This song has a flip side! The Day Before You Came - ABBA Reaction
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Tonight was the turn of ABBA again and their song The Day Before you Came. This song was requested many times after I listened to The Visitors, so I had to give it a listen!
A song that makes it quite clear that the singer is talking to a man who has attracted her attention, but the lyrics are completely ambiguous throughout. Probably to allow me and you to decide which way we take the song. For me, the minor key and the chord progression take it a sinister way, in that I believe this person changed the singer’s life for the worse. Either way, this song is great!!
Has any of the band ever come out and said what the song is about? What do you think it’s about? Let me know what you think! 
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Your troubled look while listening to the song is exactly the reaction a hardcore ABBA fan is looking for. This song is beyond genius and everyone should know about it.
This is one of my favorite ABBA songs, it should have been a smash hit worldwide. Agnetha is acting the lyrics through singing. Frida's haunting backing vocals are the icing on the cake.
This song is one of the best songs of all time. There is also an interesting contrast - Agnetha sings it ordinarily, Frida's vocal line is on the contrary done in a sublime, operatic voice and this contrast has a gorgeous effect.
@@m.menneke8513 I didn't say otherwise, ordinarily doesn't mean bad. See your comments everywhere, usually hating on Frida. Not nice, buddy, not nice.
@@robertwill23 Yep, I know it, just didn't bother to explain it to that Frida's hater.
i am agree with you, it's a beautiful clip (Agnetha), i have made another positive version(i think) ruclips.net/video/aqh9AfjiFDU/видео.html , i hope will not blame me too much
The calm, totally steady, regular beat belies the unmentioned disastrous, tragic turmoil she is now forever in, after he had to leave her. Simply astonishing, unforgettable writing and performance from ABBA! If you have not 'been there' you will not understand the unbearable endless loss and agonising pain.
I still think of you every day, PB, after four decades!
I discovered this song a few weeks back. I can't get enough of it! I play it over and over several times a day. There is something magical about it.
Oh yes its is.Since so many years.One of the highlights of the music industry.Elegiac.One of the best Songs ever
I remember at the time of this song's release that I listened to it on the radio every day.
A song that makes you feel something that powerful inside yourself.
Has to be genius!
Another great gift from Abba
My interpretation of the story: Once she met her man, she realised how gray and dreary her everyday routine before meeting him was. She must have done things that way because she always did, but she doesn't recall it because looking back on it, it wasn't noteworthy. A "you don't miss what you haven't experienced" vibe describing her before-him life. Then he entered her life, and it was an infatuation or affair that has now ended. "It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim - The day before you came". And now he's gone, and she's finding returning to the old dull life before him sad and aimless and that feeling is what the music is trying to tell you.
But that's just my personal interpretation.
You just GOT IT!
Not many People can sort out that small parting scene.
Everything is about what was,what has been for a short time and what she craves for,to have back.
Last song they recorded, in a dark studio. When Agneta was finnished she hung the headphones on the mic stand and walked out. That was it.
And Björn and Benny wanted her to sing "ordinary", since the song portrays an ordinary womans day.
BTW, last song on the last album is "Like an angel passing through my room". That's the only song the boys wrote for just one voice (Fridas).
Although, talking about writing for one voice only, The Winner Takes It All comes pretty close, too.
There's a very poignant photo of Benny laying on the studio floor, headphones on listening to what they had just recorded. It portrayed (to me) a sadness and loneliness and it was evident that ABBA was over. A very haunting song to bow out to and one clouded by mystery as we never did know what it was about. Mystery was probably the best way to leave it.
A very sophisticated song and I think way ahead of it's time. Great vocal from Agnetha but equally good is Frida's haunting aria over the instrumental break.
This is one of Björn and Benny’s best songwriting because it actually tells you a story that is so easy to understand. ABBA is still one of the greatest bands ever, putting them right beside The Beatles.
And we are yet to hear the songs they have done a couple of years ago that remain un released.
Good reaction, Tommy. Bjorn and Benny would be proud of you!! For your information- 'the latest one by Marilyn French' at the time was a novel about two strangers who meet on a train, have an instant attraction to eachother, and embark on a passionate, but ultimately ill-fated relationship. And the video was recorded at Tumba station in Stockholm. The Latin word Tumba (Tomb) means an excavation in earth or rock for the burial of a corpse. And, notice how the video goes into freeze-frame at the end! Food for thought, eh? The song does NOT have a happy ending, as many people think. Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha have all admitted this, and that's what the haunting music is hinting at- the protagonist now KNOWS that her life is meaningless and empty, whereas before she was oblivious to this. And, FYI, the haunting wails over the instrumental are actually Frida doing her operatic vocals. This was the last recording that ABBA ever made, and Agnetha recorded her vocals alone in the dark. When she had finished, she hung up her headphones and left the building. The sound engineer has remarked that he knew then that this was the end of ABBA.
But it wasn’t!
It's like a David Lynch movie, dark, intriguing, and sinister.. :)
IMO this is a masterpiece. The culmination of all their successful career.
Bjorn Ulvaeus always said it was the saddest song they did more so than the winner takes it all.
I think, you just can't compare them. "The Winner takes it all" is a sad song full of tragedy in the lyrics whereas "The Day before you came" transports its sadness through the melody only. :-)
My favourite song ever! Pop music doesn't get any better than this. Shame on the UK public for only getting it to number 32
Björn Ulvaeus, who wrote the lyrics, once, half-jokingly, said that the „you“ in this song need not neccessarily be a lover, he could also be a murderer. As Meryl Streep sang this as a bonus track on the Soundtrack of the second Mamma Mia movie in which her character Donna has died and appears as a ghost only the „you“ could also be be death itself. If you listen to the song that way - thinking „the day before I died“ instead of „The Day Before You Came“ this has to be the saddest, most depressing and meanest lyric ever written. Agnetha purposely sings this song like an every-day person, not using the full power of her voice. She called it Charles Aznavour style once. In hindsight, Benny wasn‘t too sure if this was a good thing to do and expressed the wish that one day someone might rerecord it in a less reduced way.
This was the last song ABBA recorded. Sessions finished on 20th August 1982 with Agnetha and Benny in the studio. And that was the end for ABBA.... But they ended on a massive high; the best ever!
The first time I ever heard this song it stopped me in my tracks. The music The lyrics, the tone in here voice, had to listen to it over and over. Definitely one of the most under rated of the ABBA songs.
It is my favourite ABBA song but it's very dark. I love the use of synths in it. It's cold and icy and bleak and it really works for how sombre the track is.
Chiming in as a Swede of an age to have been riding those exact same commuter trains, though after school - I’m younger than ABBA - I always felt this song was sinister past a simple affair going badly.
There is the memory of the smell of the trains’ breaks, the untended areas around the tracks, the hidden feeling of the driving rain. It puts me in mind of the almost suicidal folklore songs, such as Om berg och dalar de kunde tala.
I can’t get past the feeling that she dies, whether in a sex murder, a train accident, cancer from all that smoking, suicide - but the specter of Liemannen ’the Scythe man’/the Reaper shines through Frida’s keening and the tonality, not just the lyrics.
None of ABBA have ever said what the song is actually about. But Björn, Benny and Agnetha have all hinted that it’s not good!
Gareth are you cheating on me?
It's me Barry it’s not what it seems! Honestly!
Right. Somebody "came". Naughty...
One of my most favourite Abba songs, I'm glad they went into record it. Its sadness. Its a meeting, one that turns your world upside down, so you have no way of telling which way is up. All consuming love affairs don't last. Her life was stable before & then... it works both ways. Thats the point of the song, mundanity or the flip x
Wonderful ABBA. Great job. 👏👏👏
I like how you analyse the ABBA songs (lyrics and context) with no sensationalism to pleased the fans. Very professional, good to listen your comments!
I think this comment says it all : Sam
Sam
för 10 månader sedan (redigerad)
This song described my life 32 years ago, working two jobs as an immigrant who came to the US with nothing, I was working routinely without aim, lived the single life yet still without aim, 5 years later I saw her smiley eyes in a night that changed my life. The very next morning I stood at the window and listened to this beautiful song for the thousand times yet I finally felt what it meant, I listened to my life in a song and I discovered that I am in love with that beautiful girl I saw the night before, fast forward almost 28 years that girl still my wife and I still feel the same feeling that I felt the morning after I saw her the first time. ABBA has impacted my life in the most beautiful way.
I remember, when they came out with this song,,,,,, I thought to myself,,,,, ABBA is over. The End.😟
the very last song ABBA recorded in Benny composed the song in the recording studio, using old ideas, Frida does sing the operatic obbligato (which she came up with herself) Benny & Bjorn wanted Agnetha to act out the song, and Bjorn stated that Agnetha was slated in the music press for her bad singing "poor thing" he said, "we should've let her belt it out!"
What is poignant is the book the character reads at night, the feminist writer 'Marylin French', who's latest book at the time was 'The Bleeding Heart' about 2 people who fall in love, but have nothing in common, and often have bitter arguments, passionate love, but their affair is destined to end.
This was a very thoughtful review, I love the way you listen so intensely! It’s amazing that there can be so much ambiguity in a song. There is a big article on Wikipedia about the interpretation of this song. Another pointer that it may not have ended well, is Meryl Streep covered this as Donna for the Mamma Mia 2 movie, in that movie Donna dies, Benny thought the movie would be too sad if it ended with this song. Other artists who have covered it are Tanita Tikarem and Blamancge. George Michael was also a fan, and said he was surprised it didn’t get to No’1.
I think you will enjoy LAAPTMR. Take care!
such an original song, hauntingly beautifull and a gorgeous arrangement. (99% electronic and begin 80ies but with a remarkable 70ies warmth!) Briliant!
With this song you can see Benny and Bjorn moving towards their ambition of writing a musical. A few years later they wrote Chess with Tim Rice.
The video of this song is very straight forward. The man that entered her life, broke her boring routine and let out the part of her that was "hidden away", left! That alone would make it a melancholy song. Now WITHOUT the video, the song would be very hard to figure out. The lyrics give the impression that her life was "changed" after he "came". But the music creates a melancholy mood that permeates the whole song. Again I think this is a song about "love lost". It could have had a video of her singing the song and it ending with her walking away from a grave. Thanks for the reaction. ABBA songs are all masterpieces.
Agnetha's facial expressions....WOW
One of pop’s great mysteries - who or what is the “you” in The Day Before You Came ? A lover, a killer, death itself - the grim reaper?. There are a lot of different interpretations on the Wikipedia page for this song. Well worth a read. More has been written about this Abba song than any other.
It could very well just be "saying good-bye". Splitting up for something new to come without knowing it'll be better or not. The big unknown.
Another ABBA song I would like to hear your reaction about is "The Name Of The Game". One of their first truly mature songs and one with a brilliant structure.
Beautiful song. One of my favourites by them.
🎵 🎶🎶🎶 The usual place, the usual bunch
and still on top this
I'm pretty sure it must have rained
The day before yoy came 🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶
I never even thought of the second interpretation! Wow. Makes me love the song even more seeing that it can be read in different ways. My favourite ABBA song. This and Just Like That (na na na version) which available only in demo form as it was never completed. I was already an ABBA fan for years prior to its release. When it came out I was just floored. One of my top 10 favourite songs ever. ✌️❤️
This was always one of my favourite ABBA tracks growing up, along with The Winner Takes it All, and I have always had a fascination with it. There is nothing remotely depressing about the lyrics, but the music and Agnetha's voice is telling you this is not a happy song. So I always interpreted it as: the person the protagonist is remembering, or singing to, is dead, or met with tragedy. Such a great song, with so many little touches here and there, that elevate it. One of their most haunting songs IMO.
I love,love your reaction to this song! I like to feel the same about it , undecided about what the lyrics exactly mean. This song is a mystery,a beautiful enigma.
In my opinion, the song means simply that after losing a great love, her life was going to become what it was before, a sad routine of a meaningless life. This is one of the greatest songs I ever heard. Dark, sinister, timeless.
Beautiful song and has a Haunting melody great singers 😊😊
this song has a similar theme as a 1981 play by Alan Bennett play about a woman dying of cancer it's called a woman of no importance .
something sinister. Perfect description.
Agneta was told to simplyfy the singing to make it ordinary, appealing and recocnaizable to a lot of people around the world. Agneta is even adding a Swedish accent to the song.
Btw. You can hear Joy division, the Cure and Depeche mode in this song.
It has a flip side. It is a very very clever song. Read the Wikipedia-article about it.
The sinister part is , IMHO, in how the song is built up. It tricks the listener on several layers; both technically and melodically and with a disguised story. These three factors make up a perfect disguise of a caramelized cliché sprinkled with sugar; a love song about a woman left alone because her partner had to leave for some reason. But we’re talking about Abba in their 30s. Not in their early 20s.
Even though minimalistic and poor, several techniques were used to make the song appear richer, I think. 1: Agnetha was asked to hold back as a singer (how hard mustn’t that be!?!) and talk-sings like an ordinary girl and adds further melody to the song by using the Charles Aznavour technique to melodify the song, (just like Charles Aznavour did in his songs.)This comes out naturally in the song; without it would be very poor melodically.
2: the obligato
By Frida is beautifully malplaced in between the sub-optimal singing and adds up to the peripety. We are now made clear that the happy part is over.
3: The very low and faint backing vocals (I think they were added by Frida, Björn and Agnetha) drives the story further along with the talk-singing.
4: the obligato takes the song to a Fade-out, but the very last faint chords on the last two seconds or so build up. Did things went out alright in the end, after all?
5: working title of the song? “Den lidande fågeln” (The suffering bird)
Hej Tommy. Love your reactions. You wanted som more info on this song. I have heard an Interviu with Björn where he stated that the song was about an ordenary girl, living an ordinary life and Agnetha suggested that she would not sing it in the best way possible, but just a bit plain, so to say ordinary. I found this on the internet: Kram Ewa, Stockholm. Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA wrote this song, which deals in part with his divorce from his bandmate Agnetha Fältskog. Speaking about the influence of the split on the song, Ulvaeus said: "Even if 90% of the lyrics were fiction there are still feelings in songs like 'Winner Takes It All' and 'Day Before You Came' they have something from that time in them."
This song was recorded and released by Swedish pop group ABBA as the first new song from their double compilation album, The Singles: The First Ten Years. It was their penultimate single release, and it was followed by the other new song on the album- Under Attack. It was only a minor hit, which Ulvaeus said was because it was "too different and ahead of its time for the ABBA fans."
The song was recorded and mixed on August 20, 1982, with the working title of "The Suffering Bird" featuring lead vocals by Agnetha Fältskog. It was the last song that ABBA ever recorded together. According to Michael Tretow, ABBA's long-time sound engineer, Fältskog sang her lead without the lights on. He added that the mood in the studio was sad and everybody knew that it was the end.
The song details the story of a woman's mundane life right before she met her lover. What happened after the guy "came" remains a pop mystery in a similar vein to the identity of the subject of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain." When The London Times March 26, 2010 asked Ulvaeus about it, he smiled enigmatically and replied. "You've spotted it, haven't you? The music is hinting at it. You can tell in that song that we were straining towards musical theatre. We got Agnetha to act the part of the person in that song. In retrospect, it might have been too much of a change for a lot of ABBA fans. The energy had gone."
The lyric, "I must have read a while, the latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style," is a reference to American feminist author Marilyn French (1929-2009), whose 1977 novel The Women's Room is cited as one of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement.
A Hauntingly beautiful Masterpiece..
I get a Sliding Doors feeling. The guy missed the train and never met her.
@Nackendara Teslar Interesting Point.
This is the very moment, when I was very young, that music took on a diffrent meaning for me. Strange, isn't it, that just when they hit the point of genius, they stopped. It gave me shivers then and still does. And now you've put an entirely new meaning to the lyrics which I had never thought about before. This one, above all, is Swedish to the core. I love it.
Hi Tommy ...greetings from Australia 👋😃🎶
That's another good review 😁👍
I've been an ABBA fan since 1976.
A sizable portion of ABBA songs are left ambiguous so people can have their own interpretation/s.
My interpretation of this song is that she's just reflecting on her life before she was with her beau; that the lovemaking scenes are what she remembers from *during* their romance; and now that she's seen him actually leave her life (as is indicated in the video), that's the point that she's singing from (and why she looks miserable as she drives away from where she left him), where she is back having to face (or worry about having to face) her drab 'before' life again.
Thus, I've never sensed anything sinister in this song with the minor chords. To me, that's the depression that she's sunk into, presented by the 'Nordic Noir' use of the minor chords + the haunting arrangement. As this song is only fitted into so many minutes, and the only highlights of her time with him in the video was the flirtiness on the platform and in the train, and their lovemaking, she could have fell deeply in love with him ...for however long that was... and some people can react with harsh depression at the end of a relationship (my partner of 25 years passed away 2 years ago, and I've been virtually in a deep-depression for most of the time since; so I can understand the use of 'Nordic Noir' minor chords to indicate a heavy and entrapping depression).
Cheers 👋😊
Morning (probably evening where you are) Anthony! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Yeah, looking back at the vid, I mustn’t have taken in at the time that the train platform was empty at the end, the whole ‘train leaving the station’ etc does suggest that whoever she is talking about is now not in her life anymore. I think it’s a sign of a true great, when they are able to construct music that people can take multiple interpretations from tbh. ABBA were true greats that’s for sure! I’m sorry to hear about your partner, I send you love and positivity from the UK. Take care and stay safe
@@ThomasJ_Music
Cheers Tommy 👋
I think that as ABBA focussed more on being a studio group than being a touring group (they individually all got rid of the 'tour-bug' in the 1960s), that gave them all more time to focus on the craftship of constructing good songs, meaning Björn had comparitively more time to work with his lyrics (particularly in his latter years); Benny, with his music, and the vocals from all of them, especially Frida & Agnetha (who also contributed a lot to the construction of a song, where ABBA also often tried different treatments and genres with a song, and Benny recording many layers into a song, with their aim to make each song as different sounding as possible to all others, as each song were different stories. And thus, one of the many reasons that their music is evergreen and survives today 😊
Thank you for your kind words; love, positivity and best, safe wishes to you too, from Oz 🐨🙂
I believe that one of the issues that can be addressed is the fact that opportunities appear in our lives but sometimes we don't realize that the chances we hope for come and go without us taking them. We become numb with our daily routine without realizing that everything could be different and with more defined goals.
Love this. You’re so right! Sometimes the ‘safety’ of the norm makes us scared to take those opportunities too
Iconic and brilliant song, greets from germany.
Skådespelare: Jonas Bergström, very good swedish theater actor. Plays the love interest.
So glad you get it.
This song always felt desperately sad to me, even as a teenager (which I was when it was released). I remember listening to a review of it on Radio 1's "Round Table", a weekly programme where DJs and singers, producers, etc. would listen to new releases. They picked up on the references to Dallas and Marilyn French, commenting archly that this was ABBA trying to get "with it". The band had a reputation - which I don't think was justified - of being too remote and out-of-touch by then. But, it misses the really clever thing about this lyric, that it is using ephemeral references to emphasise the crushing routine of a life that has just been through an all-too-brief reprieve from mundanity; but that reprieve has now ended, and that life feels even more humdrum and inconsequential as a result. I believe that the video was the last that ABBA recorded: even though "Under Attack" was released as a single after this one, and the scenes in the theatre(?) feel like a tableau, bringing the whole drama to an end. Compare this to "Under Attack", where the band, at the end, walks out of a gloomy warehouse into "real life". It's not surprising that, as a single, it only got to number 32 in the UK charts: it wasn't so much a single as a dying cry in the wilderness, put to the rhythm and scansion of a Gregorian Chant
I thank you for your thinkings. I always admire and respect emotional intelligence. It opened my thinking more and my mind after listening your comments of Abba singing "Like an Angel Passing Through my room" and this song. About this song, I just believe, it was life one day before everything changes, when she gets her love. I wish myself, that this day is the day before she comes to my life...Take care.
Thanks for the nice comments Petri :)
Just like your review of The Visitors, I loved this reaction too. Welcome to the dark world of ABBA! 🖤
Pete Waterman said this on an 'Abba At The BBC' TV show : "You can sell millions of records, then you hear 'The Day Before You Came' - and you may as well go back to being a bloody janitor."
Some interpretations say that the man who came into her life murdered her - and she is singing from beyond the grave....
This track is a prime example of ABBA's style and writing. Lyrically, the tone can play opposite of the melody. An example of this is found in "Mama Mia". The opening line goes right to a message of betrayal, laid on a happy chord structure.
This goes deeper. If you pay closer attention to the instruments, harmonies, sub-structures, you will discover it. Generally, they prefer to have opposing harmonies layered in the instrument tracks. Most of the time, it is very subtle and easy to miss. The degree of this style varies greatly in all their music.
Love your Abba reactions. I’d also suggest Summer Night City (long intro version)
As sad as it may sound or look ...this is one of my favourite songs...not alot of people didnt like it when it came out. I love the haunting tune at the end as the train goes off into the distance. I think it Anna sang it beautifully and the whole group did exceptionally well on the final product.
A masterpiece. It's a love song that sounds completely unhappy. Nobody knows what it's really about. Abba say it's about a woman listing the mundane things she did the day before she met someone. The question is, if he is here now, why isn't she happy? You should try The Winner Takes It All
Interesting analysis, always love watching these sorts of videos. React to more of their videos :)
No woman can be more beautiful.
On the surface, it could simply be a tale of a woman's mundane life being changed by a new love. But it being ABBA, melancholy and underlying darkness isn't far away. The whole narrative can be flipped. Why does she detail her movements with times like she was giving a police statement? Why the grim faces in the video and those ghostly background vocals? Is she a victim...or the assailant? Maybe the Marilyn French reference is a little clue. At the time this song was recorded, French had recently written a novel about two people who meet on a train and which develops into an abusive relationship Not amongst my ABBA favourites but its certainly an intriguing song.
This song is amazing. The tune is so repetitive outlining the basic routine every office job can bring. Agnetha Faltskog sings so poignantly and enforces the daily routine. She shows the change relationship brings to your life and routine. It is a haunting tune with Frida in the background. It could be that the change was not always permanent and maybe short lived. Congratulations Agnetha you sing like an angel again and look beautiful. Thank you so much. X
I used to listen a lot that song in 2018 when i was having my first breakup, since then i didnt wanted to listen it again and despite i have mixed feelings right now, i still love it.
Greetings from México, i really like your content!
Frida in the background with the “aaash’s’ is everything
there is a theory that it's telling her life up until the point she met him and he killed her, the reason for that is based upon the book author/style she mentioned
One of ABBA’S best songs of all and in my personal top three alongside The Winner Takes it All and the best single ABBA never released I Am The City, I’d love to hear Tommy’s review of I Am The City if there is one and of course of the new materials as soon as they’re released.
Hey Tommy - hope you're well. Long time subscriber, but this just leaped up on me in my suggestion feed and was glad of a re-watch. :)
Yes, I've always interpreted this as essentially as follows:
"Although my previous life was a bit rubbish and mundane, it was far better than what happened later".
Given the state of the relationships within ABBA at the time I'm almost certain this was the intention here. It's also the last track they did together in the studio back in '82. Once Agnetha did what she needed to, she immediately left the building. So take from that what you will.
Hey Philrob! Glad to have you with us! I think revisiting abba is a bit overdue. It’s interesting that afterwards viewers like you give me that info, as it helps me make sense of the song in more depth afterwards. There’s something really interesting about Abba. Have you heard much off the new album?
@@ThomasJ_Music I did, but beyond the two singles they pre-released, which were wonderful, I'm not too enamoured with the rest of the album. Yet - could be a grower! I know "The Visitors" as an album was a grower too, so we'll see.
Thanks for getting back to me though, glad you're still around and being creative. It comes in waves for me - there could be months and months where I don't want to touch my music rigs but then a blast of inspiration hits and can churn out a tonne of stuff. But hey this is the way. :) x
The greatest Pop group ever
Agnetha on lead is recognized as one of th clearest ,,on Pitch World class Sopranos in POP with a B2 -F 7 range But was told to sing with a FLAT voice like a normal woman. Bjorn said later he regrated not letting Agnetha loose.
This song was the last one they recorded for the Visitors Album. All four of them knew that this was the end of ABBA, more or less. I think that B & B wanted to express their feelings about this in this song. Under Attack was released as a single after The Day Before You Came, but was recorded earlier. At the end of the video of Under Attack you see all four walk out of the door. We look them at the back and they dissappear. The message was quite clear: "farewell!!". The Visitors as an album is very gloomy and I suspect that reflects how they felt at the time. Their succes was waning, the magic was gone (not for fans like me), they planned to go their seperate ways.
This song may actually be about death. Such a brilliantly dark and mysterious piece of art.
There's one theory that this song is about a murder. She was murdered by her lover! Btw the band is over after the release of this gem, as the girls were resuming their solo careers and the boys writing for musical theater.
Though i prefer Frida's voice....marginally,this is my favourite Abba song,A masterpiece.
im a metal head but i love abba
An absolute classis ABBA song . it was way ahead of the audience for 1982 hence its low chart position . Should have been number 1
Bjorn has hinted that this track is actually about murder and Agnetha is singing to the person who killed her. NME also suggested the same. It would certainly explain the dark atmosphere of the track.
From the NME. "The most intriguing theory is that the protagonist is a ghost, who is eerily detailing the minutiae of her daily life before her murderer -the “you” of the title- ended her life. It might sound far-fetched but Frida and Benny’s celestial harmonies of the verse and the harmony (or is it shrieking?) of the middle eight certainly add kudos to this theory. It makes the ambiguity final line (“And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain / The day before you came“) a bit more chilling."
I found funny how people trying to explaining and misunderstanding this consequently. This song not made to the pop world level of interpretations, even it's a pop song, but far more complex and touching even the metaphisical levels....
I call this song Abba's Requiem, because Benny Anderson addiction with Mozart is obvious (just hear how "As Good as New" starting), but here he going more further, with it's dark harmonies in the middle and especially in the final parts of the song - these harmonies are concrete reminisences to Mozart's Requiem Confutatis title closing chords!
And about the lyrics. The videoclip totally misinterpreting the meaning of the song! I see some intention behind, maybe they thought the original meaning absolutely out of the image, what people thought about ABBA, and they just created this clip to masking this fact....The concrete lyrics doesn't talking about any kind of relationship. It's about a full day of a lonely person, with routin like strict schedule. The big question is - inside this empty, repetiting life, who will make the change, who is this "You" who will came on the next day, changing everything, breaking all the routine? This has no answer in the lyrics, but on the final chords overhears from Mozart masterwork giving a proper answer....Mozart Requiem's last two title is Confutatis and Lacrymosa, where the souls, leaving their earthly life asking forgivness from God, just before they meet with Him.
If we enriching this meaning from a single person to the world, we can found the metaphisic level of the song - very much not fitting with pop expectations... Some home made videoclips was able to catching this level of the song, and it's obvious, that if you just hearing, something not okay with that - impossible properly interpret anything from the song first time... Because this "You" who "came" on the next day it's not just a new lover or something very banal thing, but something much deeper. This is why the detailful story telling of a very boring, routine day. On the shadow or hope of the next day all these boring routine revalued as it is - a valueless lonely life. But "Sorry but I cannot living without aim"....
The "turning off the light" symbolizing the end of the ABBA project once and for all... Two marriage finished with break, no way to continue without harmony, without faith...(They needed 40 years to find their faith again - I have a faith in you - in each other, after 40 years of indemnity).... This song is something what very rare in the world of non-classical music - a song with very complex meaning and very unique sounding..... Not something you just hear and could interpret essier....
`Oh yes, I'm sure my life was well within it's usual frame´....She actually had a good, but mundane life before disaster struck her. I think she is singing from the grave. Please react to `The name of the game´. Another great track from ABBA.
Completely agree - I’ve always felt that it’s a beyond the grave song where she is almost lamenting for the mundane, ritual way she was sleepwalking through her life. A life that was taken tragically and ultimately led to her death.
So how I see this song is that we have a woman that is a creature of habit, maybe she has OCD, she certainly has depression, without really realising it and it took an unspecified event to suddenly assess her life. The song does not elaborate on the event that took place, although we could get hints from the official video. So without seeing the video, what was that event? Well, it could have been a lover, it could have been a serious diagnosis (the day before I got diagnosed with terminal cancer), it could have been something that sparked a religious experience, the day before something else, that could have been sinister, or an epiphany of some description. The song does not tell us if this event improves her life, makes her happier or sadder, we don’t even know if it marks a long term change or just a temporary one. All we know is something has caused her to re-assess her life. She may move in a different direction after this, maybe radically, she may decide that she liked her life as it was before and returns to that state, that safe place. Whatever, we have been blessed with a very fine song indeed, both lyrically and musically. For me it is their best song. Thank you ABBA.
He never met her and she just continued her mundane life. I enjoy Frida's baking vocals a lot
Yes I think that‘s the story the video tells us.
There are no easy answers. The "happy" ABBA songs are actually sad if one listens to the lyrics.
this is a mysterious song and really cleverly written. I think it has an unhappy tone to it because she sings 'its funny but i had no sense of living without aim the day before you came' so it's as if this guy made a difference to her life but he's also made her unhappy, because she obviously liked him, then it shows them together but after that when they touch hands both of them look unhappy and it's as if they know they can't be together, but she can;t forget him so that's why she looks back, then she's back to her same routine again.
ABBA are storytellers. They can write a song with the happiest melody but containing the darkest message. Most of their songs contain messages. I Interpret this song to be about a woman describing her last usual, normal, very organised day before"Love" comes into her life & turns it all upside down for the better. That beautiful haunting , wailing sound towards the end is Frida's voice, I was shocked to find that out as I thought at first it was some kind of instrument.
Two years ago Benny said, that the woman's life in this song is very sad and the special here is, that this situation lasts, it is NOT getting better during the song! That's what her life was, BEFORE he came!
Since you are in the sinister ABBA mood how about reacting to "Like an Angel Passing through my Room" or "Soldiers" or "The Piper" , or "Cassandra"
LAAPTMR is my next ABBA song to do! It may be a week or so before I get round to ABBA again though. Thanks for watching!
All good stuff, especially Soldiers. However, NorthernEar, should you be in the mood for something a tad more uplifting yet atmospheric, try Eagle. It's pretty damn good.
@@harripalomaki8796 I agree! Eagle is a Masterpiece! And so is The Name of the Game!
@@ThomasJ_Music Looking forward to that! LAAPTMR is very different to any other ABBA songs - almost classical in its sound and structure. And Frida is an amazing mezzo soprano and sounds so stunning!
@@flemmingkristoffersen1896, don't even get me started on The Name of the Game. There is enough music in that song for a standard band to make a whole career out of.
The subject matter is pretty straightforward: she sings about her life before she met him but she is singing it after he has left her life (either temporarily or definitive). It isn’t a happy song indeed but certainly not sinister.
Hey ChrisEchoes! Thanks for watching! That’s the thing, we don’t actually know what happened, there isn’t any ‘certainties’ about the song. That’s just feeling I get from it. Like LouD just said it could simply be someone daydreaming. The hot guy she meets might even represent something like fame or alcohol or whatever. There’s no right or wrong answer
NorthernEar There is truth in that but the two guys from ABBA who write the songs are very straightforward writers, none of their songs are that ambiguous and to me, having grown up with their music, it is pretty clear cut as well. But that is the beauty of art (and this is art), the magic happens in the eye / ear of the beholder.
@@ThomasJ_Music Yeah, there are some theories. Some about murder even which I find too much of a stretch. Agnetha (singer in the song) actually mentions the latest book by Marilyn French - and at the time of that song in 1980 her latest book was "Bleeding Heart" and it is about couple who meet on the train and instantly fall in love only to discover that they agree on nothing and that they have only one year together. So there is resemblance. But it is likely just a coincidence. Nothing sinister for sure.
@@ThomasJ_Music I have been an ABBA fan for many years, since I was a child and this song was a bit of an enigma in terms of meaning. I have seen a video with Bjorn about this song, and he says the song embodies the kind of melancholy that is unique to Scandinavians. The song is about the melocoly of the emptiness and dullness of life that is filled with routine and the discovery of falling in love makes her acutely aware of the emptiness of her prior existence.
This is probably the last song they ever produced, by this stage all the members of ABBA where jaded and the novelty and fun of it all had been a pop star was no longer there.
Happy or Sad ending! The tipoff is when she sings the lyrics "It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim the day before you came" ... in other words now that shes met him and hes in her life she "has" a sense of what its like to live "without aim"... in other wood... with no no purpose. FYI: To hear Benny Andersson of ABBA discuss this song, head over to the following video and and fast 29 seconds to get to his discussion- ruclips.net/video/cgynuWyHoJI/видео.html
My interpretation of the song has always been this:
She is commenting on how run of the mill her life was before he came, but it was run of the mill and she was happy with that. What we gradually come to realise as she goes through her day *in real time* is that she is back to that (i.e. he has now left) _"And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain / The day before you came."_ So she's lying in bed alone, listening to the sound of rain, and she can't believe how it's the same rain she listened to quite comfortably before she met him. Now that he's gone, she's wondering how on earth she ever coped with such a meaningless existence. (Incidentally that last stanza is an extra one, but you probably didn't notice because you happened to stop it just there).
So the genius of the song is that you hear 1. About how dreary it was before they met, and so 2. You start to reflect on how much meaning he has added to her life, and then the twist comes at the end as you realise 3. she's going through this empty day NOW, and... He's gone.
The first time I heard it with that realisation it absolutely blow me away with how tragically sad it is, because you get a sense of how much meaning he added to her life, and then as you get to the end, you realise that the rug is being pulled out from under you.
It's a shame you stopped it (at all) while listening to it. The final verse has a double last line which you didn't notice.
I've done a full analysis of the song in musical detail on my AARON WILDE channel, if you want to hear more about the musical structure.
Further to my previous comment, the story is also a metaphor for the end of Abba!
Very pertinent!
The song is melancholy because she is describing life before she found love (or was murdered). It does sound very mournful though.
You are very perceptive, I think at the very least there was a badly broken heart. Please react to ABBA “if it wasn’t for the nights” (Japan) you will LOVE IT!, a masterpiece, and I he girls never looked better.❤️❤️❤️
My 2nd favourite of theirs. First is 'Eagle' from 'The Album'. Give it a listen.
this one is on my top 3 list!
IM humble O, this song and I'm a marionette are about suicide. Whatever it means: masterpiece.
Ive always viewed it as being about how life can be repetitive and mundane. and then something happens that changes everything.
React to Move On of Abba!