Music | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Swedish band ABBA announced a new album to be released in November 2021 and a virtual concert in its own arena.

Listening to the interview it sounds as if all of this started with the virtual concert as a way to leave a legacy behind.

“We wanted to do it before we were dead", said Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus added: ”It’s good if you do that before you’re dead. Because it gets more accurate then.”

So they shaved their beards and went to work. And they wanted to add two new songs but then had so much fun doing it that they finished a whole new album.

Here are the first two songs:

Paul Simon explains how he wrote Bridge Over Troubled Water and Mrs. Robinson.

I like this line:

Everywhere I went, led me where I didn’t wanna be, so I was stuck.

Director Clint Eastwood’s soundtrack to Changeling.

When a promoter booked the rock band Van Halen they needed to provide a bowl of M&Ms, having all brown ones sorted out.

Julie Zeveloff:

As lead singer David Lee Roth explained in a 2012 interview, the bowl of M&Ms was an indicator of whether the concert promoter had actually read the band’s complicated contract.

“Van Halen was the first to take 850 par lamp lights — huge lights — around the country,” Roth said. “At the time, it was the biggest production ever.” In many cases, the venues were too outdated or inadequately prepared to set up the band’s sophisticated stage.

“If I came backstage, having been one of the architects of this lighting and staging design, and I saw brown M&Ms on the catering table, then I guarantee the promoter had not read the contract rider, and we would have to do a serious line check” of the entire stage setup, Roth said.

German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey playing an open air concert in his garden, singing

• Ich bring dich durch die Nacht (I’ll get you through the night)
• Mein Apfelbäumchen (My little apple tree) and
• Viertel vor sieben (A quarter to seven).

The english translation of „A quarter to seven“ is especially good:

Dark heavy clouds gather on the horizon
Like a ragged grey quilt in the sky
Dusk sets in, darkness is rising
Lights going on by and by
“Where have you been so long, dinner is ready,
take your shoes off, they’re covered in loam”
Sometimes I wish it was once again a quarter to seven
And I wish I was back at home

Apple:

Follow hitmaking, Grammy-nominated songwriter and music producer Oak Felder as he creates a new song. Along the way, he speaks about music production, creating his own unique sound, working with the world’s top artists, and what it means for young artists to have access to powerful technology.

New lyrics for a new time. Roy Zimmerman and friends to the melody of The Lion Sleeps Tonight:

In the White House, the mighty White House the liar tweets tonight
In the West Wing, the self-obsessed wing the liar tweets tonight

35 years ago Gert Steinbäcker wrote this hymn of all expats (my translation):

Last summer was pretty nice
I was lying at some bay
The sun like fire on my skin
You smell the water and nothing’s loud
Some place in Greece
Loads of white sand
On my back just your hand

I’m not too happy with this full translation but it gives you an idea of what the song is about.

I love the movie and I love the soundtrack.

I like to listen to the Japanese version of “Elisabeth” (without understanding a single word). This video gives a great overview over the best songs.

Check out this playlist if you want to listen to more.

Joyce Chu from Malaysia sings about not being Korean.

Lobo:

Could be the light of the Asian moon
Could be a song an old Asian tune
Lovely dark haired ladies and the words they say
A late night sail on a moonlit bay
Could be the stars in the Asian sky
That got me flying and feelin’ so high
I never thought the hurt would heal so soon
Must be the light of the Asian moon

(Thanks to Ouwen for pictures 4 and 7.)