It is a bright, sunny afternoon in Delhi, as I wait for the traffic light to turn green. They are playing an ABBA song on FM 94.3. I increase the volume gently and start humming along.
I miss ABBA.
For the rare few who don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, a little background. ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by two couples joining to form a quartet. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names—Agnetha, Björn, Benny, Annifrid (Frida for short). They became one of the best-selling music artists of all time, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1983. Initially, the songs were pure foot-tapping bubble-gum music. But over the years, the compositions got more complex and the lyrics more profound. The blonde Agnetha (my favourite) was outstanding, I think, in her solo efforts.
The band consisted of two married couples—Agnetha and Bjorn, Benny and Frida. With the increase in their popularity, success and Money Money Money took their toll. Their personal lives suffered; this eventually resulted in the collapse of both marriages. The relationship changes got reflected in their music, with latter compositions featuring darker and more introspective lyrics. Songs like Eagle, Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, One of Us, I Let the Music Speak and that enigmatic masterpiece The Day Before You Came of the latter years are far more complex than the pure pop of Waterloo or Dancing Queen.
After ABBA disbanded, the two girls pursued solo careers, while Benny & Bjorn achieved success writing for the stage. The 80’s musical Chess has enjoyed great success on Broadway, West End and as a double album/CD. They’re all in their seventies now and thankfully still alive.
I was a merchant navy cadet then, finding my sea legs, when ABBA burst forth on the international music scene in 1974 with Waterloo. That song—does that Ring Ring a bell? Hehe….
I spent my last year in school and the early years in the Merchant Navy worrying about non-specific angst, girls and trying to raise the bar on ‘coolness.’ I also developed a preoccupation with ‘dark’ song lyrics. Listening to The Doors, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin was considered cool. Listening to ABBA and Boney M was not. Only girls were supposed to like ABBA and Boney M; not cool guys. So, for fear of being banished from the Kingdom of Cool, I pretended not to like this Swedish pop group though I’d listen to all their songs. In a bored, expressionless way, of course.
We ‘cool’ shippie guys, though pretending not to really like their toe-tapping beats or their hummable melodies, would nevertheless argue who was hotter, the blonde or the brunette. Sadly, the two men Bjorn & Benny did not set any teenage loins on fire, we heard. But they did make an attractive quartet. We’d sing and dance along to their songs—particularly after a drink or three—but it was a kind of ‘guilty pleasure.’
It feels okay now to admit that I liked them all along. It is now okay to admit to being mesmerized by Fernando back then. It is now okay to admit that I get all choked up when I hear that song now. I certainly did when I watched Cher singing it in Mamma Mia 2. Not only for the beauty of the song, but perhaps also for the loss of my youth or the memories of an era which will never return.
Nostalgia is a great healer. There is something marvellously liberating about admitting to one’s uncoolness. There is a sense of relief the moment one gives up trying to be cool all the time. My friends from school and from my sea cadet days have a good chuckle about this stage in our individual lives—the relief that it didn’t matter.
What kind of music do you listen to? Bollywood, Hindustani classical, Punjabi rap, Rabindra Sangeet, Western pop, hip hop, classic rock, folk or Western classical? Or one of a dozen genres that exist in between? Different strokes for different folks after all. But wherever your musical tastes may lie, whichever generation you may belong to—you’ve surely heard of ABBA, haven’t you, even if you haven’t actually heard any of their songs? For the generations born after the band broke up, there are the movies Mamma Mia, Mamma Mia 2, Muriel's Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla carrying their songs—and a dozen other movies I’m unaware of—for you to get acquainted. There’s always YouTube, too, to watch their memorable performances. There are tribute bands like Bjorn Again and Gabba which make a living singing only ABBA songs. Their legacy lives on….
Thank you for the music, ABBA. You were Supertroupers par excellence.
Beetashok Chatterjee is the author of ‘Driftwood’, a collection of stories about Life at Sea and ‘The People Tree’, another collection of stories about ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. A retired merchant ship’s captain by profession, he lives in New Delhi with his memories of living more than 40 years on the waves.
His book is available on Amazon. Click here.
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