Roland Emmerich’s final film will be a two-minute short in which the sun goes supernova and swallows the Earth. https://t.co/qRsmXz8GF1
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 3, 2021
But if you want some really terrifying green-screen work…
ABBA reunites after nearly 40 years to announce new album, digital concert. https://t.co/oh73duJLLI
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 2, 2021
I quite like Abba — never said my tastes were sophisticated! — but this ‘digital concert’ is strictly Uncanny Valley.
Swedish supergroup ABBA, one of the world's most successful bands, reunite for their first new album in 40 years and said they would stage a series of virtual concerts in London next year https://t.co/gpK47ujSfa pic.twitter.com/kjQVqPqHLH
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 3, 2021
'Abba saved 2021' – why the Swedish band have never gone out of fashion https://t.co/rOB82L1vdG
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 3, 2021
zhena gogolia
My husband and I were on a walk the other day when a group of teenage girls came running down the street, apparently training or doing gym class. As they came nearer, we realized that they were listening to “Dancing Queen.”
Brachiator
This was mentioned on some radio show the other day, and I was surprised that it was apparently true.
By waiting until now, the group apparently gave up some big bucks.
ABBA never was one of my favorite groups, but good for them and their fans.
WaterGirl
Anne Laurie, the Artists in our Midst post was scheduled for 5, but I think both posts at the same time works well, so please don’t think about pulling yours.
craigie
They will need big money if they are getting ILM to do their digital avatars.
Chetan Murthy
I know it marks me out as a big ol’ fuddy-duddy, but they’re still one of my favorite bands. I used to own all their LPs. Ah, well, no longer, b/c I gave up on LPs in 1986.
Gin & Tonic
Was elsewhere during the rains of Ida, so came home today to a very pleasant surprise of no water anywhere in the basement. Local area seems to have weathered this well, as no obvious damage around, despite what the gauge says was 4.5″ of rain over that night. So 2.5 hours of lawn mowing, and now an ice-cold martini. Life is OK.
JPL
How to feel really old.. Has it really been forty years. geez
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: Vinyl is hot again, doncha know?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
coming out of retirement might be AᗺBA’s waterloo
WaterGirl
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: ha!
Chetan Murthy
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Yeah, I’m not gonna look at the clips when the come out, until long after, when it’s established whether they’re any good or not. B/c I don’t want my love of ABBA to be changed by their elderly decline.
RaflW
Guilty pleasure admission: I went to the ABBA Museum in Stockholm in 2019. I rarely go to expensive private collection joints, but dang it was fun. And decently curated – at least it exceeded my low expectations in terms of museum-grade work.
I was the only one of the three of us to go in a sound booth and sing along. The monitor headphones weren’t very good so I had a hard time telling how out of tune I was. My sweet cousin who lives outside Stockholm claimed I was fantastic.
The only drawback, and it wasn’t nothing: I had ABBA earworms that took a looooong time to shake (not, in itself that unusual. I’ve had a Billy Brag song bouncing around my seemingly empty brain for over a week now. It’s a great song but even it is starting to wear thin. ABBA’s confections are too sweet to nibble on for that long.)
SiubhanDuinne
No horror, just a sad note: weatherman Willard Scott has died at 87. It’s been decades since I last watched the Today Show, but I always found Scott a soothing and cheerful presence. RIP.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: Teen Age girls and their antics taught me to appreciate the music of ABBA.
ThresherK
@JPL: And, for those of us in the cult, thirty-seven years since (the album of) Chess.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator: A BILLION dollars?
Chetan Murthy
@ThresherK: Awwwww yeah! I have the CD of that, from the first release. Saw the Broadway production (man, it was so much less than the CD ….. *indignant snort*)
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: ABBA fans: we are legion.
John H. McDonald
@WaterGirl: I remember reading once (can’t be bothered to look up whether it’s true) that at their peak, Abba was the biggest contributor to the GDP of Sweden. Bigger than Volvo, in other words. When they played concerts in eastern European countries with relatively useless currencies, they got paid in commodities–20 railcars of potatoes for a concert in Prague, or whatever. So I don’t know if a reunion would have been worth a billion dollars, but they were definitely a big business.
Woodrow/asim
As someone who grew up post-Disco, I carried, for a long time, prejudice against Disco, in my heart. Mamma Mia, did not help, even with my man (and Irish treasure) Pierce Brosnan in the flicks.
I’ve only recently come to enjoy a lot of it, in part due to understand some of why the culture turned against Disco, and how Disco connects directly to my beloved Electronica. I’m actually fascinating, for example, by the structure of “Dancing Queen” — starting the song with the chorus? Damn!
Anyway, as I unwind: a story about my own Belly Dancing days, and my hate-on for Disco, just to show how silly I got:
A friend of mine ran an outstanding belly dance camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. One of the classes on tap was labeled something like “Disco Belly Dance Choreography”, which was an instant NO for me.
When that class started, a bunch of my pals and I were sitting on top of a ridge that oversaw the teaching area — including one of my fellow dancer’s husbands, whom I bonded with over a shared love of Hip-Hop. Class starts, we’re talking…and we stop as we hear the “disco” song they were teaching to. Horns blaring, the first lyrics about remembering come out…
…Reader, it was Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September.” This, was the teacher’s “disco song”.
And so, as one, me and my pal yell out “That’s Not Disco!” to the laughter of all assembled.
I regret not taking that class, to this day. sigh
WaterGirl
@Woodrow/asim: You don’t think September was a disco song?
I do. (virtually ducking in case you are offended that I would say or think that)
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, we had hardly any water in the basement. All my anxiety was for naught, but that’s okay.
Nicole
For the ABBA fans that haven’t yet read Tom Breihan’s entry about “Dancing Queen” in The Number Ones:
https://www.stereogum.com/2061188/the-number-ones-abbas-dancing-queen/columns/the-number-ones/
I promise, he gives the song the due it deserves.
zhena gogolia
@Woodrow/asim: I don’t think Abba is disco either!
Boz Scaggs, BeeGees, yes.
ETA: Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer. Not Abba.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
(Me too.)
Redshift
@Chetan Murthy: Yeah, if I remember right, the touring company for Chess never really happened. I was at some event, can’t remember what, where a knowledgeable person said that it had been pulled so the writers could try to “add more plot.”
I’ve seen two regional theatre productions of it, period pieces by then, and it seems like the two options for the plot are either for it to make no sense, or for it to have a really depressing ending for everyone.
Still great songs, though!
WhatsMyNym
The live musical Mamma Mia! has been a money maker.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@zhena gogolia: “the kids are alright” — tesco vee
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: abba reunion is biden’s katrina
Woodrow/asim
@WaterGirl: To me and my pal — and people I’ve talked to, since — “September” is pretty squarely in the 1970s R&B style. A lot of it is about what I’ll call proto-Electronica elements — R&B was (at that point) not using a lot of synths and related elements, whereas Disco was all about that Jazz :)
This is where I insert that my intro to loving synths, and eventually getting into Electronica [and back-porting into liking Disco in the future] was “The Reflex” by Duran Duran, which was really constructed by the now-legendary Nile Rodgers. So…yeah, it’s not a thick line :)
I’ll confess some of it is down to “feel” unless/until you’re talking to actual musicians, which can go on about this stuff for hours (in fairness, ask me about a lot of dance stuff and I can bore you to tears.) I mean — I know what belongs on, say, a Quiet Storm and what doesn’t, because I grew up with it, not necessarily because I studied it (although I have, since my youth, a bit).
Anyway, I hope that makes sense?
Karen
@Redshift:
“One Night in Bangkok” was a big song from “Chess.”
Nicole
@Redshift: Chess did tour, but the challenge the show has is that they just cannot figure out the book. I think for awhile no one was allowed to change Nelson’s rewrite (for the original American production), but I see on wikipedia that Tim Rice has tried to rework the book a few times. I agree, great music. And the last song from a Broadway show to hit the Billboard top 10!
WaterGirl
@John H. McDonald: Holy cow, that’s amazing.
Ohio Mom
That type of horror sci-fi film is so not my thing but thinking about how the earth ends seems strangely appropriate for the evening before Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world.
ABBA has also been so not my thing, though they have grown on me over the years.
The Pale Scot
Protestants hate ABBA
Or so I’m told
Baud
Money, Money, Money has been updated for modern times. It’s now Crypto, Crypto, Crypto.
Woodrow/asim
@Nicole: …see, that’s also fascinating. Thank you for this link, it’s a great workup of the song!
I’m intrigued Tom sees “Dancing Queen” as a song that “has disco somewhere in its DNA.” This may be where my limits of musical genre-flagging, esp. on Disco, come in. It might be the beat he’s hooking the def. on; disco is pretty heavy on the “four on the floor” style, and that’s not exactly the game “Dancing Queen” is playing. Hunh.
I also love the invocation of “In Da Club,” a song that’s thick with meaning itself.
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
I’m not offended, and while I would agree that the lines are blurry, September is definitely R&B/funk, not disco.
Contrast it with Boogie Wonderland, a disco song by the same artist.
WhatsMyNym
@The Pale Scot: LOL!
Though that’s N Ireland. The English loved them, couldn’t escape it on the radio when I visited.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: Me too. I hated them back in the day.
Apparently Colin Firth did too. I saw a charming interview where he talked about how he used to sneer at them.
The Mamma Mia movies have made me reconsider. They’re charming. And the songs survive the singing of Pierce Brosnan.
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
A friend of mine posted a performance of Kurt Weill’s September Song the other day, and one of the commenters was surprised to learn it wasn’t the EWF song.
Origuy
@John H. McDonald:
Imagine if they had played Russia in 1989!
Uncle Cosmo
@ThresherK: Just FTR in 1993 I got to see Chess at Towson State (now just Towson) University. I was impressed with the quality of the production. The school is routinely disparaged in the region compared with Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland, but it’s put on a number of notable productions over the decades (Lorca’s Blood Wedding being another I saw) as well as hosting a highly respected jazz ensemble.
Wag
@RaflW: Which one? My BB earworm is this one.
Its wrong to wish on space hardware
James E Powell
@Woodrow/asim:
There are differences, but I always thought of “Dancing Queen” as a Scandinavian version of American disco. Seems to fit right in with TSOP.
NotMax
Abba? Sort of fits in, pop culturewise.
Originally sold in astonishingly offensive packaging.
Wag
@NotMax:
A Tom Waits song the references your choice of candy.
Nicole
@Uncle Cosmo: I’m not surprised, actually. Towson has a deserved reputation as an excellent school for theater majors. Johns Hopkins, not so much.
Haroldo
@NotMax:
Another take on Abba Zaba
Doug R
How could it be an ABBA thread without one of their new songs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWGWFa3jznI
Chetan Murthy
@Doug R: Not gonna be tempted, until I hear from enough places that it’s good. Don’t want my favorite band of all time to be, y’know, sullied by age.
Ramalama
I am obsessed with ABBA especially Frida. I was a fan when they were still a group. I was heartsick when they stopped recording after The Visitors. I was upset with loving Chess and Benny and Bjorn did not use Agnetha and Frida in any of the roles. I spent my childhood sitting like the dog in a certain commercial in between two speakers absorbing their albums. Listening to certain songs over and over. Sometimes I’d get into Move On. Other times, it was all Knowing Me, Knowing You. I’d cleanse my palette with another song that wasn’t my favorite just to clear myself for another blast of I Wonder or Slipping Through My Fingers. When Frida released her solo album Something’s Going On, I obsessed over the sounds on each song. I liked it. Sometimes I loved it. But not as fiercely. I never caught the video in full on MTV, not for lack of trying. Willing it with every cell in my body. So many of my friends kept seeing it. “Hey I saw ABBA gal today on MTV.” Everyone but me. When Frida released a solo album in Swedish, I thought, that’s how Abba would sound in modern times. I loved it. I finally saw There’s Something Going On video as an adult in the era of the internet. I saw the making of her album. Gorgeous, beautiful.
The new songs are not as I’d hoped but the singing is brilliant. Maybe Benny’s been spending so much time on musicals that they forgot to use an acoustic guitar.
I think I’d better stop. It’s out of hand. I’m out of hand.
Chetan Murthy
@Ramalama: I feel you, 100%. Feel you 100%.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: If by “disco song” is meant a song actually played in/danced to in discos, then yes, “September” counts. Sounds like kids who didn’t want to admit that they liked some disco songs.
Just saw below of the death of Mikos Theodorakis. About a month ago I posted his soundtrack to Serpico. Here is his soundtrack to one of the greatest political thrillers, Z.
James E Powell
Sad note, but this is an open thread.
Tunch Ilkin, former Steelers great and the namesake of a certain feline friend/co-owner of our blogmeister’s home, passed away today.
gwangung
@WaterGirl: You are dead to me.
SEPTEMBER IS NOT DISCO!!!!
(And neither are any of the TSOP, Sound of Philly, stuff!)
Brachiator
@Woodrow/asim:
I always thought that the anti disco thing was mainly insecure white guys who did not know how to dance, amplified by other insecure white guys who were upset that any musical genre might become more popular than their narrow conception of rock music.
After this, racists, sexists and homophobes jumped onto the anti disco bandwagon. Then, the brainless conventional wisdom of “Disco sucks!” kicked in before everyone eventually calmed down.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia:
Wait, what? Boz Scaggs is considered disco music?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gwangung: that reminds me, Teri Gross did an episode on the Philly Sound a few weeks ago that I keep meaning to go back and listen to
Chetan Murthy
Since it’s a music thread, I’ve found this new source of earworms: a DJ who goes by the name “Satin Jackets”. I never inquire too deeply into the people behind art I like, for fear I’ll find out they’re, y’know, like Woody Allen. But I really like his mixes. Very “new age disco” I think (but hey, I’m a Philistine when it comes to music). You can find ’em on Youtube — there are a couple of multi-hour mixes that I just start playing and leave it running.
gwangung
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ooooo….do tell…..
Gamble and Huff, so smooth and sweet….
Matt McIrvin
“September” is funk, but disco evolved out of funk. It’s proto-disco.
Always thought of at least some of ABBA as disco, though maybe not as core disco as Donna Summer or Chic or the Bee Gees.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gwangung: I guess it was more than a few weeks ago….
Producing the Philly Sound, June 4
RaflW
@Wag: I really don’t know what to make of this version, it’s the album cut of the same title that I’ve got on repeat … repeat … repeat.
WaterGirl
@gwangung:
:: sniff sniff ::
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Boz Scaggs is not disco!
Is something starting here? Years from now are we going to look back on the great disco wars on Balloon Juice?
NotMax
Prehistoric Disco Valley.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Lowdown has a disco feel to it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: The Beatles were only offered 3K to appear on SNL.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I remember the bit where Lorne Michaels pulls a check for $1,000 out of his pocket for George Harrison.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
Jeff Porcaro lays down quite the groove on Lowdown. Very much a disco/dance groove. My anecdotal evidence from those days is that song usually filled the dance floor.
prostratedragon
@Matt McIrvin: And also salsa, a big part of it. this band was right in the middle of it:
[Edited for remastered video link]
prostratedragon
@Brachiator: It was popular in the clubs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: Boz Scaggs, really?
James E Powell
@debbie:
George asking for his 1/4 cut when he appeared as the musical guest with host Paul Simon.
Always thought he was the funniest Beatle.
NotMax
Hadn’t realized the artist behind one of the tunes played incessantly at discos succumbed to COVID last year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Just remember folk, Newt has Dancing Queen as his ringtone.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Yeah, he was one of the first notables, early 2020.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Isn’t that the epitome of disco??? Or did I sleep through the 70s?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: The BeeGees or Andy Gibb, maybe. I hear my share of disco every day at work.
ETA: The Home Depot playlist is very interesting, mostly from 1970-1981, but some omissions. No Queen, only one McCartney song(Goodnight Tonight), very odd.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Wouldn’t that be Disco Duck?
:)
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
TELL ME THIS IS NOT DISCO. JUST TRY TO TELL ME THAT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-hKBmTAADo
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: It’s not disco.
Matt McIrvin
Lots of bands that weren’t really disco bands experimented with the sound in that period. I mean, there were songs by the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead that had elements of disco in them. Blondie wasn’t really a disco act, but “Heart of Glass” (as released) has this big disco sound and it was a huge hit. It was in the air.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Also, even if that were disco, I don’t think you can say based on one song that the artist is a disco artist. Would you say McCartney is a disco artist because of ‘Goodnight Tonight’ or the Stones because of ‘Emotional Rescue’?
Ken
Don’t forget Bach, Beethoven, and Rimsky-Korsakov when listing disco artists.
(And a few dozen others. Walter Murphy wasn’t a one-hit wonder, but he turned into a bit of a one-trick pony.)
Geoduck
It’s really sad, that after 40 years, people still feel they have to apologize for enjoying ABBA music.
Jager
@zhena gogolia:
My wife uses Dancing Queen as her ring tone and she could be those girls’ grandmother.
Jager
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I told my wife, Newt uses Dancing Queen, so she changed her ring tone instantly…now she’s upset, muttering something that sounds like “that miserable son of a bitch”
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Origuy: why didn’t they deploy it in the cola wars
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
Yep. Exactly.
JimV
I’m not sure what sophisticated musical taste is, if it doesn’t include the great music ABBA made. Are there actually people in the Western world who don’t like it? I can remember the first time I heard them on a car radio (“Waterloo”). I hope that is my last memory as I die. Or maybe “Dancing Queen”. I’d settle for a random selection.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The Stones “Miss You” also has a disco feel.
And there is nothing wrong with being a disco artist. Or doing disco songs. Nothing to defend.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator: But to return to the original point — Abba was not disco. Not a single song.
prostratedragon
Late disco from Sylvester:
“Do You Wanna Funk with Me?”
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Who cares? Abba didn’t seem to be connected to any particular genre. Some of their stuff was very danceable, I think.
prostratedragon
Peak Sylvester, with The Wash Sisters, 1978:
Show how much less silo’d things were back then, this was an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show.
...now I try to be amused
It reminds me of the Frank Zappa hologram tour.
mrmoshpotato
I think we can all agree that without bones, no one is dancing to anything.
Hooray for bones!
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Sez you.
;)
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@John H. McDonald:
in the end the payment was small potatoes
NotMax
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Concert broadcast on YouTuber?
:)
Mai Naem mobile
I’ve always been an ABBA fan. There’s something to be said for well constructed pop songs and they have a lot of good pop songs. Several years ago,Sirius XM had one of their channels become all ABBA for the month – some of the stuff I learned – There have been academic studies of ABBA songs and why they’re so catchy, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite song is Dancing Queen and at their peak ABBA was a bigger export for Sweden than Volvo. Anyhow, I thought one of the reasons they turned down the offer to regroup a few years ago was because one of the guys had Alzheimers or some kind of dementia?
Mo MacArbie
Peak disco
Ramalama
@Chetan Murthy: Hey ear candy for me can sometimes also be Cesaria Evora. I think a few of her songs are gold, but Petit Pays is a perfect song. I happened to hear a rendition of it while walking my dog ‘downtown.’ I live in a small french town that’s kind of depressed. Empty buildings on the main drag. But this guy comes out occasionally and plays a rusty sounding trumpet accompanied to recorded music at the center. Amplified. I don’t pay him much attention because his dog does not like my dog.
But yesterday he was playing this song, and I felt for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7w1MNsGtRE
Chris Johnson
This thread got me relistening to my Ace of Base FLAC :) I mean, if you want Scandinavian…
Got to love how both the biggest hits off The Sign use the same vaguely drum-and-bass kick drum hesitation, and major-to-minor (or vice versa) trick. It only goes to show, I think.
It reminds me of how you can tell a lot about a drummer by whether they’re really impressed with the James Brown drummers Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks… there’s a whole language in there. And those Ace of Base tracks are absolute fluff, but at the same time the big ones have this addictive triplet-over-sixteenths feel that’s actually quite weird :)
Ramalama
@Mai Naem mobile: Bjorn has said in recent years that he has no memory of earlier ABBA moments, like when they won Eurovision. I’m not sure there’s a report that he’s been diagnosed with anything. His wife has lymphoma.
Uncle Cosmo
When I was a Hoppie, I don’t recall a single course in dramatic arts, or music, or for that matter any sort of art (other than History of Art) – let alone a department or major. They had (still have, I think) a little theatre (“the Barn”), but strictly voluntary and extracurricular.
(I’ll give the Hop this, though – when you’re a small school [<2000 undergrads] you’re better off doing very well the few things you really want to do & passing on the rest. It doesn’t hurt if you can artificially inflate your reputation by association with the med school – particularly if you can con naive kids into enrolling as pre-meds thinking it’s the easiest way to get into the medical school, when in fact it’s probably the hardest. There’s a reason why the Johns Hopkins term for “wonk/grind” is “throat” – short for cutthroat – premeds sabotaging their competition by any means possible is a time-honored tradition…)
My brother majored in art at Towson, and parlayed the degree plus his abundant skills and a level head for business into a career as half of a successful graphic design shop. Yay for Towson!
Ramalama
Here’s another perfect song. Pop. The lyrics kind of make no sense to me but they work perfectly with the song. I thought of Talk Talk as a studio band. Heavy on synths. But this live performance is so good because of seeming disparate elements (well, electric + non) played by master musicians, especially the guys on percussion and the mullet man on 6-string. But really everyone’s killing it here.
Chris Johnson
I also just went down a rabbithole that really shook me, revisiting the stories of how some of Ace of Base were literal Nazis. I think it’s ‘woke’ in a good sense that I can’t go far with enjoying that music without remembering there was a sting in the tail.
It’s actually reminding me of Innuendo Studios’ videos on alt-right recruitment. As near as I can tell, the fourth guy in the band Ulf (the others were all siblings) was in a REALLY toxic Nazi skinhead band. I’m not clear on whether he wrote the horrifying lyrics or how much of a fellow traveler he was: he denies it but Nazis lie so that means absolutely nothing for or against. Impossible to tell.
As far as Ace of Base lyrics, if you stretch you can insist ‘All That She Wants’ is about a Jewish woman wanting to breed Jewish babies… or that it’s about a woman picking up hot guys to have sex with, no darker motive needed.
And ‘The Sign’s fluffiness could hide a parable of why and how Ulf LEFT the Nazis and took up with the pop band instead. ‘life is demanding, without understanding’ ‘take you up into the light where you belong… but where do you belong?’ makes sense when you know that chud lifestyles are DARK, terrorized, and miserable. Little wonder somebody would step back from the woodchipper and try to hide their dark past among a fluffy pop band… only to be found out. Do you let ’em recant, or once a Nazi forever a Nazi eternally trying to hide Nazi messages and subvert people into their misery and fear?
Fuckin’ politics, man. Sometimes being woke is very wearying. I’m going to take a shower… and a nap.