Transcript

O-ModVig is a Radio Show in my head broadcasting, on an irregular basis, (o)rthodox Christian explorations into Pop Culture.




Enclosed is a transcript from a Recent Episode

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Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong
You're enchained by your own sorrow
In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow
How I hate to see you like this
There is no way you can deny it
I can see that you're oh so sad, so quiet

Presenter: The 70s in United were filled with a lot of things that could, on the surface, be termed "Anti-Christian" and "anti-morality". In their homes decorated in Avocado and Tangerine, Americans stewed in the disillusionment caused by the ending of the illegal Vietnam Police Action, the legal but immoral Nixon Presidency and the the doomed cultural revolution of the 60s. Amidst their shag carpets and lava lights, Americans turned to sort of a cultural nihilism of denial and indulgence. The sexual revolution was in full force, drugs and other addictions were coming to the fore in ways that surprised many Americans. Disco and the "Disco-Lite" of Pop music carried these images everywhere. The School system was filled with teens who didn't know the 60s first hand but had wanted to... and who were thus disappointed to grow up and find themselves trapped in the Carter Administration.

In this ambient "negative light", if you will, Americans first heard ABBA. Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974, with "Waterloo" and the event skyrocketed them into global fame. Their words are not dark - or rather, their words are not all dark. There is a faith that seeps out of them like so much hair gel. Given that country's fascination with things religious it was this Gospel sort of faith, so we think here, that was what pushed Abba to the height of fame in the 70s in America. Nothing else could explain it.

Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I'm a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on
You were always sure of yourself
Now I see you've broken a feather
I hope we can patch it up together

Presenter: In this episode of PoModvig, the target of our Exploration is the album ABBA: Gold. By deconstruction and analysis of the lyrics in their greatest hits, the we intend to show how the Christian Gospel, as it were, the Good News of Salvation in Christ, was hidden in plain sight in Abba's lyrics.

Joining me today on PoModvig, are the eminent musicologist of Swansea, Bishop Wyvrynn Tuttle; the MP for Sarum and Noted expert on Abba, Mrs Carol Wingeing; and, via telephone from the University of Southern Upper Michigan, Sociologist and successful pastor of his college's Older Young Adult Hippie group, the Rev'd Mr Sherwood Pickle.

Pastor Pickle, as our most distant guest let's start with you. If we are looking for the gospel in a certain collection or class popular music, where should we start?

Pickle: Thank you very much, indeed. It's an honour for me, an American scholar, to be included in such an august and very British panel. In order to discuss the cure - ie the Gospel - the first thing to realise is that something is wrong. ABBA sang often enough about the state of society, wrapped up in their disco pants and dancing the night away in search of an evening of passion.

Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Won't somebody help me chase the shadows away
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Take me through the darkness to the break of the day

Pickle: "Gimme Gimme Gimme", the woman sings, "a man after midnight": after she's had the time to get good and drunk and to dance herself into an exhausted trance-like state where her morals are lower, give her a Man.

She turns the night into a sort of pre-Orgy, a dynamic, lustful foreplay, in "Voulex-vous" - which is french for "do you want". Everyone is out looking for the same thing. The song offers a slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am".

People everywhere
A sense of expectation hangin' in the air
Givin' out a spark
Across the room your eyes are glowin' in the dark
And here we go again, we know the start, we know the end
Masters of the scene
We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more
You know what I mean

Voulez-vous
Take it now or leave it
Now is all we get
Nothing promised, no regrets
Voulez-vous
Ain't no big decision
You know what to do
La question c'est voulez-vous
Voulez-vous

Presenter: Mrs Wingeing, it seems as if the singer is saying... what?

Wingeing: Take it now or leave it,

(Pickle: Very much so)

Wingeing: she will simply move on. Her ego is premised not so much on her own assumption of her own beauty. Rather she is so ego centric because everyone wants her and she knows it. She is playing into the general debauch of the evening.

You're a teaser, you turn 'em on
Leave 'em burning and then you're gone
Looking out for another, anyone will do
You're in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine ohh yeah
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
Ooo see that girl, watch that scene, diggin the Dancing Queen

Wingeing: The scene digs the girl. The dancing queen. And as the song says, if this one won't do there's always another. But while she's out, looking for a king - even though "anybody could be that guy" it's right here that Abba plays the double message - the heart of Sadness that is at the centre of all this Nihilism.

Presenter: Bishop Tuttle, can you pull some further meaning out of lyrics here?

Tuttle: Although she tries to pawn herself off as just a player and a toy, both at once - no strings, nothing promised, no regrets - the fact is that like all humans, sex doesn't come without love. For the singer giving her body to anyone on the "scene", the first thing she discovers is that her heart is missing. She struggles with the issues, but she has to admit that - despite the game she has been playing, she has fallen in love: she is not some a-moral sex machine, not some tripped out dancing queen, but rather a human being.

I've seen you twice, in a short time
Only a week since we started
It seems to me, for every time
I'm getting more open-hearted

I was an impossible case
No-one ever could reach me
But I think I can see in your face
There's a lot you can teach me
So I wanna know

What's the name of the game
Does it mean anything to you
What's the name of the game
Can you feel it the way I do
Tell me please, 'cause I have to know
I'm a bashful child, beginning to grow

Tuttle: And shortly there after the real pain sets in. The Anybody for whom she had started to have feelings turns out to be just like everyone else. When he's done, he walks away.

Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find
I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind
Whatever happened to our love
I wish I understood
It used to be so nice, it used to be so good

Pickle: and if we turn to the lament with which our presenter opened the show, we can see the same feelings:

So the walls came tumbling down
And your love's a blown out candle
All is gone and it seems too hard to handle
Chiquitita, tell me the truth
There is no way you can deny it
I see that you're oh so sad, so quiet

Presenter: Some one comes along - another Dancing queen?

Wingeing: Yes, someone who plays the game just a little bit better than our singer. And suddenly she finds herself alone. LIke so many women trapped in "the game" she sets out to find love, to find it on her own, womanly terms. But she has to play by the men's rules. The final result is her own... um... whatever the female version of emasculation is.

I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence
Building me a home
Thinking I'd be strong there
But I was a fool
Playing by the rules

Tuttle: Truth be told she wasn't playing by the rules - the morality that God has set down. It comes out more clear in the very fatalistic chorus:

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all
The loser has to fall
It's simple and it's plain
Why should I complain

Tuttle: Carol is quite right: It's all just a game - there is no morality left to question or ignore: nothing is real. I've lost my lover to someone who played better than me. I will move on...

The winner takes it all
The loser's standing small
Beside the victory
That's her destiny

Presenter: This is the song that first clued us here, at PoModVig into the topic of the Gospel in ABBA. In the midst of all their songs, this is the most nihilistic - it's all just a game played by the gods and we have no power. It's bitter, this game.

Pickle: Too true! This was the song that was played loudly and often by my downstairs neighbour in Astoria, Queens - a young lady from Sweden - when she had broken up with her American boyfriend. And I could hear her yelling in the basement of our 3 storey house,

But tell me does she kiss
Like I used to kiss you
Does it feel the same
When she calls your name
Somewhere deep inside
You must know I miss you
But what can I say
Rules must be obeyed

The judges will decide
The likes of me abide
Spectators of the show
Always stay in line
The game is on again
A lover or a friend
A big thing or a small
The winner takes it all

Pickle: As I pounded on the walls, doors and floor boards to get he to shut up, the truth dawned on me: we're all just painful pawns of our hormones in that world. Because the "Game is on again", and soon she'll get another "lover or a friend."

Wingeing: Even though she tries - very hard - to pass this off as just another thing that happens "on the scene", the pain is real. It is the pain which is, I think the beginning of her salvation. As the song "High Times" says, "Metanoia will Destroy ya."

They passed me by, all of those great romances
You were, I felt, robbing me of my rightful chances
My picture clear, everything seemed so easy
And so I dealt you the blow
One of us had to go
Now it's different, I want you to know

One of us is crying
One of us is lying
In her lonely bed
Staring at the ceiling
Wishing she was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call
Sorry for herself, feeling stupid feeling small
Wishing she had never left at all

Presenter: "Wishing she had never left at all" is the clue, isn't it?

Tuttle: Is that "never left at all" the arms of her illicit lover? Or is she wishing she had "never left at all" something else, something bigger? The clue is in the last line of the song (repeated several times in the course of the tune, yes, but also the last line noted in the lyrics):

Staring at the ceiling
Wishing she was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call

Tuttle: That's the call to repentance. It's the call given to all of us by the Church. And suddenly the songs take an odd turn - into conversion and joy, mixed with evangelistic fervour.

Presenter: She remember her First Love, doesn't she?

Tuttle: Quite! She returns to the fold of her childhood faith through the intercessions of the BVM, it seems. Singing,

Mamma mia, here I go again
My my, how can I resist you
Mamma mia, does it show again
My my, just how much I've missed you
Yes, I've been brokenhearted
Blue since the day we parted
Why, why did I ever let you go
Mamma mia, now I really know
My my, i should not have let you go

Tuttle: She admits her own confusion - her struggles with the teachings of the faith. These are struggles we all have, in which we all eventually must either capitulate - give up, walk away - or else, like Jacob with the Angel, we must hold on until we get blessed.

I've been angry and sad about things that you do
I can't count all the times that I've told you we're through
And when you go, when you slam the door
I think you know that you won't be away too long
You know that I'm not that strong

Tuttle: But as mass begins, she comes home...

Just one look and I can hear a bell ring
One more look and I forget everything

Wingeing: Recognising her place in the culture, the singer knows she's nothing special. But she has a gift - and that gift must have come from somewhere, from Someone. So, in an act of faith, she sings...

I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before
But I have got a talent, a wonderful thing
'Cause everyone listens when I start to sing
I'm so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be
Without a song or a dance what are we
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Wingeing: In a shocking turn, it's almost as if she is channelling this new Divine Entity who begs her,

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me
Don't go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on me

Wingeing: She admits

I've had a few little love affairs
They didn't last very long and they've been pretty scarce
I used to think that was sensible
It makes the truth even more incomprehensible
'Cause everything is new
And everything is you
And all I've learned has overturned
What can I do

Wingeing: "Everything is new... everything is you... all I've learned is over turned..."

Don't go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me
Don't go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on me

Wingeing: She acknowledges not only the meaninglessness of her previous antics but also of her very talent.

I was sick and tired of everything
When I called you last night from Glasgow
All I do is eat and sleep and sing
Wishing every show was the last show
(Wishing every show was the last show)
So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming
(Glad to hear you're coming)
Suddenly I feel all right
(And suddenly it's gonna be)
And it's gonna be so different
When I'm on the stage tonight

Pickle: And, using a unique and personal name for her saviour, she sings an act of faith:

Tonight the
Super Trouper lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
(Su-p-per Trou-p-per)
Smiling, having fun
(Sup-per Troup-per)Feeling like a number one
Tonight the
Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue
(Su-p-per Trou-p-per)
Like I always do
(Su-p-per Trou-p-per)
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you

Wingeing: Later in that song she comments with near apocalyptic joy, "it's gonna be alright (You'll soon be changing everything)" and proceeds to make that Eschaton very eminent: "Everything will be so different When I'm on the stage tonight."

And now her saviour takes on the role of all her previous lovers:

So I'll be there when you arrive
The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive
And when you take me in your arms
And hold me tight
I know it's gonna mean so much tonight

Tuttle: "Thank you for the music" indeed!

Wingeing: She goes to her friends now, and tries to pull them out of same traps... first using a sort of Via Negativa - the nihilism in which you find yourself is not real:

Chiquitita, you and I know
How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving
You'll be dancing once again and the pain will end
You will have no time for grieving
Chiquitita, you and I cry
But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you
Let me hear you sing once more like you did before
Sing a new song, Chiquitita
Try once more like you did before
Sing a new song, Chiquitita
Try once more like you did before
Sing a new song, Chiquitita

Wingeing: If that works, we never know. But the singer has made it clear she understands the pain of her friend and equally that the pain is possible to resolve. This is the song with which this presentation began and in it your host hears a sort of cry to all who suffer - come and join me in this new dance, the Real Dance.

Presenter: She also tries a sort of Via Positiva, doesn't she?

Wingeing: Oh, yes, she knows that the places and the ways we were have moved us to a better understanding of God.

Can you hear the drums Fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight Fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar
I could hear the distant drums
And sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar

They were closer now Fernando
Every hour every minute seemed to last eternally
I was so afraid Fernando
We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die
And I'm not ashamed to say
The roar of guns and cannons almost made me cry


There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, Fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, Fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
There's no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando

Presenter: So, do either of these work? Bishop?

Tuttle: Well we can't know, can we? Both songs end with a sort of continual plea: a cry out that many of us who have tried to convert our friends to Christ may recognise. But our own goal is not "preaching in and out of season" - for that may not be the gift of each of us. But Christ has commanded each of us to "let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father who is in heaven." Or, perhaps, as Abba would say (Abba, being the Hebrew word for 'Father') Let the super-trouper beams blind 'em.

Presenter: The singer returns to the faith of her youth. And so the song cycle will end - as does the album - with the song that burst Abba onto the scene; its lyrics filled with baptismal imagery. While it is all different for each of us, the story of each of our conversions is rather like Christ's walking up Golgatha to die in God's divine plan only to rise again. Each of us must sacrifice himself in the waterloo of baptism that halts our attempts at global domination and turns us to love. How, indeed, could I ever refuse - I feel like I win when I lose.

My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo

My my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger
Oh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo

So how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose

Waterloo - Couldn't be safe if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you