The Ruffled Crow

A bonus for your new year. I’ve been an unabashed ABBA fan since forever. One of my first 45s, back in the day, was ABBA’s Waterloo (b-side was Honey, Honey, as I recall). In all my fandom, however, I’d forgotten this holiday tune.

As an incredibly popular international band they were a huge success, as people they were pretty normal. The ups and downs of the personal relationships and dynamics among the band members were sometimes painfully laid out in their lyrics. Winner Takes It All was one such song and this is another.

The year is 1980 and though the touch stone of the song is one of hope, it’s more of a “persevere out of the ashes” sort of song, possibly wrung out the collapse of one pair’s marriage (Björn and Agnetha) and the impending collapse of the other two’s marriage (Benny and Anni-Frid).

Even so, I have to say that sometimes perseverance is all that’ll get you through. Never discount it.