FEATURE

Stockholm based writer Carl Magnus Palm is recognised as the world’s foremost Abba historian...

We recently caught up with author Carl Magnus Palm to chat about his new book Abba - The Complete Recording Sessions...

ABBAThe Complete Recording Sessions

H aving written numerous books on Abba Carl is also a consultant for Polar Music

International/Universal Music and has planned, conceived and contributed to numerous ABBA-related CDs and DVDs for more than two decades. He is also a contributor to the band’s official website and Museum in Stockholm.

Carl has appeared on television and radio to talk about ABBA in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, the United States, Australia, Russia, Germany, France and The Netherlands and is also the co-producer of three television documentaries about ABBA that premiered on SVT in Sweden in December 2012 and January 2013.

ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions is a comprehensive volume detailing how the Swedish band wrote and recorded their music. When it was initially published in 1994, the book was the first to reveal the stories behind ABBA’s well-known hits, album tracks, B-sides, and unreleased recordings - many of which are unheard by the general public to this day.

Now, twenty years after the publication of the first edition, Carl has produced a comprehensively revised and expanded version of his book which

he recently launched at an event in London last month. He kindly took some time out during his visit to chat to us about the new version...

Hi Carl, the original edition of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions was the first of many books you’ve written about the group - were you always a fan? I wasn’t that much of a fan back in the 1970s, during the group’s heyday. My fandom kicked off when The Winner Takes It All was released and then towards the late 1980s I became a fan for real. What originally prompted you to write a book focussing on ABBA’s recording sessions as opposed to a general biography? I was inspired by a similar book entitled The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn, and I thought such a book could be written about ABBA. Even people who didn’t like them would always acknowledge how well-crafted their music was, so I thought there must be a fascinating story there. I was right about that.

Whilst many bands have given eventual release to previously unheard tracks, Björn and Benny have always upheld a fierce integrity as to what has been made available, with only a few select tracks being heard by the general public. Did they take a lot of convincing about the project? Not really. Once I’d interviewed their invaluable sound engineer, Michael B. Tretow - the fifth member of ABBA - and he put in a good word for me, they were on board and couldn’t have been more helpful. They were quite willing to talk about their released as well as their unreleased music. Making those unreleased recordings

“Even people who didn’t like them would always acknowledge how well-crafted their music was, so I thought there must be a fascinating story there…”

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Above: Carl Magnus Palm Photo: bjornfotograf.se

ABBA in 1976 Photo: Ola Lager © Premium Rockshot.

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FEATURE

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ABBA Polar Music Studio 1978 Photo: Anders Hanser © Premium Rockshot.

“I was mainly surprised at how hard they worked at one and the same song to get it exactly right…”

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available to the general public is another thing, of course. To what extent were they involved? Björn and Benny agreed to innumerable interviews. They said, “When you feel you’re done, that’s when we’re done”. In other words, they were 100 per cent committed. I also met Frida and did an interview with her, and Agnetha answered questions in writing. So, why this new, revised edition as opposed to a reprint? So much information has emerged in the 23 years that have passed since the first edition was published, and I felt that there was a lot more to say about the songs and the recordings. There were so many fascinating background stories that I didn’t know about back in the 1990s.

Most pertinently, though, I was able to listen to a lot more previously unreleased music than I’d been able to when the original book was written - through the wonders of digitization - so I knew there was a lot more insight there to be extracted. The new edition is considerably larger than the original. Was that always the intention or did the project evolve during the writing process? The new edition was always going to be larger, because I knew I had so much more to write about this time, but even I underestimated the size and scope of the book. Can you tell us some more about the unheard material you unearthed this time around? Any big surprises? I was mainly surprised at how hard

they worked at one and the same song to get it exactly right, which I guess was one of the reasons they were so successful. There are so many examples of songs that evolved through the recording process, and when they’d finally added all the arrangement touches to it, it would have a completely different feel than it had originally. Or take a song like Dancing Queen, where the descending piano chords, that you hear in the intro and throughout the song, were only added towards the end of the process. It’s such an integral part of the song that you’d think it was always there, but no, that idea occurred very late in the day. My jaw dropped when I realised that. You chose to self-publish this expanded edition of the book. What were your reasons for taking that route? First of all, I knew that although the story as such is fascinating, maybe it wouldn’t appeal to a mass audience, so to make it work I had to adapt to a slightly smaller readership. Secondly, I wanted to be in complete control of the book as regards its look, its feel, and, not least, the deadline. This is not the type of book you simply dash off – it needed time to grow and to evolve. How can we purchase a copy? You can visit the website abbathecompleterecordingsessions.com, where there are different ordering options. Finally, who do you think is going to win this year’s Eurovision Song Contest?!! Frankly, I’ve long since stopped watching Eurovision, so I have no idea! For more background information on this and Carl’s other books, visit www.carlmagnuspalm.com

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