Song Analysis - Hole In Your Soul

 Hole In Your Soul is one of a few just ridiculously happy ABBA songs.  The song is uplifting, exciting, feel good.  There's no breakups, no heartbreak.  Just a song about music, more specifically Rock 'n roll music, being all you need to feel better.  Or to fill the hole in your soul. 

The song starts with acknowledging that sometimes people feel bad, or get the blues (a common ABBA expression).  Sometimes things are bad, worse, and worst, and life feels burdensome.  However ABBA are here to offer you a solution to all your troubles, something that will loosen you up and making you feel better: Rock 'N Roll!  

The chorus is basically just ABBA reminding you that Rock' n roll is all you need to fill the hole in your soul.  While the rest of the song is sung by Agnetha and Frida in unison and a bit sped up so they sound a little bit like chipmunks, a style that a lot of ABBA's earlier Waterloo-era songs had so it's nice to see them use that style again, Bjorn and Benny are featured singing along with the girls in the chorus, but in a much lower and deeper voice.  (They also sing some backing vocals during the verses as well.)

In the second verse, in common ABBA style, ABBA mention the names of some people.  Other songs that mention names up until this point, specifically random characters that ABBA made up for songs, are Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother, Nina, Pretty Ballerina, Suzy-Hang-Around, Sitting In The Palmtree, My Mama Said, Rikky Rock'N Roller, Hey Hey Helen, So Long, Crazy World, That's Me, Fernando, and Happy Hawaii.  (Post HIYS - Rubber Ball Man, Our Last Summer, Elaine, Two For The Price Of One, and I Can Be That Woman, and Keep An Eye On Dan.)  While the names in Hole In Your Soul seem like the usual random names that ABBA came up with, they actually named them after real people they knew.  According to ABBA Omnibus, their friend Sam the chauffeur references is an actual chauffeur ABBA met in the US, Annie who goes to school references a secretary of Atlantic Records in the US, specifically the secretary to Jerry who works at the office who is referencing Jerry Greenberg of Atlantic Records.  And Sue who lies by the pool is possibly in reference to the secretary of the British ABBA Fan Club.  The fact that we can trace these random friends listed in Hole In Your Soul to actual people ABBA knew makes me wonder if any of the other fictional characters that show up in ABBA's songs are referencing real people (I know Tammy the Dog in I Can Be That Woman is a tribute to the country singer Tammy Wynette).  Just a thought.

One of the highlights of the song is the bridge.  So far Hole In Your Soul has featured three classic ABBA-isms: higher pitched, chipmunk-y vocals, names, and using the word blue to describe feeling/emotion, and on top of that, we also have the use of "Aha".  Anyways, I already mentioned in my post on Get On The Carousel how the melody used in the bridge of Hole In Your Soul was repurposed from Get On The Carousel.  If I'm being honest, I don't fully know what the bridge means hahaha.  

The bridge is: Aha, you paint your world and use all colours.  Aha, and then you find it all comes out too bright.  You know it's only a lie! Aha, the songs you sing are too romantic.  Aha, and when you want the truth, they only spit in your eye!  Oh yeah, they're only telling you lies.  Oh yeah, there's gotta be rock 'n' roll, to fill the hole in your soul.  

But as I mentioned, the real highlight is Agnetha's high note on the last "To fill the hole in your soul."  The fact that she carried this almost effortless sounding high note possibly even while lying down as she was pregnant while recording this album and was told to take it as easily as possible is just incredible.  

The last verse is a repeat of the first verse, and then they just repeat the line "it's gotta be rock n roll, to fill the hole in your soul" over and over again until the song ends.  

This song is very rock influenced, though not quite the heavy sounding rock energy that ABBA attempted in songs like Hey Hey Helen, Watch Out, and King Kong Song.  It's extremely fun, and exciting, and is quite the energized track.  The studio version is great, but dare I say, when ABBA performed this song live during the 1979/80 tour as one of the final songs on the setlist, it became even better!  They really bring out the energy in this song, bring out even more rock elements with more prominent guitars. All four of them got up at the front of the stage during the third verse, and Bjorn and Benny even sing part of the next chorus together while jumping up and down.  They also have an extended outro for the song, which also reused some elements from the ending of Get On The Carousel live in 1977. 

So far we have three different recordings of Hole In Your Soul - The studio version, the live version from ABBA in Concert, and the live version from the final night at Wembley released on the live album in 2014.  And all three versions are epic.  There's also plenty of bootleg recordings from other stops on the 1979 tour and fan footage too.

However, Hole In Your Soul doesn't end there. If you're among the many people who have gone to see ABBA voyage, Hole In Your Soul, which is considered a rather obscure track as it's not featured on ABBA Gold or More ABBA Gold so isn't a big hit, is the second track on the setlist, going from the first song, the epic but slow and dramatic The Visitors, to the upbeat and rocky Hole In Your Soul.  I love this choice of a song because in a way it was one of the last songs performed on the 1979 setlist, with the Visitors being one of ABBA's last songs they ever recorded prior to the 40 year hiatus haha.  I haven't seen ABBA Voyage live yet, but I have seen some sneaky clips that were on the internet for a bit before immediately getting taken down, and WOW the Avatars really rock on stage for this song.  They even have some originally unheard Frida vocals during the bridge, so she sings "they only spit in your eye! They’re only tellin’ you lies! There’s gotta be rock ’n roll!"  followed by Agnetha's high note.  In the studio version all four sing that line together.  the Avatars also recreate Bjorn and Benny's jumping together like they did in 1979.

Anyway, here's ABBA's live performance as seen in ABBA in Concert.  :)