ABBA songs predicted USA situation in '04??

[hinachan]

Today I got an e-mail from a fellow ABBA fan who pointed out something, and I have no idea how I failed to notice this, myself.

Forget the lighthearted fare of the "Mamma Mia" musical -- ABBA released several political songs, and though most were recorded during the Reagan era, some of them are more appropriate now than ever. The lyrics are below, but first some quick explanations (culled from old interviews with Björn, the lyricist who wrote these):

"The Piper" is about how idiotic people are so easily seduced into blindly following a leader. You'll recognize the Rightards in this song right away. "Soldiers" is about the high-ranking military people who have the real power to decide whether to wage war...and how the rest of us are affected, whether we want to be involved or not. Though it's technically about nuclear war, there are still plenty of parallels with our current wartime activities.

Finally, the most chilling is "The Visitors", about a woman "cracking up" with terror because she's involved in a freedom movement in an unnamed country, and the secret police have come to get her. Patriot Act, anyone?


THE PIPER (from the "Super Trouper" album, 1980)

They came from the hills
And they came from the valleys and the plains
They struggled in the cold
In the heat and the snow and in the rain
Came to hear him play
Play their minds away

REFRAIN:
We're all following a strange melody
We're all summoned by a tune
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon for him
And we dance beneath the moon
Sub luna saltamus*
(* Latin for "Dance beneath the moon")

They came from the south
From the west and the north and from the east
They waited for the man
Like a parish is waiting for the priest
Longed to hear him play
Play their minds away

We're all following a strange melody
We're all summoned by a tune
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon for him
And we dance beneath the moon
Sub luna saltamus

He gave them a dream
He seduced everybody in the land
The fire in his eyes
And the fear was a weapon in his hand
So they let him play
Play their minds away

We're all following a strange melody
We're all summoned by a tune
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon
We're following the piper
And we dance beneath the moon for him
And we dance beneath the moon


SOLDIERS (from "The Visitors" album, 1981)

Do I hear what I think I'm hearing
do I see the signs I think I see
or is this just a fantasy
is it true that the beast is waking
stirring in his restless sleep tonight
in the pale moonlight
in the grip of this cold December
you and I have reason to remember

(Note: This refrain is done with several vocal tracks, so the run-on sentences are deliberate, to make the vocal parts seem to bounce off one another)

Soldiers write the songs that soldiers sing
the songs that you and I don't sing
they blow their horns and march along
they drum their drums and look so strong
you'd think that nothing in the world was wrong
Soldiers write the songs that soldiers sing
the songs that you and I won't sing
let's not look the other way
taking a chance
cause if the bugler starts to play
we too must dance

What's that sound
what's that dreadful rumble
won't somebody tell me what I hear
in the distance but drawing near
is it only a storm approaching
all that thunder and the blinding light
in the winter night
In the grip of this cold December
you and I have reason to remember

Soldiers write the songs that soldiers sing
the songs that you and I don't sing
they blow their horns and march along
they drum their drums and look so strong
you'd think that nothing in the world was wrong
Soldiers write the songs that soldiers sing
the songs that you and I won't sing
let's not look the other way
taking a chance
'cause if the bugler starts to play
we too must dance


THE VISITORS (Crackin' Up)

I hear the doorbell ring
and suddenly the panic takes me
The sound so ominously tearing through the silence
I cannot move, I'm standing
Numb and frozen
Among the things I love so dearly
The books, the paintings and the furniture
Help me....

The signal's sounding once again
and someone tries the door-knob
None of my friends would be
so stupidly impatient
And they don't dare to come here
Anymore now
But how I loved our secret meetings
We talked and talked in quiet voices
Smiling....

Now I hear them moving
Muffled noises coming through the door
I feel I'm cracking up
Voices growing louder, irritation building
And I'm close to fainting
Cracking up
They must know by now
I'm in here trembling
In a terror evergrowing
Cracking up
My whole world is falling, going crazy
There is no escaping now
I'm cracking up

These walls have witnessed
all the anguish of humiliation
And seen the hope of freedom
glow in shining faces
And now they've come to take me
Come to break me
And yet it isn't unexpected
I have been waiting for these visitors
Help me....

Now I hear them moving
Muffled noises coming through the door
I feel I'm cracking up
Voices growing louder, irritation building
And I'm close to fainting
Cracking up
They must know by now
I'm in here trembling
In a terror evergrowing
Cracking up
My whole world is falling, going crazy
There is no escaping now
I'm cracking up

[nikatnyte]

1. Wonderful! Now if only we could see

a reunited ABBA, Country Joe & The Fish and Pete Seeger in concert!

[NuttyFluffers]

2. ahh ABBA, is there anything they cannot illuminate?

like mystic sacred scriptures, but danceable and infectious. i swear, the coming of the 'new age' will be by a prophetic pop quartet from scandinavia.

[hinachan]

3. Actually, I've written a funny story about that

"like mystic sacred scriptures, but danceable and infectious. i swear, the coming of the 'new age' will be by a prophetic pop quartet from scandinavia."

Funny you should say this, b/c I've actually written a comedy/fantasy story based on ABBA, making them into fantasy-like figures battling to keep melody alive on earth:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2089064/1/
(if the URL breaks, there are supposed to be / marks on both sides of that last 1, *without* a space before the last /)

Can you tell I watch a lot of Japanese animation? :D

[NuttyFluffers]

4. :( mirarenakute shimaimasu... (to my regret i cannot see it)

even with the /1/ like so. and i so wanted to read ABBA as Moonwalker-esque superheroes.

[hinachan]

9. OK, here's that ABBA story

Weird that FanFiction.net's site didn't work for you, but anyway, I put the story up on my own site. There's no link to it from the main page, so just go directly to:

http://democratpride.tripod.com/superswedes.html

I hope you like it! ^_^

[LoZoccolo]

5. "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider is another song...

...that when you listen to it now, you understand it much more.

[tinanator]

6. I thought that was just a pathetic Floyd ripoff?

are you saying its deeper than that?

[LoZoccolo]

8. That riff is probably in hundreds of blues songs. n/t

[tinanator]

10. not the riff, the lyrics

I cant even recall more than the main chorus, but the whole lunatic thing struck me as a pretty thin theft of Pink Floyds going thing. Hell, Dark Side of the Moon was probably still in the top 100 when that tune was released.

[Bucky]

7. "They were shoutin' out for YOU and ME and LIBerTEE, Fer-NAN-doooooo....!"

Yeh, Abba's cool, but I don't think they were in the prognostication bidness.

[hinachan]

11. That was a joke about ABBA, but funny how true the stuff still is today!

In fact, most of the stuff I wrote on my website (song parodies) were done in the 1980's, and all that's just as true today too, if not more so.

That's Republicans for you...same shit, different decade. :P