First I hated ABBA. My parents liked Waterloo when it won the Eurovision Song Contest, and that was enough to put me off (my parents liking it, not the Eurovision success). My mum only had one record that Hilary and I liked, and that was by Harry Belafonte. I preferred Gary Glitter in 1974. But when I started buying music, five of the first six cassettes I bought were Abba ones (let's see: Greatest Hits, The Album, Arrival, Waterloo, Abba). Within a year, I'd disowned them again in favour of The Boomtown Rats, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and David Bowie. I sold all my Abba cassettes to Hilary.
At Cambridge, Leanne regularly used to predict an Abba revival. But we thought of that as kitsch. Who would have known that they would come back and stay back.
I bought this double LP (£7.99 from Our Price in 1988) to replace all those cassettes. Do I play it much? Of course not. That would be like sucking on a canister containing a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. Abba, like the Beatles, are all around us in our everyday lives, and artificial supplements must be taken with caution to avoid overdoses. Having said that, Name of the Game and Knowing Me, Knowing You sound very good blasting out of the stereo.
If I have one criticism of Abba, it's that they come too soon. Often they have a great intro, but they don't trust us to keep paying attention, so they cut quickly to the chase with one of those catchy-as-hell choruses. I wish they'd hold back, and make us want it a bit more.
Stephin Merritt says that Benny and Bjorn's latest opera, Kristina is amazing.
Comments