h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ha!

Abba's Dancing Queen has been named the greatest ever dance floor filler! Yeah!

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_726060.html?menu=news.surveys

WOOHOO!!!

Wooohooo!!!!

*dances*

*dances and sings*

...You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen...

Erm excuse me for butting into your conversation like this folks, but there's something very important I've got to do...



Oh Titania

Catch!

And this!

Hej, Andy...and other ABBA haters...

Without ABBA, we might also be without Bono -- from U2. Did you by any chance see the concert where he invited Björn and Benny onstage to perform "Dancing Queen" with him? At the end of the song, he bowed to these two master composers, and said, "We're not worthy..." Did you also know that when Stephen Spielberg filmed "Jaws" that he listened to "Waterloo" every day? It was his lucky song. Apparently, ABBA did something right in his eyes...or ears.

I realize that nobody will read this most likely, but I have to question you that hate ABBA so much and so deeply that you'd join an "Anti-ABBA" society... Have you heard all of their music, or just the "greatest hits"? If you can force yourself to do so, go get a copy of "The Visitors" -- their last studio album released in 1982. This is not "typical" ABBA...there is no disco (a la Voulez Vous, Dancing Queen, etc). There are no "campy" or "bubblegum pop" lyrics. Actually, even ABBA, who were native Swedish speakers, produced better lyrics than many English-speaking groups. Remember "Da Doo Ron Ron"? Um, the Bay City Rollers' classic "Saturday Night"? Perry Como's composition sung by Lobo, "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"? Psst... people, these lyrics were written by people who spoke, wrote, and allegedly understood English. Um, yeah. (Sing along with me... S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y!!! Okay, maybe not...)

"The Visitors" is ABBA at their peak, musically, lyrically and vocally. The title song is about Russian dissidents hiding in fear from the KGB...it is subtitled "Crackin' Up". "I Let The Music Speak" is a masterpiece: "I'm hearing images, I'm seeing songs no poet has ever painted...voices call out to me, so strange that we're so well acquainted..." "Slipping Through My Fingers" is autobiographical on Björn Ulvaeus' part...he wrote it about his own feelings watching his seven-year-old daughter Linda leaving for school for the very first time. "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" is one of Anni-Frid's best vocals... almost sung in the style of a lullaby, it is just she, Benny Andersson on piano, and a metronome imitating the ticking of a clock. Then there is "When All is Said and Done"...when Björn wrote this lyric, he had already gone through a divorce from Agnetha Fältskog, and was sadly having to watch Benny and Anni-Frid go through the very same. He wrote this song about their marital difficulties...it has the classic line..."...and not too old for sex"...I love it. Lastly, there is "Cassandra". Know of any groups or any lyricists that tackled Greek mythology and turned it into a damn good pop song? I do...ABBA. Cassandra is the prophetess that turned down the god Apollo's sexual advances, and in revenge, he caused people to disbelieve her prophecies, ultimately leading to the downfall of Troy. This is a cool song, and has one of the greatest "bursts of harmony" that I've heard in any song..in the line "packing your bags, being slow and thorough..."

Oh, and I haven't even gotten into the post-ABBA work. Ever heard of "Kristina från Duvelmåla"? This is one of the most incredible musicals ever done. I am a lifelong student of the great musicals, but this one beats them all. Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are the new Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, only better. "KFD" is based on "The Last Letter Home", the last book in a 4-book series entitled "The Emigrants" by Swede Vilhelm Moberg. One song in the musical is "Du Maste Finnas" (You Must Exist). In this song, Kristina is standing in America, far from home and alone under the stars. She has lost her children and her beloved husband, Karl-Oskar. She is hurting, and for once in her devout life, she questions the existence of God. The singer is Helen Sjöholm, a relative unknown singer before the musical. Helen as Kristina sings in Swedish, but you can feel her struggle, her pain, her agony, when she sings, "How could You overlook me? I am a splinter adrift on a dark and stormy sea..." (This song hit #1 in the Swedish charts, incidentally.) Terrified of the little word "if", she wonders if God does not exist, who will hear her repentance, grant her forgiveness, give her the strength and skills she will now need to survive on her own in a foreign land? Who will take her hand when she dies? Who will reunite her with her loved ones? She declares, "You must exist..." ending the song on a note of hope.

This musical will be coming to America in 2006. If you don't see it on Broadway, look for it on the Tony Awards. I think it's going to be a hit, as is "Mamma Mia"...oh, isn't that the musical based on ABBA songs? Why, yes, it is...oh, and by the way, it's a smash hit worldwide...not everyone hates ABBA!!!

If anyone reads this and wants anymore information, feel free to drop me a line...mainly because I will most likely forget this site once I leave it...begone, foul demon of ABBA hatred!!!

Sir Scott Smurfalot från Korpilombolo
[email protected]

Well that's the fun been well and truly taken out of this then...

When eBid asked 1,000 Brits which band they'd like to see come back together, guess which one was number 1?

Yes, ABBA!

Full list:
1. ABBA
2. Spandau Ballet
3. Stone Roses
4. Wham
5. The Jacksons
6. Boyzone
7. The Smiths
8. New Kids on the block
9. S Club 7
10. The Nolans

Well, seeing some of the other ones on the list, it appears that the great british public in general has no taste. New Kids on the Block? S Club 7?

What a bizarre mix!

So I guess everyone is, by now, aware that Madonna, as one of a very few, actually managed to wriggle a permission from ABBA to sample some of their music into one of her own stuff?

Madonna's Hung Up:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T8FikEflip4

ABBA:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ibtOshtX7T0

Oh, look which piece my iPod brought up on 'shuffle':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOiIOIM6Ms&NR=1

*shudder*

'Swedish pop band Abba have been inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8569584.stm

Ha! Eat that!

A new deluxe edition of 'The Visitors' including material that has never been recorded before will be out soon! Woot!

Bah and indeed humbug.

*throws a at J'au, just for old times' sake*