If I could only talk to Grandma Carrie

The image shows Ralph E. Williams at the time of his graduation from the University of Minnesota. The year was 1939. The U.S. was trying to escape the throes of the Great Depression. Two years hence, our nation would be drawn into the conflagration of World War II. Music was Dad's stock-in-trade through his school years. He went on to become a prolific published music composer, something like 90 total works. Most importantly, he'd make his way here to the grand West Central Minnesota prairie. That was in 1960 when our grand venture of the University of Minnesota-Morris got launched. He was the only music faculty in UMM's first year. Yours truly got here just in time to join the kindergarten class for what would blossom into the MHS Class of 1973. The photo shows Dad's mother Carrie projecting pride. What a special woman she was, mother of five sons all of whom went through confirmation at Glenwood Lutheran Church. Then they went out in the world, found success, had good health through their prime and lived to an advanced age. Dad's brother Howard is at right. He was the uncle I knew best. His stock-in-trade was the banking profession right from his graduation from high school.
 
Looking through precious memorabilia
We received a box of items from Howard's house at the time he passed away. Among the items in that treasure chest was the graduation night program for Glenwood High School in 1929. Howard gave the salutatory address. The program is fresh and crisp like it was issued yesterday.
The box also included a large newspaper spread from the Minneapolis Tribune about the formation of the UMM orchestra. Howard felt pride in my father's high-profile musical endeavors. Dad had quite a resume from the 1950s before we made Morris our home. He directed the Minneapolis Apollo male chorus. His composing made its mark. Our First Lutheran choir in Morris recently performed one of his compositions, directed by the brilliant Bradley Miller who conducts today's UMM choir.
Dad taught music at the U of M St. Paul School of Agriculture which was on its last legs in the 1950s. Our West Central School of Agriculture was also on its last legs as the demand faded for those proud institutions. I was preschool age when Dad did his St. Paul teaching.
 
Working with Mahalia Jackson, other stars
Howard's box included a newspaper clipping about Dad directing a massed chorus of 750 voices at the Aquatennial Music on Parade concert. This was held at "the Metropolitan Sports stadium," as the article announced it, from the days before the big leagues moved in there. We came to call the place "The Met." The massed chorus shared the spotlight with well-known soloists Mahalia Jackson, Vic Damone and Woody Herman and his orchestra. Undoubtedly it was a moving performance.
Metropolitan Stadium first hosted baseball in 1956 when the home team was the Minneapolis Millers, a Triple-A minor league team. We were past due for getting the majors. Finally we took this step in welcoming Calvin Griffith's Washington Senators here for the 1961 season. We now cheered the Twins!
Dad took his family to a couple Twins games every summer for a long time. We cheered Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva. Yours truly has written songs about that era of Twins baseball. How bittersweet: we won the pennant in 1965 but could never win the overall championship in the Met Stadium years.
My grandmother Carrie led a bittersweet life because although she raised such a robust family, she died too young. Howard's box included the guestbook for her funeral. She died in 1949 so I was never able to meet her. My incentive to get to heaven is my fervent desire to meet her and get to know her. Carrie died when she was just age 63, the same age I am now. The newspaper obituary said she died of a stroke. However, the word around the family is that a household mishap was involved too. Perhaps she had the stroke which caused a fall, I don't know. But a fall seems to have figured in quite a bit. My mother never encouraged discussion of that.

Ralph E. Williams in Navy, "Lt.Williams"

Also, I have no memory of ever visiting my grandparents' graves. Perhaps Mom thought it might be too distressing for Dad to be there, as it would remind of the deaths that came too soon for both his parents.
I figured that Dad must have been a junior in high school when his father Martin died of cancer in 1933. Dad did tell me once that when his father finally went to the doctor to discuss his symptoms, the doctor promptly said "how's your soul?" Doctors did yeoman's work but they were not such miracle workers back then. I gathered it was one of those most unpleasant cancer declines and deaths.
I have never seen an obit for Martin in our house anywhere. Protecting Dad from distress? I don't know. My father always seemed the type to keep his emotions locked up inside. When confronted with thoughts that clearly called for emotion, he might not have been able to handle it.
 
Tracking down the hallowed ground
The guestbook for Carrie's funeral reported she'd be buried at Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery. In possession of that lead, I went online and located the place, along with confirmation that Martin and Carrie are indeed buried there. The Internet informed me that Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery is located off Highway 104 south of Glenwood. Last Sunday I made a stab at finding the place, feeling convinced there would have to be a sign along Highway 104. Or I'd see a cemetery! Oh, but no. So I called Glenwood Lutheran Church Monday and got a very friendly and helpful person. I'm supposed to look for Memorial Drive just after passing Barsness Park.
OK so we're all set. I may have to walk some to find the markers. I assume the markers for Howard and his wife Vi will be at the same place. I was at Howard's funeral but I don't recall going out to the cemetery for graveside services. Were someone's feelings/emotions being protected? Well, what matters now is that I get out to the gravesites of Martin and Carrie. I will do however much searching is needed. I may locate archives of the Pope County Tribune to read Martin's obituary.
I got the date of deaths from the Find-a-Grave site for Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery. Once I get a digital camera I can submit marker photos for that site. Imagine me being without an up-to-date camera! Does Thrifty White still send in "film?" I'm embarrassed to ask.
 
Happenstance of a meeting in Vegas
Howard and Vi were in Las Vegas once with some banking profession brethren, coincidentally at the same time that yours truly and my high school friend Art Cruze were there. I'm sure Howard and Vi were tickled when the phone rang at their "Mirage" hotel room and it was me! Art and I were able to scoot over for a visit. Howard and Vi were eager to take in Wayne Newton. Art and I came across as quite the common folk in mixing with Howard's crowd! Of course Howard put family over everything. He remembered me in his will.
Art was greatly amused by this encounter because he asked in vain more than once, what Howard's exact title was with the Glenwood bank. Howard was opaque as all get-out, expected of a savvy businessman. Ol' Howard was a Goldwater Republican and had Goldwater cigars in 1964. He came to resent the more strident ideological faction of the GOP as the years went on. Today I think he'd be a Jeff Flake Republican. Republicans are supposed to project a temperate air, not inclined to rock the boat. Howard thought George W. Bush was getting extreme with stridency. Maybe it's a good thing he's not even around to assess the current occupant of the White House!
I'm sure Art remembers today my uncle's amorphous nature about his banking position.
Howard did not die a graceful death. My family had to intervene to make sure he got taken to the hospital. His wife Vi had faded mental faculties. We all have human weaknesses, and in the case of Howard and Vi, they were too stubborn in wanting to keep their independence - they weren't receptive to certain services. Howard was one of those people who couldn't listen to sound advice in terms of giving up driving.
Looking back, I wish our family had actively tried to assert itself more with them. Such hindsight in regard to people in failing health is common. You know who understands all this better than anyone? Knute Nelson Hospice. Hospice people recognize that "death is a part of life."
 
My affection, not always reciprocated
Howard did not always express affection for me. I'll never forget when yours truly and some Morris friends, the Wohlers country music party, were at a nightclub, I think for New Year's Eve. Howard and Vi were there. I introduced everyone whereupon Howard did not express a generous view of me. He said "I don't know about this guy" and the remark was not intended in a light way.

The Williams boys of Glenwood, l-r: Joe, Clyde, Ralph, Andy and Howard

I was probably dealing once again with the curse of living with my parents. Such a living arrangement does not have such a stigma today. I went through lots of distress because of it. My uncle Joe made a rather sharp comment to me during a gathering at our home in Morris. It was incisive, and even today I rather resent it. I don't think Martin or Carrie would talk to me like that. I'm hoping in spring to decorate their gravesites.
 
She came here from Norway
The Reverend David J. Quill officiated at Carrie's final rites at Glenwood Lutheran. Pallbearers were Robert Winters, Carrol Savre, Ernest Pederson, Harry Ellefson, Vernon Hegg and Herman Quist. Carrie was a native of Lesja, Gulbrandsdalen, Norway. Her maiden name was Avdem. She came to the U.S. in 1905. She was employed in Glenwood and in Carrington ND prior to her marriage to Martin, a plasterer and mason. They raised their family north of Lake Minnewaska.
Following Martin's death at too young an age, Carrie did nursing work in Detroit Lakes, Minneapolis and Glenwood. Her siblings stayed in Norway with the exception of brother Andrew Avdem who settled in Pekin ND. I got to know Andrew when he was up in years. I thought Pekin was a place where time stood still, so peaceful.
The obit for Carrie observed that "in her passing, Mrs. Williams leaves among her family and friends memories of many happy times enjoyed in the hospitality of their home."
Look at the proud and stolid countenance of Carrie in the photo that accompanies this post. You can sense Dad's enthusiasm about the future, even though that future was going to include WWII and service in the Pacific Theater. He was lieutenant in the Navy. So much excitement lay in store for him as destiny would call on him to help launch our U of M-Morris.
 
Holidays: what family is about
Our family shared special holidays like Christmas and New Year's with Howard and Vi countless times. We'd alternate between our two residences. Howard and Vi stayed in a most modest home despite Howard accumulating what I assume were substantial riches - congrats Howard. They grew up in the Depression which meant they were just thankful for what they had - congrats all. They had a refrigerator that I'm sure was well past due for replacement.
The last year Howard and Vi were in their home, when the weight of living independently was becoming a challenge, I visited them on my own as one of my parents was sick, probably a cold. I visited unannounced as I was just continuing a jaunt that included Quinco Press in Lowry. I asserted "I'm Brian!" on the doorstep as they were getting a little foggy. Then they beamed and we had a most enjoyable visit at the table where we had gathered over the years.
My father was always dominant in our conversations and I found it somewhat liberating to visit Howard and Vi on my own. I will never forget it. As my father and Howard got older, I found the conversations got depressing because they spent so much time talking about people who had died or were in the nursing home! Such is the lot of dealing with passing years.
Howard and Dad were among five total sons of Martin and Carrie. Dad was the youngest. They are all gone now. But not really, as I'm sure they have a quite fine disposition in heaven. God bless the memory of everyone. I will reflect in my upcoming visit to Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery. I may even attend the Sunday morning service at Glenwood Lutheran Church. That church has a traditional service at 8:30 and a "contemporary praise service" at 11. Do you think I'm hip enough to attend the contemporary service?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Whither Minnewaska Area, a "cornfield" school?

The Minnewaska Area school got built amidst a flurry of small town issues and emotions that strike me as archaic now. I have heard Minnewaska's creation described as "the tail wagging the dog." What was meant here, was that Starbuck got way too much clout in the process. Yes, this is how I recall things.
Lac qui Parle was another school that got built in that era. Years later we began to hear that the legislature resolved "no more cornfield high schools." The impracticality began setting in. As if this should not have been evident in the first place. A school benefits from the surrounding infrastructure of a town and easy proximity to services. I could see this merely as a member of community media - the Morris newspaper - and not someone paid to understand these things. People may be paid but they also have to be responsive to politics. Perhaps politics becomes the prevailing concern. A media person simply tries to weigh the facts objectively. That's me. And that's why some people gnash their teeth about those of us in the media. We can say the emperor has no clothes.
 
Hancock school feeling its oats
The Morris media are telling us today that the Hancock school is booming. Facility expansion is in the works. Enrollment seems a most rosy picture. So I asked an acquaintance of mine in Morris, a woman with elementary-age kids at Hancock, what's up? Us journalists always like to inquire "what's up?" Her answer may not reflect gospel truth but it's telling anyway. She said Starbuck area families are choosing to send their kids to Hancock. And why is that? I further inquired. She said the Minnewaska Area school has a bad "rep" (for reputation).
Well, that's somewhat concerning if you live over in that neck of the woods. "Minnewaska" is not the name of a community, it is the name of a lake. The view of the lake from outside the school may be most impressive, yes, but that and ten cents will get you a cup of coffee. When the school does not represent a community or town per se, it would seem most difficult to get the kind of community support that keeps money flowing into the coffers. Referendums have been a daunting task for Minnewaska area. Daunting and futile, right?
 
The infamous ACLU episode
Minnewaska Area got a public relations black eye four years ago, a pretty serious one. The school, after being dragged into a legal mess by no less than the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), had to fork over $70,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed school officials violated a student's constitutional rights by viewing her Facebook and email accounts without permission. The school officials appeared to lack judgment in terms of realizing the risks this confrontation would pose for them.
The affected student was Riley Stratton. She was age 15 at the time the lawsuit was settled. She looks so innocent and charming in a photo that was posted at the time. Why hassle this sweet teenager? Riley was given detention after posting disparaging comments about a teacher's aide on her Facebook page, even though she was at home and not using school computers. She broke down crying when she was induced to give over her password. The ACLU argued that students' use of social media is not the school's business unless it involves cyberbullying or poses a substantial threat to school activities. Riley's mother reported that she wasn't invited to sit in at Riley's "interrogation."
The $70,000 settlement was divided between the Strattons and the ACLU. People my age can remember school days where our teachers and administrators could overreach in applying discipline and showing authority. This is what happens when people feel a sense of bureaucratic entitlement, a result of the monopoly status our public schools once had. A change occurred with open enrollment and the vast proliferation of pairing and sharing ventures. I would say the mid-1980s were a tipping point, when parents demanded to be treated more as paying customers. Parents became less inclined to defer to the authority of teachers who could be draconian and sullen.
 
Assertiveness here in Morris
We had parents rise up here in Morris in the late 1980s, creating a controversy that should not have been allowed to get as far as it did. I watched with not much surprise as the controversy took on kindling and with collateral damage like boycotted businesses.
I wasn't surprised because I had known for a long time we had an ossified class of school employees who recoiled at being treated like they had to be accountable, like they really had to respect parents' wishes. Extracurricular was a flashpoint. That was hugely ironic because the type of teachers who were a problem then, were the type to proclaim "extracurricular" is no big deal and our priority is "academics." That's sheep dip of course because all school programs should be considered important.
But if so many teachers wanted to brush off extracurricular, why did they make such a huge cause over how extracurricular was being handled? Why were so many willing to totally fall on their sword over certain people keeping their extracurricular coaching appointments?
The very fact that the community insurgents ended up formally presenting a petition (or "statement of concern") to the school board was an indictment of Superintendent Fred Switzer. A more responsible administrator should have listened better and not be so tentative in the face of substantial community sentiment.
 
Proposals floated, not always enacted
A book could be written about school adjustments and issues in the Morris area. Remember the time many years ago when we almost got total consolidation of Morris and Chokio-Alberta? Remember? Remember how the one big stumbling point was the stipulation that the junior high be located in Alberta, with Morris kids to be bused there? The proposal died.

A fine ballfield (Minnewaska Baseball Association image)

The district we know today as Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley was slated to include Ortonville at one time, right? There would have been another of those "cornfield schools," legend has it. I recall the Ortonville people pushing back especially hard on this. So, another faded proposal.
The Villard people were restless when Minnewaska Area was first created. Wasn't Villard sort of "sold a bill of goods" on the consolidation? They got a big new addition to their school which was re-branded as Villard Elementary. But then the district closed it four or five years later. Villard families became receptive to sending their kids to Osakis, home of the Silverstreaks. Osakis was closer than the Minnewaska school. Remember the welcome sign "welcome to Villard, home of the Mallards?"
Maybe a psychologist could help us understand the relationship of the Starbuck and Glenwood communities. I believe the same issues exist with Herman and Wheaton. Take a left at Herman and you head into the wide open flat-as-a-board prairie.
 
Be careful who you listen to
The belief existed that "Starbuck people" would never have accepted a new school built in, or close to, Glenwood. I put "Starbuck people" in quotes because you never know about these things: do certain loud and inflamed voices really reflect community sentiment? In my experience, I've seen a minority of school parents who are highly attuned to athletics draw way too much attention to themselves. They become so strident, everyone else can begin to feel intimidated, to be cowed. Furthermore, the sports-oriented leather lungs often disappear from the whole picture in pretty short order, in other words not long after their kid graduates! So we must discipline ourselves to not pay too much attention to them.

A friend of mine says in regard to the "cornfield schools" the following: "In retrospect they were mistakes." He further says: "At the time, the state Ed. Dept. wanted fewer and larger schools. If you remember, about that time they proposed a demand for all state school districts to have class sizes of no less than 75 students. That didn't get far with the 'greater Minnesota' people and legislators, so it wasn't even enacted."
We see class sizes in some places today of 15 or less per grade. We might wonder how they can cut it. I personally like the idea of small schools in small communities. Sports be damned, I just think education can be accomplished with a minimum of costly "frills." The more time goes on, the more I am a "reading, writing and arithmetic" person when it comes to school. The online world exposes kids to so much knowledge. There is a natural incentive to harness it for your own personal development.
I am told there is a Glacial Hills Elementary School in Starbuck, housed in the old clinic building, that is not part of the Minnewaska district. I guess Starbuck is also the site for an "alternative" type of school. Maybe that's the type of school I should have gone to! All the fifth and sixth graders in the official Minnewaska district now go to the high school building.
I think it's foolish that motorized commuting is the only way to get to and from the 'Waska school. I shake my head.
I am told that "Herman and Wheaton would be a logical consolidation - they do pair for some sports - but there's a case of longstanding animosity between the two communities." And this person added: "Much like why Morris and Hancock will never combine. Ah, what a tangled web we weave."
At least it's not as bad as the Israelis and Palestinians.
 
My deep family connections with Glenwood
Since my mother's recent passing, I have taken time to go through old items in the house like family memorabilia. I found a box of items we were bequeathed by my late uncle Howard of Glenwood, the banker. He was my father's brother. I was fascinated to discover the graduation night program for the Glenwood High School graduation of 1929! It was crisp and fresh, just like it was issued yesterday. Howard gave the salutatory address.
"Glenwood High School" - will we ever see that term again? I hope the day comes.
My grandparents on Dad's side of the family - Martin and Carrie - are buried at Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery. I don't recall ever going there. I plan to decorate the graves next spring. They both died too young. Perhaps my mom felt it would be difficult for Dad to go there as it would remind him of his parents' deaths. Martin and Carrie, RIP.
Howard and wife Vi are buried there too. Howard and Vi, RIP.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Forum Communications says vote Jeff Johnson

The image shows Bill Marcil Jr., chief executive officer, president and publisher of Forum Communications Company. The elder Marcils, Bill and Jane, have donated $1.5 million to the University of Mary's Vision 2030 capital campaign. In 2013 it was announced that a $1 million gift from the Forum would be used to create the William and Jane Marcil Center for Innovative Journalism at MN State University in Moorhead. So, since the Forum owns our paper here in Morris, might it be persuaded to donate some $ for our University of Minnesota-Morris? Seems reasonable. (image of Bill Jr. from Google Plus)
 
Forum Communications of Fargo - that's in North Dakota - got cold feet in the 2016 presidential election. This Republican-oriented company could not stomach endorsing Donald Trump for president. It left open the presidential race. It endorsed no one. Hillary Clinton would be completely unpalatable for them.
Much of the disillusionment about Hillary resulted from the Russian manipulation of information we were getting. In reality, Clinton would be a quite acceptable president just as her husband Bill was, governing from the middle, massaging the stock market upward and knowing how to handle the presidency in the conventional way. Instead, you're all aware of what we got.
Hillary and Bill had their warts. I am a Democrat who actually wanted Bill to resign when the Lewinsky thing exploded. And BTW why do we call it the Lewinsky scandal? Why don't we call it the Clinton scandal?
Jonathan Turley, a very straight legal thinker (unimpeded by ideological blinders), who often appeared on the left-colored Keith Olbermann show, thought Bill should resign.
If we put the Clintons' obvious warts aside, they governed in quite acceptable fashion. As Democrats they realized the necessity of entitlements, even if the cost can be a somewhat bitter pill to swallow.
Eventually this nation will simply have to do something about health care. But we have given the Republican Party an unusual privilege, for them, of controlling the major branches of government. Odd how the Republicans can still behave like victims. A defining feature of the GOP is that it does not want people to like government. A party like this has a noble purpose in encouraging restraint in the growth of government. But it has a fundamental problem when it gets handed the total reins of government.
 
Forum is parked in Morris
Forum Communications is owner of the Morris MN newspaper. It is the quintessential big distant company that merely acts as puppet-master for its local employees, employees who are simply numbers to them. We're all just numbers to these behemoth modern corporations. Bank of the West is like that. Is Wells Fargo still in business in Alexandria? I inquired about starting an account there once, before the excrement hit the fan for that company, but I backed off, perhaps listening to a subconscious voice.
Forum Communications left us alone in terms of voting in the 2016 presidential race. We could make our own decisions. But now, the Fargo company is coming across pretty heavy-handed in telling us who to vote for, for Minnesota governor. A skunk never loses its stripes, or something like that. This is a historically Republican company, and these people do not change. They are like the brainwashed-type aliens we might see in a Star Trek episode. So the Forum is now telling us to vote for Jeff Johnson for Minnesota governor.
I don't think I've seen the party line piece in the Morris paper yet. But you will see it, unless the Morris publisher tries to skate by and not run it, hoping the higher-ups won't notice. But I doubt that scenario. I do think she will wimp out and it will go like this: she will run the party-line editorial from on high but not with a headline saying "vote Johnson for governor." She knows that Morris is a progressive-oriented community with a pretty committed faction in that category, i.e. "Indivisible Morris." I think Sue will have a headline written that simply says "Forum announces its political endorsements." This would be her way of saying "hey, don't take this too seriously since it's just coming from distant corporate offices," wink.

The Marcils: Bill Jr. and Bill Sr. (Grand Forks Herald image)

I am offended by the Forum's official editorial because not only does it recommend voting for Johnson, it says that Johnson is the "clear choice." The editorial then goes on to discuss Johnson's background. I don't care that much about his background, I care about his policy ideas. Johnson is a Trump-ite. So much so, he rode the strength of that base to defeat Tim Pawlenty in the GOP primary. My goodness, Pawlenty no longer passes muster among you conservatives? We're in Alice in Wonderland or so it seems.
The editorial states that Johnson's "Christian faith guides his positions." It is fine to be a Christian but not to have that as your base for suggesting political solutions.
The Forum occasionally endorses a Democrat. I would suggest that many of those Democrats (like Amy Klobuchar) are up in the polls and are going to win anyway.
If you do not like the Forum's heavy-handed approach, coming from Fargo ND, a state with "red state" instincts, then I would suggest actually contacting the Morris paper and putting those people on the defensive, forcing them to explain why it's appropriate for a North Dakota entity to "invade" our nice progressive state of Minnesota. The local employees of the Forum probably just don't matter. You'd probably have to go higher up. Good luck with that.
You can find the Forum's official endorsement editorial on the Grand Forks Herald website among other places.
 
Addendum: Forum Communications goes for a naked Trump-ite in spite of the fact that its Willmar paper has publicly blamed Trump's tariffs for having to cancel its Monday print edition. Curiouser and curiouser. Vote for Tim Walz.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"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