Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Agnetha Fältskog

1983:


2004:
 

Debut in 1968:

 ---
One thing I didn't care for in the eighties was the over-use of makeup by singers and models. Unfortunately it seems to have returned recently. Fortunately not by everybody, but then some of them over-do it to a ridiculous extent. I mean color like like a carnival.

---
I remember a funny rumor in Australia in the seventies: that the pretty performers were just paid performers, and didn't write their own songs. Well, it's understandable to believe that that much talent and charm can't be all in one person  (or even four).

I still like Abba, though it's a little on the sweet side for me now. But I was a huge fan of them when I was a kid in the seventies, I think their first album (the one with the very funky painted cover of the four) was the first album I bought on my own (or maybe the first I'd wished for and got for xmas).

Update: Aha, TTL points out it was the Greatest Hits album:

Clickable

Good drawing, perfect likenesses, good colors, and such imagination.
Artist Hans Arnold.

I don't generally think technological progress has many victims in art, but album cover art is one of them. I think such things will only get a renaissance when big screens become really cheap and ubiquitous, so it's easier to enjoy high-resolution digital art. You could have a system of say ten big screens in your home, and control it from a tablet or PC, and have rotating art on them. I'm looking forward to that, actually, I've had the same framed posters on my walls for 8 years, and lord knows when I'll get around to changing them.

7 comments:

ttl said...

Abba was, and still is, huge! I got to see them play live in Stockholm, which I will never forget.

The four members have made interesting music outside of the band as well. Here is Frida and I Know There's Something Going On (YouTube).

P.S. Mamma Mia is from their 3rd album, not first.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I could have sworn...

But it was the first I got. I remember Nina Pretty Ballerina was on it.

It's a pity they changed the cover for a re-release, that painting was classic and funny. (I think Bjorn had platform boots with tongues and eyes.)
... oddly though, I can't find it. I wonder if it was only used in Scandinavia?

ttl said...

I think you are referring to the Greatest Hits (1975) album cover. Yes, that's a cool painting. I loved it too.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Right you are! Thanks.

Good drawing, perfect likenesses, good colors, and such imagination.
Artist Hans Arnold.

Anonymous said...

You could have a system of say ten big screens in your home, and control it from a tablet or PC, and have rotating art on them.

Ever read Fahrenheit 451?

Anonymous said...

Abba was, and still is, huge! I got to see them play live in Stockholm, which I will never forget.

Are you gay?

Anonymous said...

.............Are you gay?

You moron..do only gays like ABBA....?? with your pathetic taste in music don't even dare to comment on ABBA...