"One Night in Bangkok" had Abba connections

It's like they never went away: Abba

I remember being in Minneapolis for an outing with high school friend Art Cruze in the mid-1980s. We were in his car on Hennepin Avenue, at the time considered the epitome of the seedy big city element, and noticed a cluster of punk rockers outside a hospitality establishment. We got stopped in traffic for a minute or so. Rolling the windows down, we played the radio full blast which had the song "One Night in Bangkok."
The picture I just painted is so 1980s. Shinder's on Hennepin Avenue was a fascinating place because it was so, well, cosmopolitan. Surely this was the big city because where else could you pick up a copy of the San Antonio newspaper? Quaint now to recall this in our current digital age, where there are no boundaries for consuming news, commentary and culture from all over. I'm not sure the extent of the sea change has sunk in yet.
"One Night in Bangkok" had a wonderfully appealing melody for the song title line. Just a few bars of music, such great simplicity. A standard pattern with chords. Leave it to the genius of these song creators. And, who were they? Did you know that "One Night in Bangkok" was essentially an Abba song? The group per se no longer existed. But Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus were still associated and gave us the music in collaboration with others. Today we are bathed in Abba music in a most-deserved revival. A musical helped launch this, then we had the sensational movie and now the sequel.
Some people sniffed at Abba music back in the day - oh, the critics of course - because it seemed so sweet, simple and shallow. The U.S. counterculture that developed in the '70s wasn't likely to be receptive. There was a young element in our society that insisted that music, like journalism, ought to peel away the pretensions of our longstanding culture. That was a culture that acted indifferent in the face of abominations like Jim Crow in the U.S. South, women's limitations and the Vietnam war. Abba did not seem directed toward any sort of liberation, it was just "feel good."
Well, amen and hallelujah. There is always room in our lives for such simple, one-dimensional contentment. Today, culturally at least, we are much more optimistic. The politics might be a different matter. Trump supporters increasingly look like a dark force, but many of us pray this phenomenon will be a passing aberration. I'm concerned some very bad things might happen first. We could end up with a raft of pop music expressing discontent again, much of it in subtle ways. Consider "Who'll Stop the Rain?"
 
Poise in the face of fame
Let's give Abba a break because they were from Sweden, a country that I believe had no involvement in Vietnam. They could stay looking so fresh and innocent. Reviewing their videos now, very high quality by "archival" standards, this is one thing that strikes me: they looked so fresh throughout their immense run of popularity. Whereas usually fame in pop music will bring down its practitioners in a number of ways. Look at what happened to Karen Carpenter. Look how Michael Jackson turned out. The four people in Abba always look relaxed and spontaneous in those glorious videos, enjoying the primal simplicity of their material.
Here is an irony of pop music: the best stuff rarely reflects any innovations - the tried and true chord patterns keep working. A song can explode as a "hit" just based on the hook line or title line being appealing, just a few bars. A significant novel takes tremendous effort to put together. A songwriter might arrive at a song with mega-hit potential just by scribbling on a napkin somewhere. The most fascinating museum exhibit I've ever viewed was in Nashville TN where under a pane of glass, you could see the most crude pieces of paper, whatever paper might have been handy (like motel stationery), where were scribbled the lines of songs that went on to be known by people all across America. Like, "Oh Lonesome Me."
A novelist might be jealous. Keep in mind though that the ability to write a hit or a "hook line" is not routine or easy to master.
 
Number 3 song in the U.S.
"One Night in Bangkok" is from the concept album and subsequent musical "Chess" by Andersson, Ulvaeus and Tim Rice. Murray Head, a British actor/singer, "raps" the verses. The chorus is sung by Anders Glenmark, a Swedish singer and producer. The song was an international hit. It reached No. 3 - why not No. 1? - in the U.S. and Canada in May of 1985.

The song has unusual construction, beginning as it does with an orchestra piece called "Bangkok." We then get an abrupt change in musical style. The core song has a pop styling, Abba's wondrous forte. The lyrics compare the Thai capital city and its nightlife with a game of chess. The lyrics mention actor Yul Brynner who was close to death at the time. I remember a PSA he filmed where he implored everyone not to smoke cigarettes. Brynner fit in with the song because he played the king of Siam in the Broadway musical and the 1956 film "The King and I." Brynner received several Tony awards.
As with many pop song lyrics, the content and meaning are not easy to assimilate by most casual listeners. In the days of Top 40 radio, when it really ruled, the idea was to write a song of about three minutes length that had a catchy sound to it. Many people could listen to a song countless times and not really understand what it was about. Songs on the radio were often heard "in the background" as we conducted our affairs.
I began my songwriting avocation thinking that the whole idea with pop music was to write a catchy-sounding melody. Then I attended a workshop where a Nashville professional said no, the depth of lyrics was in fact significant. I'm wondering if songwriters write songs for each other. No. I suspect the Nashville guy had wisdom, wisdom that I certainly wouldn't contradict.
"One Night in Bangkok" has lyrics that seem surreal in that they don't seem to tell us directly what's going on. There's a tapestry of suggestion. Do I like that? Again, I'll remind that the melody and chords of the title line serve to sell the whole song. Kudos again to the Abba pair of Andersson and Ulvaeus. There is a video that shows these two singing off to the side along with one of their old female partners, the non-blonde. The blonde has a stand-in. There is some wonderful dancing in that video.
Eventually we'd hear "One Night in Bangkok" as sung by Mike Tyson. The less said about that the better.
 
No need for "loudness" anymore
My generation in the 1970s felt it important that our music be loud. An odd preference because it would seem sheer loudness has little to offer. Because "stereo" systems were judged as status symbols, your ability to play music "loud" on an expensive system could make you stand out with your peers. Technology eventually disposed of those values, and today on a simple laptop computer you can enjoy sound quality of the finest kind. So today the young folks like to just listen to music that is appealing, no need for high volume.
Abba was never meant to be played in an ear-shattering way. Compare them to Paul McCartney's "Venus and Mars" medley which is designed to assault your ears. But watch the live audiences eat it up on videos from the 1970s. I remember an interview with Sir Paul where he got defensive about a criticism of his music, leveled early in his solo career, that it was "soft rock." He bristled. Maybe the medley I reference was his attempt to dash that commentary. How quaint. Because music simply does not need to be loud today.
What would John Lennon be doing today? He'd probably be aghast at how his simple ability to write popular songs made him an international sensation.
Today we see Abba get revived in a way making the group into an international sensation again. They may be bigger than the Beatles. I have suggested to our high school band director in Morris MN that she order an Abba medley for her musicians to play. She responded and suggested she'd look into it.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com