Song Analysis - Summer Night City

 On 29th of May, 1978, ABBA began working on a track that ultimately ended up taking them a very, very long time to be satisfied with.  The song is a very disco-inspired dance able track that is basically a tribute to ABBA's beloved Stockholm and the nightlife, with lead vocals from Bjorn, Agnetha, and Frida.  I believe we have some Benny in there too, but I wouldn't say he's a lead vocalist.

Originally the song had an extended, slow introduction of ~43 seconds with mostly Bjorn's vocals prominent, with Agnetha and Frida's vocals buried in the far back of in the mix.  Then it jumps into the energetic, upbeat track that we're all very familiar with.  As the song was quite long, at around 4:14, when they were editing the song for a single release, they cut out the entire intro with I think the intention to include the full version on their forthcoming album.  However, Summer Night City never ended up making it onto the Voulez-Vous album, instead remaining a single.

While being quite modern, with lots of synths and strings that were popular in disco tracks of the mid-late 70s, the song in a way feels like a throwback to some of ABBA's earliest songs, with some back and forth singing between the boys and the girls in the hook? I think it's called.  While totally different subject matter and music style, it kind of reminds me of People Need Love, Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough) and He Is Your Brother, though Agnetha and Frida sing most of the song with the guys going in and out rather than the other way around as such in three early ABBA songs mentioned.

The intro begins with the line, "End of night, a new day dawning, and the first birds start to sing.  In the pale light of the morning, nothing's worth remembering.  It's a dream, it's out of reach, scattered driftwood on a beach," very much setting the mood and scene of the song.  Of course as a bird-lover I love the reference to birds, and Benny clearly did too because he is apparently a very big fan of birds and I bet he is behind the many reference to birds in ABBA's songs. 

The song is basically set in the late nights/early morning, as people basically party, dance, have fun and do whatever they want in this nightlife atmosphere.  I've been reading Carl Magnus Palm's ABBA biography, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows (I will be reviewing it when I'm done and I HAVE THOUGHTS) and it seems that the ABBA members, more specifically Benny and Frida, were frequent visitors to various clubs and clubs and the like, and while I wouldn't know, i've never done anything like that, I think this song really captures the essence of the late night party life.  Especially in the first pre-chorus, as Bjorn sings, "I know what's waiting there for me.  Tonight I'm loose and fancy-free."  

 Much like my confusion when I hear the line "If you like makin' love at midnight, in the dunes on the cape" in Escape (The Piña Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes, when I hear the line "Walking in the moonlight, love-making in a park," in Summer Night City, I just can't help but think of how UNSANITARY and gross that sounds.  And also how impolite that is.  Like imagine you're just strolling around Stockholm in the late evening, enjoying "short wonderful nights," after a "long, lazy day," as described by Agnetha in the ABBA in Japan Televesion Special, and you see people with no regard to privacy or anything just making love in the park.  That sounds disgusting.  Hahahha. So far in my two recent reads of Carl Magnus Palm Books, Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, and ABBA on Record, he makes a big deal on how record company executives were shocked and panicking that it sounded like Bjorn was singing "f***ing in the moonlight," towards the end of the song, rather than "walking in the moonlight," and as someone who has heard to crass language but doesn't use language like that ever, even when I first heard the song without even reading the lyrics and understanding what they were saying, I have never once heard the words sounds like that.  And even now when I try to see if I can hear what the executives were hearing, I can't.  So I am just wondering how on earth they even heard that hahaha.

ABBA's vocals sound really good in this song, though they all sound kind of laid back and quiet almost.  Still good though.

Anyways, ABBA released the song without the intro as a single, and promoted it on various TV shows in Japan an nowhere else interestingly, but when ABBA went on to perform the song live on stage during their 1979/80 tour and even in 1981 on the Dick Cavett Meets ABBA special, they brought back the intro.  As much as I love the studio version of the track, I just have to say, ABBA's live version, specifically the one seen and heard in the TV special ABBA in Concert, is absolutely amazing.  They give the song so much more energy, the extended outro is incredible, and it's just such a good performance, and among my absolute favorite ABBA live performances.  The 1981 one is also really really good, like they sounded superb.  Summer Night City also shows up in ABBA Voyage as part of the futuristic-tron-style segment. 

So yeah, the song is great, fun, energetic, and even more fun live. :D  Here's a compilation of all their performances.