Idolator
Why embark on a grueling tour made even moreso by the ravages of time when you can just watch the money from the licensing of your songs to jukebox musicals and fresh-faced kids roll in? Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus basically posited this question to the British paper The Telegraph when he told a reporter there that there was no way his band would come back for the dual purposes of cashing in and acting as a "cover band" of its older material. Of course, Ulvaeus let this little piece of principle slip in the context of promoting the movie version of Mamma Mia!, in which his songs... get covered by Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. And as any shrewd businessman knows, outsourcing is the way to go these days.
"We will never appear on stage again," says Ulvaeus. "There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were.
"Young, exuburent, full of energy and ambition. I remember Robert Plant saying Led Zeppelin were a cover band now because they cover all their own stuff.
"I think that hit the nail on the head."
I guess this means Plant's upcoming Swedish discopop collaboration with Ulvaeus is off the table. Of course, it also helps that Abba still sells a lot of records in these troubled-for-the-industry times.
Both Ulvaues and Andersson are amazed and delighted that ABBA continue to sell millions of records every year.
"We didn't think the music would live on this long," says [Benny] Anderssson proudly. "You know what pop music is. It is there for the time it actually happens. You are on the charts for sixteen weeks or four weeks than it goes and then something else comes up. Another band comes in. Another trend comes in. You think that's the way it should be. We were absolutely dead sure that it would be the same for us."
Oh, Benny, you're so modest. Your songs melded history and romance and ridiculously amazing bubblegum hooks! How could they not be at least a little sticky?
ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson: We will never reform [Telegraph via Guardian]
Abba - Waterloo [YouTube]
Comments
It must be something about the Swedes and inbred modesty. When we visited Sweden for a two-week vacation in 2006, we met all these lovely folks during the Midsummer festival, and when we revealed how long we were going to be there, they frequently said something like, "Two weeks, just in Sweden?"
This is also the same self-flagellating Benny & Bjorn who told Fred Bronson for the Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits that they consider America, where they scored "a number one song, three other top 10 hits and nine additional singles that made the top 30...their only failure."
I remember reading that some consortium offered them a billion (with a B) dollars to play 100 shows. Here it is! [www.mtv.com]
After all Frida's been through, I imagine she wants to be left alone.
Didn't ABBA's drummer die recently by slipping and banging his head on a coffee table or some shit?
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