Abba's Abba Gold
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:1st May '04
£9.99
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
33 1/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives - often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. (A task which can be, as Elvis Costello famously observed, as tricky as dancing about architecture.) What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen.
This sensitive, smart, tiny book is amazingly comprehensive, dealing with everything from recording history to the gay following the band developed. Vincentelli, an astute critic and a rabid fan, is just the writer to grasp the many-layered experience that is ABBA. -- Claire Dederer * Newsday, 4/11/04 *
Vincentelli is an intriguing sociologist (calling Abba one of the few band to link ‘European drag queens and Midwestern housewives, New York hipsters and Japanese students') and a funny critic (‘Lay All Your Love on Me,' she says, ‘may well be the gayest song ever recorded by two clean-cut heterosexual couples'). -- Mike Miliard * The Boston Phoenix, 7/8/04 *
With Elisabeth's personal anecdotes thrown into the mix of ABBA's history, quotes from contemporary critics and musicians, and analyses of the songs that make up ABBA Gold, it's hard not to read the entire book in one sitting. And for me personally, Elisabeth Vincentelli is the kind of writer I aspire to be- full of musical knowledge, yet passionate and personal about the subject she takes on. * Cha Cha Charming, June 2004 *
Vincentelli's study of Abba Gold is a valiant effort. -- Jason Dropor * Record Collector, October 2004 *
The idea was simple: to ask a group of authors to each write a book about a classic album. What emerged became Continuum's 33 1/3 series. Without guidelines or rules, each author embraced their own favorite album and chose exactly how they wanted to write about it.As a result, each book is by turn anecdotal, obsessive, technical and personal, but always passionate. * Swell Music, December 2006 *
The author doesn't mind telling you that her favorite song EVER is Abba's "SOS," which is admirably candid (although wrong--"Knowing Me, Knowing You" is the peak of Abba-ness), and she totally gets the blissful unhipness that makes the band beloved by everyone from "European drag queens to Midwestern housewives." * Austin American-Statesman, 10/17/04 *
Throughout her meticulously researched, song-by-song exploration of Abba's most famous moments, Vincentelli examines with insight, wit and unabashed fanaticism everything from "Knowing Me, Knowing You"'s domestic drama to, well, the shoulder pads, tights, and foil shirts worn in the "Voulez-Vous" video. In the process, she not only makes a compelling, sincere case for all things Abba but also for pop music itself. * San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5/19/04 *
ISBN: 9780826415462
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 128g
144 pages