Song Analysis - I Wonder (Departure)

 As I mentioned in my last post, I Wonder (Departure) is the third song in Bjorn and Benny's mini-musical that they wrote as a show to be performed during ABBA's 1977 tour.  The first song was Thank You For The Music, and it introduces us to the title character, played by both Agnetha and Frida: the Girl with the Golden Hair.  When we first meet her, Agnetha plays her and she's sharing how much she loves music, singing, and dancing, and how she wants to do something with this talent that she has.

I Wonder (Departure) picks up with our character, this time played by Frida, as she's presented with the opportunity to leave her town, her friends and family, to pursue a career in music.  This everything she's ever dreamed of, however she's a little scared.  Here she is, leaving her hometown that she literally grew up in and is what feels familiar and comforting.  While she'll be off making music and reining in success, everyone around her will just be doing the usual life things.  Everyone will just continue on as they should be, you know, starting their own families and making babies, that sort of things, while she's off doing something that isn't standard.  

While she's quite frightened of this sudden large change, she says, "Who the hell am I if I don't even try?" and hypes herself up, saying that this is a once in a lifetime experience, and she's going to take it.  And it's not like it can do wrong, right?  ...Right?

 While this song is a continuation of the musical's story, it is a very good song stand alone.  Like it doesn't have to be about the girl with the golden hair being given to opportunity to pursue music and being scared.  Anyone going through any big change in their life, maybe it's getting ready for a new job or college, or something else entirely, can relate to this song.  And it's a very, very good song.

As I mentioned, Frida takes the lead on this song, and her vocals are absolutely amazing.  Specifically in the live version, that can be heard in bootleg recordings, she manages to capture the feelings and nervousness of the character, capturing all the emotions that the Girl With The Golden Hair is feeling in her performance.

Bjorn and Benny didn't end up changing the lyrics at all in this early, live version when they eventually recorded it in the studio.  Though, they did change up the instruments a bit.  While generally it is pretty much the same, there was an absolutely beautiful saxophone solo that was performed in between the chorus and the verse that is honestly such a highlight.  It adds such a different feel to the song, adding like a sense of hopefulness at the end of each chorus.  But when ABBA recorded it in the studio, they chose to take it out, which I'm honestly so mad about hahahahhaa.  The saxophone is just epic and deserves to be put back, okay???  The song also has a sweet little piano outro, played by Benny that's different to the one in the studio version.

I mentioned in my last post that ABBA had recorded a lot of their concerts in full, I think their performances at the Royal Albert Hall, and then some if not all of their Australian leg of the tour.  Unfortunately they weren't satisfied with the recordings, and now today refuse to release them to the public.  I'm thinking they came to this decision that the recordings are bad when they were working on ABBA the Movie.  They needed a good live audio to sync up all the moving footage to, to make one consistent live audio, and they must have found that there's was always something wrong with each night's audio that they recorded, and ultimately decided to dub over all the audio that would be used in the movie with vocals and instruments recorded in the studio so it would sound cleaner and more perfect.  And with ABBA being perfectionists, it would make sense that when given the opportunity to present themselves performing live, they don't want there to be any flaws whatsoever.  When performing live in concert, unfortunately there may always be errors, but that doesn't mean they have to keep the errors.

So, all the live audio that you hear in ABBA the Movie is actually "fake-live".  The movie footage of ABBA in concert is what they were doing live on stage, but the audio is dubbed over, kind of like ADR for movies and TV shows.  This also gave them the opportunity to use footage from different nights and have it all blend together seamlessly because to the audience's ears, it's all one single performance.  Though that did allow for some inconsistencies, like some nights Agnetha had a braid in her hair, others she had a ponytail, and then sometimes she would have her hair just down.

While I Wonder didn't end up appearing in ABBA the Movie (though at one point Agnetha can be seen practicing her vocals to that song in the dressing room even though she doesn't actually sing it live), they may have been thinking about it, and ended up dubbing it over with the "fake-live" vocals.  And in October 1977, they released I Wonder (Departure) (Live) as the b-side to The Name Of The Game. While it is new vocals and new piano overdubs from Benny, if you listen closely (there are some parts of ABBA the Movie where you can hear this as well, I can think of in Dancing Queen, towards the end there are some actually live Frida ad-libs), you can hear the original, live vocals buried in there.  

The studio version that ended up being released on The Album, is really good, just kind of has a more depressing and sadder feel to it. The lack of saxophone kind of depletes from the feeling of hopefulness that is heard in the live, bootleg audios.  While Agnetha seemingly doesn't appear in the live performances in concert, I wonder if she's in the studio version at all.   When i listen to it, I'm only hearing Frida, maybe some Bjorn & Benny thrown in there with some harmonies, specifically in the chorus, but I don't hear Agnetha much in it. But I don't know.

Anyways, this song is a very hopeful song, very lovely, and Frida performs in super well.  Although the song ends on a hopeful note, unfortunately the next time we hear from The Girl With The Golden Hair, things aren't going so well, haha.  Still, the song as a stand alone song still gives a very hopeful message, and I love it.

(Also on a completely unrelated note - if you're familiar with the Glagow Willy Wonka scam situation, doesn't the narrator for the Girl With The Golden Hair sound a bit like the actor playing Willy Wonka, especially when he says "WhAT iS tHaT?  iT'S thE UnkNoWn!")