Agnetha's debts

Re: Agnetha's debts

abbangelears - 22.12.2006, 23:39
Agnetha's debts
I'm not talking about money, but music. Agnetha's talent as a singer are beyond any doubt, but I think she owes us something: She is a great composer, she plays the piano, she's got a stunning figure... Before Abba she was very creative, but for some reason that changed. Well, she's talented enough to have made a successful career, but she has just given us four post-Abba albums with very few songs penned. Compared to Benny's her post-Abba period pales and I ask myself why. Don't you have the feeling that she owes something?, that she hasn't taken her career seriously? My colouring book is a nice album and her voice sounds superb, but wouldn't you like something more personal? Don't you think she has "wasted" (to a certain extent) her enormous talent?

Re: Agnetha's debts

Anonymous - 22.12.2006, 23:52

Agnetha owes us nothing
She gives us Ten years, why should she give us more?

Just accept whats out there!

Re: Agnetha's debts

Joe - 23.12.2006, 00:52

@Johnny:
Good article. I agree with it almost completely.

@abbangelears
As a person she doesn't owe anything to anyone, as a talented musician she might "owe" (if you want to call it like that) more music to human culture. But after all she has left her marks in Swedish music and she was on the top with ABBA and became part of worldwide culture, that's quite a bit I would say.

Personally it's everybody's free and own decision what to do with your life and your talents. To me it's always better to stop something which you don't like anymore. We should always have in mind that she had been active for about 20 years, including all positive and negative consequences. Especially because of her position as especially exposed ABBA member the negative effects might have been worse for her than for the other 3, even still today. To me it's actually not surprising that you can lose joy and interest at some stage.

Agnetha's independant and previleged situation gives her the opportunity to really do things just for fun now. My colouring book was a fun album with no hits to be expected and only small promotion. Maybe there might be more in the future, maybe not.

Regarding her as a composer, I can really understand that you need some inspiration and motivation for it and you must be pretty confident with the result to let it be published. Agnetha might have been always too critical with herself, but I think most of us know this from own experience.

Finally we don't know what she's really doing at home, maybe she's is doing some music, maybe playing the piano or singing, maybe composing, maybe even doing some private recordings. But there also might be nothing like this. We just can't know. Perhaps we will one day, but that doesn't have to happen.

Joachim

Re: Agnetha's debts

ABBAnator - 23.12.2006, 02:30

Nantes wrote: Agnetha owes us nothing
She gives us Ten years, why should she give us more?

Just accept whats out there!

She had her first hit in 1968, and I Stand Alone was released in what year? 1988. So that's 20 straight years she gave us.

Plus the MCB album in 2004, I agree, shes done enough.

I wouldn't mind something more for sure, what a wonderful voice, but she has no "debt" to pay to us fans.

Bruce

Re: Agnetha's debts

drimnagh - 23.12.2006, 15:13

She doesn't owe us or anyone anything. You have to remember how self-critical she is and also how she once said how difficult she found it to compose something really original, really unique. Maybe her muse deserts her on occasion? After all, inspiration is the key and we also mustn't forget how most people's creative output is at it's peak in youth. This isn't to say Agnetha won't be inspired again- she was inspired to do MCB, after all! 17 years after her last session so we musn't give up hope.

Joe

Re: Agnetha's debts

drimnagh - 23.12.2006, 16:42

Another point: 'Quality NOT quantity'!

It would be easy for Agnetha to trot out sub standard stuff like a lot of so called 'artistes' do- endless sappy covers of other peoples songs like Westlife and Daniel O'Donnell (there should be a law against these two monstrocities) but the fact that she took such care over the songs in MCB shows us that she is a person of intregity who isn't just going down the easy route. It does leave us wanting more and that is frustrating but I listen to the first few words of the opening track 'My Colouring Book'.."Here's a new one for you..." and you just know that Agnetha has released MCB partly for herself and partly for her fans so I will be pleased with this even if she doesn't record again. I will be a sad bunny if she doesn't sing again as I think her voice is still in fine fettle but MCB is still a lovely swansong if this is her choice.

Joe

Re: Agnetha's debts

Anonymous - 23.12.2006, 18:24

She was just too lazy to write more songs. She has admittted that herself!
So in a way I agree with you or with the teachings of the Christian faith that you should not bury your talents in the ground, but use them.

She is not the only lazy one in this world. Using your talent is not so easy, it demands a lot of hard work. And she was also very critical about herself so she maybe thought that she would never reach the level of Benny and Björn. In my opinion she just set her goals too high and could have written more songs, had she really wanted to do that. My motto nowadays is: "If there is a will, there's a way".


Anne

Re: Agnetha's debts

WATERL00 - 23.12.2006, 19:40

I can understand abbangelears thoughts very well although I must admit that the word "owe" is not the right to use in this context.

I would rather say that Agnetha in a way "wastes" her wonderful voice and her writing abilities. I mean she was an artist for 20 years but she could have been one for many more years.

Agnetha could have been an icon as Madonna is today but she chose another way, a way I respect and understand.

Image where she could have been if she hadn't been a part of ABBA but found a manager who successfully promoted her music in the whole world.
But still I sometimes think why on earth a person with such a wonderful voice that makes people cry because it is so beautiful doesn't use it anymore.

In the end it is Agnetha's and only Agnetha's decision what to do with her voice but I as a fan hope that she will record something new again in future.
Maybe a swedish charity song or something like that.

And I'm sure she will surprise us all again somehow, someday.

Re: Agnetha's debts

Belinda_sm - 23.12.2006, 19:58

double post :oops: :oops:

Re: Agnetha's debts

Anonymous - 23.12.2006, 22:44
Re: Agnetha's debts
[quote="abbangelear she's got a stunning figure...

I dont get what Agnethas figure has to do with her musical talents or whether she owes us something or not.

Re: Agnetha's debts

abbangelears - 24.12.2006, 13:42

Well, I see I didn't use the right words. It wasn't my purpose to discuss whether we have some right towards her or whether she owes something in terms a bank-client relationship, not at all, I have stated in other threads that I like Agnetha the way she is and I don't care what she does with her life, because she's free to do whatever she wants. So, let's forget words like "owe" and "debts". What I sometimes wonder is why she didn't try to make a more personal career as a solo act. She had been singing Andersson-Ulvaeus songs for a decade, so why didn't she try to do something more personal afterwards? Besides, she has always said she didn't want to be a big star, like in Abba, any more, but she recorded three pop albums that sound like Abba without Frida, Benny and Bjorn.
Probably ABBAnator is right and the fact that she had two children to raise is the main reason (and it's obviously a good reason). But I have always had the feeling we have lost something, that's all, especially if we compare her post-Abba period with Benny's. He has always something new to offer and when I listen to his work I feel he has given to music all he could give, whereas when I listen to Agneta's solo work I feel she could have given much more. As for the "stunning figure" I just meant she had and has all the ingredients to be a great pop act: a nice voice, talent, beauty and glamour, that's it.
Regards

Re: Agnetha's debts

Belinda_sm - 24.12.2006, 23:34

Agnetha Faltskög:
Quote: The hungry years are over. We have paid our dues, enough!


Taken from VeckoRevyn issue 39 from September 1981

find it in http://abbamikory.blogs.com/abbamikory/

Re: Agnetha's debts

Pam - 04.01.2007, 08:44

I haven't been on this site in ages! I just popped in and found some people here I hadn't seen in a long time! Big shout out to Andy B.
Anne, Johnny, and all...

When it comes to Agnetha and her talents and what she does with them...or doesn't do with them...
well, that would be up to her wouldn't it?
She has had in the past, and continues to have an incredibly full life. She isn't sitting around on the couch eating bon bons and watching TV.
So, song writing is in her past. Her desire for it is over.
She has boxes of songs she wrote in the basement that will never see the light of day.
These days running her breeding farm is a job.. Running a household is a huge job, and that is one huge house!
She is busy. She has many people that are on the farm working for her and she manages it all.
As to her solo career after ABBA. Agnetha was a star in Sweden already with a nice solo career before ABBA. Her work after ABBA reflected what she wanted to do and what she didn't want to do.
She didn't want to write songs so much any more. She was contented to do things just the way she did them. I respect that.

I feel personally that the 3 albums she did after ABBA were more of a testing than anything else. A testing to see if she still wanted a career or not. To wind down from a hectic whirlwind life with ABBA.
She had different friends, different interests, a different life then.
The money wasn't an object to go after anymore. She had more than enough.
To record an albumn is work. And lots of time. With a family to care for, a house to run, then a teenager that was a bit unruly, rebellious is more like it...the career wasn't her priority.
I think 3 albums, a movie, some promotions, and traveling involved in the 7 years after ABBA was enough time for her to see that the desire to sing and be a performer was dwindling. And then the 90's came and a new marriage. Divorce.
Deaths of parents, who knows what else.
So the star retreats to a "normal life" and people still think something was owed to them as fans?
Ok. she writes a book. Not good enough? Some fans thought that way.
So she decided to do 1 more albumn. It took a long time to work on for various reasons. It comes out. Are the fans happy? Some, not all. They still want more and more....

That is, aside from what the money buys, a rough life. You can't even go out of your driveway without wondering who is there. Or shopping, or out to eat or dancing. What a way to live. The price of being famous...I can understand her need for privacy. Because she isn't given much.
She didn't waste her talents. She used them for many years. Now she uses different talents in her life.
God bless you Agnetha.




As for her last recording...fans clamoured for just one more..just something...anything....for years and years....
and they got it...in her own way.
So she didn't write the songs. so what? She sang some songs she loves.
I think it was wonderful. It's an insight into Agnetha herself, her thoughts and feelings now and in the past.
Isn't that what fans want? A piece of the personal side of the star?

She isn't out to make money. She isn't trying to make a "comeback".
She was out to please her fans. and her family and herself.
You can't please all of the fans all of the time. But she does go out of her way for many of them.
She stops and takes the time for a chat now and then.
Sign a few things, and she is always gracious.
If a fan feels slighted they might want to stop and think if they are intruding on some of her time and maybe she is busy too. She has family, friends, work, shopping, appointments ect. maybe more so than we do.
She owes us nothing and never did. But she has given us so much. Apparently she is still giving. Everyone who visits web sites to see her pictures or read about her or hear the latest tidbit of any move she makes, or any member of ABBA, is still enjoying them. Their music, and especially the friends one makes when coming to these forums.
I am glad for these forums and all the people that come to them.
It's heartwarming to see so many are still so interested.

Re: Agnetha's debts

SirSmurfalotster - 10.01.2007, 15:04

Had to reply to this one... Does Agnetha owe us, or anyone, anything??? Absolutely not. Her career began in the 60's, went into the 70's, 80's, and now 2004. She's given up more than a lot of people should have expected her to: spending too much of her childrens' childhoods away from them, just for starters.

If she is in the studio recording an album for 2007, it is we who owe her our devotion, imho...

Sir Scott, hunter of moose eaters