One Song - ABBA's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! "(A Man After Midnight)" with John Early

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

If there’s not a soul out there, or someone to hear your prayer, just turn to one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time – ABBA. On this episode of One Song, actor and comedian John Early (Now More Than Ever; The Afterparty) joins Diallo & LUXXURY to break down the Swedish disco supergroup’s hit “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)." They discuss how the members of ABBA managed to craft the song in the middle of a divorce, how their meticulous production process makes their songs so catchy, and why the Swedes are so incredible at songwriting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lestry, today's song is from one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time. It was a smash hit in several countries around the world when it was released in 1979, and it went number one in seven countries, including Finland, Japan, and Norway, but somehow not in their native homeland of Sweden. That's right. It's been covered by some major world-renowned artists, and it taught us that if there's not a soul out there, someone to hear your prayer. This band's got an answer to your troubles. It's one song, and that's...

song is Gimmie, Gimmy, Gimmy, a Man After Midnight by Abba. Beem, Gimmy, Gim. Well, I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddell. And I'm producer, DJ songwriter and musicologist Luxury, A.K.A. the guy who whispers on turpillation on the internet. And if you want to watch one song, please go to our YouTube channel and watch this full episode. All right, let's begin.

Okay, well, we've got a very special episode for you because today we are joined by a super talented actor, comedian, writer, and producer. You've seen him in the film, stress positions, The TV shows, the after party on Apple TV Plus, and search party on Max. All the parties. And his latest HBO comedy special, now more than ever, has been nominated for an Emmy. Stop. But you have been nominated for an Emmy.

I didn't want to bring up the Emmy. Wait. And a Critics Choice Award. Wait a second. All the nominations. Let's give it up for John Early. Welcome to learn a song. Thanks so much for coming.

I'm honored to be here. Can I just say right off the back? Congrats on the nominations, bro. I don't want to talk about the nominations. That's weird because your people sit over the list of awards that you've won or been nominated for. I will tell you, as an Emmy nominated person, it's going to stick with you for a very long time.

Well, thank God. Unless you actually win. And then it disappears. No, then it just haunts you. And it's always like Emmy nominated. Riter. actor. It's just one of those things that follows you. It's like a very special period, though.

Like, enjoy it. It's like an engagement. Like, you're only engaged for a short period. Except that if you don't win, then it's like the engagement fizzled out and you have to see the person all the time. That's a fair point, right. It's a little different for that reason. We'll get to Abba real soon. But first, let's decide. We're going to call him Abba or Abba. Oh, geez. What do you say? I've always said Abba, but I know in my heart that it's Abba.

I don't know. I actually don't know if it's Abba or Abba. As long as we don't say Abba. Abba. That's the Nigerian group. Oh. And I like that. Now I like that. Yeah.

We do want to get to know you a little bit better before we start talking about Abba. And your recent stand-up special, you mailed comedy and music and cringe with a 70s twist, honestly. Thank you. Oh, no. Listen, we feel like that's the perfect fit for this episode. Where did you come up with the idea to do that and incorporate your band, the Lemon Squares? Well, I named them the lemon squares for this special and didn't think twice about it. They've been playing at my shows with me since, like, 2013, and we always just do four covers and some comedy in between.

It's not, you know, it's not groundbreaking. But we always closed with Donna Summer. I feel love. Which is, you know, one of our favorite songs. I think you've said it is luxury. He says it is his music. It might be my favorite song. I think it also might be my favorite song.

We are big fans of, you know, your comedy in part because that's where we come from when it comes to melding comedy and music. Lecture and I worked on a song for my show, Sherman Showcase. And I told him right off the bat, we don't do the music like silly. That to me is not interesting. Like the music has to be Lonely Island was like, we want music that people can play in the club. Yes. You know, so like we take the. the music seriously, even if it's coming from a comedic point of view.

And you go even further by, like, it's a comedy show, but your covers are straight up. You're not supposed to laugh at, it's not funny. No. And it works. It's like it's just a little breath in between laughs or something. I'm so happy you think it works. I mean, that, it always, because, you know, some people don't think so. A couple of people on Twitter, literally like two people on Twitter.

I remember them more than any of the comments. But are they, like, voters? Apparently not. I just want to be clear. The frame of reference for me was always Bet Midler. and Sandra Bernhardt and these like comedians kind of groovy cabaret artists yeah who just do covers so it's not I think there are a lot of people who saw my special word. It's like the old school tradition of like multiple talents. Yeah, Babs. I mean it's embarrassing saying that I'm because I they are mega mega talents. No but you're right there's an old tradition where it was normal to do more than one thing. Yes. Well and to do specifically covers and not original songs. It's like interpret.

songs and for that to be enough. And like, I don't know. We take the music very, very seriously. I work harder on that than like the comedy, which I think is very apparent. But it's like the most fun part of it for me. Well, before we dive into Gimmie, Gimmy, Gimmy, I want to ask you, John, how did you come to Discover Abba? And what does this song in particular mean to you?

My parents got me the pure disco CD. Love that. Do you remember that? I do. Like some Bronco compilation or something? I feel like K-Till. Yeah, K-Tel. There were a couple of companies that always put out.

There was a TV ad and they responded to it. Exactly. On your behalf. Yes. Okay. And they, you know, they must have known, if you know what I'm saying. But like. What year was this?

How old were you? I was like eight or nine. Okay. Yeah. And it was so, it changed my life. It had hot stuff on it, you know, that like, this introduced me to Donna Summer and Abba. And it had Dancing Queen on it. And a lot of other things.

But it just, I don't know, it blew my mind. Even the most kind of like iconic disco songs, it wasn't like there weren't the sweaty deep cuts, you know, they were like the most kind of produced like, you know. But it still just blew my mind. And then I became obsessed with Muriel's wedding, the Tony Collette movie from 1994. And I named my dog Muriel. I had a Tony Collette website. It was like a very huge.

You had a what? You had a website. Oh, you had a website. I had a Tony collect website. Your Wikipedia is funny because it's very brief, but it does mention that. I know. Well, I've talked about it a lot, and I won't bore your listeners. But I did have a, I was obsessed with her.

I was completely devoted. And like a huge part of that was Muriel's Wedding, which is like scored almost exclusively by Abba. It's a huge part of the plot at Abba. And I learned like from, there was like an Australian film institute like exhibit about Muriel's wedding. I didn't go. there was online, but they said that PJ Hogan, the director, like, flew

to Sweden, like, right before they were filming to, like, they almost didn't have the rights to use the songs, and he, like, begged, but, like, wrote, like, explained the plot in person to Benny and Bjorn, which I think Madonna, I've now learned, also had, she didn't go in person.

Yeah. No, we're going to talk about that. She begged as well. Yeah, yeah. Begging works with these guys. Good to know. And it's so cool because it was, like, pre-mamma-mia. You know, it was like, Like they still weren't culturally like re-evaluated yet. Super cool yet. But I always say it takes 20 years for for some stuff to really come back around. And the 90s, especially the second half of the 90s, was definitely like disco was back.

Like when Boogie Nights came out, like everybody was like throwing disco parties all of a sudden. Yeah. No, clearly you know a lot about this. What does Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, mean to you, luxury? Oh, damn. I mean, look, are we going to get into my obsession with this band, which we clearly You get into it. We have to, yeah, there's more.

Your personal connection. I have a family or a parents-related connection as well, except mine's a little darker because my parents split up when I was five, and there were ABA records in both houses. Oh, my God. And so I was hearing the music in the context of a divorce happening in my life, but the music was also about divorce. Well, the visitors. The visitors, we have knowing me, knowing you, the winner takes it all.

All of these lyrics about, like, loss and melancholy, and I'm literally. little kid, but like I'm absorbing it and it's telling the story of what's happening around me. Yes. So that's my connection to Abba. And that never goes away. That's like buried in my DNA now. It's like locked into each individual cell. See, it's beautiful that you start it, if I may host.

It's beautiful that you start. Your first relationship to Abba was like about the melancholy in the music, which it takes a lot of people still aren't there yet. No, a lot of people don't know that about this baby. Yeah. Even though it's, to me, it's right there. in Dancing Queen. Like,

Dancing Queen is not sugar. It's, like, it's bittersweet. It's, like, full of longing and, like, I don't know. I totally agree. There's a big part of this band that clearly we're going to agree on

and discuss here, but, like, the dark side of Abba, the darkness of these Swedish pop, like, experts. Yes. And their legacy, because they went on to produce,

you know, from Abba down to the present day. Yeah. We have this legacy of insanely perfect, but a little bit dark underneath the bubble gum. Underneath the sweetness, there's a little bit of saltiness. It's like a third listen kind of thing or something.

On the surface, on just the data points of it being a massive global star phenomenon. But underneath, there's some darkness. So we'll get into that. What's your relationship to Abba? Yeah, that's your deal. I'll tell you, man. This was an interesting episode of the show because I don't have a strong opinion on this group. Usually we focus on groups and songs that both luxury and I have strong opinions.

Like, it's so interesting to hear you already talking. talk about dancing queen as a person who made it living as a DJ, I dreaded that. Oh my God, of course. It was always the song that like some, you know, drunk lady would come up and be like, play dancing queen. And she would get out there and do her thing to dance a queen. You need to see Muriel's Wedding. I will see, I will admit, I have not seen that movie. It will crack out of open for you.

It's Australian, like, like that kind of era of Australian movies or it's like Priscilla Queen in the Desert. Oh, that's right. materials wet, this like real kind of like, it's like Todd Salons was happening in America, this was happening in Australia, like perverse suburb, like oily skin kind of thing. It's really important. I'll put it in my cue. I'll also say that in preparing for this one, I felt like this is one of the whitest groups we have ever covered in the history of the show.

Oh, yeah. But that having been said, I do appreciate the composition of this song. I love luxury notes. I love anything with like soaring strings. Like that always sounds good to me. And Madonna's use of the song for Hang Up actually made me appreciate the song even more. Because up to that point, like, I'm not sure that I knew Gimmy, Gimmy, Gimmy. Oh, really?

Dancing Queen was huge. I'd probably heard Waterloo. So it's one of those things where the sample, like, you heard hung up, 2005 Madonna song. We'll talk about that a little later. And then you trace the source, or did you kind of probably recognize it as a sample. It sort of sounded vaguely familiar. Then I went back and I sort of discussed. like, oh, I guess I have this.

To me, Abba was filed away with Boney M. It was like one of these groups that did like really sort of like, I don't know how you describe it, maybe campy disco songs. Yeah, definitely. Because I was more, like when you asked me in this period, DJ Diallo, what kind of disco songs are you like? I was more from the Larry LeVon sort of school. I like Stephanie Mills.

The deeper cuts like you were alluding to that weren't on that. Peronish garage sort of disco. Like, you know, this was not my type of disco. But as time has gone on, I've grown to appreciate what they brought to. By the way, because you mentioned it, did you know Boney M growing up? Bonium, I only know from recently. Me too, me too. And that's, I've since learned that there are like a lot of the globe outside of the U.S.

Boniam and Aba, they're sort of Boniom's Abba is much huger. But they're similarly of the same era and a similar sound. And similarly massive radio songs. But they just never hit in America, at least not to my ears. Yeah. But, and then Rasputin on TikTok, you know, exploded. Oh, I didn't know that. See, I'm so out of touch that I just thought I was organically stumbling into Boney M.

But it's all algorithmic. Was that the song that you first heard? Was, yes, that one. And then Daddy Cool. Daddy Cool. That's a sick tune. I would love to do an episode on Daddy Cool. I like Maugh Baker.

Yeah. There's some really cool stuff. By the way, I just had to point this out here. Whoever shot the Waterloo video. That cameraman. Huh? Lassie Halstrom. He's the videographer for all of the episodes.

Literally. It's so insane. Like, I don't know how many movies he had already made at that point, but he's, I mean, not obviously. I probably couldn't even name a single movie. Did he do? I was going to say he did some legit. I was going to say, Life as a dog? Is that him? Life as a dog, yeah.

I saw that Waterloo video. I was like, this man likes Zoom. Like, the Zooms are doing all the work for them. And it went on to become like a world famous director. So it started with the Zooms. Started with the Zooms. He was inspired by the Zooms and the outfits and the hair, all that. Let's talk about Abba Sound.

Let's talk about Abba Sound. Let's get back to this melancholy conversation. So I was investigating like, where does this come from? I found this incredible quote. A couple quotes, actually. One of them is Benny Anderson himself from the band Abba. We'll get into all the members a little later. But just so you know, if you didn't already, Abba, ABBA, Ane, Anetha.

Anneitha. Benny, Bjorn, Annafried. Oh, oh, really? Right, because Frida is Anafrid. Right, okay. So that's the ABBA. I am blown away by these pronunciations. I know.

Well, I've been like, I was on the way here. I was like, Eneta. I was so panicking about it. I'm trying it too. Like, I had some Swedish friends in college who taught me, and I'm probably still mangling it, but I think we're close. Well, getting back to Benny. Benny Anderson, when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame, I believe,

the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of all places, explained that the despondency in their music runs throughout Swedish folk music, Russian folk music, classical composers like Edward Greig, who's actually Norwegian, Ingmarg Bergman movie. So he's sort of pointing out that there is already this darkness in Swedishness in no small part because it's called the melancholy belt above the 15-9th latitude, just geographically where they are is dark.

Wow. It's a dark place. There's like literally days on end where it's snow and no sun. So all of this is infused in all of the art of Sweden and Norway. And something else I love about Abba is the campiness and the communities that have embraced their music. What was funny is when we were talking about this episode, I was like, yeah, give me a man after a minute. That's like a wink and a nod to the community. And you were like, no, I think that they were being unironic.

Oh, I don't think they had any sense of the gay community at all. I'm curious what you think, but to me, I read, because, first of all, English is not their native tongue, although they're obviously fluent in English. I also think America and cultures outside of their own little rich, you know, songwriter world may not be native to them. It is clearly, gimme, gimme, gimme, a man after midnight right there in the lyrics. It's very much, there's a lot of readings you could put into it. I think they had one reading. I think the singular reading as they were writing the song is, first of all, it's ex-husband, writing it for an ex-husband. writing it for an ex-wife. X at the time. They were going through the divorce in that exact moment.

So I'm jumping ahead a little bit in the chronology, but yes, this song is made and is released in August 79. In January-ish of 79, they file for divorce, and like a year later they are divorced. So they're making the song. And so he's telling her how lonely she is. The gay connotations are unintentional. I am H-O. Yes, yes. I mean, I don't know.

I don't know if I feel with this song particularly. I mean, it's like, it's like, you know, it fits perfectly for a gay man. But I also hear it as just hers, like the singer's story, you know, like in a kind of like with no layers of irony. I don't think there's any layers. Yeah, especially because like I think, yeah, like your, Euro pop. And it's like those worlds, those cultures are a little more. comfortable with femininity or something. It's like where America it has to be like, I don't know.

Like protecting, like couching it in multiple layers or something. Yeah, whereas like everyone can just dance to that song and be okay with it being from a woman's point of view there. You know, I mean, I, by the way, have no idea what I'm talking about. I mean, we're just exploring this. I don't either. We were founded by Puritans. Yeah.

This is just a fair point. Yeah. We're not comfortable with sex of any kind. No. That is also true. Yeah. The gay thing, too, it's like, yes. to me the thing with Abba though is it's what makes it like gay, whatever that means, if anything can be...

If music can be a sexuality. Or could even, yeah, yeah, exactly. Or a pigeonhole, I think, what you're trying to say. Or like if there is anything intrinsic about anything. But like, but what to me what makes it, what I feel, why I feel drawn to it is the melancholy. Like, I feel like that is a very kind of like melancholy on the dance floor is like a very, gay thing. Mel like I on a dance floor is one of my favorite songs.

Yeah. I would listen to that. It's really interesting to hear you say that because as I was trying to like kind of think about the topic and from an outsider perspective, I did find a quote from a writer who I know, Barry Walters is a gay writer who wrote for NPR and said he was trying to kind of define it as well. Like pin it down. Like what is it in this music that connects, that he connects with?

And by the way, isn't obviously just gay, but like melancholy writ large. So it's like the larger topic. And he narrows it down to this. There's a yearning in these records that gives them ballast, so kind of keeps them afloat, I'd say, and helps them endure. They cloaked suffering behind carefully constructed artifice. I love that sentence.

That's so beautifully written. They cloaked suffering behind carefully constructed artifice and concealed the distress of their ditties with as many deliciously gaudy overdubs as the era's recording techniques could muster. That's like a perfect way of describing Ava to me. It's like it's kind of hidden, it's kind of cloaked, but it is there and keeping it afloat and keeping it enduring all this time. Totally.

So much pop music of that era, especially the early 70s, is like gone and forgotten because it didn't have the richness of the layers and the longing and the melancholy. So that's part of clearly as a child it appealed to me. But I think it still resonates to this day for that reason. Yeah. There's musical integrity, but it's not pretentious at all. Yeah. Oh, it's totally unpretentious. You're getting like, you're getting like substance, but you're not.

not getting like an artist's like grip. You're totally right because that was such a pretentious sentence. Yeah. And yet all of that is so barrier. As he puts it, right, it's like the artifice is all you're hearing. All you're hearing is how we go from one melody to the next melody and you can't wait for the fifth melody. You're like, oh, it's about to do that part.

That's one part about Abba songs that I love so much is that it's like it's, it's, there's a constant next thing that you're excited that tickles the back of your head. Let's talk a little bit about Abba's influences because this was. something we discussed in preparing this episode. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned at the top, this is a super white band, and as every episode. It's to me, as a casual listener. Yeah. It seemed that.

No, I don't disagree. It's a very white. What is it about the whiteness? There's something about this band that doesn't have a lot of blues in it, I would say. And there's actually a great quote where Benny, when he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he talked about how when he grew up in the 50s, there was only one radio station in Sweden, and they only played two hours of music the entire day. And they would hear classical music.

They'd hear Swedish folk, Italian arias, French chanson, German schmaltz, and Sousa, and maybe one current song. So his entire upbringing, he's maybe getting one Motown song, maybe one Beatles song. And that starts to kind of explain a lot of the influences because it's very white European influences. And not a heck of a lot of what was the black blues-based influences. But I will say, look, I've made a lot of cheap jokes. at Abba's expense, but I do think that at the end of the day that, you know, they're doing disco, they're doing, you know, their rhythmic pop. And the black influences are there. Even if they're just hearing, like, one Beatles song, the Beatles are influenced by Black music. So the black stuff is in

there. Indirectly. It's a luxury. Abba wasn't always making disco songs. Can you walk us a little bit through the evolution of their sound? I'm going to give you the quickest overview of how Abba comes together and how we get to this song. It begins with the 60s in Sweden, early 60s. Bjorn is in a band called the Hoot Nanny Singers. Benny is in a band called the Hepstars, which by the way stems from the word hipster. Oh, that's crazy.

It's a Bill Haley song from the mid-50s called Razzle Dazzle. Both of these individual bands are doing pretty good. They have some Swedish top-10 hits. But there's some conflict within the bands, and at one point they actually, they don't merge. But Bjorn joins Benny's band. They start writing songs together. This is the HEP Stars.

Isn't it easy to say from 1966? When you hear early Abba, like, how does this hit you? I do, it doesn't hit me that hard, but you hear the like kind of traditional, like the kind of almost like madrigal kind of vibe. I don't know what that is. I know exactly what you're talking about. You know. Right. You hear that it's like,

when we were just listing all of those things like French chanson and all that. It's like that's what we're hearing. Yeah. Yeah. And like kind of like a dorky Paul McCartney thing. You know. His like, and I say that with so much love.

All respect for sir. For sir. For sir Paul. Sorry. Sorry, but you know what I mean. His like, his like kind of nerdy like let's use this old thing.

You know like like earnest. Yeah. It's almost like a harpsichord. Ernest is a good word. Ernest is a very good word for it. There's like the earnestness and the traditionalness. That's all I hear. The second that the music started, I was immediately like,

someone should sample this and speed it up to about 128 BPM. And then I was like, who would it sound like? And I was like, oh, it would sound like Abba. It would sound like Ava that we know if you sped it up and put a drum underneath it. That's a good point. You're right, yeah. An Yaita comes into the picture separately as she is herself, her own pop star as a teenager.

She has a number one song, which, by the way, let's listen to it. Okay. This is Anyeta Faltskogs, 1968, number one record when she was 18. And she wrote this herself, by the way. Wow. It's called Yagvaar Sackor.

Rules off the tongue. Say me the hoda. That's a freaking sad song. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like Sean. Connery is Bonn and I have a glass of white wine. And again, I'll point out it's really worth for the sake of where this story is going a little bit. Like, Anya wrote that song.

She's 100%. The lyricist and the music is her composition completely. But then she marries Bjorn in 1971. And Anna Fried, the fourth member of Abba is Anna Friede. She is also a singer. And in 1969, she meets the other male member of Abba. And they also start dating and eventually get. married. So we have these two couples

and they eventually merge their forces. They haven't hit upon Abba yet as a clever name. No, they first call themselves Bava. Yeah, they're kind of Baba. Bob. They were called Bav. No, literally they start as Bjoren and Benny and Yethan and Ane and Afrid and then they're like, nah, that's not quite catchy. Let's keep going. Bjorne and Benny and Yathe and

Frida is their modification. Oh my God. And then they finally hit upon Abba. Wow. And then the world changes. It's very exciting. Like recording it you do is like, hey, you're a bunch of freaks, go by ABBA. You're leaving money at the table. Like, you know, like, they're like, what does he say? I think it was their, like, manager guy who told them to do ABA. Was there, Stig Anderson?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good old Stig. Do you think they ever swung? Would be surprised if they didn't. Yeah. Not knowing how this. I never thought about it. Did they swing?

They might have swung. Yeah. What would be the evidence, or that we should, like, go back and revisit? the lyrics. I don't know. I mean, yeah, totally. It's just, here's what I've heard, and I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that Enneeta.

And Bjorn? Yes. Bjorn's the easy one. I can say that one. I can say that one. I heard they were, like, actually, like, kind of madly in love, like, a real organic marriage. Yeah.

And then the Frida and Benny. You feel pressured? Yeah, was literally, they were kind of like, well, we could get married, too. And it was like, wouldn't that be a good narrative for the band? And they were kind of like miserable throughout. Yeah. And they didn't last as long. You're right.

Yeah. They didn't have kids either, I don't think. Yeah. And then Enjitha and Bjorn. They were like, they eventually declined. But they had a good decade between them. Yeah. And they had kids.

Yeah. Right. And yeah, I think that's interesting. I think that that is interesting to think of the situation where there's four people in a room. Two of them are married and two of them are dating. And they're like, maybe the date. would have ended had the married couple not been there putting the pressure on them? Yeah.

Well, just a minute ago you mentioned we were speculating about the origin of them hitting on this perfect name of their initial letters, A, B, B, B, A. And I think you're probably, it would make sense if it were Stig Anderson. We have to talk about every episode we have the sort of unsung fifth or sixth band members. And in this case, Stig is pretty universally acknowledged for a minute, at least, at the beginning, to be that guy. He was the manager. He started managing Bjorn and Benny.

picked up Frida and Ineitha, and he spoke English pretty well, and at the beginning, he was part of the songwriting process. In fact, he was known for coming up with a lot of the song titles. Because we'll get into their songwriting process in a minute, but they would often have a full musical idea, including melodies, but no lyrics yet, not even a title. So he was key because he would have titles like, call this mama me or whatever it would be, and then they go kind of write lyrics around it. Up until 1977 or so, you'll find the songwriting credits of Abba are always Benny and Bjorn, and a lot of them have Stig. A lot of the big hits include Stig Anderson, the manager.

He also co-owned their publishing company, their record label. But there was some shady stuff that started to happen around this time, as often happens in these 70s music stories, right? There's this one bizarre anecdote. And by the way, I have to say, sometimes, I don't know if you guys have this experience. You ever look on Wikipedia and you can tell, like, some angry person went in there with like some uncorroborated stories. There's like no evidence.

One of my favorite things of all time. I was reading Spice One, the rapper, Spice One's Wikipedia page. Okay. And right at the bottom of his bio, somebody had put it in 2001, Spice One was approached by a fan at a bar, and he refused to give another graph. And I was like, clearly the fan went to Wikipedia. That guy went straight to Wikipedia. He was like, this has to be told. And it says like citation needed.

If you go there now, it's been edited out, but like that was there for a couple of years. It was one of my favorites. I'm sorry. No, no, that's exactly what I'm talking about. So there's the story on Stig's page. And so, in all fairness, there is no citation for this, but somebody thought it worthy of typing onto Wikipedia. A great deal of the money came from individual record deals.

He sucked for the group, including a groundbreaking agreement for record sales in the Soviet Union, in which Abba recordings were released in exchange for barrels of oil. No, you're kidding me. That doesn't seem true. It does not seem true. However, whatever shadiness was going on behind the scenes with barrels of oil, oil or not. We do know that there was some shadiness going on in the royalty accounting, because the band ended up getting out of their contracts under a lot of duress and a lot of court

cases. It took them about 10 years in court to extricate themselves from this manager. So shady dealings of some kind. And at the end of the day, early Abba, friendship, lyrics, good stuff, later Labba, they are released. They are no longer part of it anymore. So early Abba, as we've been hearing, it has this sort of old or more traditional flavor to it. Do you have like, do you like early Abba? Like when, like, there are different eras of Abba. What are your, what's your connection? Well, early Abba is Fernando, right?

Yeah, it's Fernando. I love Fernando. I love Fernando. Again, that does, it's completely inextricable from my love of Muriel's wedding. Okay. The song is used very beautifully in that movie. But I love Fernando. I think the chorus of Fernando is just like transcendent.

But yeah, I kind of, I like it all. And I mean, I love that they go in a darker, moody or sexier disco direction. But I just, to me, it's always held together by the harmonies, like the dissonant, stacked. Yes. I love harmonies where you literally can't pull it out. Yeah. Where you're like, I want to do a harmony. And then you're listening to it.

And you're like, I literally can't separate it. Because they're so close to each other. Is this what's related to that video that you sent us? Is that what you're about to bring out of you? Because you sent us a video. Yes. I watched it. And I was like, I wonder what he's going to bring up from this.

It's the layering, right? It's the layering of the harmonies. It's the video of the engineer. Yes. Michael Trito, we're going to talk about. Yes. I don't understand. I just wondered if you all understand, like, what he's doing.

Like, because he says something about like, they're, they're like speeding. Yeah, yeah. We're going to get into that when we get to the stems, which is coming up very soon. Okay, okay. Coming up. But that is, you're totally nailing what. so special about the band to me too. They have like on a harmony level,

Abba does the same thing that a couple of my favorite musical artists do. The Moms and the Pappas and SWV. I love SWV. I think both the Moms and the Pappas and SWV have this kind of reedy, dissonant, crazy tight harmony stacks that are like, they're like... Pops and the Pappas, I can see that. And when I think of SWV or a lot of those 90s R&B group,

I'd be curious to know which SWV song can you point to. Is it rain? Rain. Which is one of the greatest. One of my favorite songs of all times. Let's play a little clip of rain. It's like crazy to me. I love that.

It's so crazy. Like, I don't know. And I've tried to do Rain live with the Lemon Squares. And it was one of the hardest. Is it really? So hard. Like to even just hear the harmonies is like next to impossible. And then to do those live and not for not everyone to.

just immediately go flat because they're so complex. Did not know that we were going to get some SWV into the Abbott episode, but we did it. We did it. After the break, we dive into how Gimmy, Gimmy, Gimmy was made and we'll play you some of the stems. We'll be right back. Welcome back to one song, Luxury. Walk us through it.

Tell us, how did this song get made? Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about the songwriting method of this band. And by the way, I've been thinking about this, like, this is not a band. Like Abba is not a band, it is a duo. There are two guys, Benny and Bjorn. They have wives. Their wives sing. And in concert or on album covers, there's four people.

But this is more like a Steely Dan situation where like the instruments or Hall and Oates or Jam and Lewis, right? We've had all these duo conversations in episodes recently. But everyone who's playing instruments on the record is they're hired guns essentially. And even the singers, they're not in any songwriting credits. Neither Anyaitha nor Annafried are published or are on the songwriting credits for any of these songs. They're not a band. What are you considered? Well, I mean, I'm just kind of, it's just a naming thing.

But like, for practical purposes, the entity is two guys who kind of control the situation, basically. But the girls are singing. I'm just making kind of a like pedantic statement. I mean, Mick Jagger doesn't play an instrument. No, but he writes the songs. I'm saying the powers in the songwriting, the power. The power is like, that's its own kind of conversation. The power in this band is very clear.

with the guys. And the women are not part of it. Like, I'm not saying that they're not an important part. They clearly very much are. Well, they wouldn't be. The men may have the power in this dynamic, but the women are what, they are the sound. It may be a distinction without a difference. It just dawns on me as we're talking about it, like, because of how this song gets made.

And let's talk about that. So their songwriting method is they are a duo. The two of them go off into like the cabin on the island somewhere in Sweden. Benny and Bjorn. Heaven. Heaven. It would be wonderful. Oh, my God. to be a fly on the wall watching them write. It's just the two of them with a piano and an acoustic

guitar and they have the whole weekend or whatever it is. And they just like throw ideas out from 10 to 4 every day. And their songwriting method is interesting because they don't record anything. They don't write anything down. They just think, look, if we remember it the next day, that was probably pretty good. That's really cool. Isn't that cool? I really like that too. Because otherwise you kind of accumulates its like form. That is the problem I have in my life is like I'm like, I'm like, when I go back the next day, I'm like, I don't know, which of these 20 things to work on next. They didn't have that problem.

If they didn't remember it, it was dead forever. Yeah. So I thought that was really interesting. That's very cool. Then what they do is they'll bring, after they've arranged, once they've kind of accumulated ideas and thought, okay, let's take your melody and this melody. And together, that can be a verse and a chorus and maybe a post chorus and a bridge. They bring that to their session musicians.

And I'll name them in a second when we listen to the stems. But they had this group of session musicians who would then work up what the sound would be take it basically from this acoustic and piano situation into like, well, what vibe do we want? We wanted to sound because in the early 70s it was this older European kind of schlager tradition. And when disco started becoming popular, they'd be like, should we kind of make it more disco? So that conversation would happen in the studio and they would get the vibe of the song and the recording. And then one more thing I want to say before we start listening to some music and reacting to it is what's interesting too is they don't have any lyrics at this point. They're kind of mouthing gibberish for the melodies.

They'll be like, da, da, da, da da da da da da da da da da da. And in the early days, Stig might have an idea for the title or maybe some lyrics. And Bjorn is really the lyricist. Benny's more music. Bjorn is doing all the lyrics. And it starts with this da-da-da-da-da-da thing. An early working title of this song, interestingly, was Been and Gone and Done it, which you can kind of hear it like, been and gone and done it.

And at a certain point in the evolution, they were just like, let's try something else. Yeah, good, good. By the way, Ben and Gone and Done is not a bad title. It's not a bad title. It's very Shania. Doggone, gone and done it. It is not very Swedish stuff.

Ben and gone and done it. That's a different song. Yeah. Let's dive into the stems. Luxury. What do you want to start with? Well, for this song, what I really want to focus on is these vocals. We've been talking about the vocals.

The band is all about the vocal. locals. Let's hear Gimmy Gimmy Gimmies isolated acapella. Going outside the window as I look around the room and it makes me so depressed to see the gloom. Curse to me, I never knew what she was saying any of that. Oh yeah. No, autumn winds. I've always just saying, and the word gloom. Like every now and then because they are Swedish, there's a certain Swedish like vowel vowel sound that creeps in gloom. Any thoughts on hearing after a lifetime of dreaming about it, this moment where you're finally hearing?

Well, I mean, it just, my curiosity remains about this thing that they do, the layering and thinning out. And like it almost, the clip that I sent, y'all, it almost sounds like they are intentionally speeding up some of the layers to make it like off pitch. So I'm glad you brought that up, John, because this interview... Would you say I'm the best guest, y'all of... You may have been the best guests we have had, and we'll ever have. You're referring to the engineer, Michael Tretow, who is kind of the sixth member of Abba. Literally was their engineer during their entire career. And it's the four members of the band, the instrument players, and this guy in the room.

That's how the music gets made. So Abba are sort of the producers, and he makes all the engineering happen, which is relevant because, to your point, he is coming up with mid-70s magic, like on the fly. There are some techniques that are passed around from one producer to the next. next, but in the 70s especially, they're figuring out how to do stuff because they have eight, maybe 16 tracks total, and they're trying to put a lot of content, musical content in there. So in the interview that you sent to me, he's referring to some techniques which include, the goal, by the way, is to get a lot of vocals, as you were describing so perfectly when we were talking about the SWV moment. Like, how do you get that all to fit together

and to seem like one thing and seem like a perfect bite of candy or whatever it is? an Italian like soprasada brassola tinschetta. Chitella. Yeah, yeah. Every little meat.

And so among the techniques I think he's referring to is if you record a take or you record a vocal more than once and they're kind of the same, you want to differentiate them with things like EQ,

you may be panning, you put one to the left, one to the right. And another thing, which is an innovation of that era maybe, is you change the speed of it. So one's slightly slower

or slightly faster or both. And because they are different, that's the magic sauce that makes them come together. And you're thinning them out with EQ. This is as tech as I'll ever get on the show. Oh, really? Yeah, no, no. Yes, please. I'm glad you said it because I was starting to think, is this a little too nerd? I can see it in your eyes, and I'm telling you it's heaven. Okay. Keep going. The goal is to have it all fit together and feel seamless. And the trick when it's a voice and it's the same voice and you've got 10 of them or 15 is they'll just become garbled information. You have the same thing fitting in the same EQ space, right? You have like

and on your speakers at home, right? So one technique or several techniques that I've just described include you're panning them, you're EQing them, volume is another thing where some are a little lower than the other one. And he's using all of them in any given song in any given moment. He may be employing two or three of them here and four or five of them there. But the magic of what that produces, this is the chorus of the song. And I can't count how many Agnithas and Anifreides are in here, but there's got to be a dozen or two dozen. Can I ask a question?

Yes, of course. John early. If they speed it up, does that change the pitch? It does, but our ear will correct for it because there's a correct one. But it creates a kind of like humanity, if you will. It does. Like instead of just stat, yeah, yeah, you're like by making it a little like impersonally pitchy, you're giving it a kind of like the humanity of a chorus and here I go.

You're absolutely right. But you're referring to kind of like, In the pre-autotune era, it can be, one can forget that having multiple vocals being stacked, having some of them not be the perfect pitch is actually desirable to our ear. It creates more richness. And our ears will correct for pitch if there's kind of enough going on. Yes. Making you an active listener.

You're an active listener. The more on-key ones might be more prominent in the mix, but they are off-key, they are purposefully made. And Veris speed is another name for that technology at the time. They would change the speed. they would vary, variable speed. So that's a way that you thicken things up. You do it with guitars, too. You do it with any instrument.

Here comes that chorus. Give me, give me, give me on that, break of the day. I heard it. I heard like an octave up, like clearly manipulated. Especially that first time. It was really prominent. Yeah.

And I think I know the part you're both thinking about. There's a part that I can't wait to play for you because it's the best part of the song. Play it. It's that part. that highest thing. Yeah. And then it does almost a...

Yes! I knew you would appreciate it because it's the Donna Summer. It's the I feel love thing that you do and you're special. Don't bring it back to me. Let's hear it. This is the best part...

This is the best part of Gimme, Gimme, Gimmie. Fight me. And they hold the hell out of that note, don't they? Oh, I was going to ask, is that really them holding the note? They're holding that note. Oh. So this is the kind of a sort of modern day Hanky code

is if I'm on the dance floor. But it's like, when I've danced to this song, there's always like, I would say 5% of the dance floor that looks at each other and goes, this is the moment. That is a special moment, but only special people recognize. And I feel proud to be right now.

It's a dog thing. You hear the picture. What's funny is, you know, both times you've played it twice. Yeah. It's so much more noticeable on the first one. Yeah. You know, because on the second one, it's just like sort of like a scale dance.

But on that first one, like, they really hit it. They're nailing it. Yeah. It's fun to listen. I never knew that was there. Yeah. It's interesting. For this episode, that's always been my favorite part.

And listening back, you can hear them start that in the earlier choruses, but then they fade it out. I don't know if you notice that. They're like, because they clearly recorded it that way at first and decided to hold back on it. Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Save some.

We're going to do a double chorus second time around. and that second chorus is where we're going to go hard. And then it goes into this little breakdown moment, which I'll play for you now. Let's go the breakdown. This is as funky as Abkhett's. But it is funky. Legitimately funky.

One thing I want to point out, actually, is that give flowers to some of these instrument players. So on bass, that's Rutger Gunnarsson. On drums is... Why is that funny? I'm sorry, guys. It's the pronunciation. I was raised on the Swedish chef.

I think I think I was... I think I was too. Speaking real Swedish. Yeah. We thought it was all you. Heardy, verdied. We thought it was gibberish, and it turned out it was actually the language. I think I might...

It would always be a funny language. I think I may have given that a little Muppet bounce just now. So I think that's on me. Ratzker-Gonerson. Ola Brancourt is on drums. And Lassa Velender is on guitar, along with Bjorn. But just in that moment, I wanted to call out that that bass, like we just heard, is actually a bass guitar and Benny playing bass on the synth.

And one thing that's kind of fun about this song is throughout the music. entire song, you have both, like, there are two bass players, essentially, because there is a baseline being played by the bass player, and Benny is playing this bass part. And that's a very disco thing, because when I was listening back just now, I was like, oh my God, that's exactly, that's you make me feel. That's Sylvester has this. I like a, you know, I've said it before. I love a galloping bass. Yes. I love that sound. I'm so glad you said galloping. Galloping. Galloping bass is, which is that, which is that, you know, which is that, Okay, there is a metal connection, too.

I've been wanting to talk about this band and this song. That is a great observation. I would have not thought of... You're totally right. There's a lot of metal bands that are like... Yeah. But the disco is like... When I was listening for this episode...

And when I was listening to that... Dada-dun in the bass line, in the synth bass that Benny is playing, all I could think about was this song. This is Dio, Holy Diver. All these good parts that I'm so excited. By the way, I just want to play this. Maybe just my favorite galloping of all time.

Is that chic? That is Bernard Edwards and now Rodgers. Yousa, Yousa, Yousa. Yeah, dance, dance, dance. One of the greatest. My favorite bass player. One of the greatest songs. I love Sheik.

We love Sheik. Those are 16th notes, but you leave out the second one. So it's Bum-da-Dum one and a two and a three and a four. I was in drum corps. Okay. Can I just say? Are you a musician? Are you like, do you have instrument skills?

I was in drum corps in middle school. Okay. I played bass. You play the bass? Yeah. I played the symbols and the quad tombs. That was the hardest one. That was the fun one.

Yeah. Like I used to shine in like a star. Oh, yeah. When they would give me a little breakdown, be like, do, do do do do do do do. That looks like so much fun, but like I've only ever played drums as a trap kit.

Like you've got everything. I feel so bad for you only having one thing to do. Well, it was a bag break. It was a heavy instrument. I know. And I have back problems. Not unrelated. Not unrelated.

Wait, how old were you? You're 13 and you're holding a giant kick drum? Oh, yeah. That seems cruel. Over your shoulders. Can I just say real quick about the lyrics? I noticed that. Please.

She's like, half past 12 and I'm watching late show me. Like, there's a sort of like casualness to those lyrics. It reminds me of Rod Stewart like, we can watch the late night movie. Oh, yeah. Like these are like these lyrics about late night movie and late show that they firmly plant. these songs lyrically at a time when you only could watch certain shows in a certain time. I was just going to say, like in 1979, it's late and you're lonely as hell. There's nothing to do in 1970s.

You need a man. I have to ask you to now play the song and I'm going to do my mash-up live. Okay, let's do it. Okay, you have to start at the beginning of giving me, giving. Okay, here we go. Because there's a thematic and sonic overlap with another song of this area. Oh, I love this. I am excited for this.

This could be anything. They have not been warned. This could be anything. Sitting hard out, baby, waiting for the lover to call. Yes. About about a thousand others. Was that also on that first record your parents gave you? Hot stuff was on the first record.

Was it like a seamless, like a mixed record or something or one goes into the next one? No, no, I wish. Oh, man. I wish. But, yeah. Hot stuff by Dawn of Summer. Yeah. Hot stuff by Donna Summer.

It works. But that is the same. It works. It works. Does Hot Stuff have the gallop? It has the galop. It's got a cowboy kind of flavor. You're right.

Which was first? This is also 1979. But what month? I mean, it makes it different. When you're talking about bounce rock skate and good times, those six months make a big difference. They could have heard it. April, 1979, is hot stuff.

And Gimmy, Gimmy, Gimmy is, I think August, 1979. Wow. Wow. We only had one radio station. It only played one song. I'm already on record saying that. Trust me, if I say this, we never get sued. We're not here to say, yeah, it's still for me.

But I want to say one thing about a Pyridisco compilation. Found it. Dude, it's nothing but the hints. It's YMCA, Dancing Queen. I will survive. I need your loving by... I need your loving by Tina Marie, which is a... great song. Do you think she's disco?

You don't think she's a little. I'm surprised of that one. Because I associate I Need Your Lovin with like 81, 82. I agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People always include that song and like Best of Disco stuff. Really? Because listen, everything else, hot stuff, knock on wood, those are all classic disco songs.

Best Disco in town kind of slept on. The Richie family. You don't know that one? No. Let's play a little bit of a snippet. Teach me. Now listen, in my defense, that is so corny. First of all, the Richie family, I don't know who mastered their stuff, but it always sounds like very like tinny. Yeah. Like, you know, it's not, it's not like they're in the back corner of the room.

It's like a good gym. It's like the opposite of the chronic. It's not high five. Yeah. It's not quite. I didn't know we were going to talk about the Richie family, but, you know. We had to. It was on pure disco.

Unavoidable. By the way, I should point out that, unlike a lot of Abbasongs, the verse is almost exclusively Aniata. Like, Frida is barely. in the verse, except this one little moment, at least in the video, the video is right, where she comes in with this line, tired of TV, and it's this cute little moment,

and let's hear what that sounds like in the mix. When she comes into, I can tell that's Frida. Like, she does have the distinctive, she's a mezzo soprano instead of soprano. You can tell that it's right. She's watching the Wizard of Oz, guys. Like she says, movie stars find the end of the rainbow with a fortune to win. It's so different from the world I'm living in. Yeah.

She's dreaming. It's like, movie starts. It's so crazy. At the Nakatomi Plaza. You can tell what movie she's watching. It's crazy looking and thinking about these lyrics, too, in the context of knowing that she's in the middle of a divorce, and she's singing lyrics that her soon-to-be ex-husband and father of her children

has written for her to sing. And it just gives it another layer. It's almost like Fleetwood a little bit. It's a little bit of like a Fleetwood situation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little bit of like handsmaid's tails even. There's a little bit of a vibe of like, here's what you're singing.

You mean he's like he's being like you're a soon-to-be lonely woman without me? Or what it could also be is like he was cheating. You know what I mean? Like he was like they were, I don't know. They were separated from their profession. Maybe, maybe I'm too much. No, no. I want to hear this.

I read it completely. Like I'm putting my kind of like. desire for extramarital affair in you. He's projecting onto her. He wants a man after midnight. Yeah. Or a woman after midnight or, you know. Well, see, I'm maybe I'm the optimist.

I'm reading it as, look, I'm divorcing you. But this song is about a lonely woman who has hope that she might meet somebody. Yeah. Okay. I see. Babe, don't worry. Take me through the darkness to the break of day. He's giving her like a beautiful vision board for her to like.

Almost. Almost. I mean like, look, maybe I'm sugar-coding it. Don't know. No, we'll never know which interpretation is the right one. All right, one thing we love to do on one song is talk interpolations and samples. When it comes to samples, who's used Abba in their songs? Very few people have used Ava songs as samples because Benny and Bjorn for many years did not clear them.

They don't clear it. In fact, prior to this use I'm about to talk about, they'd only ever cleared one sample in history. And it was this one. Fugis, who sampled Name of the Game of the Game. That's so cool. For Rumble in the Jungle. Dude, I loved that song. I had no idea that this was coming up.

That's from the documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle. That's right, when we were kings. Yeah, that was a great song. It's a great song. I didn't even know it was a sample. Great sample. What's the sample? That bass line?

I will play you the sample now. It's pretty wholesale. It is a loop of the song. And this is actually one of my favorite ABA songs. It's from the pre-disco era where they're having all these sad and melancholy breakup songs that are slower. They're not disco yet. And this is the name of the game from 1977. So good.

Yeah, that's dope. So good. You know, I will say there was a time when I feel like Wyclef could get songs cleared in ways that other artists could not. He's the first in history. You know, we're 1996. when Rumble in the Jungle, the Fuji song, featuring Tribe Called Quest, Buster Rhyams, and John Forte, by the way.

It took, I mean, I doubt they were the first in 1996 to try and clear an ABBA sample, hip-hop being 15 plus years old at this point, or 20 years old. So with samples, a little less than 15. But that was the first time they said yes, and the second time that Benny and Bjorn said yes to a request was when Madonna came to them

and asked for permission to use it. And apparently, according to legend, actually, according to Madonna herself, She wrote a, quote, begging letter to Aba. I had to send my emissary to Stockholm with a letter begging them, telling them how much I loved their music. And they had to think about it. They didn't say yes straight away.

But eventually they heard the use and they approved it. They thought it was a great pop song, worthy of the use. And here it is. If we may indulge collectively, I did bring a second set of stems to fuck with. So here's the Abba sample on its own. And then... You can't wash that. Yeah.

I don't know what to do. Time goes by. So slowly. That is just filthy. I love it. So slowly, slowly, time goes by.

That baselines incredible. It's so sick. And just because we're already in it, check out the vocoder. It's just a little bonus. I know it's called one song. That's a second song. That voice is the voice you hear

when you've been up way too long. Yes. I just have to address the elephant in the room to internet interpolation nerds like myself. There was some speculation that Gimmy, Gimmy, Gimmy has had borrowed its initial flute melody from this Indonesian track. I'm going to play it for you. We can talk about it on the other side. Which does predate it.

1978 Indonesian song called the Bull Bull Offendi featuring Ida Riani. Whoa. And the melody. That's by Binuman S, Indonesian pop star from the 70s. I'm here to say that I did some investigation. I think this is a hoax. You think this song doesn't exist? I think that song exists and somebody added that

after the fact because there is a recording of it. And I went down to rabbit hole and I had to stop myself. But where I'm landing is that this is actually the original. That sounds like a completely different song. I'm shocked. Isn't it shocking? Yeah. But by the way, can't there be multiple versions of a song?

There can be multiple versions of a song. There can be people who upload something to YouTube and say 1978 when in fact they did it yesterday by taking an original and adding something from... What makes you think that this one's a fraud, I guess? There's a much longer story. There's a connection between the previous, the early bands, the HEP stars and Hoot Nanny Singers. There actually was like an Indonesian factor where they, I think, played an Indonesian. or they had somebody in the band who had a connection to Indonesia.

There's a reason to believe that in Indonesia they might have... That they heard it. That they heard it. Like the Rod Stewart thing. Right. And it's also possible that because of pre-internet, you can be a big star in a country, and like that music might never leave the country.

Of course, you didn't think that we're going to be able to pull up a song from the other side of the world in two seconds. This rabbit hole, I think we're done with... To be continued. To be continued on another episode. John, have you ever covered any avisone, songs with your band? Well, not yet. I mean, we want to do... Out of this episode, you probably will for sure. Yes. Well, I really, my dream is to do slipping through my fingers, which is on The Visitors, which is...

That's the album. That's the album. One of my favorite albums of all time. I will have to listen to the visitors. It's their last one. And it's all, it's full of like pain. And it's like they're both post-divorce. Yes. It's they're like, they're, no, the band is ending. All the songs are very deep and sad. And, There's like very few hits on it, but they're all incredible. But it's incredible, it's synth pop. Yeah. Like it's almost, it borders on being like early goth in the darkness.

And this is like almost 19802. I mean, we have to play, can we play the cracking up, the visitors? Is that, what's your favorite song? Well, I think we should hit the chorus of slipping through my fingers because it's sublime. Okay.

Slipping through my fingers all the time I try to catch a ring. And luxury, tell us about some of your favorite Abba covers. There's a lot of covers, and I won't get into all of them. But my favorite one might be this one from fellow Swede, Inge Momstein, proving, demonstrating that heavy metal connection that I teed up earlier. This is Guitar God Invee Momstein.

Gimme, give me, gimme, gimme. Oh, hell yeah. So that's really all you need to know about. That was incredible. That was incredible. I love your love instead of a man. Yeah. I mean, you know, fair enough.

But it should be noted that Abba tended to re-record a lot of their songs in other languages. To qualify for the Latin Grammy. The classic move. As one does. And they recorded this, they did a Spanish version called Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame. But exactly what you just said. They changed, maybe Inve heard that, because

it's no longer a man after midnight. They change it to gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, Gimo, Emoor Esta Noche. Love tonight. Love tonight. Why am I horny? Luxury and John, as we wrap up this

episode. What do you believe is the legacy of Ava and the song? John, you're a guess. Let's start with you. Well, I will say that I had a religious experience with the song on the dance floor, like, a year ago. Really? Really? I just was like, I hadn't gone out dancing in a long time. And, you know, they were playing a lot of contemporary music. And, like, you know, people were kind of, like, sort of dancing, you know? But, like, most contemporary music, it's just, like, so, there's so many sounds. It's just, so many sounds all thoughts going on. Yeah, and then they played this song and

everyone went crazy. It was like moshing. And I was like, I can't believe like, I also like I was like so touched that people knew this one and not just the Madonna, you know, and but there is such a like, it cuts through the simplicity of the song. It like cuts through the

din of a club. You can act the elements. You can hear the elements. Yeah, you can hear the elements and like that's so important. You know, it goes back to something you were saying earlier in this episode. Like, they were having to invent so much just to get

what was really important to them. And now when you go to a studio, like, you've got every possible sound, every single thought, inclination you have, you can throw it in there. But there was something about when you had to prioritize, what do I absolutely need? That's what's going into that. Yeah. I think that's where that comes from.

Yeah, totally. I agree. And it's funny you said that about, like, because there is something about, specifically this song has had a moment in the last, it's maybe five years ago there was the there was a boiler room where fullamore was like DJing at a boiler room and in the midst of kind of what like what you were saying in the midst of more modern it's more of a house set but in the midst of all of this kind of like yeah everyone's kind of zoning out you know some of it you don't know all of it yeah and then in the middle of it he drops gimme give me gimme and it's a famous internet moment too because it's like everyone

suddenly that was the exact thing everyone in the world wanted to hear in 2019 and i think we're just kind of living in this post boiler room moment for aba yes another resurgence is happening. When you get to the chorus, everyone jumps. Yes. Give me, give me, get me, get me. It's so nice. And then one more thing I found a great quote from Tuvalu who explained to the New Yorker.

Part of her, the... You know, I love her. And yet I've never really heard anybody pronounce her. Oh, wait. That's how you say. I thought it was Tovlo. B too. She tolerates Tovlo, she says.

She has to. Actual pronunciation is apparently. Tuvalu. Tuvalu. Tuvalu. Who knew? Tuvalu. She's really called Tuvalu.

I was like, hey, taublow. I say they're like Snoop. I'm sorry, please continue. No, I'm just talking. Tuvalu. Well, the connection as Tuvalu explains to the New Yorker is these Swedish songwriters, what they have in common since the days of ab is clear but simple lyrics, a lot about the melody, and also having a little bit of melancholy or a darker sense to it

to not make it too sugary or too bubble gum. I mean, we've been saying this, we've been noticing it, Like, it's right there in the Swedish blood. Yeah. I would be remiss if I didn't play a little bit of my favorite Tuvalu, a song called Disco Tits. I say how you say hi. We stay how you look so pretty, yeah. This is kind of more broadly about Swedish songwriting, because again, Abba in 1974,

breaks through to the world. But then, until this present day, we have a legacy of incredible Swedish popmakers. from, you know, Roxette and Max Martin and Tuvalu herself. It is crazy when you start thinking about all the Swedish superstars when it comes to songwriting and performing. I mean, in preparing this episode, we came up with a list. I couldn't believe all. In addition to Royksup and Robin, you've got the Cardigans, Ace of Bass.

I think we mentioned Roxette. You mentioned Max Martin, the hive. By the way, you can't play the box without reminding me of the international noise conspiracy, which was another Swedish group out of that same. I think they might have even been on the same label, but they were part of that lo-fi revolution. We're proving that it's not just like pop music and dance music.

It's also in the rock department. The knife. The knife. Yeah, Steve Array and the knife in the knife. Heartbeats to this day destroys me. Yeah. We had a promise me. We were in love.

Yeah. I already said it, but we have to acknowledge Robin. We have to acknowledge Robin. Who has perfected or carries the twerch. Robin made me my favorite modern day Swedish pop song. Same. Same. Let's play a Robin song.

What's your favorite Robin song? I think Indestructible is a real Abba-esque song. Let's play a little clip of that. And you can really hear the connection to the song we're talking about today, right? There's a lot of sonic connections, not just the dark melancholy chords and melodies, et cetera. I was actually going to say for my favorite Robin song, it's a Roik-Sop. Is it the clabrobin collaboration? Is it a monument?

No, my favorite is, do you guys know Girl and the Robot? That's the one that devastation. Yeah, that's great song. That one, like, puts me on the floor. I thought that was just Rokesap. No, it's Rijksap with Robin. I didn't know that. Just a moment because we're having fun.

I used to have that vinyl. This one destroys me. It's a great song. Because of the chord changes. This is the chord right here. That one hurts. That is winter in a cold place. God, it's so good.

So they're actively sampling. That is, well, that is just a composed song. Okay. That one's unconnected to, that's not connected to Aba directly other than like, boy, you could play that after Gimmy, Gimmy. And it would be a complete 10-minute period of your life. That would be perfect. Okay, John, we're going to play a game with you. It's called What's One Song?

The premise is simple. We'll give you a scenario and you will give us one song that you would play during this scenario. And I'll ask you to answer as quickly as possible. Don't overthink it, okay? All right, John, yes, you're on the spot. Let's start. What's one song you can't get out of your head right now? Rock the boat.

I'm sorry. I love it. Alia, Elia. What's one song that takes you back to your childhood? Oops, oh my. Love that by tweet. Yes. Which you can hear a live version of On John Early's.

I'm not trying to reference my own. Well, played, sir. Well played. The reason why those songs are in the special is because they mean something to you. Absolutely. What's one song that you sung one too many times while acting on a TV show or movie? Well, you know what's funny is often when you have to sing a song, it needs to be public domain, especially for the cheap work that I do. So I did sing Amazing Grace in Search Party.

How'd that go? They couldn't clear like a regular song? I mean, they, no. No. You know, sometimes I watch these Netflix shows. I'm like, what is their budget? Yeah. They're playing like complete print song.

Yeah. I know. I'm never in that stuff. They're always like, can you camp town races? Well, just you wait till this. Emmy nominations. Just do some Gilbert and Sullivan. What's one song that you'd love to play with the Lemon Squares?

That you're not currently playing. Okay, okay. My dream right now is, oh my God. It's don't let go by Invoke. Dude, you're killing it, man. Seriously, I love the R&B. Thank you. And lastly, what is one song that we have to break down here on one song?

With me. Yes. No pressure. When you come back, what should we do? I think we could have a lot of fun with Rain, SWV. Yes. You know, there's some samples in there. And I still also want to do one in a million by Aaliyah.

Okay. You did request that, it's true. That was your number one choice. You did not have it. By the way, that was a great album. That's got four-page letter. I know. I'm sending him a ball up.

Hot like fire. What? Hot like fire. Hot like fire, which amazing song. It is one of my absolute favorite Alia songs of all time. I know. It's so good. and there's a Marvin Gay cover on that.

Yes, of course. Wait, is it Marvin Gay or the Isley Brothers? Oh, do. Oh, yeah, sure right. But Isley Brothers is on the first album. That was her first one where she did. At your best. You're a positive, motivating force within my life.

John Early, thank you so much, dude. This has been so much fun playing this with you. And thanks for coming on here. Where can people find you? John EarlyXX.com. John Early was taken. John Early.com was taken. But that's where you can see my tour dates.

I'm going on tour with some of the lemon squares. And then there are some dates from all the lemon squares. But we're doing, we're covering Madonna. We're covering Alia. We're covering Dolly Parton. We're covering Donna Summer. Can you reveal what songs? Are we going to say that for the show?

Let's just say I'm covering American Life by Madonna, including the rap. Next question. But yeah, go there. And then my comedy album featuring a lot of these covers comes out September 13th on vinyl, and you need to get on vinyl. There you go. John Early, everybody. Let's give them a round of applause.

Yay, thank you so much for coming on. It was a lot of fun. That was a blast. And I love your tasting R&B. Thank you. We'll have you back. There's no pressure. You can find me on TikTok at Diallo-Riddle and on Instagram at Diallo, DIA-L-L-O.

And you can find me on Twitter. TikTok at luxury xx and Instagram at L-U-X-X-U-X-U-R-Y. That's right. And you can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube right now. Just search One Song podcast. We'd love it if you'd like and subscribe to us. Speaking of which, if you've made it this far, I think that means that you like this podcast. So please don't forget to give us five stars.

Please leave a review and share with your friends. Someone you think you might like the show. It really helps keep it going. And One Song Nation, one more thing. If you're as obsessed with the making and meaning of popular. music the way we are or you just love this show. Join us in Las Vegas. That's right, in Vegas, August 31st for Heartbeat Weekend.

We will be taping an episode of this show. It's live and it's free. Check out the link in our bios on our socials. Luxury, help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, Dialla Riddle. And this is one song.

We'll see you next time.