blog@cliffdweller

It occurs to me that I've been listening to ABBA music for almost 35 years with the rest of the world. Actually, I've known about ABBA since around 1975, but I've really only been listening since about 1980. So I might have some catching up to do with the other folks everywhere.

While sitting through Mamma Mia! The Sing Along Movie tonight with Tim, his parents and Miko, I had occasion to think about all things ABBA. My mind drifted a bit, especially in the bits where Pierce Brosnan was trying to sing. I enjoyed the movie, but not as much as you'd think I would've. It's the first karaoke movie I've ever seen, and all the music was ABBA music.

While I was trying not to cringe too much, I homed in on an idea. I chose a song. I tried to remember events from my life during the particular song that was being sung on screen. For this post I'll run with The Winner Takes It All.

I have memories of The Winner Takes It All from an 8 track tape I gave my brother for Xmas in 1980. I have memories of driving across Texas in my dad's lime green four wheel drive Power Wagon, listening to the Super Trouper album in his 8 track tape player. Apparently 8 track tapes were all the rage back then.

I remember when I tracked down the video in college and how disappointed I was that ABBA didn't make better videos. I remember listening to the Super Trouper album about fourteen million times my junior year in high school. The Winner Takes It All was my favorite song. It still holds a special place in my heart, even tho Meryl Streep strangled it in the movie.

I know I've listened to it this week, and I know I've listened to it on my iPhone/iPod/iTunes collection a lot. In fact, iTunes says it's the third most popular ABBA song in my collection (of all the ABBA songs). It's been listened to more (67 times) than any other ABBA song except for The Visitors (83 times) and Should I Laugh or Cry (91 times).

The Winner Takes It All comes in at number (I'm not making this up) 69 in my over-all collection of 9703 songs. That puts it in the top 1% of the music I listen to. I think that's pretty impressive for an almost 30 year old song.

So I remember the beginning of the life of that song. I remember it lately. But I don't really have much memory of it in the middle. Odd, because I know I listened to it when I lived in Arlington. The movie theatre kids gave me hell for listening to so much ABBA, but I don't actually remember listening to any there. For that I remember Men Without Hats, Erasure, and Midnight Oil.

In Odessa, I mostly remember listening to Gary Numan, but the folks I know from there still remember my ABBA fetish, so I must've listened to it then too. It's the same with Alabama (where i distinctly don't remember listening to anything), SFO and now Portland. Funny how the brain works.

It's given me an idea… so stay tuned. I plan to do some exploring soon. it's a good thing listening to ABBA doesn't make you see spiders (see yesterday's post)…