Customer Reviews

Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA

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BRIGHT LIGHTS DARK SHADOWS is absolutely compelling; although the chapters are largely self-contained, the hooks leading into the next chapter (and the opening paragraphs of each chapter) are irresistible. I often found myself beginning to read a new chapter when I swore I would stop at the end of the preceding one.

Part I is gripping from the start of Chapter 1. I was impressed for several reasons. First, the personal and industry backgrounds on the four members and Stig are usually glossed over in other books. Here, the sketchy details are fully filled in, and it's
fascinating reading.

Second, Carl Magnus Palm puts everything in its cultural and historical context with information about the regions where each member grew up, the origin of the various Swedish charts etc. He expresses an authentic feel for the times and for his country
and its people.

Third, the narrative flows beautifully. Although it's largely chronological, it feels fresh - the first four chapters don't just go through each member one by one, the book has been better planned. It seems perfectly natural that we don't arrive at the childhood of the youngest member, Agnetha, until we've learnt about Stig's background and followed the others into their teenage years.

There isn't as much public information available about each member's childhood, which must have made it difficult to piece a lot of these facts together. The book really begins to hit its stride with the early chapters of Part II. In Chapter 12, Palm
begins to weave the various stories together. There's such a lot that isn't known about ABBA's formative years, there's a real joy of discovery in these chapters. Palm's tone is also more assured at this point - he slips in some reasoned criticism of each member's early recordings - and he injects some satirical, but affectionate, humour into the reportage. I loved the style on pages 177 and 178, for example, when Agnetha recounts her "baking accidents" and the bemused tone when Frida decides to throw it all in and "become a clothes designer".

An impressive feature of the book is its succinctness. That may sound funny, since BRIGHT LIGHTS DARK SHADOWS is over 500 pages, but it's a fair assessment. The Habari Safari movie takes up about a page; the progg movement is concisely charted and explained in a few pages. He sums up the sound and limitations of Gemini in one pithy phrase - "studio product, shoulder-pad music sorely lacking in soul" - and is equally spot-on with Agnetha and Frida's 80s solo efforts. Although I didn't accept his criticism of Djupa Andetag, it is a rational critique, and I admittedly suffer the disadvantage of not being able to understand the album's lyrics in their natural language.

Part III - The Time is Right - covers Waterloo through to 1982. The material is generally more familiar here; for instance, I could usually be sure of what incidents would be included in each chapter (other fans, as opposed to the general public for whom this book is also written, may be as acquainted with this part of the ABBA story to feel the same).

Fortunately, although a large part of this slab of the book is taken up with recounting events, Palm is not writing a mere overview of the ABBA years. He's writing a biography, and the significance of events on ABBA as people is analysed; he keeps
sight of the biographer's purpose in representing the big picture. Occasionally, this is of necessity a little strained - the psychoanalysis of Frida (p. 508) didn't entirely convince me, for example.

After reading BRIGHT LIGHTS DARK SHADOWS, I've learnt as much as I think I'll ever know about the people that make up ABBA. Ultimately, it's eye-opening and - towards the end - dispiriting reading. But you get a real sense of the demands and pressures that they were going through - the chapter on 1978, supposedly a quiet year for ABBA, makes this plain. As the business side of Polar consumed Stig, and the marriages collapsed, I think it's clear that the ABBA "magic" was a relatively short-lived
alchemy of personality, managerial drive, talent and determination in a specific historical and cultural setting. But it wasn't a fluke - it wouldn't have lasted as long, over as many unambiguously great albums, if it was.

You'll understand a lot more about ABBA, and I think you may even better appreciate the music, after reading BRIGHT LIGHTS DARK SHADOWS. It's the first real biography of ABBA but, more than that, it's the definitive biography. And it's the standard against which all future attempts at retelling the ABBA story will be judged.

Someone said it's as difficult to write about music as it is to dance to architecture, and I guess Carl Magnus Palm faced a tougher task than most. As any "Behind The Music" aficianado knows, your typical pop group creates plenty of drama, even when their music isn't all that good. Abba is unique in that their story is devoid of drug arrests or lurid groupie tales. Divorces, yes, they had that going in spades, as the band mates were all husbands and wives who broke apart and eventually ended the band, but the partings as described by Palm seem almost antiseptic, even when Benny cheats on Frida with (gasp!) a journalist. The dissolutions feel more like a Bergman movie than "A Star Is Born," but that's not Palm's fault.

Palm does a fine job with the story at hand, telling it in a Joe Friday "just-the-facts" kind of way that commands respect and a healthy amount of interest. He takes care to give us a perspective of the band in its time and place, and notes how badly Abba's music was received in its own homeland because of its excessive commerciality. (People digging your sound meant something was wrong with you, comrade.) He analyzes key moments in the band's creative development with commendable detachment and fairness. It's nice to see he doesn't pile on the negativity over the 1979 album "Voulez-Vouz" or praise 1977's "The Album" as the band's finest hour as others do. He's an especially biting critic after the band breaks up, even ragging on "Chess," but he's careful to always give credit to Benny's tuneful genius, Bjorn's often-clever way with a lyric, and the way Frida and Agnetha's voices, when joined together, created a unique "third voice" which gave the band much of its urgency and power.

I wish he was more willing to take us inside the band by painting some individual scenes in greater detail, making us feel like actual witnesses rather than readers of a police report, even a very good one. Guess the Swedes don't practice New Journalism too much. I didn't get much of a feeling of who the Abba band members really were, except that beyond their era-defining brilliance they seem a bit cold and dull. The only vibrant character, manager Stig Anderson, blusters and rants on the sidelines much of the time as Palm focuses on the band.

But what's here is good enough. Its an absorbing, thorough, and sober-sided account of the life and death of one of pop's most successful and misunderstood bands. If you like Abba even a little bit, you will like this book.

After reading this, one understands the high suicide rate in Sweden, especially in the 70s! Though that might sound like a joke, the peronality of Swedish pop culture and the serious, non-emotional vibe that prevailed in the Swedish 70s is obvious here. The amount of public ridicule this group endured in their own country and abroad while simultaneously battling through emotional issues internally, produced the most hilarious irony in pop music...the mega-happy ABBA sound. It would seem as if none of the 4 members of ABBA were particularly joyful people. In fact in some cases, they seem quite egotistical and morose. I appreciate this book because people that have always seen them as shadowy nordic figures that make mechanical yet irresistable pop product, will now see their human side...if they REALLY care to.

I read many books, including many biographies. I am not an ABBA fan per se. However, this book, I DEVOURED. It was simply an outstanding read. For its length, I raced through it, eagerly yearning for the next page.

The writer's style reminds me of the best of Michener's writing, like Hawaii.

PS> I also highly recommend "The Day Paul Met John" or vice versa.

This is the most complete work on the Swedish super group yet. This book is for the true ABBA fanatic. It gives great insight into the early history of the group members and their everyday struggles in trying to balance fame, fortune and a personal life. Sure it may not always paint a rosey picture of their lives, but guess what? They were just artists facing everyday troubles with personal relationships like the rest of us. The book illustrates the difficulty in getting a group from a small country launched into the international music arena. The work well describes the plan of the group and Stig Andersson, their manager, to achieve success in a industry dominated by the English and American groups of the period. This book is far more complete than Carl Magnus Palm's other book on the group. I believe it takes a resident of Sweden to describe the events and the issues of the music scene in Sweden at the time, and in this respect his book is a real good piece of work.

A comprehensive overview of the careers of all 5 of the main protagonists in the ABBA story. The author covers the pre and post ABBA phases thoroughly, as well as their time together as ABBA. For a fan, such as I am, the stories were fascinating and this is a must-have autobiography, thus this book will have a permanent place on my bookshelf. However, as another reviewer has stated, Palm has a tendency to be very dry and I'm not sure this book would appeal as much to someone looking for a good music biography rather than an ABBA fan.
This comes across most strongly in Palm's discussion of ABBA's music. Damning with faint praise comes very strongly to mind, particularly in his discussion of Super Trouper. There didn't seem to me any sense that this was a fan of the music (which for all its faults you couldn't say about the 'Name of the Game' by Oldaham et al.)
His post-ABBA opinions are even more scathing, particularly Chess. He complains about the number of styles used - that's the way Lloyd-Webber and Rice worked, and was the template that Benny and Bjorn had to work from.
Nevertheless, a superbly researched book which contains probably as much as anyone needs to know about ABBA's formative years.

This book is definitely for ABBA fans who haven't had access to much information about the group. It is all gathered together here and makes for very interesting reading. The style may be a bit dry, as others have stated, but none of these people are incredibly flamboyant anyway (70s costumes aside!). I learned a lot more about each of the members than I ever knew before, which was very satisfying. There was also more information about their interactions as two couples outside the group and the friendship between Frida and Agnetha in those early years when they lived near each other.

Frida definitely pops out of this book as the most interesting member. Her life has been quite a trial and she's definitely a strong woman to have survived all of this. In this Oprah-age it's important for people to remember that it wasn't all that long ago that depression and psychiatry were taboo subjects that were scorned and frowned upon. Frida was coping with depression before there was decent medication to help and before going to therapy was as common as going to the movies.

Palm does a fairly good job of keeping things in the perspective of the time in which they took place. I agree with others that he does seem to be a bit negative about ABBAs music and the solo careers later on. Agnetha's three solo albums all have fun, enjoyable music on them and sound current to the 1980s. Frida's last album Djupa Andetag is also better than he claims. I do speak Swedish and the songs are very enjoyable and not all "happy fulfillment" like he says. Vem kommer såra vem ikväll (Who Will Hurt Whom Tonight) is about the disintigration of a relationship. I was surprised to hear that Agnetha turned down a duet with Frida for this album. I have several Marie Fredriksson CDs, but it would have been great to hear that "Third Voice" again.

This book is a great addition to any ABBA fan's collection and certainly the most thorough and detailed information about the individual members.

Carl Palm takes a subject some make take lightly, and reveals them as the complex creation that they are. Although the author has a high reguard for his subject, he is never fawning or heavy handed, which results in a very objective, yet personal text. Not only informative as a study of Abba itself, but as a study of the pop music business. Without ever exploiting their private lives, we are taken into the world of four unique creative individuals, their working habits, motivations, and songwriting genius. It is a pleasure to read a book that treats great pop music with the depth and understanding it deserves.

Everybody knows ABBA, right? Those four Swedish musicians whose music featured wonderful vocals and bouncing instrumentation, plus enjoyable (if somewhat lightweight) lyrics? Well, you don't know the half of it!

In this fascinating book, author Carl Magnus Palm goes into great depth to give you the straight dope on what really happened. The book begins all the way back, with the births of the main characters in the ABBA saga, and then traces the evolution of their careers, showing their ups and downs, their triumphs and failures, and them before, during and after ABBA.

OK, I am an ABBA fan, and have been for most of my life. Well, you have to be with this book. At almost 600 pages, it is not a quick read. What it is, though, is an even-handed book, written by someone who is something of an ABBA insider (at least according to his bio on the dust jacket).

I found this to be a fascinating read, making me feel like I really understand ABBA so much more than I ever did before. There were a lot of things I was surprised to learn, some that I liked and some that I didn't. Now, admittedly the book is written in a very factual manner, making the book feel like it was written by a journalist, rather than a passionate ABBA fan, but I must admit that I rather liked that. The book had a very factual rather than sensational feel to it.

So, if you are interested in ABBA, then I cannot think of a better book for you to read than this one. I found it fascinating, and highly recommend it.

Swedish author Carl Magnus Palm wrote an in-depth multiple biography of ABBA. It goes beyond the more superficial, sketchy books which appeared earlier. It took a Swede to penetrate ABBA this way. British and American authors could not do it. I talked to Palm on the phone when I was in Stockholm in 1994.

Carl Magnus Palm lets us know right away that behind the glitter of ABBA there were four troubled individuals. He attributes much of it to Sweden's geography. Nordic latitudes and prolonged darkness create a natural pessimism in Sweden. Even ABBA succumbed to it. Their photos are all smiles. Their lyrics reveal an anxiety behind the image.

Palm calls Bjorn the backbone of ABBA. Bjorn was studious from the outset. He was sharp, good with languages. His music helped him get girls. We learn that Bjorn lost his virginity in his early teens.

ABBA's future manager, Stig Anderson, guided Bjorn and The Hootenanny Singers through a string of albums in the 1960s. Bjorn differed from his band mates in that he wanted to write songs like The Beatles.

Palm goes into detail about the relationship between Frida's mother and her German soldier, Alfred Hasse, during World War II. "They threw off their clothes and went swimming. Afterwards, they made love for the first time on the beach." Frida was one of thousands of children born to German soldiers and Norwegian girls. Young Frida lived for music. Her first husband was a trombonist turned carpet dealer who got her pregnant.

Frida was reunited with her father in 1977 and kept in touch for five years. Ultimately, she came to believe that he had known of her mother's pregnancy when he left Norway.

I wondered how Benny had the ability to write such music as that in Kristina fran Duvemala. He got it from his grandfather. His grandfather taught him the accordion and to play Swedish folk music. The pop world of ABBA was almost a diversion. Benny knocked up his girl friend and became a father at 16. She got custody of their two kids. Benny joined the Hep Stars, a band known for its wild stage act. Like Bjorn, Benny felt the tug of The Beatles and began writing songs although he admitted his lyrics were bad.

This book creates a wider context in which to understand ABBA. We get a sense of the four moving toward each other in space and time. Palm holds Agnetha's story back, as if to save the best for last. She arrives in chapter 8 on page 112.

Agnetha was shy, and there was a daddy to contend with. The songs she wrote for Bernt Enghardt were filled with self-pity. Agnetha came off as so innocent and self-conscious as to be helpless. Bjorn and Agnetha became a couple in 1969. Palm informs us that it was not going to be a smooth relationship.

Benny and Frida became engaged. "Engaged" was a euphemism for having sex without being married. Frida was jealous from the start, not believing that Benny could really love her. Her low self-esteem continued to be a problem. Benny and Frida took refuge in each other partially because both had abandoned their families.

As Bjorn emerged from The Hootenanny Singers and his collaboration with Benny continued, Stig began to think that the duo could write an international hit.

Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida began toying with the idea of singing as a group in 1970. By then, they were close friends. The did the cabaret act as Festfolk, a show so embarrassing that Bjorn was relieved that it was not taped. The couples had doubts about working together and living together too. That is a lot of togetherness. Agnetha went on the pill at age 16. She and Bjorn married in July, 1971.

By 1972, Michael Tretow and Gorel Hanser were on board. The group recorded People Need Love, the first real ABBA song. The decision was made to do only what they wanted to do. 1973 saw ABBA enter the Eurovision Song Contest with Ring Ring. Agnetha was pregnant. Frida's depression began to let up. They were going international.

The Eurovision stood between ABBA and their breakthrough. They had to win it. This happened in Brighton, England, in April, 1974, with Waterloo. Winning the Eurovision changed everything. Offers poured in. It was a double-edged sword. As Eurovision winners, ABBA would never be taken seriously in certain circles. It did not matter. The song contest was the only means of breaking out. Stig cut a deal with Atlantic Records, and Waterloo was released in America. Reluctant to tour, ABBA began making promo clips, later called videos. They were inexpensive and stressed the group's image.

ABBA continued to make videos. From their self-titled album, clips were made for SOS, Mamma Mia!, Bang-A-Boomerang and I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do. Director Lasse Hallstrom made the most of what he had, zooming in on the girls' faces, showing two members with one face in profile. He achieved eye-to-eye contact with the viewers. The clips had an enormous impact in Australia, where Mamma Mia! was number one for ten weeks. The demand for ABBA in Australia was so great that the four went in March, 1976, with the promise of a TV special. There was a kind of ABBAmania down under with hysterical teenagers congregating at airports. Palm observes that ABBA occupied a parallel universe to the rest of the pop/rock world. Meanwhile, Fernando became a massive hit with Dancing Queen waiting in the wings. The Arrival album was the peak of their early years. Bjorn talked about Knowing Me, Knowing You. He envisioned a man walking through an empty house. He had never been through a divorce, however, given the differences between him and Agnetha and their tendency to argue, the song is a premonition.

ABBA found that television specials were their keys to the world. They taped ABBA-DABBA-DOO! They responded to their popularity in Poland by flying down for a special. With this kind of success, Bjorn and Agnetha found themselves drifting apart. They had a second child, thinking it would hold them together.

Europe was the first part of the 1977 tour. ABBA had major fame by this time. In cities like Berlin and Copenhagen, adoring fans were a nuisance. The group was confined to hotel rooms. Palm points to the growing tension between the couples while the press exaggerated the differences between Agnetha and Frida. There was a natural competition between the women for the best songs and for attention while on stage, but apart from that, there was no antipathy. The women realized that their success was the result of combined efforts just as Benny and Bjorn did.

For the tour, Benny and Bjorn put together a mini-musical called The Girl With The Golden Hair. It embodied songs like Thank You For The Music, I Wonder (Departure) and I'm A Marionette. This was a clue to the path Benny and Bjorn would ultimately take with their Chess and Kristina musicals.

ABBA headed for Australia with the plan of making a movie centered around their concerts. Their two weeks in Australia were pandemonium. Palm's frenzied account makes good reading. Hallstrom directed the movie, much of which was improvised on the spot.

Back in Stockholm, ABBA-The Album was completed. Palm singles out One Man, One Woman. He sees it as Bjorn's confession of what it was like living with Agnetha. Agnetha is anything but likable in this and other books about ABBA. She whines and complains. She is sensitive and scared to the point of paranoia and often sick. She is self-centered, fine as long as she gets her way but unbearable when called upon to make concessions.

There is a feeling of never being satisfied, disappointment with a lack of success on one hand and frustration with the conditions success generates on the other. The lights are too bright, and the shadows are too dark. ABBA wanted to be famous and have their privacy at the same time.

They built their own studio in 1978. The first song recorded there was SummerNight City. Despite Benny and Bjorn not being happy with it, SummerNight City is a pounding disco number which reflects its era.

The incompatibility of Bjorn and Agnetha came to a head. She took the kids and moved out on Christmas day, 1978. Their marriage was ending, but at least there would be less friction in the studio. ABBA continued. It took Bjorn only one week to meet his next wife.

Palm regards the Voulez-Vous album as one of ABBA's best. It was disco. The picture on the album cover was taken at the Alexandra discotheque. Palm used a photo from the shoot as the cover of his book, "ABBA: The Complete Recording Sessions."

ABBA finally toured America in September, 1979. It was too little, too late. But the tour was a moderate success thanks to meticulous planning. Agnetha felt isolated and homesick although she and Bjorn got along and worked together well. Lena joined Bjorn in Los Angeles, seemingly the inspiration for the lyrics of Super Trouper.

ABBA took their show to Japan in March, 1980, for eleven sell-out performances, six of which were in Tokyo. This was the final tour.

The Super Trouper album contains some masterpieces. Our Last Summer, Lay All Your Love On Me, The Way Old Friends Do and The Piper approach great art. Palm calls The Winner Takes It All Agnetha's "best ever performance on record." She assumes the "abandoned woman" role.

As Benny and Frida divorced, Frida did the vocal for When All Is Said And Done, a song describing the breakdown of her and Benny's relationship. ABBA's lyrics had become blatantly personal. Their concert with Dick Cavett is one of my favorites despite a lack of enthusiasm among fans. Palm notes the cold desolation of The Visitors album. The end was near. Agnetha recorded The Day Before You Came, ABBA's last song, in August, 1982.

As Agnetha began work on her first solo album, Benny and Bjorn teamed up with Tim Rice to write the musical they had long dreamed about. Chess was based on the Bobby Fischer/Boris Spassky chess matches in Reykjavik, Iceland. The song One Night In Bangkok became a worldwide hit. I recall Karen and I seeing the video on TV. I thought it was stupid, and Karen facetiously asked me if I were going to buy it. I did not know what it was or even that Benny and Bjorn were behind it. I had discarded my ABBA records by that time and was trying to live the same kind of life my parents and Karen's parents had. Alas, it was not meant to be.

For all its problems, Chess refuses to die. Benny and Bjorn's complaint is that the story is weak. For their second musical, they adapted the classic novels of Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. They tell the story of the first Swedish emigrants to come to the United States in the 1850s. Benny and Bjorn are still trying to get an English version to Broadway.

ABBA music resurfaced in the 1990s. The ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold CDs sold millions. ABBA shows flooded into the U.S. on video cassettes and DVDs. Tribute bands sprang up. And from the revival rose Mamma Mia!, the stage musical using ABBA songs. Mamma Mia! became the biggest show in the world and will be a movie in 2008.

Judy Craymer, a friend of Benny and Bjorn's who worked on Chess, originally conceived the idea of doing a show involving ABBA songs. Catherine Johnson wrote the story. Phyllida Lloyd was chosen as the director. All women for a story about a mother and daughter.

Bright Lights, Dark Shadows fleshes out the ABBA story. We anticipate a lot of Palm's revelations, but he is the one who took the trouble to commit them to paper. It reads like a novel. But it is not fiction. It all happened.