Abba and bass

[Phil W]

I wrote a little article on the bassists and basslines of Abba - http://philwbass.com/2014/01/02/the-bassists-of-abba/ http://philwbass.com/2014/01/02/the-bassists-of-abba/

 

If you know anything I might have overlooked, please let me know.

 

I was listening to them again recently after a long gap and was struck by how unusual and effective many of the basslines were and how much the bassists seem to have been able to add their personality to the music.

 

Do you have any experience of Abba's music or thoughts on the extent that the basslines were composed by the two main composers?

 

 

[Phil W]

I have now fixed the coding on the links section - bad html before! It links (among other things) to a Steve Glasgow transcription of Dancing Queen

[Mark Schmieder]

Funnily, as an ABBA freak, one of the few ABBA songs I used to dislike was the only one most Americans knew up until ten years or so ago when the ABBA craze finally conquered the last remaining country on the planet that hadn't succommed: Dancing Queen.

 

Well, a number of years ago, my 80's tribute band added it (yeah, it's 70's, but so what), and as I discovered the bass line for the first time while learning it, I finally started not just liking but loving the song and hearing it a new way. What an imaginative line; so simple but intricate at the same time. It just rolls the song right along with most people unawares.

[EddiePlaysBass]

I can sing along to a lot of Abba tunes, without ever having consciously listened to the band! No idea about the bass lines, but this article has made me curious! I believe my girl has a Best Of cd so I may just borrow that one

[Mark Schmieder]

Really well-written; I am no longer able to write about bass this way due to how my life got refocused this past year, so it is quite enjoyable to read someone else's heart-felt analysis of the role of the bass in ABBA's music.

 

You probably know that drummer extraordinaire Ola Brunkert died last year (2012 I mean) or maybe the year before.

 

My college buddy who turned me on to ABBA after his trip to Germany in 1977-1978 (along with Blondie, who hadn't quite broken in their home country yet), had every ABBA associated recording he could fine, one of which was a fine jazz fusion album fronted by ABBA guitarist Janne Schaffer.

 

All of the players on ABBA's albums had stellar backgrounds and pedigrees, yet none of them took a scholarly approach. After all, they toured, whereas in many pop bands the studio musicians and the touring musicians are completely different people. ABBA was a band; not just four singers. They had a lot of live energy and didn't do carbon copy performances.

[Phil W]

Thanks Mark, I was using up my last bit of free time for a while to do this. Back to work Monday then a year of studying and research in the evening too. I never owned an Abba recording till recently, You didn't have to in the 70s...their music was everywhere. You didn't really have to own a Bob Marley, Beatles or Stones album either to know their music. I heard that Ola died recently. I really have to check out Janne Schaffer's fusion music. I was hooked on Blondie' music from the moment I heard Hanging on the Telephone on the radio...they were pretty big in England around then, at least where I lived.

[Phil W]

David,

I would pretty much recommemnd a greatest hits, they were that kind of band. Gold is a good representation. They did a lot of cheesy songs too on the albums. Visitors is probably the single best (non-compilation) album,

[Phil W]

Mark, I too loved Dancing Queen when I really listened to the bass, Rutger plays some great lines there - never content to play the obvious!

[jeremy c]

I own Shaffer's album. I remember liking it and I'll go back and listen again. I do play Dancing Queen often and I'll look at the transcription. Of course no one else in my band is playing the part from the recording, so I'm not sure how playing the right bassline will work.

[Bottom End]

Rutger is one of a long line of bassists who play just the right line for the song.

 

My parents grew up playing Abba all the time, so I know the songs whether I want to or not.

 

With pop music like this, I think there was an idea that pop music is what they make, and they only make pop music. It's not like the Beatles or the Beach Boys, start off with catchy pop songs and then go experimental, Abba made pop songs, and made them well.

[Phil W]

Jeremy, that's so often the case with covers; still Rutger's line is brilliant. Playing it, the transcription, like all transcriptions, is quite a simpflication at times. It's all in the phrasing and the little slurs and accent he adds at times.

 

Bottom End, good point. I think with Abba they were just capable of writing incredible pop songs (though also wrote a lot I find pretty hard to listen to). There is a very European influence to their music which sometimes verges on oompah-folk and other times on near classical invention.

 

There's also the brilliance of the studio musicians who, the more I hear, seem to have had quite a bit of leeway in their parts and were themselves influenced by great soul, jazz and pop musicians. Then you have two fabulous singers with very distinct voices - both of whom capable of singing (theatrically) to attempt to portray a wide range of emotions.

[Phil W]

Future Abba guitarist Janne Schaffer and future Abba drummer Ola Brunkert playing fusion in 1973

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

[Phil W]

Been getting some new information: seems the key ABBA studio musicians played a lot greater role in deciding their own parts than I assumed. The bassists were not given written parts, they created theirs (mostly) at £12 per hour.

 

I rewrote large chunks of the original article to reflect that, and add a neat photo of Rutger playing the Hagstrom Super Swede bass.

[Phil W]

http://philwbass.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/rutger-playing-sswede-bass.jpg

 

Abba bassist Rutger Gunnarsson playing a beautiful Hagström bass. Gunnar Jodmund Gaasland captured this screenshot from an Abba documentary on Norwegian television

[Phil W]

Very happy today! I got a couple of emails from Mike Watson who played on some of the original recordings.

He confirmed there was no sheet music for the Abba sessions except for the string section.

He did tell me something I haven't heard before - that he played the bass on 'Gimme, gimme, gimme, a man after midnight!'

This track had always made me wonder as it didn't sound like Rutger but also not particularly like Mike. Mike even dropped in some popped notes on this one.

 

Mike also confirmed that he recorded the tracks with his 1966 Jazz bass with Schecter pickups. Better get updating my article.

 

Oh, also Mike confirmed that Rutger played the bass on Fernando contrary to what I wrote.

[EddiePlaysBass]

This has been an interesting thread to follow! I went to a local (big) cd store to see what Abba they had on offer - all they had was the remaster of "Super Trooper" but I wanted a compilation so I didn't buy it.

 

Interestingly, one of my colleagues spontaneously brought up Abba the other day - must be something in the air

[Phil W]

I'd recommnend Abba - Gold - the compilation album - hang on for that one!

[EddiePlaysBass]

I am going to a local cd store tomorrow, called Satisfaction Will check if Matt Schofield's new cd has hit the BeNeLux area, and check if he has / can order "Abba - Gold" for me. Thanks for the tip!

[Phil W]

In terms of basslines and melody hooks, few can match them. It's interesting to listen the the basslines and see what worked in a very mainstream pop setting. Many would have just played eighth note roots on these songs but that wasn't the approach at all. It's quite liberating really to think that you can get away with a lot of sophistication in a mainstream setting if it supports the song. So often people think pop bass has to simplistic (nothing wrong with simplistic but wrong to think it HAS to be that way).

 

Plus the two lead singers are superb. I think I took that for granted when I first heard them but they are very good indeed.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Well I found the "Abba Gold" compilation the other day! Will give this one a spin on the way to / from work tomorrow It's a one hour drive in each direction so should be plenty of time to take in the music.

[Phil W]

Enjoy it mate!

 

Since I wrote the piece, Aidan Hampson has written a book of Abba basslines too so it's less of a mystery who played what with Abba than it was last year.

 

http://aidanhampson.co.uk/bass-songbooks/

[Eric VB]

Many would have just played eighth note roots on these songs but that wasn't the approach at all. It's quite liberating really to think that you can get away with a lot of sophistication in a mainstream setting if it supports the song.

Maybe because "Dancing Queen" was their only blockbuster hit over here, but in my mind ABBA is disco so I would expect octave eighths a la BeeGees.

 

Pop music in the '70s was still being influenced by funk so that lends to more creative bass lines. (See the Billboard Top 100 Songs of 1976, the year "Dancing Queen" was released, for example.)

 

Later, in the '80s, Michael Jackson would popularize shorter 1-2 measure bass licks that would just vamp, e.g. "Billie Jean", "Thriller", etc.

[Phil W]

I think, as you say, that's influenced by their one hit. In Europe and Australia they were huge and it was very much mainstream pop. I don't think they had anything in common with disco at all really apart from (like many artists in that period) they made use of the popularity of disco and were influenced by it for a tiny proportion of their repertoire. Dancing Queen was influenced by the proto-disco of George McCrae's Rock Your Baby' which was massive everywhere and very influential.

Most of Abba's repertoire is more influenced by Swedish and German folk music than disco and did at times tend towards mainstream middle of the road pop music easy listening cheese but at their best they had a compositional brilliance, stunning arrangements and a great band of musicians inventing the parts.

If you take a song like Knowing Me, Knowing You...it's a catchy pop song with a memorable melody but the bassline is very inventive. There are actually more hints of Jamerson in Gunnarsson's playing. The funk influence in European pop was extremely minimal (sadly - I was there - I would have loved to have heard more funk).

 

Have a listen, there not much that sounds like this basswise.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

[Phil W]

It's also very interesting to compare that Billboard list with the top UK singles that year - very different picture.

 

http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1976.shtml

[EddiePlaysBass]

The title of the compilation was very well chosen, this is pure Gold indeed! Everyone here should check it out, it really has a LOT to offer in terms of bass lines.

 

But the songs themselves are generally great, too! I get now why my girlfriend (who has a thing for new wave) likes Abba. It's a lot less "silly sugary pop song", there's definitely a dark, melancholic side to their music.

 

And like The Beatles, their repertoire lends itself well to genre-interpretations. I guess that explains why so many metal bands cover Abba! This list is probably not as complete as it claims to be, but check out how often Abba is covered!