Song Analysis - If It Wasn't For The Nights

 If It Wasn't For The Nights is yet another disco-inspired track for ABBA's forthcoming album at the time, and is yet another happy sounding song with kinda sad lyrics.  Recorded in November 1978, the song is about someone who either has just broken up.  Interestingly enough, while not many ABBA songs are inspired by real life events, Bjorn, who wrote the lyrics, has said that this song was written around the time that he was going through a bit of a rough bit mentally, which in turn was reflected in the theme of the lyrics.  As we know, Bjorn and Agnetha weren't having the most pleasant year in 1978 in terms of their marriage, and I believe they had separated around the time of recording this track.  However, just to keep in mind, while that truly was effecting Bjorn's emotional state, that DOESN'T mean that the song is a true story of Agnetha and Bjorn's breakup.  In fact, the song could just be about depression and loneliness in general, and the lyrical content is not directly tied to the events of their divorce.

Now that that's out of the way, the song is about someone who spends most of the days working I'm assuming a 9-5 office job, which ABBA reference a lot in their songs.  The narrator of the song mentions how during the day, they keep their mind occupied with their work and appointments and the like, keeping themselves distracted, because otherwise, their mind immediately goes to the their ex, and then all the emotions and thoughts about them come flooding back.  Despite these distractions, their work performance still isn't at it's best.  They don't care what words come out of their mouth, they lost their temper a lot, and it's bad, oh so bad.  

At this point, the narrator has basically just given up on being okay and trying to act better.  Because if it wasn't for the nights, aka when they're all alone at home after a long day of work left to their own thoughts and devices, they would be okay.  If they didn't have to come home each day after work, and have all that time alone, maybe they'd have the courage left to fight through this depression, but at this point, it doesn't seem worth it.

The first line of the second verse, "No one to turn to, you know how it is," I think is extremely sad but also real.  A lot of people don't have a support system or anyone to turn to or talk to at times of crisis, and unfortunately the same goes for our narrator.  Also the line "oh baby, I feel so bad, I know I’m never gonna make it" is extremely depressing and sad as well.  You can really feel the pain and struggle of deep depression in this song, despite the fact that the music backing all of this is so happy and feel-good and dance-able.  Although, I feel like this was a stylistic choice.  Many people with depression tend to hide it and act like on the outside, everything is okay, everything is fine, but it's all a facade.  And like the music is almost like that happy facade, pretending like everything is okay and fine and dandy.

Unfortunately, the song doesn't even have a positive resolution in the end either. It's just sharing the narrators thoughts as they are, with no hope for things to get better.  And as sad as that is, it's also extremely real and relatable to anyone else struggling with depression like this.  And it's okay to not be okay.  If anything, this song allows for people with depression to be heard, and to give an understanding to those who otherwise wouldn't know what it's like.  And for that reason, this song is beautiful.

Agnetha and Frida take the lead vocals together in this song, however they do each get an individual line which I think is a really nice touch.  In the first verse, Agnetha sings the line "Oh, so bad," on her own, and Frida sings that same line alone in the second verse.  I really like hearing the stark contrast between their voices and ways of singing the same line.  Like when they're singing in unison, their voices blend perfectly, yet when they're singing individually, Agnetha sounds crystal clear and smooth, and Frida's voice has this rough and sharp quality to it and it's amazing.  Their backing vocals and harmonies are amazing, too, and their vocals are just at their peek in my opinion.  And instrumentation, too, is perfect, and while the disco elements to the song do make this song sound ever so slightly dated, it's also ABBA's own personal interpretation to disco and it doesn't have all the disco elements that were present in disco songs of the time, making it disco-inspired but not full-fledged in your face disco, if that makes any sense hahahhaha.  And the ABBA-interpretation is very, very timeless as well.

ABBA performed the song twice on TV, once in Japan with an early mix of the song, and then another early mix of the song on the Mike Yarwood show at the end of 1978.  ABBA would also go on to perform the song as the 2nd song on the setlist on their 1979/80 tour.  We have some visual footage of ABBA, live in Japan, and also audio from ABBA's last night at Wembley Arena from their 2014 live album.