Oh my goodness, ABBA will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame this year. Is it possible the pop icons have been around that long. I mean, they retired 28 long years ago and still I know the words to practically every famous ABBA song.
They are on Broadway, in movies and commercials all over the world and they haven't even been together for over a quarter century. John Lennon was killed and Ronald Reagan was elected before they retired in 1982 yet still ABBA songs keep pounding through my memory banks.
I think it was the feel good music and the crisp harmonies that made he music of ABBA so enduring. They made us feel good at a time we needed it most, the post Watergate and post Viet Nam eras. Our embassy staff in Iran were being held hostage and the economy was a disaster but there was ABBA, making you smile, laugh and dance through the chaos and confusion.
We need another ABBA right now because it has always been music that helped pull us out of the spiraling blues like ABBA in the 1980's or the musical Annie during the Great Depression. Music is a vital part of our culture and consciousness, it always has been, yet there is no Beatles, ABBA or anything comparable in this day and age. I say the economy will get fixed and the wars will end when the music is heard again in America.
For now I will be content playing old ABBA songs. For a real treat check out this video of the Eurovision Competition in 1974 when ABBA first performed on international television, an unknown group from Sweden.
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