The making of a box set Part
2 (of 8): DISCOVERING THE UNRELEASED TRACKS I was completely
unaware of the reawakened plans for a box set, so it was sheer coincidence that
I had been working on the book ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions, researching
recording dates and unreleased tracks for quite some time. My visits to the PolyGram
tape archives took place in the summer of 1993, and this was when I first came
across titles such as Put On Your White Sombrero and Free As A Bumble Bee. Previously,
I had only been aware of the working titles for those tracks.
A couple
of months later, on October 5, 1993, a lunch was held at the Café Opera
in Stockholm to celebrate the sales of 5 million copies of ABBA Gold. Three of
the ABBA members - Björn, Benny and Frida - were present at the lunch and
received platinum awards. During the lunch, the subject of the box set was brought
up. Björn and sound engineer Michael Tretow expressed enthusiasm about the
work I had done in researching the story of ABBA’s recordings, not least
the unreleased tracks.
Chris Griffin at PolyGram International in London,
who was more or less in charge of the ABBA catalogue at the time, was present
at the lunch. "I suggested that perhaps we should consider a box set to chronicle
the history of the band and include some of these recordings," he recalled
in his liner notes for the Thank You For The Music box set. "Frida thought
it was a good idea although Benny was not so sure."
While all this
was going on, I was busy writing the book and doing further research. During my
interviews with Björn and Benny, I had noticed how they were warming up more
and more to the prospect of listening to some of the unreleased tracks we had
been talking about. Unbeknownst to me, the record company was also eager that
this should be done for the projected box set.
|
|
The handwriting from Hell: my notes from the archives, June
28, 1993. The first three lines describe the contents of this particular 24-track
tape, as written on the box. For track 3, there was no title, only the "3."
and then empty space, which is why I wrote "[sic]" so that I wouldn't
be confused afterwards. Then I have written a description of documents found in
the box, the first batch of which was "three photocopied sheets with lyrics
for 'Put On Your White Sombrero'. Complete lyrics!!! Plus changes!! I can't make
these lyrics fit with the melody for either Lay All... or Me and I." Comparing
these notes with my notes from another archive, I soon concluded that this was
in fact a previously unreleased song, the mysterious "untitled" track
3 on the tape. This, apparently, was the first anybody had seen or heard of Put
On Your White Sombrero for almost 13 years.
Björn, Frida and Benny with their platinum awards at the Café Opera
lunch.
|
