[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85yMOPKR94M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dabba%2Bwaterloo%26hl%3Den%26emb%3D0%26aq%3Df&feature=player_embedded]
Something for the weekend, Waterloo by ABBA. I played this last night while perusing the President’s declining poll numbers and this story. I will not even attempt to defend my liking for ABBA. I realize their music is the worst type of disco treacle but I still like it. Feel free to mock away in the comboxes. I will make no attempt to defend the musically indefensible. I may inflict more ABBA on the readers of this blog, but I will do so at decent intervals.
Ahahahah!
Actually they’re a very ‘transversal group’ – their songs are loved by the old and the young all over the world 🙂 – probably because of the easy melodies …
If you grew up during the 70s, you probably can’t help but have SOME attachment to disco music because it reminds you of your youth. The same way people of the World War II generation are attached to Big Band and swing music (which older people of the time probably thought was just “noise”) and early Baby Boomers are to Elvis. Another 20 years or so and retirement homes will be having disco-themed socials and other events.
The new anthem of rebellion.
“Another 20 years or so and retirement homes will be having disco-themed socials and other events.”
The Horror! The Horror! 🙂
“Another 20 years or so and retirement homes will be having disco-themed socials and other events.”
And that’s when the Church will change her teaching on euthanasia. Hmmm, maybe the proponents of the Democrat’s take over of health care are really prophets!
I’m going to maintain this isn’t a thread hijack since it uses the word in the title…
It so happens that last night I was reading around online about the Battle of Waterloo (the result of a Sharpe’s Rifles kick which is currently on hold for Netflix) and discovered that there was a 1970 with a cast of thousands (roughly 20,000 extras in the battle scenes) titled Waterloo.
From the clips I found online, it looks like it was indeed epic, though a bit cheesy in its acting:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oLflPilcMc&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
And my first thought was: I bet Donald would know what the best Napoleonic movies are.
Ah the Sharpe series, there is prime entertainment!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fy3tSim3to&feature=related
I actually thought that Steiger did a great job as Napoleon in Waterloo, although the film had more than its fair share of historical howlers.
Another film I would recommed is Desiree (1954).
http://www.amazon.com/Desiree-Marlon-Brando/dp/B001CSWLQ0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1248539048&sr=8-7
Marlon Brando is a superb Napoleon, Jean Simmons is grand as Napoleon’s first love Desiree, and Michael Rennie steals the show as Marshal Bernadotte, who married Desiree, ultimately became King of Sweden, and helps defeat Napoleon in 1813 and 1814. Bernadotte reigned for many years as King of Sweden and upon his death it was found that he bore a tattoo which said, in French, “Death to all Kings” a legacy of his days as a common soldier in Revolutionary France.
Unfortunately that is about it for films about Napoleon that I would recommend. There is a silent film about him that is considered a classic, but I have never seen it. There have been several film adaptations of War and Peace, but in those Napoleon is very much an off screen character, although everyone is constantly talking about him of course.
As to Napoleonic movies, without Napoleon as a prime character I would recommend:
1. Damn the Defiant.
http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Defiant-Alec-Guinness/dp/B00004W5SS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538766&sr=8-1
2. The Hornblower series of films made for TV, all of which are superb.
http://www.amazon.com/Horatio-Hornblower-Collectors-Ioan-Gruffudd/dp/B0018C705M/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538807&sr=8-3
3. The Sharpe series.
http://www.amazon.com/Sharpes-Rifles-Collection-Sean-Bean/dp/B000BF0DD8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538842&sr=8-4
4. Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck in the title role.
http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Horatio-Hornblower-Gregory-Peck/dp/B000KJU18C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538889&sr=8-2
5. Master and Commander
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Commander-Side-World-Blu-ray/dp/B000VDDWDS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538927&sr=8-1
6. The various film adaptations of War and Peace, especially the mini-series which ran on the BBC in
the Seventies.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Anthony-Hopkins/dp/B000QGE86K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248538971&sr=8-2
When an Abba song comes on the radio, I change the channel. However, better Abba than that rubbishy heavy metal so many teen boys of my acquaintance were hooked on in the mid- to- late ’70’s. You’d get in a car and then nearly be blown out of it when they turned the key and Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath would come blaring through the speakers.
You’d get in a car and then nearly be blown out of it when they turned the key and Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath would come blaring through the speakers.
Ahh, the good ol’ days…
I will not even attempt to defend my liking for ABBA
My wife used to and still does love ABBA. I tolerated them….some of their stuff is catchy.
A bit like my liking for John Denver, eh Don ? 😉
Same era after all.
Nowadays, I love Bocelli, Brightman,Eagles,Evanescence, Bocelli, Eagles…(no. I don’t have alzeimers 🙂
We all have our guilty pleasures Don, and ABBA is one of mine. I rate the enjoyment factor up there with my fondness for mustard sandwiches with barbecue potato chips, and just as defensible!
I have to agree, wholeheartedly, with your good taste in liking the music of ABBA.
My personal favorite is, “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do”. It is reminiscent of some old Billy Vaughn music, like “Sail Along Silvery Moon”, I believe.
I felt compelled to test your banning of my comments over this post….because I agree, STRONGLY, with your taste, at least with ABBA.
Thank you.
If you remove this post….I still agree.
Karl, I guess in honor of ABBA we’ll give it another try. Your ban is rescinded.
Lest we not forget Ray Davies (i.e., The Kinks) and his homage to Waterloo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGK1jo7LeBw
I obviously haven’t been here for a few days, but …
There is NO need to apologize for loving Abba … it is great pop music — melodic, euphonic, catchy and more emotionally forthright than it seems on the surface.
I must add though, that you picked the wrong performance of Waterloo to embed. THIS is the canonical moment in Abbadolatry — their winning performance at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGs7dTjUsXw&hl=en&fs=1&]
The minute that song was over (the introducer mixed up Benny and Bjorn, BTW), my mother said “that’s the winner so far.”
That certainly was an energetic rendition Victor!
With the relatively recent release of Mamma Mia, I have had ABBA inflicted upon me from my wife and my daughter. I thought the 70’s were safely behind us.
I am afraid c matt that the 70’s, that kidney stone of a decade, will always be resurfacing.