ABBA

 

Artist: ABBA

LP: Super Trouper

Song: "The Winner Takes It All"

[ listen ]

Someone I dated for a while back in 2003 told me that the guy he'd dated for a few months just before we met threw a tantrum when he broke up with him, ranting and raving and going nuts. I decided then that, whenever anyone ended a relationship with me, I'd simply say, "Okay, that's fine." ...and then go do all my ranting and raving and going nuts in the privacy of my own bathroom. My idea is that, when the relationship is over, I'd like my ex to look back later and worry that they'd made a horrible mistake, and that I was the one that they should never have let get away...as opposed to putting on an emotional pyrotechnics show that simply confirms that they made the smartest decision ever when they dumped me. 

And now it looks like the USA is breaking up with Donald Trump. Will we ever look back as a country and wonder if he was the president that got away? I think probably the only thing he could do at this point to make me wonder if I'd cast my vote differently if I could go back and do it all again is this: Instead of offering a traditional concession speech if and when the 2020 Presidential Election is called in Biden's favor, Trump would slowly walk to the podium and stand perfectly still until the cheering crowd has gone silent. Then, suddenly, the opening notes of the piano would ring throughout the room, and Trump would launch into a heartfelt and wistful performance of ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All." As the vocals reach their end and the music crescendos before the final fade, Trump would slowly slink away, finally disappearing into the shadowy wings of the stage. So if he did THAT...maybe. Otherwise, I'm good.

ABBA / Matt Williams [1967-2020]

Artist: ABBA

LP: Super Trouper
Song: "Super Trouper"

[ listen ]

Speaking of "family vibes," my brother Matt died suddenly of a heart-attack this past Saturday morning down in Portland, Oregon. I could write 100+ paragraphs filled with all the memories I have of him, but I'm just gonna mention one. And then I'm going to post 100+ photos instead.

Matt loved ABBA. I mean, he didn't dress up like them or anything, but I remember when he was about 13 years old in the early '80s, he had ABBA's "Super Trouper" on cassette and played it a lot. Well at age 11, I was just hip enough to know that ABBA had gone slightly out of fashion, so I teased him in front of his friends: "You like ABBA! You like ABBA!" Now of course I have all of ABBA's albums and recognize that they are actually one of the coolest things ever to come out of Europe...and also that another one of the coolest things ever is to be slightly out of fashion. My brother was way ahead of me.

Matt liked the album's title track in particular...and I do too. If anyone was a Super Trouper, it was Matt. In spite of  whatever I or anyone else believes, I like to think that now lights are gonna' find him shining like the sun, smiling, having fun, feeling like a #1. And I hope he won't ever feel blue, like he'd sometimes be, 'cause somewhere in the crowd there's me.

[ As a young lad, sittin' on the shag ]

[ Bug eyes ]

[ Photo for the cover of our first LP ]

[ Matt the baker boy ]

[ Matt and his glass ]

[ Out at the farm, slightly overdressed ]

[ Marching to the beat of our own drum ]

[ Okay, actually maybe Matt DID dress like ABBA ]

[ ABBA ]

[ Brothers at the oven ]

 [ Brothers at the campground ]

 

[ The Williams Family siblings ]

[ Happy to be taking care of his little brother ]

[ Matt with friends, champions at the table ]

[ At the table with mom ]

[ At Original Hotcake & Steak House in Portland, OR ]

[ Matt turns six ]

Matthew Lawrence Williams
[ January 21, 1967 — May 30, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Matt. Please let me know when you've seen this.

Merit Hemmingson and Her Friends

Artist: Merit Hemmingson and Her Friends

LP: Swedish Modern
Song: "Vindarna Sucka Uti Skogarna"
[ listen ]
Song: "Mandom Mod Och Morske Män"

[ listen ]

Here's some nifty Scandinavian folk music set to a contemporary beat (well, contemporary when this record was released 47 years ago) by Swedish organist, multi-instrumentalist and hummer Merit Hemmingson. You can read all about Ms. Merit in Swedish here, and find an English translation here.

[ Merit Hemmingson ]

Lasse Wellander

Artist: Lasse Wellander

LP: Electrocuted

Song: "Hotel 167"
[ listen ]

Here's something I found at Råkk og Rålls in Oslo on my trip to Norway back in May. I was taken in by several beguiling factors: 

1. Lasse played guitar for ABBA for lots of their studio recordings, and for a bunch of their live shows too! So naturally, I figured he probably sounded exactly like ABBA, but without any words. Unless maybe he sang!
2. On the back of "Electrocuted," his 1975 solo debut LP, Lasse uses a series of symbols to indicate which musicians are playing on each of the tracks—symbols that immediately brought to mind the system of enigmatic codes and symbols Bob Mizer always used to indicate the personality traits and sexual proclivities of his hunky male AMG models for their photo spreads (no pun intended) in monthly issues of Physique Pictorial. 
3. Lasse is super handsome and I like the way his pants cling to his hips. I wanted to take him home with me.
4. Lasse, come home!

But alas, this record sounds nothing like ABBA. And frankly, Lasse pretty much lost his looks soon after this LP was released (those poor Scandinavians hardly stand a chance!). And now that I've got photo documentation of his 1975-era bedroom eyes, hip-huggers and hairy chest, "Electrocuted" has been unplugged and put into my 'trade-in' pile of LPs. You can read about Lasse Wellander in Swedish here and go here for information in English.

[ Lasse Wellander ]

Harpo

Artist: Harpo

LP: Leo the Leopard

Song: "Out In the Jungle"
[ listen ]

Next we flew to Oslo, Norway, but I'm sad to report that I never ended up getting to meet a-ha. I did go to two terrific record stores though. But in order to not miss out on the rest of the city entirely, I was only allowed a limited amount of time on any given day to rummage for vinyl...which means I ended up having to make two trips to Råkk og Rålls, located on Karl Johans gate, the main street in Oslo. It's right across from a lovely park with a fountain in it. 

I could tell they just recently moved to this new location, because the first time I went there, the remnants of the sign from the store that had been in that spot before were still visible peeking out from behind the record store sign. But when I returned a week later, those letters had been covered up. (There's a "before and after" photo of the front of the store below.)

Råkk og Rålls is a fine place, with a set of escalators just inside the glass front doors that deliver customers downward into a large, clean and well-lit store filled with unusual vinyl treasures. I feel bad complaining, but I must express regret that I missed out on visiting Råkk og Rålls before the move, since the old location was something straight out of a wild, blissful, and utterly fantastical midsummer night's dream of record store paradise! I suppose it was just too good to last.

Nevertheless, I was grateful that this 1974 debut LP by Swedish artist Jan "Harpo" Svensson didn't get lost in the move. You can read about Harpo in Swedish here, and Google Translate helped me come up with this English translation:

Harpo is an artist name for Jan Svensson, born April 5, 1950 in Stockholm, 

a Swedish pop musician who hit 1973 with the song "Honolulu." 

During the 1970s he had several songs on top lists in Sweden and abroad; 

including "Sayonara," "Moviestar" and "Horoscope."

Harpo lives with his wife on a farm outside Halmstad, where he is breeding horses. 

He also devotes much of his time painting paintings. In Sweden, much of 

Harpo is not currently musical, but in Germany he is still popular and appears 

more or less regularly there. It was even where he had the biggest successes.

In August 1980 he was out on a training round with one of his trotting horses. 

For unknown reason, the horse kicked back and the first hit Harpo straight in the face. 

The horse stuck with his left leg in a sick skull and became so scared that it 

continued kicking several times. The damage was so extensive that no one thought 

Harpo would survive. The forehead and nose were depressed and the 

right eye eyes were cut. He lost sight of that eye as well as the sense of smell. 

Nevertheless, he later wrote a tribute to the horse in question. 

You've got to hand it to any guy who writes a tribute to a horse that kicked him square in the face, blinding him in one eye and destroying his sense of smell. But I guess an artist never knows exactly where his inspiration might come from. There's a more recent photo of Harpo here and I don't see any hoof prints, so I think he's going to be fine. Speaking of, and I know I'm stating the obvious, but Harpo is stark raving naked on the front cover of his debut LP. That takes guts. 
 

[ Råkk og Rålls — Oslo, Norway ]

Ratata

Artist: Ratata

LP: Jackie

Song: "Prinsessa På Vift"

[ listen ]

It's difficult to find details about '80s Swedish new wave group Ratata by searching Google nowadays, since these guys keep popping up instead. What I did manage to dig up here and here is that Mauro Scocco formed Ratata with three of his mates in 1981, but by the time "Jackie," the group's second LP, was released in 1982, Scocco was the sole remaining member. He and band musician Johan Ekelund, who co-wrote the album's hit title track, continued as Ratata through the remainder of the '80s, finally disbanding the group in 1989. Click here to visit the Ratata website, where you'll find their complete discography, some Swedish-language bio pages, and adorable photos of the Ratata boys like the one I've included below. There's a more recent incarnation of Ratata performing their hit song "Jackie" on a TV show here, where one might note that the grown-up Mauro Scocco bears a striking resemblance to legendary Hollywood actor/singer/comedian/ham Jack Carson.

[ Mauro Scocco & Johan Ekelund = Ratata ]