Voulez Vous?

Ever since it was annouced that Swedish Supergroup ABBA was being inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame, I've been holding a tiny glimmer of hope in my heart that the band reuinites. Yes, I know that Frida is married to a prince, and Agnetha is hiding somewhere as a total recluse, but if The Police and The Eagles and even the frigging Pixies can find a way to bury the hatchet, anything is possible.

Then, I read this article in the London Times.

See, I love ABBA. Love. Adore. Without even the slightest shred of irony. For me, they are up there in my Pantheon of all-time greats. I discovered them in the 8th grade, around the time Muriel's Wedding and Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert came out, and they experienced a resurgence and released the hits compilations ABBA GOLD and MORE GOLD (both of which I own and are on my ipod). I don't know if it was the general media hype, the fact Bono and Edge said they liked them in an interview I read (I was eyebrow deep in my U2 obsession at the time), or even the fact that my mom said my Swedish-American Aunt used to play them for me when I was a wee thing and I loved them even then. But, after hearing the songs and buying the cd, I was hooked.

To say that 8th grade was an awful year was like saying the Black Plague killed a few people. But one of the few things that made the year tolerable was music, and ABBA was a HUGE part of that. It's hard to stay depressed when you have sweet harmonies and beautiful orchestrations in your ear. Plus, I was really into rollerblading at the time, and made myself a tape of the GOLD cd to use in my walkman for morning skating sessions in Marine Park (we did that a lot that summer).

Over the years, the love never waned. If anything, it only got stronger. (I've even managed to see ABBA: The Movie! It's terrible, hilariously so. Watch it if it's on VH1 classic late one night, but don't go out of your way.) It's nice to see them enjoying a bit of a critical reconsideration, because the music is honestly beautifully done - symphonic, danceable, produced with amazing skill back when the kind of production technology we have now was a distant dream. The vocals were perfect. And it's impossible to stay in a bad mood when some of those songs come on. (Note: I said some. Do not listen to "Winner Takes It All" during a breakup unless you're in the market for a good cry.) I've seen ABBA tribute bands. I was Frida for Halloween (next to blergeatkitty's perfect Agnentha). I've sang ABBA at karaoke (again, with blergeatkitty, usually). I even paid to see the excreable movie version of the jukebox musical Mama Mia. (Meryl Streep was the only one who managed to survive that steaming pile unscathed, as she is awesome. But really, that movie made Xanadu look like An American in Paris.)

The idea, even the hope, that I could possibly see all four ORIGINAL MEMBERS of one of the greatest quartets in history perform live? I could explode wtih glee, joy and wonder. Short of zombie John & George coming back from the great beyond and reforming the Beatles, this would be the kind of show where I would't CARE what the tickets cost. I wouldn't care if I sat in the very last row. The idea I could actually see ABBA live? Is too much.

Voulez Vous?

Ever since it was annouced that Swedish Supergroup ABBA was being inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame, I've been holding a tiny glimmer of hope in my heart that the band reuinites. Yes, I know that Frida is married to a prince, and Agnetha is hiding somewhere as a total recluse, but if The Police and The Eagles and even the frigging Pixies can find a way to bury the hatchet, anything is possible.

Then, I read this article in the London Times.

See, I love ABBA. Love. Adore. Without even the slightest shred of irony. For me, they are up there in my Pantheon of all-time greats. I discovered them in the 8th grade, around the time Muriel's Wedding and Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert came out, and they experienced a resurgence and released the hits compilations ABBA GOLD and MORE GOLD (both of which I own and are on my ipod). I don't know if it was the general media hype, the fact Bono and Edge said they liked them in an interview I read (I was eyebrow deep in my U2 obsession at the time), or even the fact that my mom said my Swedish-American Aunt used to play them for me when I was a wee thing and I loved them even then. But, after hearing the songs and buying the cd, I was hooked.

To say that 8th grade was an awful year was like saying the Black Plague killed a few people. But one of the few things that made the year tolerable was music, and ABBA was a HUGE part of that. It's hard to stay depressed when you have sweet harmonies and beautiful orchestrations in your ear. Plus, I was really into rollerblading at the time, and made myself a tape of the GOLD cd to use in my walkman for morning skating sessions in Marine Park (we did that a lot that summer).

Over the years, the love never waned. If anything, it only got stronger. (I've even managed to see ABBA: The Movie! It's terrible, hilariously so. Watch it if it's on VH1 classic late one night, but don't go out of your way.) It's nice to see them enjoying a bit of a critical reconsideration, because the music is honestly beautifully done - symphonic, danceable, produced with amazing skill back when the kind of production technology we have now was a distant dream. The vocals were perfect. And it's impossible to stay in a bad mood when some of those songs come on. (Note: I said some. Do not listen to "Winner Takes It All" during a breakup unless you're in the market for a good cry.) I've seen ABBA tribute bands. I was Frida for Halloween (next to blergeatkitty's perfect Agnentha). I've sang ABBA at karaoke (again, with blergeatkitty, usually). I even paid to see the excreable movie version of the jukebox musical Mama Mia. (Meryl Streep was the only one who managed to survive that steaming pile unscathed, as she is awesome. But really, that movie made Xanadu look like An American in Paris.)

The idea, even the hope, that I could possibly see all four ORIGINAL MEMBERS of one of the greatest quartets in history perform live? I could explode wtih glee, joy and wonder. Short of zombie John & George coming back from the great beyond and reforming the Beatles, this would be the kind of show where I would't CARE what the tickets cost. I wouldn't care if I sat in the very last row. The idea I could actually see ABBA live? Is too much.