{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/086348gq2q/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["The ABC's of ABBA"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/019/original/ARSC_Full_Logo_RGB_K.jpg?1605438091","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Matthew Barton (Presenter)","Roberta Freund Schwartz (Chair)","Michael Biel (Videographer)","Leah Biel (Videographer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2017-05-13 (Created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["Video","Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eWhen Sweden's ABBA burst onto the international pop music scene in 1974 with “Waterloo,” few outside of their native land realized that every member of the group had been a star in Sweden in their own right, and collectively had more than thirty years experience in pop music. The group was viewed as a lucky and not very original oneoff novelty success from a country that was a pop music backwater. Although ABBA's music has endured and appreciation of them is far greater now, their success is still treated as an inexplicable singularity in pop music, with little understanding of what set them apart. This presentation will examine the early years of the group's members in Sweden's busy and varied music scene of the 1960s, and show how their assimilation and fusion of American and European pop, rock folk and classical styles in that decade led to their international breakthrough of the 1970s, using period audio and video of the four individual members of ABBA as well as other key Scandinavian, English, European and American artists of the time.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright Association for Recorded Sound Collections\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Video Editor"]},"value":{"en":["Amanda McCabe"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eWhen Sweden's ABBA burst onto the international pop music scene in 1974 with \u0026ldquo;Waterloo,\u0026rdquo; few outside of their native land realized that every member of the group had been a star in Sweden in their own right, and collectively had more than thirty years experience in pop music. The group was viewed as a lucky and not very original oneoff novelty success from a country that was a pop music backwater. Although ABBA's music has endured and appreciation of them is far greater now, their success is still treated as an inexplicable singularity in pop music, with little understanding of what set them apart. This presentation will examine the early years of the group's members in Sweden's busy and varied music scene of the 1960s, and show how their assimilation and fusion of American and European pop, rock folk and classical styles in that decade led to their international breakthrough of the 1970s, using period audio and video of the four individual members of ABBA as well as other key Scandinavian, English, European and American artists of the time.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCopyright Association for Recorded Sound Collections\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Association for Recorded Sound Collections"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/019/original/ARSC_Full_Logo_RGB_K.jpg?1605438091","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/097/496/small/open-uri20200922-6764-z2sjca_1600815708.jpg?1600801334","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - open-uri20200922-6764-z2sjca.mp4"]},"duration":2019.69067,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/097/496/small/open-uri20200922-6764-z2sjca_1600815708.jpg?1600801334","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-arsc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/097/496/original/open-uri20200922-6764-z2sjca.mp4?1600801303","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":2019.69067,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_The ABC's of ABBA [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I see that part of me is a at the library conservation work at the Library of Congress. He does these 30 years where you're the licensee. And then you go and see what it did to me. Yes. Correct. He says that it landed safely in Atlanta, where the ABC. Let's see. All right. We'll deal with that later. Thank you. All right. Thank you for coming. I've got a lot to get through here, so I might be taking this at a rather fast clip, but happy to answer any questions at the end. So the ABC is of ABBA. ABBA appeared on the international scene in 1974 with Waterloo. And ever since then, there's I think they've been kind of a tendency to treat them as sui generous. They they came out of nowhere or Sweden, to be exact. And, you know, when in fact they, like anybody else, have a history and theirs is really pretty interesting. So I thought it'd be fun to look into that. And we'll start actually with the beginnings of rock n roll in Sweden. This is a book that I picked up. Not in Sweden, but in Finland a few years ago. If you ever get a chance to get a copy. Believe me, you don't need to be Swedish to appreciate this book or to speak Swedish. I mean, it's just chock full of the most incredible photographs. And you'll be seeing some of those like this one. Some early Swedish rock and rollers there. Sweden got rock, got into rock and roll pretty early on 1956 or so, and they were influenced by other things, American. We've got some hula hoop action going on here. And for a long time, what they were doing was really quite imitative.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=15.55,150.44"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Singing in English often, you know, phonetically and, you know, closely copying the records that were coming out of the United States. And they weren't getting to experience American artists firsthand at that time. So, you know, in the US, we had Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets. Sweden had a rock, Rogge and his four comets. The U.S. had the rock all the jukebox. Sweden had rock. Ohga, who later worked with members of ABBA. We had Little Richard. Sweden had little Gephardt, who actually went on to become a composer and producer of consequence. And it plays a role in the Obie's story. But it's not until the early 60s that you really get something, something like that Sweden can really call its own. And that's the Sputnik's who are a guitar band. Their immediate inspiration would have been Cliff Richards backing band The Shadows, who did touring, did tour Sweden. And they took their name, obviously, from the satellite. And they wore these futuristic outfits and they were a really hot guitar band. I just want to give you a little taste of that. They're all that's how they look today. They're still at it. That's their leader, Bo Winberg, who developed some of the first radio microphones. Now, it's not only rock and roll, it's reaching Sweden from the US, Sweden had its own folk music, of course, but in the early 60s, a young man named Bjorn Veirs heard the Kingston Trio and he was never the same. There he is. I think you can see him there. Hootenanny singers, very popular in Sweden throughout the 1960s. And Bjorn continued to work with them right up until ABBA took off. And he's been involved in reunions ever since. As I said, they took their cue from the Kingston Trio.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=151.79,334.49"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And the clip you're about to see was filmed at what are called folk parks in Sweden. This is an outgrowth of the Swedish labor movement in the 19th century. All these parks, a few acres each often, but with amenities like a stage and tennis courts and things like that. At the time of the early 60s, there were probably a couple of hundred of them, and it formed a circuit, an entertainment circuit. And young bands like the Hootenanny Singers and some others that we're gonna hear about would play them in the summer months. It was really, you know, it was just something you did was where you paid your dues, cut your teeth. So here are the hootenanny singers at a folk park. Get some. Thanks. Was Bjorn's second from the left? The. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. Now, the nanny singers shared a manager with the Sputniks, Steeg Anderson, who obviously becomes a huge part of Abby's story. And he managed to nanny singers and they were the the main act on his label poller, which, of course, was obvious label later on. He gave them that name Hootenanny singers. They never liked it, but they were stuck with it. Now. This is a Japanese bootleg C.D. of Beatles appearances in Sweden. These are all from October of 1963. The Beatles spent, I believe, eight days, thanks, eight days in Sweden, played in five cities, including Stockholm, and did a program for Swedish television. That was a big hit. And if you if you know some of the clips from that that tour, they're really exciting because you can see Beatlemania happening. It was their first tour. Of course, they spent a lot of time in Hamburg before they were famous.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=335.36,507.02"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"But Sweden was their first tour outside of England. And, you know, in the space of eight days, you know, Beatlemania hit Sweden big time and they become, you know, the bottle and they bring in other British troops in their wake and they become the model for lots and lots of young groups, including these guys, the Shayne's, who came from Kiruna, which is the northern most town in Sweden. Well, it's a mining town well above the Arctic Circle, as you'll hear in that clip I'm going to play. They took some inspiration from the Beatles, but they were also inspired, as many other Swedish groups were, by some of the harder sounds coming out of England, especially the kinks, the who, the small faces and others. So here's a bit of the Shayne's. OK. Now the have stars, and that's Bennie Anderson in the upper right hand corner that stars become the biggest of all these groups in Sweden in the 1960s. And they're the Saudis much closer to the Beatles. As you'll hear and I think this next clip demonstrates an interesting aspect of some of the homegrown sounds that start to creep into Swedish rock and roll and probably happening in other countries where rock n roll has taken hold at this time. The chorus on this song is very well known. Him Medley. I think it's all due Frohlich at least in the German version, but also the verse, I'm certain is also from a another hymn. I've never been able to place it. So if anybody knows or thinks they know, please let me know. But here it is. This is a clip of the stars at their peak in nineteen sixty six. You'll see Benny on the keyboards at the far left.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=507.71,656.6"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Next to him is their vocalist, Sven Hedlund. He's on crutches. That's because he was on an early stage diver and that a God gone badly a few gigs earlier. So here they are. They have stars with wedding help. Wanted to show you that just to talk about the most wildest dreams were singing in English. They didn't always get everything right. So here we are. Here's a wedding by the stars. There's a bright flash of light coming out, so you might want to cover your eyes. OK, now, not long after this, while doing a tour of the folk parks, they have stars, meet the hootenannies singers and Bjorn of A-s actually joins the Hepp stars for the last couple of years of their existence. Around the same time, a young singer named Agneta False Skog is starting to make her mark. She is writing songs on her own, which she continues to do over several solo albums, those you've never really contributed to ABBA's catalog. And we're going to hear a bit of the first one. She was heard kind of by accident by our friend little Gearheart, who got her her first court recording deal. And this style is very much the European schlocker style, if you know what that is. This schlocker is a European style, a pop. I mean, it's found all over Europe. And if you know Engelbert Humperdinck, Humperdinck, he's very much in the Slogger style. Bobby Vinton's Melody of love. That's based on a schlager. Mary Hopkins', those were the days slogger again. So anyway, let's hear a bit of cognitive false. COGGS First record. Now, the same year unafraid Linkstar, better known as freewheeling stud, hits the mainstream in Sweden. But she's she's 21 at this point, but she's been a professional singer, mainly in jazz since she was 13, singing a small groups.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=656.93,902.81"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And even she spent some years with a Norwegian Swedish big band. She's actually Norwegian born. She was brought to Sweden to be raised with relatives in Sweden because her father was a German soldier. And following the war in Norway, those children and those mothers were often treated very, very badly. So we're going to we're going to hear is we're going to see rather is from her part of her winning performance in a 1967 song contest program. And this is very much you know, she's very much in her jazz style here. And this is just sheer. So we're in 1967, Benny and Bjorn have not met or not at least not hooked up with unafraid. And I'm gonna tell you yet their careers continue. If Rita doesn't really have a big hit until the early 70s, but she, like the others, does become a star in her own right. In Sweden prior to ABBA. Now, some of the other American sounds that by now are reaching Sweden are the Archies and bubblegum sounds in general, which they had their day in the US and they very much had their day in Sweden. Some of these songs released by the Archies that were not hits in the U.S. were actually hits in Sweden and some other European countries. So I'm going to the Archies. Like Abba are often much maligned. I feel they made a lot of good records, however. But here, say so. Here's a bit. This is actually from the The Archies Saturday morning TV cartoon show. But it's the follow up song to Sugar Sugar. And I'm not going to say that of a copy this, but these kinds of records with these kinds of combinations of female vocals are you're really making headway in Sweden.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=903.26,1071.2"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So here's a bit of the Archies doing. What are they doing? Jingle jangle. Next year, I'll do a thing on the Archies promise. Interestingly, I don't think they ever had Archie Comics or the Archie cartoon series in Sweden. Every really almost every European release I've seen of the Archies does not have the cartoon characters on the cover. So they were just received as another American act. Now, round this time, 1968. That's. There we go. There's kind of a near miss and interesting thing that almost happened in the career of Benny Anderson, Kurt Becker. Some of you may have heard of him. He was a young wunderkind producer, and he specialized in a form kind of related to bubble gum that nowadays we call sunshine pop or soft psych. Some of the best known examples are the association there. And as a producer, a Bekker really excelled in vocal arrangements. And I say it's a missed opportunity because in 1968, the rap stars were rather just Benny Andersson and Sven Hedlund go to England to work with. Steve Clark is an associate of Kurt Becker. But the songs that they're doing are all from the artists in the previous slide the association, Sagittarius, Tommy Rowe Millennium. And, you know, it just doesn't quite work. I'd love to say that this album, which has been reissued, is as a lost classic. It's a touchstone for 60s pop. And I'll answer all your questions about Harbor. That's just not the case. However, I do think that some of it must have rubbed off on Benny Anderson, some of that experience, something that definitely did rub off this band from Scotland, middle of the road, led by Sally Carr, very popular throughout Europe and especially in Sweden in the early 70s.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=1071.62,1257.21"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And here's a taste of one of their biggest hits called Solely Solely. Here's the Swedish chart you can see there at the top of it. In early 1972 was one of several top 10 hits that they enjoyed in Sweden. So here's a bit of middle of the road. Slowly, slowly. OK, um, so. By the same time, Benny and Bjorn, that stars have broken up anything beyond working together and they released an album and a a single called Hey Don Lemon, which means Hello, Old Man, something that they wrote about a Salvation Army officer that they used to see working in the streets. And it's a hit. And not only is a hit, but it's the first time that you get all four members of ABBA on a record together who because by now they're there or what they're romantically involved, starting to work together, even though they're working on each other's solo records. So let's hear a little bit of Hegan them. And this is we're going hear the very end of the second verse into the second chorus, which is where you hear Agatha Agatha Fall God and Feeling starred for the first time on the record with Benny and Bjorn. On the. I'm sorry, I meant to say that one. So that's 1970, 1971. Frieda thinks Dad has her first solo album out and it includes a a major hit for major, major Swedish hit for her. I mean, agan stod, which means my hometown. And again, it's a collaborative effort. By now, all four members of ABBA are involved. He. OK. And then finally, better or worse. I didn't mean to start that right away. Let me go back to the previous. OK. Back to our old friends in the middle of the road.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=1258.14,1596.81"},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"It's 1972. Everybody in ABBA is still doing solo work. Middle of the road releases a B side called Union Silver. Not as not their biggest hit by any means, but it gets out there and we'll hear a little bit of that. See, the. Say she was this. And it's a version of this that becomes a magnet to false Coggs last solo hit in Sweden. I don't speak Swedish, so I don't know if this is a translation or they've written new lyrics, which was done a lot in Sweden. He. So that takes us right up to the point that they become about the following year. They have their first major hit in Sweden and singing in Swedish under that name, ring ring. And then the following year, of course, they win the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. And the rest, as they say, is history. So thank you. Gas prices rise. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Usually it carries. Yeah. Is it because you raise taxes? That is so smart. Exactly. Hear me out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know, the big influences weren't just musical, you know, although, of course, he sounds nothing like Janis Joplin dresses. I'll buy a ring ring, I'll play you that. OK. OK, here you go. Here's Abbott. Abbott 1973. Singing in Swedish Not for the last time, but almost the last time. Ring. Ring. He. Well, thanks again for coming.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496#t=1597.98,2001.27"}]},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/97496/transcript/19061/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/019/061/original/open-uri20200924-1397-uah8l9?1600956896","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/019/061/original/open-uri20200924-1397-uah8l9?1600956896"}]}]},{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/255820","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - ARSC_conf_2017_Barton_audio.mp3"]},"duration":1983.23394,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/255820/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/255820/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-arsc.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/255/820/original/ARSC_conf_2017_Barton_audio.mp3?1730760810","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":1983.23394,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://arsc.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1144/collection_resources/29687/file/255820","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}