ABBA - The Beatles.

I'm sorry but I'm going to write about The Beatles again; this time comparing them to ABBA.

Now there was a time when I wouldn't have dreamt about mentioning the two groups in the same breath and I think that is a generational thing. People of my generation usually compare The Beatles with The Rolling Stones but I have never really been much of a Rolling Stones fan.

In the 60s I saw them on stage twice; once at my local dance hall and even ventured in to their dressing room where we had a long chat with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.

Over the years, I liked a few of their tracks – It's All Over Now, Get Off My Cloud etc – and I even worked with Mick Jagger's brother, Chris, in a film called Lifeforce for a few months so I don't think I am that qualified to compare the two groups as I would be biased.

I am (nearly) the same age as The Beatles so my experience of them is first hand. I know what it was like before they came along. I remember the very snobby days before their arrival and I remember Buddy Holly being on the Ed Sullivan Show (which I didn't see 'live', of course) and this great, great guitarist and brilliant song writer, this inspiration for the Beatles and loads and loads of major pop artists, was asked by Ed Sullivan (yes a relation, apparently) if he (Buddy) was still at school as if he would go on to something else, more worthwhile after he had sewed his wild oats with his “banjo” plinkety plonk thing. Buddy Holly in his tuxedo standing there in New York City being asked questions by a talentless vacuum cleaner in a suit.

The Beatles appeared on that show in their suits too but it changed eventually.

Before The Beatles politicians in the UK would address journalists by their surname as if they were squaddies in the army but then the silent revolutions came with interviewers like Robin Day who asked all the awkward questions that WE wanted to know the answers to.

I wrote on here before about how I found the first LP – Please Please Me! - the climax to the phenomenon known as The Beatles. After that, in my opinion, they became more of a commodity and certain elements in the group pursued that or rejected it.

I think Lennon veered away from it first, McCartney kind of loved it and wanted to be a pop star; George probably saw the writing on the wall with the astronomical success of the Lennon/McCartney song writing partnership in that his own musical aspirations would have to take a back seat and Ringo carried on playing the drums.

I'm not going in to the silly argument as to Ringo's drumming ability but suffice it to say he played drums on Lennon's later albums and to settle things listen to his drumming on Day in the Life as opposed to McCartney's drumming on The Ballad of John and Yoko.

Over the years since then I have had stars in my eyes with regards to The Beatles; to me they did no wrong. I was on the John Lennon side of things and as the years progressed I drifted further and further away from Paul McCartney and sometimes even looking back at the young John Lennon (he was only ever young) issuing naïve statements about peace and praising Yoko's singing to the heavens I found him, sometimes, cringingly embarrassing.

Somebody once asked me what things might have been like if John Lennon had survived; I answered that for his reputation he was better off dead as we don't know where he would have drifted but I would like to think he would have just settled down and not been an embarrassment like Paul McCartney – no matter what he achieved in the past.

I think the same of Buddy Holly, James Dean and all the other good looking corpses along the way.

So to compare ABBA to The Beatles!!!

How can I?

I played some Beatles tracks recently and, of course, there is always the mood and the moment and I also played some ABBA tracks.

I got a bit fed up of We Can Work It Out and other Beatle tracks but when I played some ABBA songs – on another day, I have to say – I found them very interesting.

Back in their day, I didn't really like them much but my daughter owned the albums, knew the lyrics and played them all the time; so when I saw the stage musical Mama Mia my eyes were opened.

The stage version was very operatic – the singers had very powerful voices, even though they were 'miked' - and the chord sequences together with the naïve lyrics made a very pleasing sound to my ear.

So what's my verdict?

You can't beat I Am the Walrus, can you? Or I Want to Hold Your Hand and Hello Goodbye but if I hear Hey Jude again I'll scream!!!!