Why ABBA should be added to progarchives.com

Let’s begin by the concept of prog related itself: any kind of music made in the western society in the sixties or seventies is prog related one way or another. Even punk is prog related and conceptually, as a movement, had this “prog flavour” of being artistically compromised with an idea of how rock music should sound to be rock. Punk “receive a great influence of prog rock”, trying to sound as its antithesis. If this isn’t an influence I don’t know what is.

But the prog related concept (as there isn’t a prog related movement) seems to be more groundbased in this site. Some of the most controversial adds in PA were justified very clearly with this argument: “the owners (usually M@x) wanted the group X here”. Of course there was some diatribes about the representativity of the added group to the prog world, but it always seems to be more a excuse to distract the members of the forum from the simple truth: the owner’s will shall be seen as the ultimate statement about the progginess of a band, because they have the power to include any band they like in the “ultimate prog rock music website”. Seems childish but the inclusion of Zep, Black Sabbath, Maiden, Queen and Rainbow in this site justify my thoughts that some people think that they are “guilty” for liking bands that clearly are not prog. So they create this magic label, “prog related”, to add the groups they like and save them from the shame of not being a “true prog fan”. Any relation with the extreme metal discussins about being “true” or not isn’t a coincidence.

But this is not very important. My point is: after being a member of this site, reading reviews, listening to a lot of recommendations and discovering the real meaning of the banner “prog related”, I want to propose an addition to PA: ABBA.

I believe that ABBA can be classified under the prog related label as defined in PA, without apeeal to any consideration about  the owner’s feelings on them. Some of the reasons for ABBA’s presence here are below:

1)      ABBA should be judged by the eyes of its historical importance, nor by their fame as a non-musical outfit or a pop-marketing phenomenon of the seventies. Old guys, put your prejudice aside, please. Even if they had their affair with disco many other bands of that era had too, prog (Banco) or non-prog (Kiss). Commercial success can’t be considered a “demerit” for any group, at least if they remain musically consistent through the years. And ABBA’s career, after the promising beginning with the hard boogie “Waterloo” and their fight for the success beyond the Eurovision wave, show that they create a musical language of themselves, enriching their music with influences from the whole world, lyrically and musically speaking.

2)      I’d say more: even if you judge ABBA’s music based only in a greatest hits compilation (ABBA Gold, for instance) you can find enough elements to defend their “prog related” status in the lines of what PA defines as being this awkward category.

3)      One concerning that someone with prejudice against the Swedens’ prog marks could be argued based on ABBA’s lyrics. Some of them are so stupid that only because of their wonderful pop hooks and melodic variations we can still hear without becoming instantaneously deaf (Honey Honey anyone?). Well. I really believe that lyrics don’t matter and prog rock isn’t defined as a genre because of its thematycal/lyrical approach, although some groups have peculiar styles that lately influenced many other prog or pseudo-prog groups. But even if lyrics should be considered as an integral part of the progginess / prog relatedness of ABBA, their classic output sure was more serious, well constructed and deep than the medium prog rock group. We have in “Fernando” a ballad that deals with a serious and complex theme: the Mexican wars of independence. But the universally recognized merit of all ABBA’s lyrics are the ones dealin’ with the pains of growing old, specially in love affairs. The tragic end of Bjorn and Agnetha’s wedding lead the songwriters to talk about this subject very deeply, specially in their last three albums. Maybe “The winner takes it all” and “One of us” are the best examples of sheer brilliancy of Anderson/Ulvaeus composition team, sometimes akin to Ingmar Bergman’s skepticism an d melancholy. I can’t hear the first one without remembering “The seventh seal” and the contrast between the innocent happiness of the artists’ couple in the end of the movie and the tragic dance of the dead on the hills. What leads me to point…

4)      Abba’s composition team: Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. These guys are geniouses. Their music is rich, full of meanings, and still pop! They made use of unusual instruments (sitar in “I have a dream”, e.g.), complex layers of sound over basic drum patterns, melodies almost contrapunctual, vocal polyphony, operatic voices, revolutionary synth use… Really, anyone without prejudice can see the profound dialogue between ABBA music and the revolution in musical composition that the late sixties brought to pop music, specially prog rock.

5)      “The girl with the golden hair”. This mini-opera (that preceded the future collaborations of Anderson-Ulvaeus with composers such as Tim Rice) was released in The Album, the second after the breakthrough album Arrival for ABBA in the USA and the rest of the world (Europe was still conquered). This  piece is composed by three movements, and it seems to me related (in its prog-related context) to ELO’s Concerto for a rainy day. Probably the non-initiated have heard only about Thank you for the music, the first movement of this piece. It was played alive with a theatrical sketch, what just relates it to the pretensions of the progrockers of the time.

6)      Agnetha and Frida. They both were beautiful, hot, teasing us with their lovely expressions and could still singlike angels! Any music site that wants to be recognized by their knowledge of 70’s music must put ABBA on it, it doesn’t matter what specific style we’re talking about: punk, hard rock, heavy metal, folk rock, disco, soul, funk, pop, prog rock.. ABBA had it all. ABBA was for the seventies what the Beatles were for the sixties. We can understand the seventies without never hear anything about VDGG, the whole Italian prog scene and even some of the giants, with the exception of Pink Floyd and – maybe – Yes (more for Wakeman than for Yes itself). But we cannot understand all the luxury, sublimeness and glorious years for the music that the seventies were without knowing ABBA. Even the crappiest form of music made in that time – disco – were elevated to an almost ethereal state of art by them (Gimme Gimme Gimme – pay their royalties Madonna -, Lay all your love on me).

I finished this long request by quoting other motifs that justify – better saying, demand – ABBA’s presence in Prog Archives. Here they come, in no particular order:

Miles Davis

Iron Maiden

The Who

Styx

Black Sabbath

Led Zeppelin

Blue Öyster Cult

Kate Bush

Rainbow

Budgie

Metallica

My next chapter:

Why AC/DC should be added to PA in prog related (hard boggie minimalistic riffer-prog)