Yes, I like Abba, even with their silly backwards B.
I know some people think they embodied everything that was wrong about the 70's: slick and overproduced, with two female singers who didn't even know the English language and were singing everything by rote, leaving no depth or emotion to their music at all. Hell, there might even be something to that.
Then I listen to a song like "Chiquitita" and I don't give a crap.
It's far and away my favorite Abba song. I know everybody thinks about "Dancing Queen" when they think of Abba (even Newt Gingrich, with his incongruous ringtone) but "Chiquitita" has that infectious Spanish rhythm that worms its way inside your skull and won't come out. I'll admit this is a particularly bad video, with poor editing, lousy direction and not even a cursory attempt to match the guitar-strumming and piano-picking to the actual music (it doesn't look like the so-called "keyboardist" has touched a key in his life), but then again, them's certainly the piss-poor 70's video breaks. (The only exception to that, as far as I can see, is the iconic video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody.")
It really doesn't matter. Just close your eyes and listen to the actual song. That's what I do. I defy your toes not to start tapping and your arms to start swinging.
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