Jim Colyer

Click on ABBA for pictures.

I have been an ABBA fan since I first heard them. They are the brightest, freshest thing to come out of the rock era. Their music articulates. It lends itself to interpretation. It functions on many levels, from the juvenile to the mature. There are tidbits of the psychological, sociological and spiritual.

What does ABBA music mean? What do they sing about? Basically, their music is about men and women striving in the real world. It is about love, making mistakes and trying again. True, the characters are flawed, but they are the first to admit it. They strive honestly and sincerely in the midst of the human condition. Forgiveness and compassion are hallmarks.

ABBA music reflects that slice of humanity between ages 10 and 40. It speaks of friends, school, military service and work. Work is routine but serves as a means of coping with stress. ABBA lyrics show us the best in people although the darker side is not neglected. The listener is showered with an array of opposites, subjective responses to given situations.

Dualities are: men/women, life/death, strength/weakness, daylight/darkness, joy/sorrow, freedom/confinement, inspiration/gloom, courage/self-doubt, warm/cold, sun/rain. The video of One Man, One Woman illustrates our opposing natures. The faces of the singers are shown half lit, half in darkness. Still, ABBA leaves us with a positive feeling. The overall impression is that everything will be alright. ABBA's tolerance may be linked to their country's foreign policy. Sweden has been at peace for 194 years. The Swedes have ties with NATO but maintain neutrality.

The self-containment of ABBA is typical of the Swedes. As a people, they are reserved and friendly. There are 8 1/2 million of them, and they have a high social consciousness. Their capital city of Stockholm is built on 14 islands.

Sweden's geographical location influenced the music. Northern latitudes bring long summer days and long winter nights. ABBA is conscious of the seasons as well as seasonal changes in human emotions. Allusions are: "Where is the spring and the summer," The summer air was soft and warm," "autumn chill" and "in the winter night."

With ABBA, music is not an end in itself, but a device for dealing with life. It is practical. Still, there is an aesthetic side. Their music as a whole looms like a tapestry. Many of the songs are like paintings, full of detail, light and shadow.

The group sings of magic: "It's magic," You can do magic," "Something like a magic spell." These incantations describe the feeling of being in love.

There are references to angels. What are their reasons for invoking these angels? Obviously, they are good omens. They imply innocence. They are fleeting. An angel may be an idea for a song.

Experiencing ABBA's music is like a day at the zoo. Animals are all around. There are species from all five groups of vertebrates except amphibians. There are no frogs or toads. Here is a list of animals they have assembled in their musical menagerie. It is along evolutionary lines.

Animal........................Source..........................................Comment

MAMMALS......................................................................4,000 species
Doggone beast...........Honey Honey..................................Human sexuality
The beast.................. Soldiers..........................................Killing instinct
Gorilla....................... King Kong Song.............................Gorillas are apes. No tails.
Monkey......................Sitting In The Palm Tree..................Monkeys have tails
Dogs..........................Super Trouper songbook.................Poodles
Fox........................... Frida's costume..............................Fox on green costume
Tiger..........................Tiger..............................................Two species: Bengal & Manchurian
Cat............................ Just Like That................................Compares her lover to a cat
Horse........................ Put On Your White Sombrero..........Hoofed mammals are ungulates.
Calf............................I Am The City.................................Fatted calf
Sheep........................ABBA In Australia..........................Sheep ranches drive Australia's economy.
Rabbit........................Agnetha's costume........................Rabbit on red costume
Kangaroo...................Cover of the album..........................Kangaroos and opossums are marsupials.
Opossum...................ABBA In Australia..........................Marsupials are primitive mammals, carrying their young in pouches.
BIRDS............................................................................8,700 species
Birds of passage........When All Is Said And Done.............Human migration
Pretty birds................Take A Chance On Me...................Slang for girls in England
First Birds..................SummerNight City..........................Benny did an album about bird song in Sweden.
Eagle.........................Eagle, That's Me............................The eagle is a U.S. symbol.
Dove..........................That's Me.......................................Bird of peace
Cockatoo...................ABBA In Australia...........................Species of parrot
Bluebirds...................Tropical Loveland............................I was a birdwatcher.
Seagulls.....................Move On.......................................Seagulls in Stockholm Harbor
Snowbird....................Dance (While The Music Still).........Anne Murray song
Duck.................... .....Lay All Your Love On Me................Sitting duck

Reptiles and fish are on the endangered list. The only reptile is the diamond snake Bjorn calls Fernando in ABBA In Australia. The lone fish is the goldfish in Elaine.

Invertebrates are represented. There is a spider in Man In The Middle. It has eight legs, not to be confused with the six-legged insects. The butterflies of Andante, Andante are insects. Agnetha hangs a butterfly picture in the One Of Us video.

What about technique? Look at the contour of ABBA's music. The early albums progressed from Beatle influences to the funky sounds of the mid-1970s. This still was not them. ABBA hit their stride in the disco wave of the late 70s. By then, they were producing tightly honed numbers backed by a pulsating beat. Lyrics became sophisticated. The final albums are rich in meaning. If Ring Ring is naive, Super Trouper and The Visitors probe life's complexities.

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus are the best songwriters pop music ever produced. Bjorn's lyrics flow naturally from the mood and melody of each piece. Suspended and diminished chords accent nuances. Benny's keyboard work is convoluted, yet supportive of the vocals. The innovative drumming of disco makes the drums a true instrument. The sound is a heartbeat!

As writers, Benny and Bjorn usually stick to the double verse and double chorus formula. Bridges are used sparingly. There is repetition in the titles, two or three words: Honey Honey, Andante Andante, Money Money Money, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Titles consist of a sentence, a phrase or a single word. The tempo is best described as a moderate rock shuffle.

Rhyme schemes are conventional: sad bad, you true and do. There is imaginative rhyming such as caviar with fat cigar. The idea of the song is never forfeited for the sake of rhyme, and this is important. A good song has a core. It is about something, not a string of rhymed cliches. It tells a story or expresses an emotion from a unique angle.

ABBA made language the servant of experience. Their lyrics are not gimmicky. "I was so lonesome. I was blue. I couldn't help it. It had to be you." This is real language. People talk this way.

Fernando is so well-written. Alliteration comes easy. All those Fs!: "fight for freedom, feel, friend, fire, Fernando." Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds, and ABBA lyrics abound with it. Look at the Ws in Waterloo: "Waterloo, won the war, wanted to, win when I lose." This gives concreteness to a song. ABBA rhymes entire phrases. Miraculously, the recurring sounds never interfere.

Something else they do is to use a word twice with a second or even two or three or four words between them.

Every hour, every minute
Knowing Me, Knowing You
One man, One woman
feeling lost, feeling blue
A nowhere lane, a nowhere train
People need hope, people need loving
Two friends and two true lovers
The usual place, the usual bunch
Building me a fence, building me a home
A horrible dream some of us will dream
Kiss like I used to kiss you

ABBA's early songs reflect the stage. The lyrics are direct, communicative. Their later stuff is studio oriented. Benny and Bjorn became observers. They wrote about people rather than to people. The energy of the early years went into content.

Many of the songs are long: Eagle 5:51, The Day Before You Came 5:50, The Visitors 5:49. The longer ones appear on the later albums. The whole continuum is a profusion of melody, caressing the vocals from all sides. All the tracks: guitars, keyboards, bass, horns and drums revel in this celebration of melody. They emanate from it; lacy, decorative, female!

It is hard work and purpose, knowing your music and your musicians. Such unity in the production is why ABBA's music will last.

I did an analysis of 110 ABBA songs, dividing them into nine categories. The categories cut across the albums. This came about after concentrated listening over time. Certain songs point to and coalesce with other songs with similar themes.

The 110 songs fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Once connected, they form a picture of youth. When ABBA closes their eyes in Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, they are passing into middle age. The creative fires burn low from then on.

The nine categories, simplified, are: 1)Love songs 2)Breaking up 3)Reconciliation 4)War 5)Portraits of women 6)Music 7)Night life 8)Childhood 9)Travel



LOVE SONGS - SEXUAL FULFILLMENT

1 BANG-A-BOOMERANG - We get love because we give it. Lyrics are reminiscent of the Elvis songs: Surrender and Return To Sender. ABBA followed Elvis and The Beatles. Whereas The Beatles failed in bringing their wives into the group, ABBA succeeded. ABBA was the Swedish Fab Four.

2 GONNA SING YOU MY LOVESONG - Jockeying for position in a love triangle. ABBA did an abundance of positive songs, those which show life to be good and love to be attainable. It is uncertain what effect a writer's lyrical content has on his life and the lives of others, but satisfying relationships ought to be advertised.

3 HE IS YOUR BROTHER - Humanitarian love. Concern for one's fellow man was a popular theme as public opinion turned against the Vietnam War.

4 HONEY HONEY - Sexy. She wants to know more. He kisses her and does his thing. The love machine thrills her, leaving her dizzy.

5 I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO - Five times. Count them. They are remarkably tolerant. No hard feelings.

6 I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU - Agnetha is in ecstasy. She uses words like "thrill, excite, delight, and adore." ABBA means love.

7 JUST A NOTION - Watching and touching. Just A Notion came out on the box set, Thank You For The Music, as part of the Undeleted medley.

8 KISSES OF FIRE - Burning, burning! No returning! A landslide! Moment of orgasm!

9 LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME - Total love but to a fault, as jealousy and possessiveness set in. She resents how easily she was taken. This continues the train of thought in Kisses Of Fire. Smoking is a vice Agnetha gave up after a tonsil operation.

10 LOVELIGHT - The glow which comes from being in love. The verses leading into the choruses illustrate the contrast between darkness and light. The choruses radiate.

11 LOVERS (LIVE A LITTLE LONGER) - Links sex with longevity. Making love is what the doctor ordered, and we have a lady physician. Writing from the female point of view, Benny and Bjorn show an understanding and a deep appreciation of women. They are masters of feminine psychology.

12 PEOPLE NEED LOVE - The first real ABBA song. They combine love, trust, faith and hope. Women are compared to flowers. They need men like flowers need rain. The sexuality is implicit. The flower is a vagina. The rain is semen.

13 ROCK ME - Epithet for making love. ABBA songs display a wide range of feelings, always with the utmost taste.

14 SHE'S MY KIND OF GIRL - Bjorn could be singing about Agnetha early in their relationship. We hear the Beatle influence on Benny and Bjorn before they came into their own.

15 TAKE A CHANCE ON ME - The idea of taking a chance is a recurring theme. Determination leads to success in love. The guys chant. I like the instrumentation coinciding with, "It's magic!" This went to number three in the States.

16 THE NAME OF THE GAME - Tentative but eager. Her lover helps her express herself. The horn accompaniment is interesting. For Benny and Bjorn, the game is Chess.

17 TROPICAL LOVELAND - ABBA's Garden of Eden: rainbow, moon, bluebirds, sky, grass, trees, song and love. An ode to nature.

18 UNDER MY SUN - The sun shines ubiquitously across this soundscape, not to be taken for granted in Scandinavia, that Super Trouper in the sky.



BREAKING UP - PARTING WAYS

1 ANGELEYES - The hollow feeling of being replaced contrasted with former feelings. We see the fickleness of love. I toured the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1977, the year of ABBA's breakthrough in the States. Their musical mosaic blends well with the paintings of 18th century France: AngelEyes, Dum Dum Diddle, Elaine. The frills and delicacies of Rococo.

2 ANOTHER TOWN, ANOTHER TRAIN - Can't settle down. A farewell letter. Cassandra also left in the morning rain.

3 DANCE (WHILE THE MUSIC STILL GOES ON) - ABBA's partings are just cases of love running its course. No one is to blame, and there is a mutual acceptance of the inevitable. One last dance and one more toast symbolize parting on friendly terms. Even so, there is sadness. Dance is a sketch of two people clinging to their last scrap of love.

4 DISILLUSION - Poignant and open. Her lover is no longer accessible. She feels the confusion which attends a broken romance: wishing, hoping, changing, wondering. The only ABBA song composed by Agnetha.

5 HAMLET III - Benny's stirring keyboard gives way to painful memories of "happy autumn days." A Michael Tretow working title.

6 I SAW IT IN THE MIRROR - His refection tells him it is over. Bjorn fancied himself a singer on the Ring Ring album.

7 IF IT WASN'T FOR THE NIGHTS - Active days, lonely nights. Temper tantrums cause fear. The women in this music have office jobs. They struggle to pay bills.

8 KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU - The empty house and familiar rooms imply divorce, incompatibility. Children are involved or maybe the couple played like children.

9 LIKE AN ANGEL PASSING THROUGH MY ROOM - Complex song. Themes converge. We find sleep, even death. The angel is the fading recollection of the ABBA years. The ticking of the clock shows passing time, a mingling of past and present. This is the last song on the last album, and there is a noticeable lack of warmth. We sense anxiety, "funny tricks of time" and resignation.

10 MERRY-GO-ROUND - Circle of falling in and out of love. Without love, life is meaningless.

11 MY LOVE, MY LIFE - Looks convey the unspoken. Eyes mirror the soul. Mirrors and reflections come up a lot. Even in the way their initials are written, the first B is a mirror image of the second B.

12 OUR LAST SUMMER - She has fond memories of her lover who settled down to a conventional life. She fears getting old. This unique song takes us to Paris. We visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre. Leonardo de Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Wellander's guitar is spectacular.

13 PUT ON YOUR WHITE SOMBRERO - Frida gives her macho Spaniard a tongue lashing.

14 SHOULD I LAUGH OR CRY - Sarcasm at the end, a hardness which is rare. It is a legitimate response to her partner becoming tyrannical. He vents. She feels contempt. She liked his small philosophy in Our Last Summer.

15 THE KING HAS LOST HIS CROWN - Mocking, taunting. The guy with the angel eyes gets his. Sweden has a monarchy. Kings and queens are always popping up. Carl Gustaf XVI is Sweden's king. Silvia is his queen. ABBA performed at their wedding.

16 WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE - Mature people going their own ways. A tribute to the human spirit. The musical blitz before, "It's so strange!" gets our attention.

17 WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME - He was serious. She was having fun. He curses his luck. The melody is from Happy Hawaii.



RECONCILIATION - BREAKING UP & MAKING UP

1 AS GOOD AS NEW - Restoration and continuance of a romance. This kind of retraction is typical. Leaving was a mistake.

2 CRAZY WORLD - He mistakes her brother for a boy friend. Misunderstandings occur even when people are in love.

3 DREAMWORLD - She is upset because her lover is unrealistic. She urges him to face reality. The background vocals drive the verses, contrasting with the rest of the song. There are all kinds of checks and balances in ABBA's music. Certain titles are jammed together to distract from what might appear as cliche: DreamWorld, SummerNight City, AngelEyes. Titles are secondary to their classical approach to rock and roll.

4 HASTA MANANA - The desire for reconciliation. Waiting for a letter. Spanish for "until tomorrow."

5 LOVE ISN'T EASY (BUT IT SURE IS HARD ENOUGH) - Love is something to work at. It must be periodically renewed. Country into.

6 MAMMA MIA - Realization that spats are par for the course and that love prevails. Number one in Britain. No one dreamed that this song would come to represent the ABBA catalog.

7 ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN - Reconciliation is mutual and immediate. Morning grumpiness within the context of commitment.

8 ONE OF US - Wistful, yearning. She thought her lover was holding her back. "One of us" may refer to her as opposed to him or to one part of her split personality.

9 RING RING - By the telephone, hoping. ABBA entered Ring Ring in the 1973 Eurovision contest and lost. Agnetha was glad they lost because she was pregnant. They won the Eurovision the following year in Brighton, England. Ring Ring was the title track on the first album. Their four names were on the cover. Stig had coined the acronym, ABBA, but first had to negotiate with a fish canning company of the same name. "ABBA" is a word for father in the Bible, appearing three times in the New Testament. Ring Ring was re-released following the Eurovision victory. Neil Sedaka wrote the English lyrics. Listen to Benny run his finger down the keyboard. It is called glissando.

10 SOS - Desire to recapture feelings and a cry for help. It could be Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls. A Baroque sound! ABBA drew from the rich tradition of European composers. They combined classical music with rock and roll. Classical chords lend a shimmering, resilient texture.

11 THE WAY OLD FRIENDS DO - Misunderstandings are inevitable between friends and lovers. They must be worked out if relationships are to continue. Are we speaking of the friendship between Agnetha and Frida? Is it the rapport between ABBA and their fans? Most likely, it is the longstanding friendship between Benny and Bjorn. Benny Andersson had the friendliest grin in the music business. Bjorn reminded me of Jimmy Carter, America's president at the time. This song is a hymn.



WAR - BATTLE OF THE SEXES - RESISTANCE & SURRENDER - INVASION - PURSUIT

1 FERNANDO - Mexican Revolution against Spain. The Spanish explored the New World in the 1500s. Their colonies broke with Spain just as America broke with Britain. Fernando is an inspiring song and a testament that friendship can endure into old age. It celebrates the romance of the stars, "They were shining there for you and me, for liberty." A scientist would only see hydrogen fusing into helium. ABBA did Spanish versions of several appropriate numbers, evidence of their international appeal. They were huge in South America.

2 SITTING IN THE PALMTREE - Humor. Pursuit accompanied by protest. On the Waterloo album, they turn people into monkeys and gorillas on back to back cuts.

3 SO LONG - Successful resistance. Her attitude toward money is different from that in Money Money Money. ABBA knew the value of money. They also recognized the importance of a strong work ethic. Note the keyboard riffs at the end.

4 SOLDIERS - War and rumors of war. The martial tone of the drumming is a sign of war. Dancing is combat. The song questions the relationship between reality and fantasy. Sometimes, it is hard to tell whether things have substance or are only happening in our minds. The spectacle of marching armies is taken for granted, as if nothing were wrong. The pale moonlight implies a cloud cover. Typical of the prophetic nature of The Visitors album.

5 THE VISITORS - Someone's home is being invaded. This song has political overtones with its secret meetings and hope of freedom. The KGB may be after a defector. Shades of Chess. It may be a paranoid Elvis cracking up at Graceland, Napoleon at Waterloo or King Kong being abducted from his island. I imagined the visitors to be in-laws. Contrast the isolation of The Visitors with the gregariousness of Eagle. The cover shows the space between the four members. They are unaware of each other.

6 THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL - Fate controlling our lives. There are cards and dice, winners and losers, judges and rules. Love is a gamble. This is the story of Agnetha's and Bjorn's divorce. Agnetha liked the way it rolls on with no beginning or ending.

7 UNDER ATTACK - Shaky resistance. No strategy. She is on the eve of Waterloo! Sexual images: taking cover, about to crack, on my track, defenses (hymen) breaking.

8 WATCH OUT - Pursuit. At first, the explosion at the end seems to be tacked on. Then we realize it is the man's penetration of the woman, the sound of an ejaculation amplified. Sexuality is at our core. It is a compelling part of our psychology. The penis seeks out the vagina. The vagina longs for it. This is the most logical, well thought out music ever. Every note has meaning. The Sexual Revolution began with Elvis and continued through The Beatles and ABBA.

9 WATERLOO - Battle of the sexes compared to the Napoleonic Wars. The woman surrenders. The difference is that she likes it. Waterloo is in Belgium. Napoleon was defeated there in 1815, after escaping from Elba. Following Waterloo, he was exiled on the island of St. Helena. Both Napoleon and ABBA are associated with islands. Waterloo reached number six in the States.

10 YOU OWE ME ONE - Frida is resisting. She wants Benny to send her on a vacation. Spending time in the Swedish archipelago, it is no surprise that islands creep up in their music, whether it be the Bahamas or Hawaii.



PORTRAITS OF WOMEN

1 A SIMPLE FOUR LETTER WORD - Doing comedy, ribbing each other. Each member introduces and describes him or herself.

2 CASSANDRA - Cassandra prophesied the fall of Troy. The visitors were the Greeks. This could be with the war songs. Troy and ABBA fall together. The final hour!

3 ELAINE - Study in frustration: dead-end street, goldfish in a bowl, tied hands and feet. No reason for the frustration is given.

4 HEAD OVER HEELS - A motivated lady in an age of women's liberation. Some situations call for assertiveness: pushing through unknown jungles, pushing through the darkness and pushing through the crowd.

5 HEY HEY HELEN - Single parent. She bought her freedom but will one day sing Slipping Through My Fingers. Hey Hey ABBA!

6 I AM JUST A GIRL - Similar to Thank You For The Music except that her consolation is a boy friend rather than talent. Shows humility and self-acceptance. Average people can find love.

7 JUST LIKE THAT - The girl in The Day Before You Came. It is remarkable the way they blend such clever lyrics with a smooth melody. Even with a lot of words and heavy rhyming, the recurring sounds do not interfere with the emotion or idea of the song. Agnetha delivers that yearning, aching feeling, sharing both her triumphs and disappointments. The women in ABBA's songs cherish their private lives. They guard secrets, and it is by these secrets, probably sexual, that they identify their innermost selves.
1 "They wouldn't know her little secrets" - Nina, Pretty Ballerina
2 "Secrets that my paradise can bring" - Tropical Loveland
3 "Suffer and sell our secrets" - Cassandra
4 "My secrets he learned" - Just Like That
There is a desire to open up on one hand and a fear of doing so on the other. Raphael Ravenscroft played the twisting, winding saxophone.

8 ME AND I - This is Carrie contemplating her split personality. Sigmund Freud invented psychoanalysis. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." 19th century guys.

9 MONEY MONEY MONEY - She dreams of a wealthy man and winning a fortune, both unrealistic. Las Vegas is her goal. ABBA has a way of voicing the hopes and fears of average people. That they made big money was well-publicized. The joke was that they did more for the Swedish economy than Volvo. ABBA paid taxes far beyond what they would have, had they been an American group. Their loyalty was rewarded when Sweden issued a stamp in their honor.

10 NINA, PRETTY BALLERINA - Working girl lives for the weekend. Like Cinderella, she goes from a drab existence to her night out.

11 THAT'S ME - Carrie wants love but knows she is not perfect. The eagle is masculine. The dove is feminine. They complement one another. I like the banjo.

12 THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME - Hour by hour description of the daily routine. The workaday world is dull. Agnetha's aversion to politics is seen in the frown brought on by the editorial. Perhaps she is displeased by a particular brand of politics. She likes Dallas. Dallas was television's number one show during the later ABBA years. Benny and Bjorn drew from the machinations of J.R. and Sue Ellen. Chinese was the favorite food of Dallas character Cliff Barnes. The best episodes were in the first two years. They should have let J.R. die when he got shot and ended it. Marilyn French was a women's novelist. Topicalities date material. The Day Before You Came was the last song ABBA recorded: August 20, 1982.

13 TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE - Portrays both a woman and a man. We see the extent to which Alice Whiting will go to get a husband. The piece ends with a wedding march even while we get the feeling that marriage is a trap. No mistaking the humor. Our protagonist works in a train station. Trains are a major mode of transportation in ABBA, another idiosyncrasy of European/Scandinavian lyricists.



MUSIC

1 ANDANTE ANDANTE - Fulfillment of the woman's wish in Dum Dum Diddle. The man plays her like an instrument. Andante means slowly, and that is how she wants it: eye contact and foreplay. He covers her like the night. Music and sex are synonymous.

2 DUM DUM DIDDLE - The woman wants to be played like an instrument. Her feminine figure is violin-shaped.

3 HOLE IN YOUR SOUL - Music makes us feel better. ABBA addresses their critics, defending their romanticism and their eclectic taste. Songwriting compares to painting.

4 I HAVE A DREAM - Power of the creative imagination in helping us achieve our goals. Inspiration comes from songs, fantasies and fairy tales. Patience is a virtue since things only happen when the time is right. ABBA's emphasis on family makes them ideal for children. As part of the 1979 tour, they used a children's choir for I Have A Dream. It is Frida's answer to Thank You For The Music.

5 I LET THE MUSIC SPEAK - More than a song about songwriting, this piece explores the nature of creativity itself. It sees the composer as a medium through which music passes. It assumes music (art) to have a pre-existence and that we merely tune into it. The song hints at music's capacity to enhance reality and to reconcile. Note the imagery. Streets take the artist from the city into the country. Dry leaves imply death. She is lost in a valley, a depression, blind. Her inspiration is gone. Sleep, death or writer's block. Then music rescues her. Again, the sexual imagery. Music is her lover. "I take it to me and let it flow through me." Music is life itself, the voice of God! This is ABBA's most elegant song. Music, painting and poetry become one.

6 INTERMEZZO NO 1 - An affair. Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman starred in a film called "Intermezzo." She played a music teacher in love with a violinist.

7 KING KONG SONG - Songwriting. In the original King Kong, there is a scene with natives draped in gorilla skins. "We can make gorillas out of people." An interesting note is that in the original, Kong climbs the Empire State Building. In the 1976 remake, he ascends the World Trade Center. In the post-9/11 remake, he again climbs the Empire State Building. Kong is mentioned in I'm A Marionette. Like ABBA and Napoleon, he is an islander. Agnetha bears a resemblance to Fay Wray.

8 MEDLEY (PICK A BALE OF COTTON, ON TOP OF OLD SMOKY, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL) - For cancer research and the B-side of SummerNight City. Frida gives me goose bumps when she breaks into On Top Of Old Smoky.

9 OPUS 10 - Was this the instrumental title track for the 1982 album which never materialized? It became Anthem in Chess.

10 RIKKY ROCK 'N' ROLLER - Rikky is having fun, still making her first million.

11 ROCK 'N' ROLL BAND - Music unites people and brings happiness. ABBA songs contain scenarios with action between characters. Blueprint for Voulez-Vous.

12 RUBBER BALL MAN - Galloping bass and swishing, slapping drums of disco. The age of polyester.

13 SUPER TROUPER - Bjorn admits the discomforts of touring and performing before large audiences. One special person is worth an audience of 20,000. The Super Trouper is the big spotlight. ABBA is a trouper for going on with the show. Acappella intro.

14 THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC - Discovery and celebration of talent. Modesty and gratitude.

Musical instruments in ABBA songs:
Tom-tom - King Kong Song
Tambourine - Dancing Queen
Guitar - Fernando
Violin - Dum Dum Diddle
Fiddle - Dum Dum Diddle
Pipe - The Piper
Horns - Soldiers
Bugle - Soldiers
Drums - Soldiers

15 THE PIPER - The power of music over an audience. Is the piper the spirit of music which ABBA is following? Is Napoleon the piper? That the piper seduced everybody in the land suggests that he may not be so nice. Sweden managed to stay out of World War II. Norway, Frida's home land, was overrun by the Germans. In which case, we might think of the piper as Adolf Hitler. We have all seen the tapes of Hitler's harangues at Nazi rallies. The fire in his eyes! Weapons of fear were Communism, the Jews and the specter of depression haunting the world in the 1930s. Such horrors were something baby boomers could not fathom.



NIGHT LIFE

1 DANCING QUEEN - The young girl gets out for some innocent fun. ABBA was at the root of disco-mania even if this fact is not generally recognized in America. Dancing Queen was their only number one record in the States. Besides being the biggest act western Europe had ever seen, their music penetrated and had a liberalizing effect on the countries of the Soviet bloc.

2 GIMME! GIMME! GIMME! (A MAN AFTER MIDNIGHT) - Desire for action and the fear of being left out. She laments the gap between her life and the lives of movie stars. Movie stars appear in Honey Honey, DreamWorld and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Our preoccupation is with their glamorous lives.

3 HAPPY NEW YEAR - The disillusionment which follows a celebration. Dreams are realized, and confetti is on the floor. We look to the future. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" was a futuristic nightmare." Huxley picked his title from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." "O brave new world that has such people in it!" exclaims Miranda. And would you believe "The Tempest" takes place on an island? And that Miranda and Ferdinand play chess?

4 MAN IN THE MIDDLE - The pimp's 17-year-old is not the Dancing Queen. This is as close to street violence as we get. The man is evil, a spider in a cobweb. ABBA music is a course in human nature. Strong characters! Lobster and caviar tell us the importance of seafood to the Swedes.

5 ON AND ON AND ON - She talks to two men at a party. One is a pessimistic preacher. The other flirts with her. She wants to be picked up. Is this the party in Happy New Year? The displaced preacher foreshadows the Electronic Church. Human rights interest him more than the gospel.

6 SUMMERNIGHT CITY - Anticipation of a night on the town with the understanding that it cannot last. This and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! were on the heels of Voulez-Vous. ABBA was riding a wave. Disco was rampant with its throbbing, pulsating beat, and sexual encounters were easy.

7 TIGER - The tiger represents the dangers of night life. It could be alcoholism, prostitution or the loss of one's identity. The city is a jungle. Shadows take the tiger's shape. Headlights become his yellow eyes. Still, ABBA are city folk and cease to function without it.

8 VOULEZ-VOUS - Heat! A woman tells what it is like being picked up in a night club. It is ritual. She expects no promises and has no regrets. These rules are different from the ones in The Winner Takes It All. Plenty of the ahas which embellish ABBA's music.



CHILDHOOD - YOUTH

1 CHIQUITITA - Shows their capacity for sympathy, a shoulder to cry on. ABBA had a special relationship with children. They gave UNICEF the publishing on this song. When an article came out saying ABBA might move to America, children all over Sweden reacted with tears. Chiquitita mean little girl.

2 DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW - Young girl tempting a mature male. Is this the Dancing Queen biting off more than she can chew? The guy reminds himself of her age.

3 ME AND BOBBY AND BOBBY'S BROTHER - Longing for the innocence of youth. This is Suzy-Hang-Around after she got acceptance. I hear The Beatles' Penny Lane.

4 MY MAMMA SAID - Generation gap. The teenager wants out. Mother/daughter relationships are a frequent theme although rebellion plays a small part. Mainly, ABBA's music serves as a mirror in which the mainstream can view itself.

5 SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS - A mother expresses sadness that her daughter is growing up. She wonders if she has done all she could. Family first!

6 SUZY-HAND-AROUND - Prepubescent battles. The innocence of the Ring Ring and Waterloo albums is disarming. The one song on which Benny sings the lead.

7 WHEN I KISSED THE TEACHER - The girl with the absent-minded smile. It is okay if her kiss causes embarrassment. The beauty of ABBA's music is that it shows people in real life situations. Three songs cover three levels of education. The girls in Slipping Through My Fingers and When I Kissed The Teacher are in elementary and high school. Annie in Hole In Your Soul is in college.



TRAVEL - EXPLORATION - CHANGE - MOVEMENT

1 ARRIVAL - Two instrumentals were released. This one heralded their arrival on the international music scene. It sounds like bagpipes.

2 EAGLE - ABBA is out of the studio and on the world tour which took them to Australia. Air travel turns them into eagles. Geology becomes reality: mountains, forests and seas. Who came flying from far away? Was it the Vikings? Was it Swedish emigrants? Was it ABBA? Eagle conveys the amazement of young people who have burst out and are seeing the world for the first time. The Vikings discovered America in 1006 A.D., centuries before Columbus. Leif Ericsson sailed to Newfoundland. Norse mythology was the religion of these Scandinavian explorers, and they told stories of their gods: Odin, Thor, Baldur and Freya. Viking domination of Europe lasted between the 8th and 11th centuries, at which time Christianity was adopted. The Normans, or Norsemen, or Northmen, who invaded England in 1066 under William the Conqueror, were descended from Vikings who had settled on the northern coast of France. In the 19th century, a quarter of Sweden's population emigrated to America. The eagle is a U.S symbol, and ABBA knew their kind of music originated in America. It was the fulfillment of a dream when they cracked the American market. Listening through a headset, the guitar goes in one ear and out the other, an eagle flying through your head.

3 EVERY GOOD MAN NEEDS A HELPING HAND - The same melody as Heaven Help My Heart. Chess songs intended for ABBA embodied a cynicism foreign to the group.

4 GET ON THE CAROUSEL - Performed live in Australia in the mini-musical, The Girl With The Golden Hair.

5 HAPPY HAWAII - Excitement about taking a trip. I scan the lyrics for means of transportation. There is a car in So Long, a limousine in Man In The Middle, a plane in Happy Hawaii, a bus in On And On And On, a balloon in Should I Laugh Or Cry, a train in The Day Before You Came and a ship in Cassandra.

6 I AM THE CITY - ABBA's identification with the city is complete. The city throbs, and so does the beat. They are singing of Stockholm. The island city extends its invitation.

7 I WONDER (DEPARTURE)- Introspection and hesitation about leaving home. She knows she must face the challenge. The song paints a community. We have a town with houses, streets and a park. ABBA music transcended disco. There is a coherence which elevates it to the realm of fine art. Show tune sound.

8 I'M A MARIONETTE - Loss of control in achieving stardom. The performer is a doll, puppet, pet, clown. ABBA liked to travel and to play and sing. Songs like I'm A Marionette come from being tired, one too many countries or one too many shows. The solo is a train.

9 MOVE ON - Life is constant change: wind, waves and the turning earth. Where there is a will, there is a way. Some reach their destinations by traveling. Others get there by settling down. Characteristic of The Album.

10 SANTA ROSA - Transitional 60s sound. The theme is familiar. The artist wants to retreat to the security of the past.

11 WHAT ABOUT LIVINGSTONE - She compares space travel to past explorers. David Livingstone explored Africa in the 1860s. He was found by Henry Stanley, a journalist. Richard Burton was the Englishman who traveled up the Nile to its source, Lake Victoria. 500 years of history went down with World War II as European empires broke up. The explorers who opened up the world between the Renaissance and early 20th century gave way to American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. There were six moon landing between 1969 and 1972. 12 men walked on its surface. This lady shares their sense of adventure. The moon rises in People Need Love, What About Livingstone, Tropical Loveland, SummerNight City, The Piper, Should I Laugh Or Cry and Soldiers. I located three rivers on ABBA's musical map: Nile, Seine and Rio Grande, each on a different continent. The woman's life is a river in Just Like that. Her river may be her menstrual flow which ceased while she is pregnant.

ABBA Gazateer

Bahamas - You Owe Me One
Dallas - The Day Before You Came
Glasgow - Super Trouper
Hawaii - Happy Hawaii
Hollywood - DreamWorld
Honolulu - Happy Hawaii
Houston - Midnight Special
Las Vegas - Money Money Money
Monaco - Money Money Money
Nile - What About Livingstone
Paris - Our Last Summer
Rio Grande - Fernando
Santa Rosa - Santa Rosa
Seine - Our Last Summer
Waterloo - Waterloo