OPO: Most Disturbing Abba Song

But today, I can't believe it's true
When you smiled and whispered I love you
Darling I could see, I was meant to be your girl

Is it the evil part?

'The Day Before you Came'. What exactly is the nature of the relationhip betwen the singer and the subject? It doesn't sound very joyful. The whole package is quite disturbing.

She said, "I'm sure we must be perfect for each other
And if you doubt it you'll be certain when you meet my mother"

You mean, like, Richard Simmons?

(Or on the other other hand, it just could be duff lyrics wirttewn by Stig Anderson!!!!)

Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he'll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he's astray
Keeps on going anyway

Yeah, thanks, Bjorn - want some painkillers with that champagne?

"1975's 'S.O.S.' is the real 'Love Will Tear Us Apart,' an unguarded last-ditch cry for help. A desperately shouted symphony chorus cuts through wispy, nervous verses full of minor-key bistro-pianoed teardrops, interruputed by a riff that sounds like Led Zeppelin gone Muzak. A woman confides that something that one made her feel alive no longer exists -- 'I try to reach for you but you have closed your mind.'"

It has lots of competition, though, including most of the songs mentioned above, many of which (among other Abba songs) I *also* talk about in my book. (not to mention: "check out the big ballads filling space on their albums, and suddenly you're confronted with a *hausfrau sitting home alone watching soaps, waiting for the kids to come home, facing a sad menopause on a dark, barren afternoon.")

" something that ONCE made her feel alive.."

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all
The loser has to fall
It's simple and it's plain
Why should I complain.

"Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand" ...

Agreed on "Happy New Year," though, esp. in light of the "if we don't, we might as well lay down and die" line.

Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing his ashtray
Keeps on going anyway

certainly this sequence in "ABBA: The Movie" is their most disturbing filmed moment

I'm finally listening to "I Am Just a Girl" -- I can definitely imagine Nurse Ratched playing this for the patients at noon.

I suddenly, yet vaguely, now recall playing "I Am Just A Girl" in one of my radio shows right after a Diamanda Galas track. Seemed a fitting sequence, somehow. :)

Has anyone heard "Suzy Hang Around", about childhood bullying?
It's a good song, too.

"Look / for a friend / of your own / Suzy Hang Around"....

Suzy was nine and I was ten
Right at the time when boys like to think they're men
She used to follow us from school
We really thought that she was a little fool
And one day we said to her
We don't want to hurt you girl
But you'd better

Look for a friend of your own, Suzy-hang-around
Better come back when you're grown, Suzy-hang-around
Nobody wants you around here and that's for sure
So get off our playground and stay away
That's all that we've got to say
Suzy-hang-around

Suzy went home to mama's arms
Mama said Look, she's never done you no harm
So get off her back and let her be
Why can't you play together in harmony
We really didn't know what to say
But as soon as she went away
We laughed and said

Look for a friend of your own, Suzy-hang-around
Better come back when you're grown, Suzy-hang-around
Nobody wants you around here and that's for sure
So get off our playground and stay away
That's all that we've got to say
Suzy-hang-around

Very sad. Also pathetic is "Dum Dum Diddle" ("to be your fiddle")....how can anyone miss this one.
On that same album is "Tiger" ("I am behind you / I always find you").

For a long time, my favorite was "Angel Eyes", it's such a strong song that it's heartbreaking,
reminds me of late seventies adolescence. I myself was only about ten years old but songs like
this warped my ideas about relationships.

I have to say that of all of these, "Dum Dum Diddle" is truly disturbing.

"I'm a Marionette" easily. Musically it gets very Stravinsky/proto-Elfman, but the lyrics are all about the despair of fame.

The version in ABBA The Movie is really intense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTLyRki-VI

Me And I

Sometimes when I'm mad
There's a part of me that seems to be a little sad
Sometimes when I scream
There's a voice in me that says, "You shouldn't be so mean"
Oh no, oh no
Part of me is acting while the other stands beside
Yes, I am to myself what Jekyll must have been to Hyde

We're like sun and rainy weather
Sometimes we're a hit together
Me and I
Gloomy moods and inspiration
We're a funny combination
Me and I
I don't think I'm different or in any way unique
Think about yourself for a minute
And you'll find the answer in it
Everyone's a freak

Sometimes I have toyed
With ideas that I got from good old Dr Freud
Nothing new of course
It may seem to you I try to break through open doors
Oh no, oh no
I just wanna say a lot of that applies to me
'Cause it's an explanation to my split identity

We're like sun and rainy weather
Sometimes we're a hit together
Me and I
Gloomy moods and inspiration
We're a funny combination
Me and I
I don't think I'm different or in any way unique
Think about yourself for a minute
And you'll find the answer in it
Everyone's a freak

Me and I

We're like sun and rainy weather
Sometimes we're a hit together
Me and I
Gloomy moods and inspiration
We're a funny combination
Me and I
I don't think I'm different or in any way unique
Think about yourself for a minute
And you'll find the answer in it
Everyone's a freak

We're like sun and rainy weather
Sometimes we're a hit together
Me and I
Gloomy moods and inspiration
We're a funny combination
Me and I

Only after suffering depression did I really get what this song is about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE--KU17GnU

I even like "Tropical Loveland". Never been into "Summer Night City" much though.

"Honey Honey" is a typical stalker number ("you'll never get rid of me"..."you're a doggone beast" / "stay on the ground girl you'd better not get too high") adnt the heavy breathing effect after "you make me sing when you do your thing" is probably the most uncomfortable Abba moment I can think of.

It's like walking in on your aunt and uncle having sex.

"Slipping Through My Fingers" is a particularly acute picture of distance and mortality

Also, 'Cracking Up'. Someone living in genuine fear of the secret police of a fascist state, or the imaginings of a paranoid fantasist?