David Crosby Calls ABBA’s Music ‘Dog Poop’
David Crosby sure isn't laying all his love on ABBA these days. In a series of recent tweets, the veteran singer-songwriter repeatedly referred to the Swedish pop group as "dog poop."
It began innocently enough, when a fan inquired about the best band he's ever seen perform. The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash alum responded by naming several of his peers: the Beatles, Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Jackson Browne.
But things soon took a turn. Muddying the love fest, dog poop started flying when ABBA's name came up. Naturally, Crosby made no bones about his feelings, simply tweeting, "Dog poop."
And he didn't back down, repeating "Utter complete pop dog poop ... not one decent song ever."
The Twitterverse was aghast, and quickly chose sides. One user wrote, "ABBA is to music as plastic fruit is to food," while another said "ABBA were 'an act,' not 'a band.' And like any 'act,' they were slick, glossy, non-threatening pop tarts who only wanted to 'entertain you.' There was zero substance. There's a place for such acts: Vegas. Atlantic City, Hell ... "
But others were shocked to see Crosby's lack of appreciation for one of the bestselling artists of all time. "Starting to doubt your sanity -- great production and melodies -- lighten up!" one person responded.
Another wrote, "Surprised at your tweet. Thought you'd have a much wider appreciation of music. #ABBA had many great songs."
But Crosby persisted. "ABBA is about as deep as a birdbath," he replied ... and then got called out on it by another twitter user, who wrote, "Deep? 'Almost cut my hair>>>"
"Fair enough," Crosby said. "Probably the dumbest song I wrote .... probably also the most popular ... that's what we're dealing with."
But the scene was nothing new. After being branded "the a--hole Twitter deserves" a couple of years back, Crosby said, “I love to communicate with people. I’m fascinated by other humans. Some of the questions are dumb. ‘What was it really like at Woodstock?’ Well, f--, I can’t remember. I was stoned! I’m tired of having it asked. ‘Which comes first, the words or the music?’ I get a lot. Often, though, I’ll get something that’s really intelligent. I have fun with it. I love to talk to people.”
Shortly ahead of the most recent twitter dust-up, Crosby completed a U.S. spring tour behind last year's Sky Trails. He'll hit the road again on Aug. 25, heading to Amsterdam, where he'll kick things off as part of the Once in a Blue Moon lineup.
Just this past weekend, Crosby appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island as headliner Jason Isbell's guest, where they performed covers of "Wooden Ships" and "Ohio," songs made famous by Crosby's former group. The pairing came after Isbell took to Twitter earlier this year to express admiration for Crosby's raw honesty on the social-media site.
Meanwhile, ABBA are set for a comeback 35 years after they broke up. The foursome recorded two new songs to accompany a 2019 hologram tour.