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Post by josef on Sept 28, 2017 16:02:38 GMT
Hello people.
I've recently been listening to various fan uploads on YouTube of ABBA in Perth, 1977 etc and am amazed at how good the group sound (even allowing for the bad quality). And it got me thinking why on earth haven't we got a proper ABBA 1977 live album?! It's ridiculous. They mostly sounded great (Frida especially although Agnetha has her shining moments) even allowing for off nights.
So, which do you prefer? Both have their merits but I really think ABBA were at the top of their game in 1977. There MUST be something we can do to make this happen. Can't we nag Benny's son to get on to it like he did with their 1979 live recordings? I know we have ABBA-The Movie but it's not the same and it's spoiled by that awful DJ thing.
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Post by Liebezeit on Sept 28, 2017 23:24:24 GMT
It depends, if you split factors... you can't always have all of it.
Drum sound wise, I like the 1979 concert. Punchy and quite nice. The 1977 drum sound seems to tick me off as if an amateur drummer filled in at an ABBA concert while another has passed out, but the big factor of the drum set is tuning, mostly. I bet they had it too low at that time...
By vocals; the 1977 concert was top notch.
By filming; the 1979 concert is the best. The angle and camera shots seemed balanced and we can have a lot more focus on both the touring band and the quartet itself, as far as I know. Call it amateur but at least it makes them shine in a livelier, human, and fascinating way.
The 1979 concert was at least engageable due to the fast pace...
On the 1977 concert, at some part, Frida's footage was a tad poorly selected. You don't see much of Frida absorbing the audience's mind (Money Money Money) and Agnetha's "legendary" bottoms were incepted. (not a bad thing necessarily) But you do see Frida at her very best (and adorkable moments)... unless if it's a song requiring two vocal harmonies. The director has a lot to explain about it...
Is Lasse Hallstrom even trying to make an avant-garde montage or did he get spiked during the production? The backwards thing was unnecessary; I hope more dramatic shots of the girls (and the boys too) exists....
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Post by wombat on Sept 29, 2017 14:51:02 GMT
Personally, I hated the drum sound on the Wembley live album. Way too much reverb and delay, at first I wondered if they were hiding something because of it.
Turns out, they were.... Ludwig had to patch in a track from another night and tons of reverb and delay is an old mixing trick used to hide stuff like that, make it all seem "together" or from the same source, when it really isnt.
This has been asked before, but I cant remember... does a complete multi-track of a 1977 concert exist in the vault?
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Post by Michal on Oct 1, 2017 12:15:55 GMT
I prefer the 1977 concerts too. The group seems full of energy and I think that especially Agnetha was in better vocal form back then. Of course I'm glad that we have the ABBA Live at Wembley album (even if the sound really is quite disappointing by ABBA's standards) but I would love to hear some of the 1977 shows in its entirety and in good sound quality.
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Post by Michal on Oct 1, 2017 12:17:13 GMT
...Ludwig had to patch in a track from another night... Where do you have that information from? |
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Post by wombat on Oct 2, 2017 13:46:00 GMT
I cant remember, but I know I did read that. On the night they used for the album, one of the drum mics failed or fell off the stand or something... whatever the reason, they had no track for that drum. So Ludwig patched in that drum mic track from one of the other nights.
Thats the only thing they admitted to doing behind the scenes. The whole affair is so drowned in reverb and delay, I really do wonder if they are telling the truth. They might be, Agnetha doesnt sound too great at times, a friend told me he read she was ill. So if they were going to do a real patchwork thing, perhaps they would have picked another night for her vocal.
Who knows. Maybe the venue sounded like that, boomy and lots of echo and thats just the way it was. The drums sound especially bad to me.
But thats just my opinion.
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Post by Michal on Oct 2, 2017 18:45:18 GMT
Well, if it is true, the question is why on earth they used that night's recording. Were the others even worse? And indeed, Agnetha unfortunately sounds like she's got a cold on certain songs. If she was OK at previous concerts, I wonder why she okayed the release of this one. She certainly was able to sing better - e.g. she sounds great on the recording from Milwaukee...
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