|
ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions | |||
| Author: Carl Magnus Palm | ||||
| Published by: Century 22 Limited | ||||
| Pages: 130 | ||||
| ISBN: | ||||
Foreword by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus:
There was a little bit of suspicion when Carl Magnus Palm first came into
our lives. Not only was it a daunting task that he presumed to undertake,
but more importantly, who would be crazy enough to tackle it in the first
place? To chart our careers as songwriters and record producers from the
mid sixties to the beginning of the eighties seemed to us impossible and
futile, especially bearing in mind that we, and sometimes conveniently,
had forgotten so much about that period ourselves.
It was Michael Tretow, great friend and all important sound engineer, who
introduced us to Carl Magnus. "This is a serious guy", he assured us and
we took his word for it and agreed to meeting. It was the first of many,
for we found Carl Magnus to be a hardworking, dedicated and intelligent
man. We were intrigued by all the facts that he managedti dig up from the
depths of our slumbering memories as well as from those of other people.
And so, finally, here is Carl magnus Palm's Abba-The Complete Recording
Sessions. It ought to be of interest not only the avid Abba fan, but also
toanyone who wants to know more about a group that had a fair amount of
impact during the seventies. To us it is particulary pleasing because it
kills themyth of the "Hit Factory" and the conscious image-making that
the critics nurtured during those days to find a rational way of
explaining away the success. Anyone who reads this book will find that
Abba became a group by sheer coincidence and that the image never was
contemplated. The recordings seem to have been, especially in the early
days, planned in an almost haphazard, from-day-to-day manner, far from
the factory concept.
Thank you for being patient with us, and we wish you the best of luck
with your book, Carl Magnus.
Text:
In 1966 two young men from Sweden wrote and recorded a song called
Isn't It Easy To Say,
which marked the beginning of a songwriting and record
producing partnership that has continued to this day. As the 1960s drifted
into the 1970s, they started making recordings with two girls singers
(who also later became their wives), a working relationship that would
continue until August 1982. During that period the foursome recorded a
collection of songs which heralded one of the most successful recording
careers the world has ever known and claim a unique plce in the history
of popular music.
That quartet was of course
Agnetha Fältskog,
Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson
and
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, better known as Abba, and this
book is the story of these people and their recordings. Based on
extensive research and countless hours of original interviews with all
four members of Abba, their engineer Michael B. Tretow and many of the
musicians that played with the band, Abba-The Complete Recording Sessions
recounts their story in a way that has never been told before.
Beginnig with that very first mid-sixties recording session and tracing
the formation of the through their first tentative collaborations, Carl
Magnus Palm takes us on a fascinating journey through Abba's sensational
career. Continuing with the watershed March 1972 recording of the group's
first single
People Need Love
he recounts the full story behind such hits as
S.O.S.,
Dancing Queen
and
The Name Of The Game. He reveals the
facts behind Abba's final years and such classics as
The Winner Takes It All
and
The Day Before You Came,
as well as many lesser known tracks.
The definitive book "ought to be of interest not only the avid Abba fan,
but also to anyone who wants to know more about a group that had a fair
amount of impact during the seventies" as benny Andersson and Björn
Ulvaeus have written with typical reserve in their foreword. It details
the numerous unreleased recordings that the group left behind and is
fully illustrated with many rare photos, record sleeves, and original
recording documents and lyric sheets that have never before been
published. Abba-The Complete recording Sessions is the first book in
which all four members of the group look back on their career.
Tom HUDEC, hudec@fi.muni.cz, Last modification: February 25, 1998