Books about ABBA and related subjects

The West Australian, September 11, 2001

Hits and myth

Swedish national treasure or international embarrassment? Kings of dag or superheroes of pop?

TAMARA HUNTER talks to author Carl Magnus Palm about his new biography of ABBA.

GIVEN the incredible level of fame enjoyed by ABBA on a global scale - both in the mid-70s and during the subsequent revival sparked by 90s movies like Muriel's Wedding - it is astonishing that no serious biography of the group has found its way to bookshops before now.

Swedish author Carl Magnus Palm couldn't believe it either. As far as he was concerned, it was a serious oversight which needed rectifying. With 10 years of research and several smaller projects on the group behind him, he was in the perfect position to do just that.

The result, a 554-page epic which took more than a year to write, chronicles in meticulous detail the alternately joyous and painful story of a group of ordinary people who found themselves caught in the grip of a phenomenon they could never have expected.

Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of Abba, delves deep into the Abba archives, exploding popular myths and revealing intimate insights into the backgrounds and personal struggles of not only Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, but their mercurial manager, Stig Anderson.

Attacked and ridiculed for much of their career by critics, the press, and left-wing musicians - especially in their home country of Sweden - the members of ABBA are now lionised there as national treasures and acknowledged internationally as one of the most accomplished pop acts of all time.

But this latterday acceptance means little to the four 50-somethings, who went their separate ways in 1982 and now have little or nothing to do with the entity which was ABBA.

Agnetha, always the most famous member of the group yet paradoxically the one least equipped to deal with the attention, lives a secluded life.

Frida, the product of a liaison between her Norwegian mother and a German soldier during World War II, married a prince (who died of cancer in 1999) and makes only occasional public appearances.

Bjorn and Benny, whose friendship and songwriting partnership was the rock on which ABBA was built, are the only two still in touch and who are still seen regularly. They have gained international acclaim for their work on musicals, including the hit Mamma Mia, but like the others, have no desire to revisit their heady ABBA days.

Although Bjorn is the most media-friendly of the four, not one of the members co-operated with Palm in his biographical endeavours. Extensive interview material in the book comes from his efforts on an earlier, smaller book - ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions.

That's not to say they tried to stop Palm writing his book. They simply didn't care to help and have yet to read the finished product.

’I think the copies are on the way to them right now,’ Palm says. ’They will probably sort of shrug their shoulders because they're not really interested in people writing books about them, no matter what the angle, but they know people are going to do that.’

Palm, never a particular ABBA fan as a youngster, says he was amazed at the power of the story which emerged.

’I always knew there was a great story there to be told but I didn't know how great until I wrote the book,’ he says. ’My contract said I had to write at least 200,000 words, and quite honestly I was a bit worried. I thought "Are there 200,000 interesting words to write about this group?" But it far exceeded that. I was close to 240,000 when I completed it.’

Apart from chronicling the torrid relationships within the group and the growing chasm between them and Stig Anderson, who died in 1997, the book clearly shows how quickly they tired of the fame they had worked so hard to achieve.

The joy they experienced after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their smash hit Waterloo soon ebbed as the demands of the media, fans and various international record companies became more and more intense.

’It was, "Oh wow, we have a hit in Germany, and this is wonderful. Now we have a hit in England, where's this going to take us?",’ Palm says. ’But I don't think they ever really expected or even wanted it to become this massive.’

With hit after hit shooting to No. 1 all over the world, ABBA began to be targeted on everything from their financial affairs to the precisely produced and apparently lightweight nature of their music. The book goes into such attacks in fine detail, explaining the root of much of the animosity directed at them during their time together.

It also devotes a good chunk to the group's extraordinary success in Australia, their fall from grace, and the revival which continues today. So popular have they remained here, nearly 20 years after their split, that Australia was chosen as the launchpad for Bright Lights, Dark Shadows ahead of the UK, the US, and Sweden.

Despite their love affair with the country, the year ABBA toured Australia was traumatic for the group. The manic reception they received everywhere they went during that 1977 visit both deeply touched and terrified them, leading to a growing resolve to shun life on the road altogether.

Not at all interested in following accepted rock star practice, ABBA preferred to stay at home to perfect the melodies for which they are now so widely admired.

’They were so un-rockstar-like it’s scary,’ Palm says. ’I think the whole group would have preferred just being in the studio and recording their albums and doing as little promotion as possible.

’Doing that enabled them to make better music and come out of the experience alive. They were so devoted to their craft and could spend hours and hours and days on just the one song, polishing and fine-tuning, scrapping one completed version of a whole song and recording it from the top again.’

It was that search for perfection which, Palm believes, stands as ABBA's musical legacy.

’The well-crafted records - I think that's what it will all come back to in the end,' he says. ’Because although people are obsessed by the silly costumes and the platform boots, they wouldn't keep on selling all these zillions of compilation albums if it wasn't the music that really attracted people.

’Good, solid songs with good solid melodies, well recorded and well sung - that's the ABBA trademark.’

Bright Lights, Dark Shadows (Omnibus Press, $55)

COPYRIGHT The West Australian 2001