“Fernando” is a breakthrough for ABBA, but a sly one. It’s different from anything else they’d tried – much more ambitious, with its long flowing melody lines in the verses and its lyrics about fighting in a liberation war in Central America. Before writing this I didn’t know that the song had been written for Frida’s solo record, which presumably allowed Benny and Bjorn to try something a little more unusual.
Does “Fernando” actually work, though? Some people have an allergic reaction to the sound of panpipes but I think they set the mood well here – wistful, cod-exotic, gentle. The chorus is rousing, the verses are lovely, the switch between them a little awkward, but made up for by the sudden, mid-celebration poignancy on “we could lose….”. Like “Mamma Mia”, though, “Fernando” is more admirable than moving: again the lyrics are the reason, but here they’re trying to do too much, and the English isn’t quite up to it: stumbly lines like “for many years I haven’t seen a rifle in your hand” throw me out of the song a little.
“Fernando” is a good ABBA record, not a great one – but its enormous success gave them permission to stretch out further and faster in several directions. No “Fernando”, no “The Visitors” (no “I Have A Dream” either, mind you).
Score: 7
[Logged in users can award their own score]
This gives me the opportunity to unburden myself with regard to my particular Abba-related prejudice, namely the fact that I have never really liked the campfire singing for a Greater Good Abba. Although clearly different to anything they’d previously tried as Abba, the mood and approach hark back to their days in the Hep Stars and similar when they were all trying to be the Swedish Seekers; indeed I have no problem visualising Judith Durham dutifully singing this song, or Julie Andrews for that matter, and maybe that’s the nub of the problem (see also “Chiquitita” and extremely suspect things like “Soldiers” although I still have a moderately soft spot for the Nana Mouskouri-for-Unicef-complete-with-children’s-choir “I Have A Dream” because of its underlying and very subtle paranoia). In the end this touches and moves me about as much or as little as “Save Your Kisses” I’m afraid.
My favourite in this style is “Chiquitita” – I agree though that of the many strings to ABBA’s bow this is the least.
Also, my wedding DJ top tip: if it’s ABBA time but you can’t face playing (or have been warned off) the ‘traditional’ choice, this one works surprisingly well.
Yes, definitely a step forward and we suddenly realised what a force they were going to be. And it’s a lovely song too. Can’t agree about the switch from verse to chorus being awkward though – thinking of so many songs where the verse is just a perfunctory thing you get through en route to the Big Chorus, here the verses have considerable weight.
And a point that should be made in respect of the English: someone, I forget who, once pointed out that “Since many years I haven’t seen a rifle in your hand” is the ONLY grammatical error you’ll find in nine number ones and umpteen other hits written by Benny and Bjorn in a foreign language. Hats off for that.
As Snif and I were discussing on the “Waterloo” thread, this was one of a number of Abba songs that had double-figure runs at number one in Australia. Gough Whitlam had not long since been dismissed by the Governor General, so Abba could well have formed a government down there.
As far as pan pipes are concerned I much preferred “Doina De Jale” by Gheorghe Zamfir which made the top ten later on in ’76 after being used as the theme for the BBC religious programme Light Of Experience. Despite the subsequent decades of easy listening debasement of the instrument, The Fast Show etc., it still sounds like nothing else on earth.
I agree, it’s not what Abba did best, but then Abba did almost everything they did with an aplomb that left their imitators well behind. And they didn’t try to get into waters they couldn’t navigate, which is as admirable as their willingness to try something a bit different.
What kind of song is this? Not something that’s played a big role in the pop charts since the fifties, I think, and I can’t help feeling that the true popular antecedents may have been broadsheet ballads of the Thirty Years War. It’s easier to say what it’s not. It’s not tub-thumping bombast and it’s not the kind of growling anti-war anthem of ten years earlier. What’s left is quintessential Abba: a good, well-crafted, tuneful song that’s always a pleasure to hear but which isn’t going to challenge one’s perception of the world. I’m not inclined to be too hard on them for it and it’s well worth a 7.
Oh, and if you want to hear panpipes with attitude, find a way of seeing the wonderful Aussie film Picnic at Hanging Rock (Zamfir too, I believe)
I will track that down Marcello – I love me some pan pipes, the only buskers I ever give money to are the pan pipe troupes, unless they’re playing “Wonderwall” obviously.
I like breathy blowy instruments, which is why I am a sucker for all songs with flutes, and the odd panpipe stormer too (oh Incantation, how your album blights my record collection). And tiny Pete loved Fernando to such a degree that the words have never, ever meant anything to me – I have known them all since before I knew language (it was on one of the three tapes).
Fernando’s greatness is in its quotability though. It is a storming chorus singalong, but the pensive “Can you hear the drums Fernando?”, half whispered is the sucker that drags you in. Its power on a dancefloor is the chill-out vibe for the verse and then a strange mass singalong cum folk dance breaks out.
COMMENT EDITED FOR UNBEKNOWNST SPOILERAGE. THOUGH HOW THE SACK OF SHIT I MENTIONED EVER GOT TO NUMBER ONE I DON’T KNOW.
One of the things about “Fernando” which has stuck with me is the ominous, low harmony under the line “though we never thought that we could lose.” I suspect that possibly only Abba could have got away with singing a campfire anthem on behalf of the vanquished.
No spoilers!
“Doina De Jale” [“Song of Sadness”] reached number 4 and was a fantastic record, one that I used to totally chill out to. The B-side of the single was called “Briul Oltenesc” and was a lightning-fast dance tune (i.e. folk dance, not… well, you know). It was a good year for Europop, as two forthcoming Number 1s will illustrate, and this was the representative from Romania.
“Sounds” had a feature on him under the headline “Este homul acesta vittorio rock’n’roll-ului?” (of course, “Is this man the future of rock’n’roll?”)
picnic at hanging rock is the making of zamfir i think (he was asked to score that movie presumably bcz panpipes meant ultra-mysterious unplaceable spooksome anti-WestCiv ethnic elder-gods unease): it went wide, he got a ton of other work and spin-off best-ofs, mostly cover versions of serviceable trans-national pop, and bob’s yr uncle, the sound produces allegies…)
(i am totally guessing this w/o googlin btw)
Never cared for this one, which just edges behind “Chiquitita” and “I Have A Dream” as my least favourite Abba single.
This was another rare 7″ purchase for my dear departed Dad, nestling between Andy Fairweather-Low’s “Wide Eyed And Legless” and Dr. Hook’s “If Not You” in his collection. My future step-family were all keen on it (the four of them entering our lives and our home at around this time), and so I heard it far more often than I would have wished. (Hmm, hence perhaps it is more Tainted By Association than I had realised…)
Very occasionally, self-invented songs appear to me in dreams, fully formed. Four or five years ago, I woke up with a strong memory of hearing – oh joy! – Abba’s reunion single. The accompanying video showed all four of them in thick fur coats, sitting in a wooden rowing boat in the middle of a misty lake, surrounded by forests. The song was called “Now My Race Is Run” (I could sing its chorus to you now), but to my immense dismay it was one of their cod-Hispanic camp-fire singalong numbers (like DJ Punctum in #1 above, this is also my least favourite Abba genre), pitched somewhere between “Fernando” and “Chiquitita”. What a waste of a Vision!
George Zamfir’s hit was the result of persistent plugging by a newly appointed Radio One DJ called Simon Bates, by the way…
For more current Romanian europop, check:
https://popular-number1s.com/ft/2008/05/europop-2008-group-c-italy-v-romania/
re #13, did Blur remix it into “No distance left to run” ?
Mike: #13 and dreamed up songs. I get these too. It’s always bands reforming as well. A few weeks ago I had a reformed Field Mice song, a month before that it was ELO.
Not my favourite Abba song, this. Like others, I can’t stand the campfire singalong side of the band. How they managed to record this at the same time as the wonderful “Arrival” album is beyond me.
By now Abba had really got a vice-like grip on our chart and it was all gravy. What was remarkable about Benny and Bjorn was how their repertoire varied so much, “Fernando” being a sombre ballad right on the coattails of a “pie in the face for cheating lover” pop jaunt. The best would come next but “Fernando” cut the mustard in its own right, a lovely song impeccably delivered. We knew by now that a very special pop group had arrived and would not be going away anytime soon.
Out of curiosity, I wonder why so many have such a downer on I Have A Dream? I’d rate it as one of my favourite Abba singles.
Perhaps it’s because the sentiment was swiped from one of the most momentous speeches of the 20th century?
A version of IHAD will be under our consideration in the far future.
I don’t mind it really, though it’s probably my least favourite post-Waterloo single by them – I love the arrangement but the tune is a bit snaily.
Snaily?
Look, it’s the comments box, I don’t have to think of real adjectives!
Yes but I don’t know what you mean!
Like a snail: slow-moving and perhaps a little slimy.
But on the plus side it does put its obvious baggage on display.
My problem with IHAD is that I find listening to other peoples dreams really tedious.
Unless they involve sex
Short memo to Rosie: I have finally got around to re-reading “Ulysses”, something I promised myself for this year, as I first tackled it in 1978 when I was seventeen. It was by pure chance that you reviewed it on your own blog last year and I have resisted referring to your notes as I ploughed my way through but will do so now. I have no intention in boring my Popular pals, so may I just echo what you yourself said as a conclusion and urge anyone who still hasn’t tackled this extraordinary (and quite bonkers) epic, to do so, even if it drives them round the bend as it has done me.
To bring myself down to earth, I picked up “Noddy and the Magic Rubber”, only to immediately identify Big Ears as Bloom, Noddy as Stephen Dedalus, Tubby Bear as The Citizen and Policeman Plod as Edward VII.
I guess I should seek help.
How to annoy your colleagues through deep understanding of song # 1:
In 1998, a year or so after I’d graduated, I started my grand career as a library assistant for the council. Soon, I was working all week in a small district library with just one colleague most of the time, my manager Sylvia, who was about 50, divorced, voluable and opinionated, easily riled and East End. We made for a kind of chalk and cheese pairing. She listened to Capital Gold a lot. Generally, I was quite taciturn in her company, because I knew that I’d have to explain whatever I said, as it would generally be misunderstood.
One day, Fernando is playing.
Sylvia: This always makes me think of my dad, ’cause he was in the Spanish Civil War.
Billy: I think that its about the Mexican War of Independence though, beacause they’re singing about crossing the Rio Grande.
Sylvia was cross, and I reflected that my pop knoweledge was not always welcome.
How to annoy your colleagues through deep understanding of song # 2.
The incident that most stays in my memory, though, is when ‘Wonderful Tonight’ was on.
Billy: Oh, this is the most insufferably *sexist* song ever written! The woman in this song really does just exist as an object to be displayed and for other men to envy the singer’s possession of!
Sylvia: (furious at her happy memories of the seventies – and of probably boyfriends like Eric Clapton – being traduced) WELL, THAT’S ‘OW IT WAS IN THOSE DAYS! YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND!
Wonderful Tonight makes me squirm, Billy. When I hear it I reflect sadly that the Eric Clapton of Cream, consummate interpreter of Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues amongst many others, has come to this.
Pretty average schlock from the Swedes which, as Tom points out exposes their folky roots. I don’t actually mind the verses but the sing-a-long chorus kills it for me. As is often the case with Abba songs their catchiness, for me, is often a source of irritation. Never mind cos’ I was too busy catching the Thin White Duke at Wembley – now that was something else.
It was Marcello who pointed out the folky roots! (I meant to but it slipped my mind).
Re: #29. I, like the immortal Sylvia, always thought this was about the Spanish Civil War.
Re: #9. “I suspect that possibly only Abba could have got away with singing a campfire anthem on behalf of the vanquished.” That’s an interesting observation. It gives the song an emotional depth a casual listener – like, say, someone who thought this was about the Spanish Civil War – might easily overlook.
I’d argue that this one of Abba’s more palatable efforts, it’s well thought out, catchy – but not annoyingly so – and it’s infinitely preferable to the campy disco-hell they would soon inflict on humanity. Seven is about right.
Billy (#29), the problem with being a pedant is there is always someone waiting to trip you up in turn. If the song were about the Mexican War of Independence, then the lyrics would contain a bit of a howler as the Rio Grande* was hundreds of miles inside Mexican territory in the early 19th century. As Wikipedia reasonably suggests, the Mexican Revolution would make more sense, but apparently according to Abba it’s a non-specific all-purpose war happening in a Spanish-speaking country (lots of options there…)
*Or, in fact, el Rio Bravo to your actual Mexicans.
Re. Rosie (#30): “Wonderful Tonight” is indeed a depressing thing, but nowhere near as sad an indication of Clapton’s downfall as his comments onstage in Birmingham later in 1976…
I wondered when you were going to bring that up, Marcello! I don’t much care for the expressed views of Richard Wagner either but that doesn’t diminish my delight in Tristan und Isolde. Though Parsifal was a bit of a comedown.
I thought Fernando was about the Spanish Civil War too. But then I never paid too much attention to Abba lyrics, because Abba songs were never really about profound messages. I wonder if it really matters?
Re 27, I have an aversion to hearing about other peoples’ dreams about sex, ever since this exchange between one of my peers and I when I was 17;
GIRL: I dreamed that you were having sex with me last night.
BILLY: (Suprised): Really?
GIRL: (Genuinely angry): It was horrible!
The odd thing is that I have very little problem listening to and enjoying Clapton’s work prior to this time but I find his subsequent work virtually unlistenable so obviously there were other issues at work here, not least with him and the booze.
Personally I’m sitting here wondering if the time has come for me to up sticks and relocate, now that London, and probably the country before too long, is about to fall into the hands of vacuous, braying public school spivs.
Krakow has seemed the obvious choice in the six years since I fell in love with that city, but I’ve long fancied Buenos Aires. Somewhere cheerfully chaotic anyway. Any suggestions?
GLASGOW!!
My two step-sisters were never particularly interested in music, but oh, did they love “Wonderful Tonight”. A friend of the younger step-sister even performed it at her wedding, just after the speeches. What can you do!
I think you may be on to something there, Marcello! Cheerfully chaotic indeed. Ah, the Scotia Bar!
Awful song, hated it mightily. Really twee garbage.
Not as bad as the next one, mind.
How about Harare, Rosie?
“Fernando” – For me, as with many other posters apparently, this was my least favourite Abba single, and one of the few I would actually say I didn’t like, or at least couldn’t appreciate.
However, it was undoubtedly the indicator that they were here to stay. Previous Abba singles, like “So Long” and “I Do X5” were much better, but there were no Abba-fans to buy them and make them into hits. However, the success of “Mamma Mia” created Abba-fans who then automatically bought the next single. It’s not as simple as that, obviously, but they were here to stay, and thankfully their future hits were (in the main) far superior.
This to me is just unremarkable; it’s not compelling enough for me to worry about which war it’s about, or even if Fernando can indeed hear the drums. A bog-standard 5.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was about the Spanish Civil War. It always seemed an oddity to me anyway, why were a bunch of Swede popsters singing about Spanish wars in the middle of all their Dancing Queens and Money Money Moneys?
Boston is nice (where I am), the closest you’ll get to Europe in the USA.
LondonLee: Because it’s an excuse for an excess of hispanicisms, of course!
I like Boston. (Fond memories of eating sushi at Legal Seafood, also of sitting in a bar watching the Red Sox clinch the American League playoffs – that should date it for you!) My friend (whose loyalty was admittedly to Philadelphia) claimed it was the most civilised and corrupt city in American, and home to the second-worst driving standards in the world. Worse than Paris, worse even than Lagos, and only marginally behind Yerevan, Armenia!
Waldo: Chaotic, for sure, but not very cheerful…
The drivers are terrible here. Though the Sox have won the World Series twice in past few years so things have changed in that respect.
I always loved the way this song inspired Britain’s ersatz Abba to do their own cod-Mexican tune.