Song Analysis - Sitting In The Palmtree

Not a lot of ABBA's songs are about true events or are direct retellings of a personal story, most if any are only inspired by real life.  However, Sitting In The Palmtree is said to be a true story....

When ABBA would perform this song live during their 1977 tour, Bjorn would introduce the song, saying that it's a true story based off of what happened to... well here's the thing, he'd say different things at different concerts.

Going off of the bootleg recordings that we have, at the first concert on the Australian leg of the tour, on March 3rd in Sydney, Bjorn says that this is a true story about what happened to him when he was on vacation in the West Indies.

At the March 8th concert in Adelaide, Bjorn says the song is inspired by a good friend who was in vacation in the West Indies.

At the March 10th concert, in Perth, Bjorn says this is the true story about their guitarist Lasse.  One time Lasse and his girlfriend were on vacation in the West Indies, when she left Lasse to go hang out with "one of the local beach boys" and he got so upset that he climbed up the top of a palmtree and refused to come down.  Even his mother was asked to try and get him down. 

And at their concert on March 11th in Perth, Bjorn says the song is inspired by their Bass player, Rutger.  Once when he was on vacation in the West Indies, he ended up at the top of a palmtree, singing to his lover.

As you can probably tell by these introductions, perhaps maybe the song is not a true story and this was just a gag that Bjorn would play at every concert, and it would set the mood and tone for the song he was about to sing. 

Sitting In The Palmtree seems to be among ABBA's far and few humorous songs.  (other examples of funny songs that I can think of are Crazy World and Two For The Price.)  Sitting In The Palmtree is about a guy who climbs to the top of a palmtree and won't come down, no matter what, even if he's being laughed at and mocked by passersby.  The reason being, he won't come down until Ginny tells him that she loves him.  Going off of this line, "Winds blow, stars glow I see a light in her window. dark trees, soft breeze, carry my message to her please" I get the feeling that Ginny is his crush and he is trying one last attempt to get her to notice him/admit she loves him.  Kinda manipulative, but also this song is not meant to be taken seriously, in fact I think we as listener are supposed to laugh at this silly act of love that the main character is putting himself through just to get a girl's attention.  

Bjorn takes the lead vocals on this song, with Agnetha and Frida providing some lovely backing vocals, even singing one section of the song together without Bjorn.  I love the little "bom bom"s in the background of the second chorus, and in the last chorus there are some lovely harmonies on the line "and in the evening when the sun goes down I’ll be the bluest of men in this town."

I'm fairly certain this song is meant to be taken in jest, and is a good example of Bjorn and Benny's very interesting sense of humor.  All in all, the song is good fun.

Also, along with the various bootleg recordings from ABBA's 1977 tour, ABBA also performed this song live on their 1975 tour, as can be heard in the bootleg Eskilstuna recording.