{"id":23415,"date":"2020-04-09T18:35:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23415"},"modified":"2020-04-09T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:35:49","slug":"lets-get-real-abba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lets-get-real-abba\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Get Real: ABBA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s a time when I truly wish that The Great 48<\/strong> was back among us to go all “Jane, you ignorant slut” on my ass. We can only hope to get him back in the Halls of Rock. Meanwhile…<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

While washing the dishes tonight, I switched off NPR and put on our local AAA station, WXPN. The DJ announced that he was going to play the #1 song from 43 years ago, ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” I cranked up the radio and scrubbed away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I got to thinking, it’s been accepted wisdom since sometime in the late-1980s that ABBA was a GREAT group, more than just a popular one. I love the oft-told tale of Elvis Costello & The Attractions<\/strong> listening to ABBA’S greatest hits while on your in 1978 and having it influence the arrangements for Armed Forces<\/em>, but is any ABBA song close to as good as “Dancing Queen”? I think it laps their next-best song, probably “S.O.S.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have we been sold a bill of goods? Does any grown-ass, American, Brit, or Australian music lover in 2020 actually sit around and listen to an entire ABBA album, or do we all love “Dancing Queen” and one or two other songs, then add points for the cuteness and quaintness of the band and memories of our childhoods?<\/p>\n