Description
ABBA – Live At Wembley Arena / The Complete Abbaa Concert From November 10th 1979 / Polar 2x Audio CD 2014 / 00602537928644
UPC 602537928644
Product Details:
Tracklist:
| 1-1 | Gammal Fäbodpsalm | 1:44 |
| 1-2 | Voulez-Vous | 4:11 |
| 1-3 | If It Wasn't For The Nights | 5:18 |
| 1-4 | As Good As New | 3:26 |
| 1-5 | Knowing Me, Knowing You | 4:31 |
| 1-6 | Rock Me | 3:34 |
| 1-7 | Chiquitita | 5:34 |
| 1-8 | Money, Money, Money | 3:58 |
| 1-9 | I Have A Dream | 6:52 |
| 1-10 | Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) |
5:35 |
| 1-11 | SOS | 3:31 |
| 1-12 | Fernando | 4:13 |
| 2-1 | The Name Of The Game | 3:10 |
| 2-2 | Eagle | 6:11 |
| 2-3 | Thank You For The Music | 3:53 |
| 2-4 | Why Did It Have To Be Me | 4:33 |
| 2-5 | Intermezzo No. 1 | 4:07 |
| 2-6 | I'm Still Alive | 4:30 |
| 2-7 | Summer Night City | 5:28 |
| 2-8 | Take A Chance On Me | 4:26 |
| 2-9 | Does Your Mother Know | 3:59 |
| 2-10 | Hole In Your Soul | 4:39 |
| 2-11 | The Way Old Friends Do | 3:05 |
| 2-12 |
Dancing Queen | 5:52 |
| 2-13 | Waterloo | 3:51 |
Review:
If you were to just read interviews ABBA gave on the subject, you could be forgiven for wanting to give this live album a miss as something just for the super fans or complete-ists. You’d be missing out.
True - ABBA excelled in the studio, expanding and creating new layering techniques that are still used today. But they all started out their musical careers performing live; even coming together to do so as a foursome prior to ABBA being a band.
The years of their professional experience is captured in this concert. This is 1979, just prior to the releases of the seminal 1980 Super Trouper album and 1981’s darkly lyrical The Visitors. The poignancy of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "SOS" is even greater knowing that Bjorn and Agnetha were in the midst of their divorce. Perhaps this led to (the never before officially released) “I’m Still Alive” - Agnetha’s last composition for the group apparently written for the tour. “I’m Still Alive” is quintessential ABBA, broken hearted person pulling themselves together after a relationship failure.
The new arrangements of old favorites such as "Voulez-Vous" and "Eagle" are great live. Barring a performance by one of their backing singers singing his own composition this is the entire concert - warts and all. The ad libs between songs and instrumental tracks showcase a band at the height of their creativity enjoying performing live for all their worth.
Kids - prior to singing over prerecorded “live” vocal tracks (you know who you are) this was how it was done - and to be fair, still is done today by the greats.
While we may never have their like again, being able to revisit this amazing concert from last century by one of the greatest bands in the world is going to be a treat for years to come.
More Details:
- Backing Vocals – Birgitta Wollgård, Liza Öhman, Tomas Ledin
- Bass – Rutger Gunnarsson
- Drums – Ola Brunkert
- Engineer [Sound Engineer] – Claes af Geijerstam
- Guitar – Lasse Wellander, Mats Ronander
- Keyboards – Anders Eljas
- Percussion – Åke Sundqvist
- Sleeve Notes – Jan Gradvall
