ABBA - The Day Before You Came

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I must have lit my seventh cigarette at half past two...

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AGinAg (37)

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Somehow we appear to have no topic about the ultimate FAN FAVOURITE.

With an obviously iconic (and very sexy) video, grab a tissue boys.

Notably the last song they ever recorded until now.

Also WHAT HAPPENED NEXT DAY? Who was he?



 
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I thought about only including 13 and 11 as options, but we're all allowed a wrong opinion.
 
The best video they did and second best song.

I always read it as Agnetha lamenting the end of a relationship and going back to what her life was like before “you” came.
 
Lyrically it’s a masterpiece. And for me it’s the little, often unnoticed flourishes that make it so achingly sad.

“Oh yes, I’m sure my life was well within its usual frame”
“I must have kept on dragging through the business of the day”
“It’s funny but I had no sense of living without aim”
 
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Sheena said:
The best video they did and second best song.

I always read it as Agnetha lamenting the end of a relationship and going back to what her life was like before “you” came.
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It is the obvious explanation. I like that they left it open to interpretation, to muse about some 40 years later.

In one of my many ABBA fantasies, the song becomes a film with alternative endings, explaining who YOU was.
 
Sheena said:
Lyrically it’s a masterpiece. And for me it’s the little, often unnoticed flourishes that make it so achingly sad.

“Oh yes, I’m sure my life was well within its usual frame”
“I must have kept dragging through the business day”
“It’s funny but I had no sense of living without aim”
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It's peak ABBA melancholy (although SOS might have something to say about that). It manages to balance doom and hope perfectly.
 
In some ways, it's unfortunate that this is no longer their last-ever song. It was so perfect. The definition of going out on a high.
 
LOVE

Although I wonder if it’s a bit basic to choose it as a deep cut favourite now. Whatever, I still love it.

Goes down like a bag of cold sick in karaoke, mind
 
Diddy said:
LOVE

Although I wonder if it’s a bit basic to choose it as a deep cut favourite now. Whatever, I still love it.

Goes down like a bag of cold sick in karaoke, mind
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It was in neither Mamma Mia, so in many ways it's PEAK DEEP CUT, if that's now a way to define it. I suspect more people now know Andante Andante, Our Last Summer and When I Kissed the Teacher.
 
It's definitely on my "When you feel like killing yourself, but in an understated, tasteful way" playlist, alongside a bunch of Portishead tracks
 
Loufoque said:
It's definitely on my "When you feel like killing yourself, but in an understated, tasteful way" playlist, alongside a bunch of Portishead tracks
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Today is perfect then, I’ll put it on while I’m dragging my corpse from the gym back home.
 
I know what you're saying, but I think FAN FAVOURITE is a better description.

What is an ABBA deep cut anyway? They've sold half a billion albums!
 
The first time I heard it I thought it was complete drivel. After the second listen I fell in love with it.
 
In terms of covers, I enjoy the theatrical take from Meryl.




I don't care for Blancmange's




Tanita's version is quite listless, but I appreciate what she's going for. Very 90s.




Parralox SWEETIE?

 
Tanita has had a bash at Don't Shut Me Down as well. Can't find it on YouTube, though.
 
I guess if someone wanted to really reject the Hen Party Hell tagged songs, then this really is the last station on that line, isn't it?
 
Ag said:
Also WHAT HAPPENED NEXT DAY? Who was he?
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I'm quite into the theory that "he" is this guy...

ArtTfEc9_400x400.jpg
 
It's likely to be a partner/lover who turned out to be A Very Bad Man but there's something in the fine detail of the song that's a little too forensic for that.

I first heard the song when Blancmange covered it to not much success. It really is very very good indeed, annoying keyboard trill notwithstanding.
 
octophone said:
I'm quite into the theory that "he" is this guy...

ArtTfEc9_400x400.jpg
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Apparently Bjorn suggests, like Sheena says, she's reflecting on the time before a traumatic event, after said traumatic event.

At this point in their career, they were writing about cold war conspiracies and threesomes, so it could be ANYTHING.
 
Ag said:
Apparently Bjorn suggests, like Sheena says, she's reflecting on the time before a traumatic event, after said traumatic event.
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That would certainly fit. I mean, the coldness among the group must have had an impact on the song. There's something heightened about it, if that makes sense.
 
For a piece of music that could be interpreted as simple, the combination of the plodding every day mundainity of the lyrics, with the plodding drum, moody synthesiser and the ethereal backing vocals, it perfectly creates the feeling of IMMINENT THREAT.

I mean One Night In Bangkok wasn't THAT BAD.
 
It has always seemed to me to be lamenting a loss (and reflection on the person she was before what she lost came into being - listless).

It’s a track that it, strangely, took me years to discover but is now probably my favourite.
 
Ag said:
For a piece of music that could be interpreted as simple, the combination of the plodding every day mundainity of the lyrics, with the plodding drum, moody synthesiser and the ethereal backing vocals, it perfectly creates the feeling of IMMINENT THREAT.
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The backing vocals are off the scale.
 
I prefer King Kong Song to What About Livingstone and Suzy-Hang-Around. And to about three Ring Ring tracks.

I'd probably give it a 5.
 
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