Song Analysis: Our Last Summer

 Hello.  It has been a minute.  Do I likely have undaignosed ADHD?  Probably...  Erm, anyway, let's talk about Our Last Summer.  In early June of 1980, ABBA began working on the sweet but kinda melancholy track about a past summer romance.  Inspired by Bjorn's own French summer romance when he was a teenager, the song tells of a short-lived romance while away in France - a theme that has come up already once before in Monsieur Monsieur.  It wouldn't surprise me if Bjorn's same summer romance was the inspiration for that song as well.  

Frida takes the lead vocals on this song, perfectly capturing the sweet memories tinged with a bit of sadness in her performance.  

Both the first and second verses give us a glimpse into what this young couple were doing while in Paris -visiting various tourist spots like the Elysee Palace, the Eiffel Tower,  the Notre Dame, and the Seine, as well as trying out various foods like croissants and drinks from every cafe they visited.  You can get a sense that these two characters in the sound were very young, carefree, and happy not having to worry much at all about the future.  Although there were a few discussions of fear of dying, and also flying - which I've always wondered if that was a nod to Agnetha and her fear, but perhaps it's a common fear to be afraid of flying.  But overall, the summer romance was good, happy, and very peaceful.

But of course it wouldn't be an ABBA song if there was no happy ending!  The third verse is as follows:

And now you’re working in a bank, the family man, a football fan,
and your name is Harry.

How dull it seems yet,

you’re the hero of my dreams. 

Basically telling us how despite their sweet summer romance, eventually they had go off in their own separate directions.  He moved on, became a banker and has a family of his own, but she's still here having to reminisce on memories from a happier time.  It's like for her, one of the greatest things to ever happen to her was that summer romance, but for him, it was just a summer romance, you know?  As soon as they left each other, he was truly gone.  He moved on without her, but she's still caught up in him.  

I've seen a lot of people confused by the line "And your name is Harry," like, duh, wouldn't his name always have been Harry? But I see it as maybe Harry is such a simple name, like you wouldn't expect someone to be so obsessed with a guy named Harry hahahahahah, it's such an ordinary name, yet to her, Harry takes on a whole new meaning.  The name Harry will always remind her of happier times and places.

While Frida is the lead vocalist on this song, I truly think she was the perfect choice for the song, Agnetha comes in during the choruses, with amazing harmonies throughout.  One of my favorite parts of the song is when she sings the lines in "walking hand in hand" and "memories that remain" in the last two choruses. And of course the way Frida sings the lines "I stilll seeeee it alllll" and "weeeeee were living for the day, worries far away" in the last chorus honestly sends shivers down my spine each time I listen to it.  Even though that last part is mostly hidden away in the fade-out of the song, I still love it so much.  I don't know how present Bjorn and Benny were when it came to vocals for this song, I can hardly hear them, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're buried in there.

We can't talk about this song and not talk about the hidden harmonies in the instrumental interlude.  Underneath the electric guitar played by the one and only Lasse Wellander are some absolutely angelic vocals from Agnetha and Frida that are sang to the melody of what would become the song Anthem from the musical Chess.  That just goes to show how long Bjorn and Benny had been holding on to that melody.  Although these vocals are buried so deeply in the final mix of the song, you can find early mixes of the song up on YouTube that highlight these vocals perfectly.

 

So that's Our Last Summer, a song about longing for previous times and memories - be it romantic or just in general happier times - something that I think a lot of us can relate to.