OMG!! Oh, Waldo–I thought I was the only one!! I have told many a soul that I’m an English professor today thanks to Julie Christie all those years ago! Every time I have a class that requires a Victorian novel in the curriculum, I assign FFTMC, if for no other reason than it gives me an excuse to show the film to my class. (And I sit there in the dark, saying under my breath “She’s soooo beautiful!)

I, too, was in love with JC–maybe I still am.

(Rosie, loved your story, too.)

And, um, on the subject, I quite agree that “Mamma Mia,” is fine, well-crafted pop–but not as good as “SOS” or “Waterloo.”

I still haul out an album to hear a track or two now and then. But, ironically, I probably listen to more ABBA.

And it just occurred to me both bands have all-caps names. Hmm…

After all, the first use of a string quartet in a pop context produced one of Popular’s towering monuments…

Talking about this album won’t upset the spoiler bunny, because its the one which didn’t spawn any UK number ones.

It’s great, obviously, but I’ve never met anyone who’s said its their favourite ABBA album.

So I’m eager to read what everyone has to say, both critical analysis and personal recollection. Because it’s an odd feeling to have missed out on the phenomenal aspect of a pop phenom - particularly one that has now shown itself to be a permanent part of the cultural landscape (a landscape that now includes America, thanks to “Mamma Mia” - the musical, that is).

As for my reaction at the time, I thought “Waterloo” was exciting and fun, “Dancing Queen” was lost on me due to my blinkered Midwest white guy’s kneejerk dismissal of anything remotely disco, “Fernando” was a puzzler (”Really? A song about the Spanish Civil War?”), and I don’t think “Knowing Me, Knowing You” registered much one way or the other. I think my common reaction to each record was how strange they sounded, simply because there seemed to be a total lack of black influence.

Now I like a lot of ABBA - although I lean more toward the peppy, up-tempo numbers, versus the ones that sound more like show tunes. In fact, I think hearing “Bang-a-Boomarang” on the B-side of some single was the moment when I first thought, “OK, I think I’ve missed something here,” which led me to buying the two Greatest Hits CDs, followed by the first few albums. They still seem strange in their lack of black influence - although better informed listeners may very well point out what I’m missing on this count - but they also often times seem wondrous in their pop glory, and their deep love of the whole idea of Pop.

At some point in the early 90s, someone, somewhere, with a bit of ‘cred’ said that they actually quite liked Abba, and a lot of other people who felt they’d be mocked for it all went ‘Look! Hip Person X likes Abba, so it’s OK for me to like it too.’

And then all the (sensible) people who didn’t give a rats hoot for hipness became, for want of a better word, validated, and it all grew up and exploded.

This does not, however, excuse some of the abominations we’re about to hear *hides from spoiler bunny*

Although their worst is yet to come…

Particularly touching is the way that it evokes real human awkwardness on the part of both the kisser and the teacher - as would actually happen in real life. A contemporary video would add a familiar veneer of psuedo-sexiness to the thing and ignore the vulnerability.

Griff Rhys Jones in “Not the Nine o’Clock News” did a great parody of James Burke’s style (Google tells me it was broadcast on 14 April 1980!) along the lines of: “The whole thing could be explained very simply. So why isn’t it? … (much more in same vein) It all boils down to five words. I’m. Clever. And. You’re. Stupid.

So, what’s about to happen to pop is going to happen, not because anybody had a sudden spark of inspiration, or got into a studio and stomped, but because social, economic and technical influences were coming together in a particular way.

That’s my theory, anyway, and I’m sticking to it!

Many of JB’s connections and intertwining threads were extremely tenuous but it provoked the viewer to think (laterally rather than linearly) and it went out on peaktime BBC1 (Thursdays?). Very much a formative influence on my own theories about music writing and, as you say, a reminder of an age where public broadcasters aimed to stimulate the highest common denominator of its audience rather than patronise the lowest.

I remember James Burke’s Connections! Iffy science, dodgy history, but brilliant television!

Also, going back even further, The Burke Special. And, apropos of a couple of number ones ago, the BBC’s voice of the Apollo missions. Nowadays, the erudition that was once a must-watch for much of the population is now frowned on as ‘elitist’, and for anything of this sort a ‘celebrity’ must be drafted in. It all seems very counterproductive to me.