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| ODE TO BENNY
I was engaged in a conversation with someone I had the pleasure of meeting at one of the many functions we find ourselves attending at this time of year and somehow we happened to turn the attention of our conversation to music.
It was basically about this and that and I mentioned I’d recently acquired this CD of wonderful music entitled ‘BAO 3’ by Benny Andersson’s Orchestra.
‘Oh, the bearded one from ABBA, does he have an orchestra these days?’
You could have knocked me over with a pickled herring after that reaction!
My immediate reaction was literally to see red and tell this ignoramus exactly what I thought about him and his knowledge of the music industry, I mean really, ABBA did not always only have one bearded male member, besides which, there is more to Benny Andersson than bloody ABBA!
But, something held me back as my mind raced, and I managed to restrain myself. Ok, I thought, you know who ABBA are and you know who Benny Andersson is and hey, ABBA finished 25 years ago, yes, you still hear about ABBA but not really that much about the four individual members and if you do, it’s normally not that much about Benny Andersson, so I guess you aren’t that much of an ignoramus, so I’ll refrain from hitting you.
Inevitably, I carried on with the conversation, and tried to educate this person about Benny Andersson, where he hailed from, how he got into the music industry, his musical collaborations with Bjorn Ulvaeus, meeting up with Stig Anderson, then Anni-Frid Lyngstad which ultimately led to the forming of ABBA with Agnetha Faltskog to complete the quartet and the rest as they say is history.
All this proved to no avail, this person was more interested in the apparent ‘partner’ swopping that supposedly happened in ABBA than the story of Benny Andersson! So I lost interest in the conversation and surmised I should have hit him in the first place.
Then I remembered I’m not violent and he did me a favour in a way, I realised that there is actually a lot to this man, besides being a member of the two fat old men club, along with a certain other ABBA member, not much credit has ever really been given to Benny Andersson, the artist.
I don’t think there has ever been a column written about him specifically and yet, he is a man of such enormous talent, that it is a pity that his achievements and contributions to the world of music literally go unnoticed but to a very few of his most loyal fans. More people would more than likely want to stay in his Hotel and even more are interested in his wine collection and the consumption thereof than wanting to learn about his musical talents, which is a pity really.
We all know where Benny hailed from and the start of the makings of what has turned out to a highly successful illustrious career, both before and after ABBA, and yes, there are many of us in the ABBA world who dislike him for some of his comments concerning the ABBA years or for his reasoning behind not wanting to release certain recordings from the ABBA vaults, which many die-hard ABBA fans still like to believe have many undiscovered treasures in them.
Well, and as harsh as it may sound, sometimes I can understand why Benny has wanted to shed those famous ABBA roller coaster years and get on with his life and do what he really wants to do, and that is make music.
Let’s face it, Benny Andersson was never really the centre of attraction where ABBA were concerned, but if you think about, when you saw Benny on stage behind his piano or accordion, he simply had fun, and I have to believe that this is what he is doing today, even in his 60’s, playing his accordion with his band and having fun. I have found it so very interesting and fascinating to watch how Benny in interviews interprets some of his and the ABBA recordings, simple melodies, a bit of this and a bit of that, nothing special, but at the end of the day, truly spectacular.
I think that being an ABBA fan for so many years, has opened up a whole new avenue with a view to music and made me appreciate the diversities that made up the ABBA sound, and in a way, I’m grateful for that. I’ve been afforded the opportunity of being able to acquire Benny’s music that he has made on his own since the demise of ABBA when he has not been collaborating with Bjorn on a musical, or some other activity, and I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every CD that he has released.
The music that he makes with Benny Andersson’s Orchestra or as Benny Andersson the artist, may not necessarily be everybody’s cup of tea, but I can honestly say, that each project is well worth a listen, at least once, after that it simply grows on you. There are some beautiful pieces of music on Benny’s albums and some extremely powerful ballads, some with lyrics added by Bjorn, but at the end of the day, and after listening to Benny’s albums, you are left with two things, one, you enjoyed listening to it and, two, he enjoyed making it.
There was a recent stirring in the ABBA fan world a few months back just before “BAO 3” was released as it contained an ‘un-released ABBA song’ – ‘Crush On You’. Well, many fans got the CD before I did, listened to the song and passed their opinions, which is fine; we’re all entitled to do so.
So, now, I’ve got the album, listened to the song, read the lyrics and thought, hey, not bad, but, it was written with two very different kind of vocalists in mind nearly 30 years ago, and despite Helen Sjöholm giving a great rendition of it, it is NOT ABBA, and neither was it intended to be.
It is a Benny Andersson’s Orchestra song, sung by Helen. The whole dynamics of the song have changed from what it was originally intended to be, and after hearing it on Benny’s latest album, I can understand why, the song has finally been given the justice it deserves in a far better manner than it would have received from ABBA so many years ago, which is inevitably why it was not used by ABBA in the first place.
Despite his business acumen, and how hard he’s worked, it’s easy to understand, why Benny Andersson is more interested in the music than anything else, it’s what he lives for, and yes he may have been thrown back into the spotlight thanks to the success of ‘ABBA – GOLD’ which spends more time in the charts than out of it, as well as the Mamma Mia! success story, but at the end of the day, the man is still humble and has shown that he can still churn out beautiful music.
I really hope he carries on doing so, some of his fans would be lost without it and it would a great loss to the public, and I truly hope that he will not always be remembered ‘as the bearded one from ABBA’ - Benny Andersson is far too talented for that.
Neil |
