A wonderful post, thank you. Abba's music is incredibly uplifting, something we need by the bucketload during this strangely destructive period of history.
ABBA was massive here in Australia in the 70's. I hated them (except for the blonde one !) But now as an old codger I think they are a great pop group (nostalgia) and in fact I bought an ABBA Greatest Hits CD recently. 😳
Yes, it is interesting how they were known as a kind of floofey pop band back then, but whereas their competition from that era has largely disappeared, ABBA's reputation has (after a decade-long doldrum) only grown and skyrocketed. At least in some rare cases, talent is eventually recognized...
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was a naive teenager at the height of their fame, when a song about a “Dancing Queen” had none of the connotations that might be applied today. Every social gathering with music invariably had at least two to three ABBA songs.
Well, this is just a wonderful post! I like you even more now, although I still wish you liked Catholicism lol. ABBA has brought me joy for my entire life--the roller rink in the early 80s played every song over and over again. My aging mother loves them, my children love them, and yes, Benny's energy is infectious. We love them SO much that I am taking that same 81 yo mother (whom I just found out has cancer) and daughter and niece to London to see the Voyager show this Christmas. And now there's this: https://mammamiatheparty.co.uk
That’s great that you’re going to the Voyager show - I had heard that it may be coming to Vegas, in which case I would try to see it there. Re: the dinner show, that looks like a lot of fun!
I don’t dislike Catholicism, it just doesn’t look to me like it has resisted the modern day liberalism/materialism trends very well…I have plenty of criticism to go around for that, though :)
Well, I have never even tried to like ABBA but maybe I should take a chance on them, as it were. My favorite Eurovision performance is "Eurovision" by Telex, which tells you how much Eurovision resonates with me. I think Telex came in dead last that year.
Stereolab is in my top two bands of all time, and "The Free Design" has some themes you might appreciate: duty and struggle, a resurrection of meaning and splendor, a desire for transcendence and a lamentation of the public's willingness to participate in their own enslavement. It also contains a reference to ABBA which you'll recognize as soon as you hear it:
I think the obvious aspect of their success comes down simply to incredible song composition within the pop genre. Melody, meter, economy, harmony, rhythm - everything.
I'm into hip hop but from a structural pov all I hear is brilliance, a little conformity - the beatles they are not but brilliance none the less.
This post was right up my musical street. I have loved ABBA since Waterloo, really (long before they became sort of cool in a camp, ironic way for younger people than me!). And yes, Benny is so modest in saying that they had only a handful of good songs. I have most of the albums, and it is so impressive that the LPs were full of material that was in most cases just as strong as the singles. Without pulling the albums out - I still have the vinyl - I could list some that you probably know, but were not singles: "Eagle", "One Man, One Woman", "Soldiers", "Happy New Year", "If It Wasn't For the Nights", "Move On". The production on their records is still astonishing, and oh my gosh, Agnetha's gorgeous looks and vocals especially (no disrespect to Anni-Frid who of course was a very strong vocalist with maybe a more muscular timbre). They were just so great. Not sure about this hologram show though. A bit too close to a metaverse experience for my liking. I far prefer a live tribute band like Bjorn Again, who I saw many years ago. A live band is a small venue is still complete magic to me. Great post!
I've just spent a delightful hour with this wonderful post and joyful trip down memory lane. I remember, precisely, my joy when spotting Benny on the piano in 'Here We Go Again.' It made my day then just as this montage made today. Were there a poll for favorite Abba song, I'd tick 'Dancing Queen' twice. I'm 80 now and still get a lump in my throat. Kudos!
As one YouTube commenter duly noted, "Dancing Queen, played by the Piano King." Magnificent and incredible! I think Benny would approve wholeheartedly. Thank you!
I would agree that ABBA is superior to Queen. I always enjoy your astrological analysis of people. I would be curious to hear your analysis of Freddie Mercury and Queen, as well as any astrological information about Freddie Mercury.
Thanks Simon. For clarity, one can find the natal chart of most famous people here: https://www.astrotheme.com/ (scroll down a bit and one can do a celebrity name search on the left side of the screen). Then find the Sun planet and degree, and then cross reference that against the Weber and Carelli interpretations provided here (different degree interpreters don't always or entirely agree on their interpretations, so it's good to cross reference): https://ia903404.us.archive.org/32/items/new-360-symbolic-degrees/NEW%20360%20symbolic%20degrees.pdf . This is really just a basic astrological interpretation of one's Natal Sun degree; an actual chart interpretation is much more in-depth, something I may cover from my own perspective in a future post. But the hope is it shows the open minded that there is something real and worth investigating further.
Using this approach to Freddie Mercury, chart here: https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Freddie_Mercury , his natal sun is 12 degrees Virgo. Note that the time of birth is unknown, which defaults to 12 pm, which means that his natal sun could possibly be 11 degrees Virgo. The Virgo 12 degree reads more like Mercury's personality (from what I know of it, anyway). I kind of like both Weber and Carelli interpretations for different reasons:
Weber interpretation:
12-13 deg Virgo
Sagittarian adventures-someness quickly launches this Virgo on a roller - coaster ride through life’s challenges and circumstances, giving and taking extremes of success and failure, love and hate, joy and sorrow. A liking for animals, entertainment, sports, food, fun, education and friendliness. Gives a noble, considerate nature, often zealous and all-knowing but often timid, forgetful, overindulging and over-rating. Helpful and not overly ambitious. Chances of success in business are good. Romance may be rocky, due to the Sagittarius/Virgo square.
Carelli interpretation:
12-13 deg Virgo
Symbol: A rose on a Greek cross (the Rosicrucian symbol)
Much as human wickedness might rage against the native, it will have no power against his balanced and unruffled spirit. “For if God be with us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
His features of unobtrusive modesty and unassuming helpfulness might let him appear somewhat childish, devoid of energy and luck. But in reality his ascendancy on the others is great, even if not felt on the physical plane; his enemies’ weapons will blunt themselves.
Bearing his poverty with a swing and a smile, taking the hardest ordeals in his stride, he breathes an atmosphere of utmost serenity and, even if not with full awareness, confides for everything in Divine Providence. He is possessed of the magic secret of nonresistance and can easily tune with his surroundings. His family might thwart him, wicked parents expose him, envious rivals run him down and the world ignore him. But the measure of his joy, and not only in a spiritual sense, will be as full as that of his opponents’ unhappiness.
His birth might be noble, certainly his nature will be, but no burden of tradition will hamper him; he will be rich at least in imagination, but will do as well without any inheritance. He might love fine arts, protect them and even cultivate them. He is likely to be fond of gardening and to worship flowers.
The occult will at any rate attract him, if not lead him to some degree of realization. Among occult sciences magic will be the most congenial to him. A real initiation may come his way, should other aspects not prevent this.
Great stuff!! One of the best birthday parties I’ve ever attended had an ABBA tribute band perform live on an ad-hoc stage and the whole thing was epic. Heard some people saying, oh ABBA’s my guilty pleasure. I love’em guilt free.
A wonderful post, thank you. Abba's music is incredibly uplifting, something we need by the bucketload during this strangely destructive period of history.
ABBA was massive here in Australia in the 70's. I hated them (except for the blonde one !) But now as an old codger I think they are a great pop group (nostalgia) and in fact I bought an ABBA Greatest Hits CD recently. 😳
Yes, it is interesting how they were known as a kind of floofey pop band back then, but whereas their competition from that era has largely disappeared, ABBA's reputation has (after a decade-long doldrum) only grown and skyrocketed. At least in some rare cases, talent is eventually recognized...
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was a naive teenager at the height of their fame, when a song about a “Dancing Queen” had none of the connotations that might be applied today. Every social gathering with music invariably had at least two to three ABBA songs.
It's so strange how the beautiful colors and symbolism of the rainbow has been reinterpreted by globohomo to mean homosexual sodomy.
I love ABBA.
I rewrote the words to Chiquitita:
Wikipedia
tell me what's wrong...
https://tomg2021.substack.com/p/wikipedia
If you decide to do a deep dive on Olivia Newton John I'll definitely be back for that
Well, this is just a wonderful post! I like you even more now, although I still wish you liked Catholicism lol. ABBA has brought me joy for my entire life--the roller rink in the early 80s played every song over and over again. My aging mother loves them, my children love them, and yes, Benny's energy is infectious. We love them SO much that I am taking that same 81 yo mother (whom I just found out has cancer) and daughter and niece to London to see the Voyager show this Christmas. And now there's this: https://mammamiatheparty.co.uk
What do you think? Should we go for it? :)
That’s great that you’re going to the Voyager show - I had heard that it may be coming to Vegas, in which case I would try to see it there. Re: the dinner show, that looks like a lot of fun!
I don’t dislike Catholicism, it just doesn’t look to me like it has resisted the modern day liberalism/materialism trends very well…I have plenty of criticism to go around for that, though :)
Well, I have never even tried to like ABBA but maybe I should take a chance on them, as it were. My favorite Eurovision performance is "Eurovision" by Telex, which tells you how much Eurovision resonates with me. I think Telex came in dead last that year.
Stereolab is in my top two bands of all time, and "The Free Design" has some themes you might appreciate: duty and struggle, a resurrection of meaning and splendor, a desire for transcendence and a lamentation of the public's willingness to participate in their own enslavement. It also contains a reference to ABBA which you'll recognize as soon as you hear it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-I0DTbjr0g
I think the obvious aspect of their success comes down simply to incredible song composition within the pop genre. Melody, meter, economy, harmony, rhythm - everything.
I'm into hip hop but from a structural pov all I hear is brilliance, a little conformity - the beatles they are not but brilliance none the less.
This post was right up my musical street. I have loved ABBA since Waterloo, really (long before they became sort of cool in a camp, ironic way for younger people than me!). And yes, Benny is so modest in saying that they had only a handful of good songs. I have most of the albums, and it is so impressive that the LPs were full of material that was in most cases just as strong as the singles. Without pulling the albums out - I still have the vinyl - I could list some that you probably know, but were not singles: "Eagle", "One Man, One Woman", "Soldiers", "Happy New Year", "If It Wasn't For the Nights", "Move On". The production on their records is still astonishing, and oh my gosh, Agnetha's gorgeous looks and vocals especially (no disrespect to Anni-Frid who of course was a very strong vocalist with maybe a more muscular timbre). They were just so great. Not sure about this hologram show though. A bit too close to a metaverse experience for my liking. I far prefer a live tribute band like Bjorn Again, who I saw many years ago. A live band is a small venue is still complete magic to me. Great post!
I've just spent a delightful hour with this wonderful post and joyful trip down memory lane. I remember, precisely, my joy when spotting Benny on the piano in 'Here We Go Again.' It made my day then just as this montage made today. Were there a poll for favorite Abba song, I'd tick 'Dancing Queen' twice. I'm 80 now and still get a lump in my throat. Kudos!
Also, regarding Dancing Queen, you may enjoy Francisco Parrino's wonderful piano cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doM_LWo-74A
As one YouTube commenter duly noted, "Dancing Queen, played by the Piano King." Magnificent and incredible! I think Benny would approve wholeheartedly. Thank you!
Thank you R. Toney! I very much appreciate that you enjoyed this post. Yes, the cameos by Benny and Bjorn were fun. And Dancing Queen is a great song.
I would agree that ABBA is superior to Queen. I always enjoy your astrological analysis of people. I would be curious to hear your analysis of Freddie Mercury and Queen, as well as any astrological information about Freddie Mercury.
Thanks Simon. For clarity, one can find the natal chart of most famous people here: https://www.astrotheme.com/ (scroll down a bit and one can do a celebrity name search on the left side of the screen). Then find the Sun planet and degree, and then cross reference that against the Weber and Carelli interpretations provided here (different degree interpreters don't always or entirely agree on their interpretations, so it's good to cross reference): https://ia903404.us.archive.org/32/items/new-360-symbolic-degrees/NEW%20360%20symbolic%20degrees.pdf . This is really just a basic astrological interpretation of one's Natal Sun degree; an actual chart interpretation is much more in-depth, something I may cover from my own perspective in a future post. But the hope is it shows the open minded that there is something real and worth investigating further.
Using this approach to Freddie Mercury, chart here: https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Freddie_Mercury , his natal sun is 12 degrees Virgo. Note that the time of birth is unknown, which defaults to 12 pm, which means that his natal sun could possibly be 11 degrees Virgo. The Virgo 12 degree reads more like Mercury's personality (from what I know of it, anyway). I kind of like both Weber and Carelli interpretations for different reasons:
Weber interpretation:
12-13 deg Virgo
Sagittarian adventures-someness quickly launches this Virgo on a roller - coaster ride through life’s challenges and circumstances, giving and taking extremes of success and failure, love and hate, joy and sorrow. A liking for animals, entertainment, sports, food, fun, education and friendliness. Gives a noble, considerate nature, often zealous and all-knowing but often timid, forgetful, overindulging and over-rating. Helpful and not overly ambitious. Chances of success in business are good. Romance may be rocky, due to the Sagittarius/Virgo square.
Carelli interpretation:
12-13 deg Virgo
Symbol: A rose on a Greek cross (the Rosicrucian symbol)
Much as human wickedness might rage against the native, it will have no power against his balanced and unruffled spirit. “For if God be with us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
His features of unobtrusive modesty and unassuming helpfulness might let him appear somewhat childish, devoid of energy and luck. But in reality his ascendancy on the others is great, even if not felt on the physical plane; his enemies’ weapons will blunt themselves.
Bearing his poverty with a swing and a smile, taking the hardest ordeals in his stride, he breathes an atmosphere of utmost serenity and, even if not with full awareness, confides for everything in Divine Providence. He is possessed of the magic secret of nonresistance and can easily tune with his surroundings. His family might thwart him, wicked parents expose him, envious rivals run him down and the world ignore him. But the measure of his joy, and not only in a spiritual sense, will be as full as that of his opponents’ unhappiness.
His birth might be noble, certainly his nature will be, but no burden of tradition will hamper him; he will be rich at least in imagination, but will do as well without any inheritance. He might love fine arts, protect them and even cultivate them. He is likely to be fond of gardening and to worship flowers.
The occult will at any rate attract him, if not lead him to some degree of realization. Among occult sciences magic will be the most congenial to him. A real initiation may come his way, should other aspects not prevent this.
Fascinating stuff! Thank you. I’m going to read up more on Freddie Mercury. Based on the little I know, these seem to fit.
Great stuff!! One of the best birthday parties I’ve ever attended had an ABBA tribute band perform live on an ad-hoc stage and the whole thing was epic. Heard some people saying, oh ABBA’s my guilty pleasure. I love’em guilt free.
Sounds like a great party! Agreed, no reason to feel guilty for appreciating ABBA.
Thanks!! ❤️
Are you a musical snob?
So you should have said "I think..."