By the Way

For once it's not my lungs which have awakened me at this hideous hour--it's the rich food and surplus of alcohol I consumed last night. But I need to write before I can sleep again, I think. So I'll mention that I have traditionally loathed Abba.

This is my sister's fault entirely. You see, Julia had a record player (remember those?) in her room, as did I. But she used hers for evil. She always bought the latest pap, sorry, "pop" music and then played the sole hit track for days. Usually not even letting the other songs on the album be played.

Some artists for whom I acquired a violent dislike: Prince ("Purple Rain" played nonstop for an entire rainy weekend), Abba ("Greatest Hits"--which contained only one "hit" as far as I know), and the Prince of Evil, Michael Jackson (Does the "Thriller" album come with any tracks on it besides "Billie Jean"?). I considered her musical taste fit only for wets, wimps, and weirdos.

Of course, being myself more of a fan of what was then known as Hard Rock and Heavy Metal (catch them nowadays on your local Easy Listening station) I was un-predisposed to like them anyway, and upon mature reflection, I find that I haven't missed anything. All the artists I came to dislike in this fashion are wets, wimps, and weirdos--i.e. The Artist Once Known as The Musician Who Used to be The Artist Formerly Known as etc., Michael "Children's Hour" Jackson and the Swedish Spandex Swingers.

So "Mamma Mia" came as something of a shock. An audience of aging boomers and '70s children booogieing their brains out in their seats (the woman in front of me almost fell out of hers she was gyrating so vigorously) to a play based on Abba tunes.

Sort of as if T.S. Eliot had heard some Lloyd-Webber crap and decided to write a book of cat poetry around it.

I found that the as-bad-as-typical-in-musicals writing somehow enhanced the sounds of Sweden in a way that was neither unpleasing to the ear nor entirely offensive to the brain, although the eye was repeatedly violated by scenes of white spandex.

But the dancing frogmen made the whole show for me.

So okay, I enjoyed it. But don't expect me to rush out and buy the soundtrack.