While most overseas trips to the European continent involve touring a number of old and impressive churches, magnificent national galleries, and historic castles, dipping into a little pop culture of the countries you visit is a good idea. It was this notion that led our family to include the ABBA Museum on our agenda during our recent summer vacation in Stockholm.
ABBA, of course, is the wildly successful Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972. The band remains one of the most well-known and beloved musical acts of all time thanks not only to their string of hits in the 1970’s and 80’s—Waterloo, Dancing Queen, SOS, Take A Chance on Me—but also due to an unexpected resurgence of their popularity in the 90’s courtesy of the long-running Broadway musical, Mamma Mia, featuring a number of their best songs. A movie adaptation of the show, released in the early 2000’s, was a box office smash, as well. The group’s four members—Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 and knighted by King Carl XVI of Sweden in 2024. There’s now a dedicated theater in London where computerized avatars of the band play to sold out audiences. The world, it seems, just can’t get enough of ABBA, and the ABBA Museum in Stockholm compellingly tells their story with video recordings of their shows, interactive exhibits, and interviews with both the band and those who contributed most consequentially to their astonishing success.
What I found most interesting in the museum was an area in which ABBA’s writing and recording process was explored. It featured their studio engineer and producer, Michael B. Tretow, who explained how the group, with his contributions, arrived at their distinctive sound. Björn and Benny, the group’s main composers, would enter the studio with strong ideas for songs, then, with the support of familiar studio musicians, would create a series of basic rhythm tracks, methodically building up each song with Tretow’s help. Recording multiple takes, Tretow would overlay experimental arrangements and innovative instrumentation before the vocals were added. Benny might first sing a rough first draft of lyrics which would, over time, form into more coherent themes with Agnetha and Anni-Frid contributing ideas, shaping the melodies and harmonies along the way. Tretow, who had studied American producer Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ technique next pushed the collaboration process further, not merely copying Spector’s innovations, but altering the speeds of overdubs, even layering slightly out of tune vocals over the originals, creating a richer technological, yet still always organic human sound. Tretow called it ABBA’s “sparkle.” Experts in the business have called him a magician, some even calling him the fifth member of ABBA.
What will stick with me most about the ABBA Museum, in addition to revisiting the group’s delightful music which somehow manages to deliver both a joyous thrill and a hint of sadness in almost every song, was the interesting way Tretow described his creative collaboration with the band. “One idea would just lead to another,” he said. “It was all just—charming.”
Sometimes I wonder why God created everything, then invited all of us to be a part of it. There must have been great joy in the act itself, but it also opened up the possibility of great sadness when what was created—we, human beings—fell so short. God’s overflowing love seems the most obvious explanation, but it all seems like a lot of trouble too. Is it possible God undertook all of this because creating in a collaborative fashion with free and fallible agents was simply more interesting and more charming than doing so alone? God asked Adam to name all the animals. Later, men and women were required to work the soil, and told to be fruitful, to multiply. To fill the earth. To participate with God as a continuing collaborative creative force.
I have to think God was charmed and remains charmed by the best of our creative efforts. We continue to create trouble for God no doubt (and for ourselves), but we, I believe, still must bless God richly when we create new life. When we create something good. When we create lasting connections with one another through love, through kindness, through imaginative acts of invention and innovation. When we nurture and care for our planet and explore the intricacies of our mind, as well as the seas and skies above.
So keep creating. Let one good idea lead to another. It’s both a charming and blessed thing to do.
God—May the collaborative process You began and ask us to be a part continue to charm You and delight us. Amen.
