"In my honest opinion we looked like nuts in those years. Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were." - Björn Ulvaeus.
It is fifty years this weekend since Abba stormed the previously stuffy old Eurovision Song Contest (held in 1974 in the UK's gayest city, Brighton, aptly enough), and embarked on a world-conquering musical journey in the process. Suffice to say, nothing quite like them nor their song Waterloo had ever been seen before...
My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
My, my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger
Oh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
So how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose -
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
Half a century agop? Gawd, I am old...
ABBA was on of those groups that while I'd never buy one of their records (yeah, I'm that old) I STILL can't listen to them without metaphorically dancing around to the tunes! xoxo
ReplyDeleteI think we're all of a generation when being "anti-Abba" was the thing to be (especially during the Punk and post-Punk eras), but I have said it before, and I'll say it again - just about everyone knows all of their hits, word-for-word! Jx
DeleteABBA's fashion sense was The Spinal Tap of white bread pop music.
ReplyDeleteThey brought Glam Rock to Eurovision for the first time, and really shook things up! Their image at the time was quite outlandish, but nothing quite as OTT as what the likes of Elton John, Sweet, Wizzard or Slade were wearing at the time. Jx
DeleteI remember hearing that since they didn't speak English, they had to learn the lyrics phonetically. Looks like that's how they learned to dance too.
ReplyDeleteHa! They were to many people at the time - including the UK jury at Eurovision in 1974, who gave them nil points - a bit oif a "joke". They went on to become second only to Volvo as Sweden's biggest export, so the joke was on the critics in the end! Jx
DeleteI love reading what Björn Ulvaeus had to see looking back. They DID look like nuts, didn’t they? But they were brilliant nuts.
ReplyDeleteThey were so musically meticulous, taking up to five days to do the multiple overdubs and production for every track, that their resultant catalogue of classic songs allowed them to rise above any criticism of how daft they looked... Jx
Delete"There was something in the air that night..."
ReplyDeleteThere was something in the wardrobe that night, more like! Jx
Deletehahahaha. Dear gods! Whoever dressed them should have been pilloried!
DeleteMeet the "the flamenco-dancing-zoologist-designer" behind the costumes!
DeleteApparently, there's more to the story - because their stage costumes were so outlandish that they could never be called "day wear", the canny Abba lot were able to deduct them all from tax! They are nothing if not great businessmen... Jx
They did look awful and very out of fashion at the time, so much so I think the UK gave them 0 points.
ReplyDeleteThey were however Fab U Lous and still are. They are amazing and all I can say is -
So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs 'your' singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance, what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me
There aren't many bands who have sustained a career for half a decade - and I can't imagine many of the current generation doing so, either. Jx
DeleteI'm of the generation that remembers Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson, so yes, ABBA definitely marked a shift in the whole Eurovision phenomenon - indeed, perhaps they were what made it a phenomenon. (I do wish they could cut back the final show to 12-15 acts, but I suppose that would mean extra elimination rounds dragging on over a fortnight or more).
ReplyDeleteSing Little Birdie, Sing! Bless 'em - they both lived to ripe old age [see more here]. Jx
DeletePS The contest does take a hell of a long time to get through all the participating acts, then the votes, then the interminable visits to every one of the representatives of each country's jury - but yes, if they had more elimination rounds, it could drag on for weeks!