Ola Brunkert, ABBA drummer, dead at 61
March 17, 2008 6:06 AM   Subscribe

Ola Brunkert, drummer for Swedish pop superstars ABBA, dead in tragic accident.
posted by flapjax at midnite (51 comments total)
 
Very short bio on Brunkert from the ABBA site.

Songs Brunkert drummed on.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:10 AM on March 17, 2008


So when you're near me, darling can't you hear me S.O.S.
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me S.O.S.
When you're gone, how can I even try to go on?
When you're gone, well I try, how can I carry on?
posted by Dizzy at 6:15 AM on March 17, 2008


Actually, that should read albums Brunkert drummed on
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:16 AM on March 17, 2008


.
posted by Doohickie at 6:16 AM on March 17, 2008


So now they're ABA? Does that mean they have to bring in George Gervin?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:42 AM on March 17, 2008


MOCK NOT THE ABBA.
posted by grubi at 6:48 AM on March 17, 2008


.

I suspect it was a quick death but still he must have been so terrified. R.I.P. Ola.
posted by hojoki at 6:48 AM on March 17, 2008


Wow. That's awful.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:51 AM on March 17, 2008


According to the article he was not a B. Still tragic. A buddy of mine nearly died the same way. Lucky for him there was someone nearby to staunch the flow.
posted by Gungho at 6:57 AM on March 17, 2008


Not as bad as choking on someone else's vomit.
posted by ColdChef at 7:05 AM on March 17, 2008 [2 favorites]


Headlines in Swedish Newspapers:

Känd svensk musiker död (Famous Swedish musician dead)

Känd svensk musiker hittad död (Famous Swedish musician found dead)

Janne Schaffer minns vännen Ola Brunkert (Janne Schaffer remembers his friend Ola Brunkert)

Headline in the Telegraph: Abba drummer Ola Brunkert found dead with throat cut in Spain.

Sweet.
posted by three blind mice at 7:07 AM on March 17, 2008


What a terrifying way to go.

I never knew that ABBA rose to fame after being in the Eurovision song contest.
posted by sugarfish at 7:17 AM on March 17, 2008


A B . A
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:27 AM on March 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


Headline in Variety: ABBA drummer not C#, now B♭
posted by hal9k at 7:27 AM on March 17, 2008 [2 favorites]


... ah, reading the article, and it seems he wasn't one of the four front-liners whose initials ABBA came from.

I nearly fell through a glass door once - just put my knee through it instead - but still, chills.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:30 AM on March 17, 2008


A buddy of mine nearly died the same way...

I nearly fell through a glass door once...

Yeah, actually, glass doors are not really something you want in your house, I'd say. Folks with kids (prone to tearing-ass around and all) should especially keep that in mind.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:35 AM on March 17, 2008


Not as bad as choking on someone else's vomit.
Or spontaneously combusting.
posted by Gungho at 7:38 AM on March 17, 2008


Not as bad as choking on someone else's vomit.
Or spontaneously combusting.


And definitely not as bad as choking on someone else's spontaneously combusting vomit.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:40 AM on March 17, 2008


This obit thread is just this far away from turning into a compendium of drummer jokes. As the OP, I shall resist any urge to suggest that it go one way or another, however. I'll just say that I know some funny ones...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:41 AM on March 17, 2008


Shoulda previewed. Compendium in full effect.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:42 AM on March 17, 2008


How do you reunite ABBA? Three more glass doors.
posted by djfiander at 7:46 AM on March 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


I don't know how much role Brunkert actually played, but they wrote songs that can bear up under any kind of abuse, which I always think of as a hallmark of good timeless writing. Summernight City. Knowing Me, Knowing You. Gimme Gimme Gimme (and I hate going around with that song stuck in my head all day).
posted by Wolfdog at 7:51 AM on March 17, 2008


Am I really the oldest one in this thread? Bjorn and Benny are the two B's!!!
posted by evilcolonel at 7:56 AM on March 17, 2008


[When asked what happened to their first drummer]
David St. Hubbins: He died in a bizarre gardening accident...
Nigel Tufnel: Authorities said... best leave it... unsolved.
posted by auralcoral at 8:01 AM on March 17, 2008


\o
|\
/\
posted by sourwookie at 8:02 AM on March 17, 2008


ugh. What's the trick to making my ASCII disco-dancer work?
posted by sourwookie at 8:04 AM on March 17, 2008


... bizarre gardening accident...

This particular meme is being leapt upon as we speak, with some of the other Spinal Tap references, unsurprisingly, popping up left and right as well. Maybe we should just get it all out of the way in one easy step!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:09 AM on March 17, 2008


Your ASCII disco-dancer appears to have crashed his head through a plate of glass.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:10 AM on March 17, 2008


So, well done there.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:10 AM on March 17, 2008


?
posted by pracowity at 8:11 AM on March 17, 2008 [2 favorites]


Of course, one is reminded of another drummer/garden death: Jeff Porcaro (of TOTO fame) died back in '92 of an allergic reaction to pesticide that he was spraying on his lawn...

And on preview, pracowity FTW.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:18 AM on March 17, 2008


I'll tell you; just once I'd like to read a tragic story about a drummer dying in a horrible accident without it turning into Spinal Tap jokes.
posted by yhbc at 8:45 AM on March 17, 2008 [3 favorites]


A MAN IS DEAD HERE. SHOW A LITTLE RESPECT.

Jeez.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:17 AM on March 17, 2008


.
posted by jonp72 at 10:34 AM on March 17, 2008


If he was cut and bled to death because of a broken glass door,
then it was not tempered. Tempered glass 1) would have been stronger than
an untempered door, and 2) would have shattered safely and entirely
into tiny cubes if it did break, 3) would have temporarily deafened him.

Tempered glass is required by many building codes where there is a
walk-though hazard. I saw a man trying to buy a big picture window,
once, at my local glass store. It went all the way to the floor, and when the
knowledgable man behind the counter suggested that it must be tempered
for safety, the customer was compliant until he saw the price. The proprieter
gently suggested that a life might be saved in the event of a running mishap
or an earthquake, but in the end sold him a big plate of untempered glass.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:56 AM on March 17, 2008


Many have tried but no one has ever gone through a sheet of glass like the female replicant in Blade Runner.
posted by phoffmann at 11:14 AM on March 17, 2008


Many have tried but no one has ever gone through a sheet of glass like the female replicant in Blade Runner.

Sugar.
posted by rokusan at 11:47 AM on March 17, 2008




Is it really that easy to walk through a glass door? I never thought of myself going out like that.
posted by puke & cry at 12:57 PM on March 17, 2008


.
posted by -t at 2:08 PM on March 17, 2008


My sister went through a plate glass door when she was 5 or six. She tripped and landed on her knees, then the upper half of the glass pane dropped like a guillotine blade on the soles of her sneakers. I could see the tendons or ligaments around her knee, and how she changed colors with blood loss. Someone did a tourniquet with a sweatshirt, and doctors fixed her up completely.

Tempered glass all the way.

Regarding ABBA: I am trying hard, but I find it hard to feel sad. 75% of the time I am introduced to a new person, or give my name to the barista, they start humming an ABBA song. Guess what my given name is.
posted by Dr. Curare at 2:55 PM on March 17, 2008


Dancing Queen?
posted by hojoki at 3:11 PM on March 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


If your given name's Dum Dum Diddle, it's something you should take up with your parents.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:26 PM on March 17, 2008


I fell through a glass storm door in the pre-tempered glass days of the 1960's. I still carry the scars from very bad cuts on my eyebrow, scalp, and the side of my left eye. Very scary; I bled like the proverbial stuck pig. Not a good way to go.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 3:28 PM on March 17, 2008


Guess what my given name is."

Chiquitita?

A musician I knew was cleaning his pool one summer day. He was a pretty healthy guy. But somehow while cleaning the pool he accidentally inhaled some of the chemicals, was instantly poisoned (some say he had an asthma attack from them, others say it caused heart failure... I'm not sure), and fell into the pool. He was found, floating, by his wife.

Those kinds of accidents really, really freak me out... when someone's doing something normal and innocent and suddenly they're an opening sequence for a Six Feet Under episode. It's just so wrong.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:45 PM on March 17, 2008


.

ABBA was the next Beatles. Only America, of all the countries in the West, was too stupid to notice. Brunkert was as essential to realizing Bjorn and Benny's sound as Ringo was to realizing Paul and John's (actually, probably more so). He was part of the greatest show on earth, while it ran.

Greatest ABBA songs not on any ABBA "Greatest Hits" comp:

"Suzy Hang Around"
"What About Livingston" (featuring clever Brunkert counter-rhythmic playing)
posted by Faze at 4:24 PM on March 17, 2008


.

With all respect, I did read the headline as "tragic gardening accident".
posted by Cosmo7 at 6:24 PM on March 17, 2008


Why was this posted? For the lulz about how he died?
posted by signal at 6:38 PM on March 17, 2008


Why was this posted? For the lulz about how he died?

No. I posted it because he was a drummer for an enormously popular and influential pop group. I'm interested in musicians, and I often like to spotlight obscure or relatively unknown ones as well, session players, etc. Was there something about the wording of my FPP that led you to think I was fishing for lulz? Just reads like a standard, neutral, non-editorialized obit FPP to me. But maybe I'm missing something.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:57 PM on March 17, 2008


When I read "found dead with throat cut", I thought it must have been someone driven to madness by "Dancing Queen" running through their head.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:30 PM on March 18, 2008


I thought it must have been someone driven to madness by "Dancing Queen" running through their head.

Maybe this version?
(Yep, I still love Wing.)
posted by miss lynnster at 6:28 PM on March 18, 2008


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