Tales From The Video Stash: ABBA - The Movie

[with special emphasis on 'Tiger']

[This is the first in a planned series of relatively short write-ups on some of the DVDs that constitute my little music video collection. Presented in simple alphabetic order. Most of them are available on YouTube in one form or another, sometimes in full form, sometimes as selected clips, so the appropriate links will, of course, be provided].

ABBA: The Movie

[with special emphasis on ‘Tiger’]

Forgive me for allowing myself a little extra sentimentality here, but since, to the best of my somewhat tattered recollections of childhood, ABBA: The Movie must have been my very first ever big screen experience of the «Western pop scene» (the Soviet government did endorse a limited theatrical release sometime around 1981–1982), I still cherish a fond memory of it — yes, I even remember being dumbstruck by the awesome Seventies-style chicness of the schlimazel-type DJ who had to follow ABBA all over Australia so as to get the coveted interview. (Even if, now in retrospect, he does look more like a child molester than a DJ — and I swear I got that impression before 2014, when Robert Hughes, the actor, actually got a prison term for precisely that kind of offense. Eerie stuff.)

In any case, while the comedy-oriented bits of «plot» added to ABBA: The Movie are hardly worth discussing, the film as a whole was a very authentic, true-to-spirit portrayal of a typical concert tour of a typical top-level mid-Seventies’ glam-pop outfit — somewhat reminiscent of similar movies shot for Elvis, like Aloha From Hawaii, but with the obvious difference in age: ABBA were young and modern, and their audiences were largely teenagers (or even pre-teens), rather than the lonely housewives of Elvis’ «post-comeback» era. Naturally, the movie gently evaded showing any signs of tension within the band itself, but other than that, everything in it looked fairly authentic — well, spell that out with a whiff of irony, since ABBAesque «glam-pop» was fantasy theater pretty much by definition. We love our fantasy theater, though.

Picking out one particular highlight from the live numbers or the several videos included into the movie (à la fantasy sequences inside Led Zeppelin’s then-recent Song Remains The Same) is a difficult job — this was ABBA at their mid-Seventies peak, right before their somewhat stumblier «disco period», and be it the big whoppers like ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘S.O.S.’ or the lesser known things like ‘Why Did It Have To Be Me’, everything in the movie is fun. So I guess the key point would perhaps be identified as the «big reveal», the one moment we’d all been waiting for once the guys and then the gals take the stage for the first time, transformed from being just merely four cool characters in hip Seventies’ clothes and sunglasses to galactic kings and queens.

This happens with ‘Tiger’, which today, I guess, is a little-remembered side number on Arrival, the band’s fourth LP, sitting rather unremarkably next to giant hits like ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ or ‘Money, Money, Money’ or ‘Dancing Queen’, of course. At the time, though, they really selected that particular song as their regular show-opener, instead of something much more obvious like ‘Mamma Mia’ or ‘Dancing Queen’ — even despite it being their very first major world tour. Actually, ‘Tiger’ is a more clever song than most people would probably think it to be, and their choice of it as the opener, together with the choreography and everything, was a more artistically intriguing decision than most would give them credit for, so let’s dwell on that for a while.

The lyrics to ‘Tiger’ are ambiguous — the song seems to warn the listeners of the perils waiting for them in the metropolitan area ("the city is a jungle, you’d better take care"), chief of these being the proverbial "tiger" who, as it turns out, is largely inescapable ("I am behind you, I’ll always find you"). Interpretations of the identity of the «tiger» have ranged from stalkers (!) to drugs (!!!), but I think the live performance makes it pretty clear. They open the song with a more bombastic, guitar-filled, arena-oriented intro than on record (well, the guitars must be there to provide the pad for Benny’s dramatic landing at the keyboard), borrowing not a bit from the ‘Get Back’ chord sequence to generate the city-as-a-jungle musical background. Then Agnetha and Frida make their own dramatic entrance, and the way they «claw» at the audience during the chorus leaves no doubt that the tiger is basically the band as such — cockily announcing itself as the living, beating heart of the big city, the most natural and quintessential part of your attraction to the seductive delights under the neon lights.

Much like ‘Staying Alive’ and other similar numbers, ‘Tiger’ is thus another romantic ode to the excitement offered by urban magic which keeps using the idea of danger not so much as an actual warning or disclaimer but rather as a tempting choice — and at the time, this territory was still relatively new ground for ABBA, though they would explore it further later on in their career, particularly with stuff like ‘Summer Night City’ and ‘I Am The City’. It is notable, by the way, that once the band hit it big in 1975, they would start opening their shows not with the big hits like ‘Waterloo’ or ‘S.O.S.’, but with something less predictable — like ‘Hey Hey Helen’ on the 1975 tour, a guitar-crunchy, bombastic glam-rock anthem to divorced mothers, and then this: a telltale sign that ABBA is all about flashy, tempting urban glitz first, with romance and heartbreak and all of that bittersweet sentimental stuff coming on only once the priorities have been firmly established.

Because the movie, naturally, uses mostly footage from the actual tour (the sound, I believe, was largely overdubbed, which is a bit of a pity because ABBA could perform fairly well live — we just very rarely see or hear it), it has a bit of an artsy advantage over regular footage of ABBA from various TV shows around the globe: the shows are performed mostly in darkness, with red and yellow lights singling out the performers — similar in texture to other big filmed events of the era, like the already mentioned Song Remains The Same or Paul McCartney & Wings’ Rock Show, but perhaps even more relentless than those in darkening just about everything other than the four band members (it is amusing how the lighting and camera seem to carefully avoid showing anybody else on stage; there definitely was a rhythm section and at least one extra guitar player, but you’ll have to do a lot of pausing and rewinding to catch their presence). It can get a little wearying over the course of the movie — but for a performance like ‘Tiger’ (whose original video, by the way, also showed the band rolling around a neon-lit urban jungle), it feels totally appropriate.

Rewatching this glorious «point of entry» as well as the other musical numbers captured in the movie, all the way to the Girl With The Golden Hair mini-musical, keeps bringing this one impression / thought to my mind. On one hand, if you do compare this kind of show with a mid-Seventies’ Led Zeppelin, or McCartney, or any other solid «arena-rock» concert, ABBA are quite objectively more «rigid» here — all of their choreography is pre-rehearsed, all of the singing strictly in accordance with set melodies, none of the music leaves any serious space for improvisation: this is a classic case of a glamorous give-the-people-exactly-what-they-want entertainment show that did, in fact, arise in the mid-Seventies with ABBA among its Founding Fathers (and Mothers). Nothing is straighter than a direct evolutionary line from this to Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift.

On the other hand, though, leaving aside potentially ruinous comparisons with 21st century entertainment, I am always struck by how alive the ABBA show actually feels. Perhaps it is merely about the music, which is so good that the show might feel alive even if it were delivered by AI-powered mannequins (ironically, this is more or less what would happen half a century later with the infamous «Holographic ABBA» tour). But more likely, it also has to do with the joyful, child-like innocence of the band, still giddy from their unexpected phenomenal success — and this, by the way, is even better reflected on the faces of Benny and Björn whenever the camera shines on them: next to them, Agnetha and Frida almost cut motherly figures, looking more resplendent and stern and, well, responsible for giving everybody a good time.

Additionally, while today we are so well used to the idea that a luxurious pop show is first and foremost a massive ego trip — the build-up of a God-level stage personality to be worshipped by a massive audience — there is very little real ego on display here. Even the band’s ridiculous stage costumes do not so much transmit or emphasize their personalities as they simply complement the fantasy aspects of the music. The movie shows us plenty of ABBA-mania, and is quite explicit in letting us know about the core audience of the band — the same starry-eyed, ecstatic, idol-craving kids who went nuts about Ziggy Stardust and the Electric Warrior just a few years ago — but somehow it all ends up being about surrendering yourself to the music rather than the personalities: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, after all, are no David Bowie or Marc Bolan when it comes to transforming yourself into a living Apollo on stage. They’re just ordinary guys. Well, ordinary guys with a penchant for wardrobe that would make King Lear’s Fool retreat to his plough, that’s all.

Anyway, out of the two most commonly available and well-shot documents of ABBA at their peak, I wholeheartedly endorse The Movie (1977) over In Concert (1979), shot at Wembley — even though the second should probably be the natural choice if you are only interested in the music (no backstage footage, no fan interviews, and no Robert Hughes) and, more importantly, if you want to get a better overall impression of the stage show: In Concert does allow the camera to get some good shots of the backing band which had, by 1979, greatly expanded, with extra backing singers and stuff. On the other hand, In Concert gives you the band in their disco era, with less impressive material such as ‘Voulez-Vous’ and ‘Does Your Mother Know’ replacing far better songs — and it gives you the band as seasoned, experienced superstars. There’s still that giddy childish look in Benny’s eyes, but everything is even more polished than before.

Most importantly, I feel completely vindicated: want it or not, my 6-year old self had pretty damn good taste after all!..