Abba - Live Compilation

April 23, 2008

This particular recording is circulated as 'Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This'.

Probably better as a recording band, Abba none the less were highly successful on their tours, and with Anni-Frid and Agnetha fronting the performances, were not short of glamour!

This live performance is as I understand, recorded from the 1981 concerts taped for the Dick Cavett Meets Abba TV special, in the USA.

Some of the cuts are I think commercially available on Thank You For The Music and Abba Live, however for completeness I have included all of the boot here. Apart from that I do not have any other information on this particular bootleg.

As a whole this is possibly better than the official releases, and some have said is the best Abba live album never made.

Set list:

1. Voulez-Vous (4:44)
2. Knowing Me Knowing You (4:30)
3. Chiquitita (5:29)
4. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) (5:06)
5. Super Trouper (4:31)
6. I Have A Dream (6:35)
7. The Name Of The Game/Eagle (9:26)
8. Thank You For The Music (3:10)
9. Two For The Price Of One (3:10)
10. Slipping Through My Fingers (4:04)
11. Me And I (4:19)
12. Summer Night City (5:29)
13. Take A Chance On Me (4:33)
14. The Way Old Friends Do (3:06)
15. Waterloo (3:31)
16. Dancing Queen (3:45)

Audio quality is very good stereo soundboard.

Reloaded 21/June/2015 link in comments.

Official Abba site is HERE.

Comments

Anonymous said…

hey here's some clarification regarding the setlist, which in fact covers two different concerts:

only "super trouper", "two for the price of one", "slipping through my fingers" and "me and i" are from the dick cavett meets abba april 1981 tv special.

all other songs are from abba's wembley arena concerts in november 1979. i think these were broadcasted by the bbc later in 1979, hence the high sound quality

"knowing me knowing you", "gimme x 3", "thank you for the music" and "summer night city" were also performed in the 1981 tv special, but are presented in their 1979 live versions.

the 1981 tv special had 9 songs. the only song missing is "on and on and on"- an absolute rocker.

this is far superior to the commercially available "abba live" album. all recordings are presented in their original mixes w/o any 1980s drum overdubs and mixing that sucks the live ambience right out of the recordings. easily the rarest recording on this compilation is the original live version of "the name of the game/eagle", which got butchered in its mixing on the "abba live" cd album.

abba is easily the biggest band ever NOT to have a complete live recording commercially available, let alone a complete film of their concerts. a huge shame really, considering only elvis and the beatles have sold more than abba.

thanks for posting though, and keep this link alive.

p.s. the last 3 songs are a bit mixed up. it was "the way old friends do", then "dancing queen", then "waterloo".

24 April 2008 at 16:25