Abba were a pop phenomenon, and one that keeps on being revived and revived. When on the radio they played the original back to back with this version, even Belgians sang along. That's how universal Abba became.
But their huge rise to fame came with the price of the break-up of the two relationships that formed the four-piece. Being consummate songwriters, they ploughed the stubble of their broken lives back into their work, and some of the later lyrics are among the most melancholic ever produced by mainstream pop.
The words of this song are an example. Despite the cheerful upbeat music, the feeling of loss, regret and finality is palpable. The very first line sets the tone:
No more carefree laughter
A simple statement of fact you may feel (I do) relates to most of our lives, those of us who have reached a certain age, or a certain level of disillusion.
The rest of the lyrics repeat the sense of hopelessness:
Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye
There is nothing we can do
Now there's only emptiness, nothing to say
This time we're through, we're really through
What Arno has done in his version is to stress that sense of melancholy which pervades the lyrics, but was hidden by the Abba arrangement. He's pared it right down to a spare accompaniment, dominated by an organ to give it a real funereal touch. He's stripped out the backing vocals, and his own raddled voice is all that's left to communicate the song's sentiment.
When I heard it just now, I had to race back home to find a version I could post, so as to share it in a post on this blog which I've neglected for so long. That's how powerful the effect was. So powerful, in fact, that when the radio played Abba immediately after, I was already listening to the song in a whole new way, filtered through the consciousness that Arno had brought to the song, of things I'd always known but never realised were there.
Here's Arno's version.
Carefree laughter is a thing of the past, isn't it. Can't even be sure how carefree it ever really was, now that our aged eyes see the layers underneath. Surely, at best it is played at today.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how it fits yet but Arno's voice reminded me of Johnny Cash's last songs, very powerful however raddled, as you say, by the length of the road, and infused with whatever that is, disillusionment etc, that we are collecting like the greasy lacquer of an unkempt kitchen.
This is properly sad versus the Abba version. But I liked Abba's weird juxtaposition of a peppy song with depressing lyrics. It was interesting to find yourself bopping around while singing along about a very un-boppy moment. It was messier.
ReplyDeleteThe first album I ever bought with my own money was "Arrival." So I'm an unabashed ABBA fan, always have been (I'm a sucker for a well-crafted pop song). That album also had a little ditty called "When I Kissed the Teacher," which I'm sure wouldn't fly nowadays.
ReplyDeleteBut I still haven't forgiven Benny and Bjorn for "Chess."