Song 13 - that is a guilty pleasure

It takes a brave person to agree with Mum without being ordered to do. Especially if Mum belongs to the 70s and has questionable tastes.



I think I used the love affair between Mum and the Swedish quartet to develop what I hoped would be biting sarcasm to hold me in good stead in my growing years.

I got pretty good at the eye roll and the eye roll while simultaneously saying Lay-ame.

But I couldn't for one moment effectively hide the evident song in my heart (hyperbole alert) when ABBA came on.

Even that ridiculous Pierce Brosnan - Meryl Streep film had me all confused. Did I like it?

I've learnt to make excuses for any ABBA love, one of the best ones being that I'm not the only one. (Heard the one about how ABBA were one big Swedish mind-control exercise?)

With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that ABBA were so simplistic with their tunes - catchy, we say - so flashy with their persona, that their songs have survived better than others.

This survival has only been aided by that their songs, rife with double meaning (unintentionally I believe), to be appropriated by LGBT community who, (I wish I could find the link for this essay) saw a measure of equality in these songs and have been keeping them alive, so to speak.

So bonus: the "gayest song ever"