If you had asked me anytime before this week if I was an Abba fan, I would have said “No, not really, I don’t listen to them.” And that would be an accurate statement. I didn’t own any Abba CDs ever, didn’t really know which songs were Abba songs. My mental connection to Abba would have been: “Dancing Queen?” Or “Yeah, there’s that musical Mama Mia, sounds interesting, but I haven’t seen it.” Or more personally, “Kathyrn, a grad student in linguistics, she’s an Abba fan. Gee, I miss Kathyrn, wonder how she is.” And that’s about it.So what changed? Watching Passport to
So a few weeks later, I saw Abba: The Definitive Collection at our public library and picked it up. It fell into my pile of disks and sat in the car uncertainly, not knowing if it was going to be played. Other more familiar genres of music made their way to CD player first, filling my hour-long 3 times a week commute with comforting sounds. Then, on my way home from one of my last commutes (semester-ending no renewal of contract teaching gig), I thought “what the heck!” and then, I was enchanted. Not so much by the first two songs, but by the ones I recognized.
The teacher in me perked up and thought how great this would be for an ESL class. The music lover in me started to dance. And there you have it--my transformation from an uninformed listener to the beginnings of an appreciative listener. And all I can think is “Wow Kathyrn, you’re so right. I always knew you were wiser than me.”
7 comments:
the photo alone is killing me.
do a google image search for abba. It's a treasure trove of hilarious pix.
"Treasure Trove Of Hilarous Pix" was, ironically, the name of my Abba, tamborine-only, tribute band me and my brother started in our garage.
I'm so with you. There is nothing that will bring you out of a gloomy day like listening to "Dancing Queen" and waving your arms in the air like a crazy person.
My personal fave is "Super Trooper." How has no one mentioned roller-skating in this discussion? I hate to roller skate, but if I hear an ABBA song I think about lacing them up and sporting the short-shorts and wheeling around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I live on a dirt road with no neighbors, and I own no short-shorts so that puts a damper on things.
But my wife just saw "Mama Mia" in Jacksonville on Tuesday night, which is why I was so surprised (and delighted) to be greeted by the whimsical picture (from the Treasure Trove) of maybe the greatest Scandinavian band of all time when I made my daily visit to the Cafe'. Made my day, thanks for the post.
P.S. Is that aluminum foil they're wearing? And are the two on the left (I think their names are Sven and Heidi) wearing the same piece of aluminum foil?
Mat found the groovy picture for me. I'm glad it made everyone smile. That's what their music is all about.
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