Song Analysis - Just A Notion

I have been so so excited to write about this post, hahahahaha.  

I know I mentioned in the last post how Bjorn and Benny were becoming a lot less vocally prominent in tracks from the Voulez-Vous album, and while that is certainly true, that's not to say they weren't there recording any vocals.  I think it's probably that when they were mixing the songs, they just slowly and slowly faded Bjorn and Benny's vocals to be so much lower and quieter in the mix that you can't hear them.  However that is no the case with Just A Notion!  ABBA began recording this song in August, 1978, and surprisingly it features very prominent harmonies and backing vocals from Bjorn in the verses, namely the "Ahaha"s that are throughout the whole song.  The song featured Agnetha and Frida together in the chorus, singing together in perfect harmony with that wonderful, blended, almost metallic-sounding, and the backing track is just happy and exciting.

Just A Notion is one of ABBA's just pure, happy songs.  It's not happy music with sad lyrics, it's just a song about someone who has this feeling, this small little notion, that maybe this person who they like, likes them back.  It almost sounds like what happens when you get a major crush on a person, and suddenly they're all your thinking about, and suddenly you're coming up with all these fantasies about what's going to happen, what your wedding will be like, what your future life will be like, how many kids you'll have, etc, even though it's all just a crush and said person that you're crushing on hasn't even said or done anything to indicate that they're interested in you, haha.  But it's all innocent and fun, and of course you can't just walk up to the crush and be like "omg I like you," you have to wait for them to  take initiative.  But of course you can't help but wonder and come up with reasons for why that hasn't happened yet.  

Agnetha and Frida sing, "Just a notion, that's all.  Just a funny feeling deep inside that you're out there waiting.  You're not sure I'm alone, and you wonder if I'm occupied," basically assuming that the reason why that the person hasn't come up to them is because maybe they think the main character of the song is occupied or with someone else.  Then in chorus, there's that fantasizing about what's going to happen and what it'll be like when they actually get together, "Just a notion, that you'll be walking up to me in a while.  And you'll smile and say hello.  And we'll be dancing through the night, knowing everything from there on must be right!"  And in the second verse, there's the line, "Just a feeling that you're watching me, every move I'm making.  Am I reading your mind?  'Cause it's almost like you're touching me."  

It's like the narrator of the song is projecting their own feelings and the person they're crushing on, and just making silly little assumptions, and honestly, it's just fun and innocent, and happy.  And that's just one of the many reasons why I like this song. 

However, Bjorn and Benny were never really satisfied with the it, and as much as they liked the song, Bjorn and Benny just weren't happy with the mix, and ultimately left the song as unreleased.  And so it remained, until 1994, when Michael B. Tretow was assembling the ABBA Undeleted medley, he included a ~2:20 second snippet of the song, starting from the second chorus until the end of the song, appearing 4:55 in the ABBA Undeleted medley.  That was the first time fans ever heard the song, and when I first got into ABBA and was listening to literally every single song I could find on YouTube, I fell in love with Just A Notion.  I loved the music, the sound, the vocals, everything, and I couldn't believe Bjorn and Benny deemed the song unworthy of being finished because to me, it was everything.  I love all the songs on ABBA Undeleted, but this one, along with Giving A Little More, stood out to me as just fantastic and amazing songs, and I would listen to them over and over again.

Clearly I'm not the only ABBA fan who loved this song so much.  In 1999, before I was even born hahah, the ABBA tribute-band, Arrival, were given permission to record the song in full or their debut album, First Flight.  Their version is basically a recreation of the original 1978 version, and it's decent.  I can't listen to it, hahaha, but for what it is, it's not bad.  And they ended up being the first official release of the song in full.  It has a piano crescendo intro in the style of Dancing Queen in the beginning, and a saxophone instrumental break in where the second chorus would be, and it also repeats the first verse at the end of the song, and it's basically a fun little tribute to ABBA.  But I'm only listening to it for the sake of the review and analysis as I cannot bear to listen to anyone other than ABBA singing ABBA songs more than once.  Not trying to put down the singers of the tribute band, I just can't listen to it.  

Anyways, fast forward to 2021, and Bjorn and Benny had the idea to revive Just A Notion, and find a way to release it.  Ultimately, the only way to make it workable for them was to rerecord the entire backing track, and that's what they did.  I believe they kept Lasse Wellander's original guitar from the 1978 mix, and that aside from the vocals are the only things from the original 1978 recording.  Everything else was recorded anew, and it's amazing.  When I first heard this new version of the song, I was at first a little disappointed because I preferred the 1978 instruments more, and this 2021 version has more of a ragtime feel and less exciting, however I don't feel that way anymore.  I really enjoy it, I love all of Benny's piano bits throughout the entire song, I love the extended outro, and I love the extra vocals that Agnetha and Frida recorded in 2021 as well.  (More on that in a bit.)

The one thing that does bother me though is the fact that they mixed Agnetha and Frida's vocals differently.  Before, they were singing at like the same volume, with Agnetha and Frida's voices sounded perfectly level and you get that wonderful blended sound that I described earlier.  However, for the 2021 mix, they made Agnetha's vocals more prominent, and Frida's vocals lower in volume, and the result is it sounds more like it's Agnetha's lead with Frida just harmoinzing rather than the two of them singing together.  They still sound beautiful together, and what a treat it is to hear this song in full finally after all these years of being locked away as an unmixed, unfinished track, but it would have sounded so amazing if they kept the blending of their voices.

Now while the entirety of the song's vocals are from the 1978 version, Agnetha and Frida did record a line for the extended outro.  That line being, "I, I think it's more than a notion.  Even more than your dream is about to come true!" and I love how you can tell that Agnetha and Frida are older, their voices aren't as crisp and light as they used to sound, yet they still sound really, really good singing in that higher pitch to try and sound like their younger selves, with all these layers and layers of harmonies, and I bet if someone who wasn't as familiar with ABBA's voices were to hear this song, they wouldn't even be able to detect that these are modern vocals.

So all in all, I love this song with my entire heart and soul, and I am so so so glad that ABBA chose to release it finally on 2021's Voyage album.  It was just such a treat, hearing it for the first time, and although the instruments sound a lot more modern compared to other songs recorded in 1978, I sometimes like to make a little playlist of my favorite Voulez-Vous era songs, like Dream World, Lovelight, Kisses Of Fire, Angeleyes, and Just A Notion, and it fits right in. 

Song Analysis - The King Has Lost His Crown

 Frida is an insanely incredible and talented vocalist, but if there's something she is really, really good at, it's her sarcastic and snarky vocals as can be heard in The King Has Lost His Crown.  Recorded in August, 1978, the song is about a guy who has just lost his girlfriend, and suddenly, his entire life has been thrown upside down.  

 In a way, the lyrics seem to convey sympathy for this guy, the "king" even though he's not an actual king, but the way things are phrased and how Frida sings it, you can tell she's sort of making fun of him and belittle his situation a bit.  At least that's how I've always interpreted it.  Specifically the lines, "how does it feel? I guess it hurts your pride," and "Disaster and disgrace! The king has lost his crown!" kinda of give of mocking vibes, as if he's being so over dramatic over the breakup and Frida and Agnetha are laughing at him.  

The guy is basically acting like a king who has lost his crown, and now he doesn't act like himself, when all that happened is that he was broken up with.  Honestly based off the first line of the song, "I believe your new girl turned you down, and they say, she's pushing you around," makes me thing that this is the type of guy who feels like he can't anything without having a girl in his life.  He can't function without having a significant other but also "being the man" in situation and "being the one in control," and as a result, he doesn't seem to have a very good track record of keeping a girlfriend, so he gets new girl after new girl after new girl.  But then this time, his newest girl pushes back, she doesn't let him have the control, she's the one who puts her foot down an actively doesn't let him feel like he's in control, and that just totally ruins him.  Someone who doesn't put up with his garbage personality?? :O :O :O :O

And yeah, that's my interpretation of the song.  I wasn't there when Bjorn and Benny wrote the song, with the lyrics mostly written by Bjorn, so I can't know 100% what it was about, but also it probably wasn't based off any true facts either.  Remember, unless an ABBA song is explicitly mentioned to be inspired by real life, it isn't the true story. :)  

While Frida sings the lead throughout the song with her amazing sarcastic vocals, Agnetha joins her in the second half of the verses and choruses.  Much like a lot of the songs from the Voulez-Vous album, I don't hear much of Bjorn and Benny in the backing vocals, but I'm sure they're buried in their somewhere.  The backing track with Benny's powerful synths also give off that almost vengeful feel to the song.  And I just love it.  (I loved this song so much that when I was still making ABBA animations on Lego Digital Designer back in my early days of YouTube, I had to do an animation of this song.)

Sadly, ABBA did not perform this song ever except for an early mix of it in the ABBA in Switzerland TV special, but again, their performance of it is really, really good, one of my favorite of all their performances. 

Also fun fact, this is the only other ABBA song to mention a title of monarchy in the song title, the other being Dancing Queen.

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.

Song Analysis - Lovers (Live A Little Longer)

On June 5th, 1978, ABBA began working on another track for the up and coming studio album that so far was taking a long time to come up with.  Bjorn and Benny found inspiration quite low at this time, and the only song from these early writing and recording sessions to even appear on the final album was this song, Lovers (Live A Little Longer.)  

Up until this point, it can be argued that ABBA's music was mostly clean, and people of all age groups could comfortably ABBA's entire catalog, whereas now ABBA were stepping into more "explicitly" sexual themes in their songs with a new level of maturity.  I'm digressing a bit, but as people ABBA had given off "clean" energy - two couples, one married, the other engaged - and they didn't take any drugs and were overall very chill compared to other stars of their same era.  However they have plenty of "dirty" and also "mature" themed songs, and by that I mean literal mature things.  Like Knowing Me Knowing You, a song about two adults with children, who are divorcing.  To name a few "dirty" songs off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Honey Honey, Rock Me, and arguably, Gonna Sing You My Love Song and Why Did It Have To Be Me.   And on the mature side, we have One Man, One Woman and Knowing Me, Knowing You.  So like, in my humble opinion, ABBA have never been "clean & innocent," so I'm not surprised or concerned that the album Voulez-Vous has more sexual themes.

Anyways, Lovers (Live A Little Longer) is said to be a song inspired a headline that Bjorn may have seen.  I'm not 100% certain on the validity of that, but regardless, in the song, the narrator is sharing this incredible news that she just read in the paper that day, that a physician has made the claim that love is a longevity factor, and Lovers who Make Love together will live longer than the average human who does not!  So, the narrator of the song is super hyped by this and is like, "alright, let's start right away!" 

Honestly the song to me always seemed kinda not overly serious, a bit like "Two For The Price Of One" and "Crazy World," like it's not to be taken all that seriously and is kinda funny, but the production of the song is quite serious.  Like Frida, who sings lead on this song, has these extremely sensual vocals and she sings so well, capturing the "matureness" of the song perfectly well. Agnetha has these incredible backing vocals are superb.  She has some backing vocals that are oddly not written down anywhere in the official lyrics, and it's really hard to decipher what she's singing in the second verse, but I think they are Verse 1: "Ooh, you know that" and Verse 2: "I'm exploding" or "aaaah, please don't wait" and no one really knows that they are.  I'd really love it if Bjorn and Benny could clear it up for us someday hahahahhaha. 

There are also some really really really fun backing vocals in the chorus, which are literally just "lovers-live-a-little-longer-lovers-live-a-little-longer" over and over again and they make it sound so easy but I bet that was so hard to record in the studio hahahahaha.  Speaking of backing vocals, I don't really hear Bjorn and Benny anywhere on this track, except maybe in the second verse when they say "Making love is a dynamite drug, baby, so why don't we start right away?" as on the phrase "Making love" there's some added backing vocals, and maybe the boys added to that?  But again, I don't know.  

Also, just before the bridge, there are some lovely "aaaah-aaah-aah-aaaahs" in typical ABBA-style vocals from Agnetha and Frida, just the two of them singing in harmony and idk, just that one small part before the bridge is like my favorite part of the song.  I also really love the extra little "yeah"s at the end of the last chorus before the song ends.

Contrary to public belief, ABBA are not a Disco band.  They are a Pop band.  But they dabbled in many, many different styles.  Tropical Loveland is sort of ABBA's take on Reggae, I Saw It In The Mirror is their attempt at R&B, and so on and so forth.  The Voulez-Vous album contains songs that are very much inspired by Disco which was kinda popular at that time, but in my opinion, only songs like "As Good As New," "The King Has Lost His Crown," "If It Wasn't For The Nights", "Lovers (Live A Little Longer)," and "Kisses Of Fire" give disco vibes, and by that I mean ABBA's interpretation of Disco.  That leaves 5 other songs on the album that are not disco.  So yes they dabbled in Disco, but that doesn't make them a disco band.

Despite the fact that Lovers (Live A Little Longer) is a very good song, ABBA never performed it live in concert.  However, an early mix of the song did make its debut in February, 1979, along with a couple of other songs from the Voulez-Vous album.   I love this TV special, and this performance as well is a standout for me.  I love their costumes as well, being among my personal top favorite ABBA outfits.  This song is just so fun, and they captured that enjoyment in their performance perfectly!

Happy 79th Birthday, Björn!

 Today we celebrate one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Mr. Björn Ulvaeus' 79th birthday!  Happy, happy birthday dear Björn!  I hope he has the absolute greatest day celebrating with all of his family and friends!