the wall." As part of a comedy bit, they imitate their host's sissified catch phrases. Agnetha says she is exhausted from playing the piano since she was 6. She is irresistible on Thank You For The Music as she points to her head and winks, pouring it on with the golden hair. Both ladies throw kisses. UNICEF: A GIFT OF SONG aired in January, 1979. They dress in black for their song at the U.N. Benny brings his white piano. They sing Chiquitita, and Agnetha and Frida shine as consummate performers. There is plenty of help for He Is Your Brother. Joining them are Rod Stewart and their buddy, Olivia Newton-John. Rod gave up the rights to D'ya Think I'm Sexy?, his best record ever. UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund. There is a short, high-powered show, circa 1978-79, with Japanese subtitles. ABBA is at the top of their game, young and strong. In their black UNICEF outfits, they do Dancing Queen, Take A Chance On Me, SummerNight City and Thank You For The Music. You get the feeling they are crashing through a brick wall and they know it. ABBA IN SWITZERLAND (THE SNOWTIME SPECIAL) features tunes from the Voulez-Vous album. They open in their U.N costumes. 3 sleepers are The King Has Lost His Crown, Kisses Of Fire and Lovers (Live A Little Longer). This is a high-spirited and colorful performance. There is insinuation in the comments about long, Swedish nights. They engage in winter sports. They get on skis for The Name Of The Game and on ice skates for Hole In Your Soul. Frida makes her pitch for the UNICEF Year Of The Child, and Mamma Mia gets the nod. Mamma Mia and Slipping Through My Fingers are ideal for children. My son, Michael, was singing them when he was 5 years old. The show is done in the mountain resort of Leysin. A helecopter picks them up at the Geneva airport and takes them there. The United Nations has its European headquarters in Geneva. News shows covered ABBA's ascendency. Stig introduced the group on 20/20 and described their personalities. Their history is traced, and their contribution to UNICEF is noted. 20/20 ends with Thank You For The Music but not before Stig has answered some tough questions about investments, money and merchandise. CBS News interviewed them relative to the upcoming U.S. tour. They absorb shocks for one another during interviews 5 JAAR ABBA is a commemoration of the 5 years following Eurovision. History is woven into a series of videos which includes Chiquitita. The show is from Holland and in Dutch, so I can not understand a word. ABBA transcends language. Or they are a language within themselves. It seems that ABBA fans across the world comprise a nation. Race, origin, religion, language, and economic and political systems dissolve in the heat of this musical melting pot. No other recording group comes close to having such powers of unification. They represent perfectly the highest goals of the United Nations and the purest instincts of human kind. I should feel safer in parts of the world with a membership card to an ABBA fan club than I would with an American passport. They did Chiquitita in MUSIKLADEN. Benny and Bjorn remained proud of this song. A fan taped the concert in Dortmund, Germany. It is interesting because Agnetha does I'm Still Alive. This is the show they took to the U.S. and to Wembley. The WEMBLEY ARENA concert in London in 1979 encompassed footage from the American tour. The group maps out the tour on a cake in the shape of the U.S. The cities lay mostly across the northern tier. In London, they wear their blue and white Polar outfits against a background of icebergs. The concert is a grand one, and ABBA is well-poised. Frida's dance routine in Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! is enjoyable. Her movements have the grace of a professional dancer. The women look to be 6 feet tall on stage! Voulez-Vous is smooth. Hole In Your Soul has more fire than the studio cut. And isn't it provocative when the women kneel beside the jamming Lasse Wellander on Does Your Mother Know? Benny tickles the ivories midway through I Have A Dream, and Agnetha's eyebrows go up for Take A Chance On Me. That is Agnetha's daughter, Linda, appearing for I Have A Dream. In the finale, Benny drags out his accordian for The Way Old Friends Do. This live version is on the Super Trouper album. Soaking up applause! ABBA did a Spanish special, 3000 MILLONES (3000 MILES). They never did anything halfway. Move On (Al Andar) is the wild card. We see the same footage used for the Wembley concert, the American tour. Read Agnetha's lips when she bites into her ice cream. Felicidad, the Spanish version of the Happy New Year video, is part of it. Different scenes are shown with the circus troop. Casey Kasem, the host of AMERICA'S TOP TEN, recognized them as the top group in Holland for 1980. To AMERICAN BANDSTAND, ABBA sent an excerpt from a German TV show in which they do The Winner Takes It All. Frida wears purple. Agnetha is in pink. Dick Clark calls them the world's biggest group. ABBA received a "Georgie" from the AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS in Los Angeles. The acceptance speech was taped in Stockholm. Bjorn's meticulous choice of words should elicit empathy in spite of their being too preoccupied to make an appearance. On And On And On is shown. It is from Show Express, the same TV show from which they sent the tape to Dick Clark. They can get down when they have to. Look at the couples hitting on each other! Old time's sake! Lay All Your Love On Me is the 3rd song in this set. Another great live sequence was part of the 1981 DICK CAVETT MEETS ABBA. After a meandering interview, they cut loose in front of a studio audience. They run through Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Super Trouper, Two For The Price Of One, Slipping Through My Fingers, Me And I, Knowing Me Knowing You, SummerNight City, Thank You For The Music and On And On And On. SummerNight City retains its eerie prelude, and Benny rocks the house with On And On And On. See Agnetha bite her bottom lip during Slipping Through My Fingers? It is her way of absorbing emotion. She does it when performing Chiquitita. It is an endearing mannerism. This is in their last months together, and there is a mature look. But they are SO great! The ladies wear lacy blouses and leather trousers. They could have stepped out of a painting by one of the Old Masters. Beautiful! When their eyes meet, a spark of electricity jumps between them. You want to somehow freeze the picture and keep them together always. The show was taped in Sweden, and Cavett is condescending. The best part of his interview is hearing Agnetha tell how her mother rmeminds her of the time she lost her knickers while singing Billy Boy. Cavett is curious as to how they avoid sex scandals. Well, scandals are promulgated by the enemies of the people involved in them. ABBA makes no enemies. Those who laugh at their musical innocence still find it impossible to wish them harm. THE INDISCREET LETTER is an interview given in Stockholm to be shown in Argentina. It is December, 1981. It starts with a game in which they answer funny and sometimes embarassing questions. If Frida were an animal, Benny calls her a snake. Watch her reaction! If Agnetha were a song, Bjorn calls her Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. They are good sports. It is all in fun. The interviewer probes. Each member is interrogated about his or her opinions of the other 3. Answers range from flattery to playful charges of stubbornness. We sense the comfort and trust they feel in each other's presence. They will not sabotage one another. Benny wrestles with questions about old age and other serious matters that seem to anticipate his thinking in Chess. Bjorn admits Slipping Through My Fingers is about Linda. This show is revealing, and I like what I see. The only tragedy in ABBA is the way the camera slowly records their transition from two hot, young couples to a 4-way business arrangement. Two questions crisscross B&B with each other's ex-spouses. Would Bjorn wear Frida's socks? What would Benny do if trapped in an elevator for 3 hours with Agnetha? I guess the swap idea crossed a few people's minds in the 1970s. It did mine. If you study the tapes you will see that Bjorn and Frida interact more on stage than the other two. The extroverts! Some of it may be due to Benny being stationary at the keyboard. For a decade, there was always a marriage within the group. ABBA kept one foot in the legal world and one foot in the realm of free love. They had something for everyone. Agnetha is a delight. I can not define what this woman has. There is just something about her. I love it when that cute, little tongue darts out and licks that top lip. And she cooks! Agnetha pronounces spaghetti like spa-gett-t. Dig the Swedish accent! Agnetha is quizzed about her domestic side, life on her island retreat. She talks of her sleeping habits, clothes, interests and her relationship with her kids. When asked if she prefers cinema, theater, reading or music, she replies, "I like everything of that." I am honest in disagreeing with Frida about Phil Collins. So, I will state my differences with Agnetha about her favorites. I cringe when she tells whom she listens to. My taste is more in line with Benny and Bjorn's, more writer-based, less oriented toward vocalism. It may be healthy that our favorites' favorites differ from our own. THE STORY OF ABBA (1982) documents the early biographies and their 10 year history as a group. Snatches of videos are alternated with interviews. They perform Waterloo in its entirety after winning Eurovision. The Ring Ring and Honey Honey videos sizzle! When Agnetha extends her derriere for Honey Honey, it takes your breath away. She responds with modesty and composure when asked about the "sexy bottom" issue. You can tell that on one hand she likes it but on the other she knows she must be demure. She explains why The Winner Takes It All is her favorite song. She comments on her long walks with her dog. The performance of Dancing Queen at the royal wedding is enchanting. They wear period costumes, and the ladies kneel before their sovereigns. In retrospect, Bjorn says the lyrics reflect their combined experiences. All factors contributed equally to their success. Benny is the most intent on trying something new when asked about future plans. ABBA appeared on THE LATE, LATE BREAKFAST SHOW via Eurovision (satellite) from Stockholm. They answer silly questions similar to the ones they were given for The Indiscreet Letter. They are sharp. When Bjorn answers that his least favorite garment is the one he wore for Eurovision because is was so tight, Frida jokingly tells him he was "thick" which means he was pregnant. Frida is now in sync with Bjorn, and Benny and Agnetha are juxtaposed. By 1982, ABBA's sphere of influence had shrunk to the surrounding European countries. It happened quick. I never heard Under Attack when it was out. Hawking The Singles on a second BREAKFAST SHOW, each member names a selection as his or her favorite. Frida has lost her girlishness. She makes light of the press's disparaging remark. ABBA historians, take note! Bjorn describes the conditions under which they might split all too well. Despite disclaimers, rigor mortis has set in. The ladies look like soloists. The interviewer senses the unspeakable. Agnetha and Benny took phone calls from fans with questions on SATURDAY SUPERSTORE in London. Benny divulges his plans for doing Chess. It is obvious now that the passion they required will be derived from separate projects. Has ABBA failed? Or have they become so successful that the kind of success they achieved is no longer a challenge? Is it the idea of winged victory, that no matter what we do we still have to prove ourselves? They performed their last songs for German television, SHOW-EXPRESS, November 11, 1982. It is their last appearance together before the reunion for Stig. Agnetha does The Day Before You Came, and the others are rolled out. Frida is perched on Benny's piano. They do Cassandra and Under Attack. Frida dances and claps her hands above her head at the end of Cassandra. Benny and Bjorn wear the coats and ties with which they became identified. By this time, Bjorn has grown a beard. Agnetha is wearing a headband, a popular thing with women around this time. No matter what has gone on in the world of entertainment in the last 5 decades, ABBA has done something similar to it and done it better. At the end, the 4 bow in Beatle fashion. These songs were to have been part of the Opus 10 album. Opus 10 consisted of art songs like Cassandra on one hand and of dummy lyrics like Every Good Man on the other. There were no chart candidates. For this reason, Opus 10 was abandoned. For PROFILES IN ROCK, FREEZE FRAME ABBA, Bob Hamilton conducted short questions and answers with Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Stig about the future, what they have accomplished and the meaning of ABBA. Hamilton is pushy. When he abruptly asks Benny what he thinks of Stig, Benny hesitates. The look on his face reads, "What the hell kind of question is that?" Stig is as cocksure about his accomplishments as ever, and it takes Frida to bring Hamilton under control. Despite Hamilton's rudeness, these are real questions that needed to be asked. ABBA can not grasp the idea of breaking up in the British or American sense. For ABBABALLET (1983), dancers interpret their songs to the choreography of Birgit Cullberg. One looks for some sort of meaning in the choice of songs or in their arrangement. Generally, youth is toward the front, sex and politics (war) in the middle and age in the rear. The order does not seem conscious, and the 15 numbers smack of a smorgasbord. 6 songs which do not normally get attention are Watch Out, Lay All Your Love On Me, Andante Andante, The Visitors, Soldiers and Like An Angel Passing through My Room. We ate titilated by the daring of Andante Andante and Kisses Of Fire. The eroticism is overt, the dancers tying themselves in knots. I am no connoisseur of ballet, but this style of dance is bearable when performed to ABBA's music. It is more proof that ABBA is a complete entertainment experience. They are a power source! ABBACADABRA was an intermediary stage between The Girl With The Golden Hair and Chess. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS (1985) is laid out like The Story Of ABBA. Benny and Bjorn are interviewecd for a British audience. There is a retrospective of hits, but the purpose is to trace Benny and Bjorn's evolution as writers more than it is to sum up ABBA. Chess is the thing. The guys squirm when asked to compare Frida's ability with Agnetha's. Agnetha is labelled the interpreter and Frida the natural singer. Two Americans in this situation might quarrel. "My ex-wife is better than your ex-wife!" It is the complicity between Benny and Bjorn that impresses. Neither tries to get an edge. They handle divorce admirably. They do not speak ill of their former mates. Everyone is better off, they imply. Bjorn gets fidgety when the interviewer points out the autobiographical element in The Winner Takes It All. "You don't write from nothing," he answers. What makes their interviews interesting is the way they meet questions head on. There is no evasiveness. If they do not know the answer they will try to figure it out. Benny discusses the nature of commerciality in music. He does not like labels. You do what is in you, and that is it. People either buy it or they do not. ABBA said they do the songs they want to hear. This is as honest as musicians can be. That writers can contort themselves to write for others is a myth. Their particular method of writing is brought up. As the years went on, there was a trend toward specialization with Benny taking the musical load and Bjorn turning into a strict lyricist. The music coming first, they progressed to the point of laying tracks before writing the lyrics. Benny's music comes step by step, a sign of a fluent musician. That Bjorn feels comfortable adapting lyrics to the finished music is seen in I Let The Music Speak. Benny informs us how they worked with Tim Rice. They wrote the music for each scene in his synopsis. Tim then added lyrics. They recognize there is often a discrepancy between what is in one's mind and what goes on tape. The last part of the show features Bjorn and Tim. They bandy jokes back and forth. When Bjorn says Agnetha is definitely in Stockholm, we sense his concern. THIS IS YOUR LIFE, STIG (1986) is for real die-hards. The show is largely in Swedish. Stig's life is reviewed, and various artists sing his compositions. It is brought up that Stig is not typically Swedish. It made me think of the spelling of his name. Did he drop the second s from Anderson to be more accessible to the British public? Benny retains both ss. ABBA reunited briefly for this show. They performed Tived-Shambo in the Swedish, and their mini-reunion spawned rumors. But ABBA had gone home by the mid-1980s, and this show is a reflection of all that had happened, a looking back. It became necessary to reestablish old ties, to lick a few wounds. This sense of homecoming is also strong in A For Agnetha. Stig is visited by Gorel Hanser. Gorel was in management at Polar. She became president of Mono Music. She has Benny and Bjorn's trust. Tived-Shambo did prove something. It showed that these people are still friends and will sing together if they have enough reason for doing so. It is impossible to overestimate Stig's importance to the group. He was a one-man music machine when Benny and Bjorn were kids, the only man in Sweden who knew anybody. Ljuva 60-Tal is featured. Stig co-wrote it with Benny and Bjorn. Agnetha recorded it. It reeks of the divine decadence which pervaded Europe between the wars. ABBA first appeared together about 6 months after The Beatles announced their breakup. They played a restaurant in Gothenburg on November 1, 1970 using the name, Festfolket (Party People) ABBA REVIVAL The revival began in Europe in 1992. The ABBA Gold CD sold 8 million units, going to number 1 in 15 countries. A show was done in England called A FOR ABBA in which various artists and writers try to explain the lasting appeal of this music. ABBA songs are from the feamle perspective. That is why they are great. Benny and Bjorn wrote what the women felt. A criticism of Agnetha's and Frida's solo material is that it was composed by males who had no knack for the feminine touch. As for assertions of clumsiness and clunkiness in his lyrics, Bjorn grudgingly yielded to his critics. He wanted his lyrics to have meaning and believed they did. His writing finally evolved to the point of being more suited to the stage muscial, epic plot and character. ABBA Gold was released in the U.S. in the fall of 1993 and entered the Billboard charts at number 63. It stayed in the charts for 104 weeks. Another summation of the ABBA legacy, THANK YOU ABBA, brings together manager Stig Anderson, engineer Michael B. Tretow, costume designer Owe Sandstrom and art director Rune Soderqvist. Sandstrom and his clothes steal the show. He defends himself against those who would save the music and trash the fashion. An unwritten law of the revival was that ABBA had to be divested of the glitter. There is no doubt that the costumes contributed much, a counterpoint to the melancholy of the lyrics and the troubles of the Vietnam/Watergate era. Tretow says he appreciates the girls' talents more in retrospect, the ease of working with them. He compares Benny and Bjorn to Mozart. Stig resigns himself to being left behind. It is disconcerting to watch the ABBA camp age. People get old. An Australian movie called Muriel's Wedding used 5 tracks as the music of the 1970s became the music of the 1990s. ABBA cover bands flourished: Bjorn Again, Arrival, Bjorn Baby Bjorn, Voulez-Vous, The Visitors and ABBA Gold. I managed to see Bjorn Again twice. The ABBF fan club in Holland celebrated its 10th anniversary. The revival lumbered on. June 3, 1997, Cousin Larry and I left Richmond, Virginia and drove into Washington, D.C. to see Bjorn Again at the Capital Ballroom. We drove around the D.C. Mall. There were the Washington Monument, Capitol Building and the Castle of the Smithsonian. The Capital Ballroom lay behing the Capitol Building, and I noticed the Statue of Freedom at the top of the dome. Washington, D.C. was the first date on the American leg of Bjorn Again's tour. The Capital Ballroom is a disco, and 1970s music was the dominant theme. The concert got under way at 10:30PM and went on an hour and 15 minutes. Larry got his wish as the girls started out in their panther and dragon cat costumes. White knee-high boots accented sumptuous thighs. There was a lot of choreography and interplay between the girls. Bjorn Again came from Australia and formed in 1989. They are the best of the ABBA cover bands. They performed 18 songs. VH-1 was to be congratulated on their 8-track Flashback hosted by David Cassidy. Take A Chance On Me only reached number 3 in Billboard, however, and Benny Andersson's work with Orsa Spelman was folk music, not Swedish jazz. VH-1 adopted ABBA. They ran the MUSIKLADEN SPECIAL and the AMERICAN BANDSTAND gig. When they showed ABBA THE MOVIE, Terry Byrne was their guest. Bjorn remained loquacious through the revival. He denied wife-swapping, "Frida wouldn't have liked it," and admitted some indulgence in marijuana. When he expressed shame about some of the costumes, he must have recalled the cape he wore for James Last. The 70s/disco thing is nostalgia. ABBA is not nostalgia. They will entertain future generations and be interpreted with Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Shania Twain. RADIO ABBA used radio to promote themselves. Tim Browne interviewed them in 1977 to promote Arrival. The show is very thorough about the preABBA years. We get a sense of this quartet rising from its peers, the cream of the Swedish music business. Benny and Bjorn elaborate on how it is in the studio, and Browne cites them as pioneers in rock video. Indeed, the visual dimension is ABBA's great contribution. Elvis Presley and Sam Phillips invented rock & roll in a cubby hole in Memphis in 1954. The Beatles enlarged their sound a decade later. In the 1970s, ABBA feminized it and gave it a face. Shania Twain took it to Nashville, country music and into the 21st century. Tim Browne's interview took place in London. A radio interview was done at the UNICEF CONCERT in January, 1979 by Robert Morgan. He aired it on his SPECIAL OF THE WEEK. ABBA handled themselves well during interviews, shedding light on the nature of their art. Here, Benny plays down the idea of having a particular sound. There had been comparisons with the wall of sound production used by Phil Spector. Benny says they just try to fill up holes to create a weblike effect. If the wall of sound had been a phase, the theory was certainly disspelled later. Arrangements like those of I Wonder (Departure) and Head Over Heels show how versatile they could be. Bjorn tells Morgan how he and Benny wrote their first song in the papermill where his father worked on the night they met. Agnetha reflects on the importance of writing all the time since it is hard to resume once you quit. Frida says she had trouble making it before ABBA. This modesty is part of her charm. Englishman Ray Moore interviewed them extensively in a segment entitled THIS IS ABBA. Several points are clarified. The guys are quick to downplay their role in the Eurovision Song Contest. They make it clear that the contest was a means of gaining exposure and not an end in itself. Bjorn intimates that The Beatles turned him against folk music. I like Moore's comment about ABBA's music being full of surprises. He points out the tremendous age spread among their fans. BOB HAMILTON'S RADIO REPORT originated from Polar Studios in Stockholm in 1982. There is the usual rehash of history. Bjorn and Stig met in 1963. Benny and Bjorn met on tour in Sweden. Stig thought of them as writers but not as artists. Agnetha and Frida knew each other from television programs. They went by Engaged Couples in 1970, and for awhile, Agnetha and Frida were called Svenska Flicka (Swedish Girls). Hamiliton speaks of family in reference to what he sees at Polar. From the American point of view, the entire Swedish nation is an extended family. Dick Clark looked back at ABBA in 1987 on his ROCK, ROLL AND REMEMBER. THE REVIVAL ON RADIO As the music community went retro, radio stations went to a 1970s format. Saturday night disco shows served ABBA on CD CROSSTALK, a Chicago radio show, did an hour special in April, 1994. Terry Byrne was behind it. The climax came when Gorel Hanser was asked the age-old question of whether the group will get back together. Bjorn finally said they will not reunite because it would take away from what is there. Of course, he was right. In 1996, a national radio show called Yesterday Live spotlighted their music. Deejay Dick Bartley was reluctant. He compared I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do to Lawrence Welk. He then softened, noting the haunting quality of The Name Of The Game. In November, 1996, President Bill Clinton was re-elected as if to validate the revival. Clinton was more than a new Jimmy Carter. He was the embodiment and promise of John Kennedy, destined to become the first two term Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The revival continued as long as ABBA themselves lasted. The election of George W. Bush in 2000 and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon necessitated a return to Republican ideas. But ABBA and their music are like the phoenix of Greek mythology. They rise from the ashes.
Contact: jim@jimcolyer.com