The sensational new book:
ABBA: Complete Guide
to their Music

Ask Carl Magnus Palm...

Earlier this year we asked visitors to ABBAMAIL's website to submit questions to Carl Magnus Palm, author of ABBA - The Complete Guide to their Music. In this ABBAMAIL exclusive, Magnus answers your questions!

CMP: None that I can think of at the moment. Certainly, for some of the songs we don't have very much background info, so I just had to go with the flow, as they say.

Fenomenet ABBA (aka ABBA by ABBA) by Christer Borg, published in 1977. It's a slim volume but packed with information, most of it accurate. Also, it's authorised, which means that Borg had access to all four ABBA members, Stig Anderson and other associates. We get their memories of certain important events when they were still fairly fresh in their minds, and their point of view in the "now" that was the height of their career. No other book has that.

CMP: I think I began writing the book in April 2004 and then submitted the manuscript in September of that year. Then, of course, there are always further amendments and last-minute additions, so I don't think I completely signed off on the project until early 2005. The book was written at a fairly leisurely pace, it wasn't like I was working round the clock on it as I've done with some of my other titles.

CMP: Just do it, as the slogan goes. I honestly can't recommend anyone to start writing books, because it requires an enormous amount of patience and perseverance. If you're a newcomer it's unlikely you will get any advance to finance your project, so it will have to be done on a "hobby" level. And if you're then lucky enough to have your book published, you probably won't get paid very much anyway for your hard work. If your ambitions are just a little higher than a quick cash-in, the hourly wages will basically be on sweatshop levels. Not many people are prepared to work under those conditions. If you still want to go ahead with it, despite what I just said, all I can say is: stay focused and see your project through to "the bitter end". It may be harder than you think, but it's the only way to get it done.

CMP: Mostly, it is the publishers who decide about pictures. In the case of The Complete Guide, the price of the book is not very high, because for one thing it's not meant to be an extravagant coffee table book, but just a little guide to ABBA's music. It follows that there is no way one can spend a lot of money - or time - on researching pictures. Therefore, for books published in the UK, for instance, publishers usually go to one-stop picture agencies such as LFI (London Features International) for comparatively inexpensive bulk deals. Photographs are generally VERY expensive - forget the author of the book, the real stars of the show are the photographers and their representatives (agencies etc.).

CMP: I'm sure there is a certain demand, what with all the "mystery" and myth-making attached to her public persona. I can imagine a hyped-up, exaggerated account of her life's story may be fairly successful. However, one should bear in mind that as soon as one removes three members out of four from the ABBA story, public interest decreases dramatically, at least if we're talking about books.

CMP: There were no interviews made for this book, so it had no involvement from any former ABBA members or their associates.

CMP: Not really. I have no idea, to be quite honest.

CMP: I did, although it was mostly on a trivial level, like certain mixes I wasn't aware of and various edits. I was, again, reminded that despite all the books and websites and what-have-you, these are still early days in the world of ABBA research. I would like to think, though, that every time a new book is published - one that aims at breaking new ground or getting its facts straight, that is - it functions partly as "a research report".

Ideally, people that have additional information or spot errors will get in touch with the author and let him or her know about it, so that updates can be published on websites or in future editions of the book - or in someone else's book.

CMP: Somewhere in between those two extremes, perhaps? I had no problems with the oldies concept as such, although I would have liked a production and soundscape that was a little more "out there", a little more over the top, for want of a better expression. My favourite tracks are 'If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind' and 'Sometimes When I'm Dreaming'. Agnetha's voice is still great, so I'm hoping this was just the first step and that she may return with at least one more album.

CMP: I have a few different ideas that I'm toying with. My main "problem" these days is that the work I do for Universal Music takes up so much of my time that I seldom have time to work on my book projects. That's the "curse" of being fairly successful at what you're doing, as I have been: you get plenty of assignments, certainly, but you're mostly asked to repeat the most well-known parts of the ABBA story, in some form or another. I often try to add a few tidbits of previously unknown information (or at least not very widespread information) in my CD and DVD liner notes, to make it a little more interesting, but sometimes the format doesn't even allow for that.

CMP: Around the time of the original release of 'Waterloo', someone felt it plagiarised The Foundations' 'Build Me Up Buttercup'. The accusation was dismissed, however. It was mostly a rhythmic similarity. This is described in a little more detail in my book Bright Lights Dark Shadows.

CMP: I don't know what my next book will be. I'm hoping that it will be a completely new angle, I'm itching to do some original research, more interviews etc. The problem is just time and money, as usual. I think Bright Lights Dark Shadows is probably the final word from me as far as in-depth ABBA biographies go, although I hope to get the chance to thoroughly revise and update that book within the next 5-10 years or so. If and when that happens, is up to the publishers though.

CMP: This featured Björn and Benny only. It was in fact a single A-side released in Japan in 1972, with an alternate mix of 'Rock 'n Roll Band' (without Agnetha and Frida, if memory serves) as the B-side.

CMP: I guess it's available in the English-speaking world, and as an import elsewhere. No translations in the pipeline.

CMP: Would love to do that. If I only had more time, I would do nothing else than realise all my plans for ABBA book projects - I'm not joking. I love doing the research, and I also enjoy the challenge of presenting it all in some kind of digestible fashion.

CMP: I can't say that I have any detailed insight into this subject. I think one has to differ between speaking English in an interview situation and standing in a recording studio with your eyes fixed on a lyric sheet, just as most of us non-native speakers find it easier to sing along with our favourite songs than to actually speak the language in an everyday situation.

I don't think it was so difficult for them to get the pronunciation right when they were singing those songs. If you have my book ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, you will find the lyric sheet for One Man, One Woman there (page 69) and then you will see how Frida has made certain notes to make sure that she gets the pronunciation right. For instance, it appears she has crossed out the second "a" in "breakfast" to remind herself not to emphasise that "a". And she has changed the "a" in "woman" to a Swedish "ö", which I assume was so that she wouldn't forget that she needed something that sounded more like the Swedish "mön" than "man". Quite fascinating.

My assumption is that only Björn and Benny checked the pronunciation. Still, as we all know, a few things like "champagne" in 'Happy New Year' and "longevity" in 'Lovers (Live A Little Longer)' slipped through.

CMP: Research conducted during the preparation of the ABBA - The Movie DVD seemed to indicate that all the unused footage had been junked. I wasn't personally involved in the search for that kind of material, but I know that the Universal Music people looked in several archives - they really did their best. However, nothing seems to have been saved. Perhaps one day it will turn out that the films do still exist and were stored in some heretofore unknown archive, but this time the people who searched for the films came up empty.

In the case of In Concert, perhaps full-length versions of the songs included in the film could be constructed from the available footage. I Honestly don't know what shape that footage is in, or exactly what's on the film rolls that were saved.

CMP: There are a few unreleased songs, as well as a number of alternate versions and alternate mixes of familiar songs still in the vaults that could be interesting for the fans, in much the same way as the previously unreleased tracks in The Beatles' Anthology series. However, at the moment, the chances of ever hearing them look pretty slim. You can read more detailed explanations and theories why their release is not happening at my website carlmagnuspalm.com or in the Ask Ian section right here at the ABBAMAIL, website. But for all those explanations, what it boils down to at the end of the day is: the former ABBA members simply don't want to release them.

I have great doubt about it cause as far as i know there's only the Voulez-Vous sessions that ABBA worked outside Sweden !

CMP: Never heard of this guy in connection with ABBA. But then, we're continually surprised with new information. Someone should try to track the guy down and ask him what his connection to ABBA is, if any. It doesn't really say in the above quote that he was actually working with ABBA as a musician, he may have had some other music business function at that time.

CMP: In Rud Kofoed's Boken om ABBA, Agnetha gives her height as 172 centimetres. I have no idea what that is in feet and inches, but no doubt you can find that kind of information somewhere on the Internet. Google away!

However even with such vigilance it seems one such borrowed fragment made its way into a Björn and Benny composition. On page 58 you quote Benny as saying "when it (Knowing Me, Knowing You) was released, someone wrote to us and pointed out that a small part of the song was identical with a part in another famous composition (an early 1970s hit which shall remain unnamed)......these days people seem to borrow long parts.....and no-one even bats an eyelid." (Moot point: one bats an eye not an eyelid)

My question: what part of "Knowing Me Knowing You" was unconsciously  borrowed (is it the "breaking up is never easy, I know" line?) and from what famous composition is it from?

CMP: As the above quote says: it "shall remain unnamed". Sorry, but I was asked not to reveal what song it was, and it follows that I'm also unable to reveal which part of 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' was discussed. Thanks for the eyelid correction - I will try to make sure never to bat one again. ;-)

CMP: I have no idea. Blondie? I don't have a complete list of who's ever asked them.

CMP: You would have to ask them about that. I never noticed myself.

CMP: I would really, really like to do that one day, in the not too distant future. But as you can probably tell from the above replies, my main problem is time. Because I wouldn't want to do a straight reprint, I would want to revise and update it. And that takes time.

You can purchase Carl Magnus Palm's books through Amazon:

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