Song Analysis - Free As A Bumble Bee

 On May 29th, 1978, Bjorn and Benny were working on yet another track for ABBA's upcoming album.  Usually Bjorn and Benny wrote would write songs and sing the demo versions for one or both of the ladies to sing, but this song never even made it past this demo stage.  Appearing at roughly 14:45 in ABBA Undeleted, the song, titled Free As A Bumblebee is a song about someone who is tired and down about the boring work week.  As the narrator sits waiting for the next bus traveling downtown, presumably on his way to his job office, he can't help but feel bad that he doesn't get to just sit and enjoy the beautiful weather.  If he wasn't forced to have to work, he could be as free as a bumble bee, taking a sip of every flower, buzzing around lazily.  It sounds like such a good live, analogous to a railroad bum by the track.  I mean, I'm not sure that is a good life, but maybe Bjorn and Benny are suggesting that being as free as a bumble bee isn't as freeing as it sounds, but compared to having to work all night and work all day to pay the bills they have to pay, it sounds so much nicer, being able to actually enjoy the outdoors, lie back in the grass, and chew on a straw!

  Bjorn and Benny sing this simple demo track all together, including the higher pitched vocals in the background during the chorus that sound almost just like Agnetha. I believe they pitched up their own vocals to get that effect, but it just Bjorn and Benny with no involvement from the ladies.  

  I've already talked about this a bit in my post about I Am An A, but this track reuses the melody of the chorus of I Am An A.  Obviously Bjorn and Benny always liked that piece of music and wanted to salvage it into a proper song at some point, but Free As A Bumble Bee just wasn't it.  It wasn't until 1984 when the same original I Am An A appeared in Bjorn and Benny's song, I Know Him So Well, from the musical Chess.

  I like this song.  I like the songs that reference nature, and sunny, beautiful days.  Even though this song
is so short and not even finished, the first couple of lines, "it’s a crying shame isn’t it the beautiful weather.  If I could have my way well, I would not be working on a day like this I know what I’d like to be..." already paints such vivid imagery.

While this song about a bumble bee never officially got released in full, only being included as a mere, roughly two minute long snippet, ABBA did end up with a song about bumble bees many, many years later on their 2021 album, Voyage, on a track simply called Bumble Bee.  The two songs have nothing to do with each other, the only connection being that hey both star bumble bees, but I guess Bjorn and Benny have just always liked them, :'D