Song Analysis - Bang-A-Boomerang

I have been very much looking forward to writing this post haha.

ABBA began working on the song Bang-A-Boomerang in September of 1974, as part of the recording sessions for their upcoming album.  

In early 1975, Bjorn, Benny, and Stig as songwriters were presented with another opportunity to submit a song to Sweden's selections to the Eurovision Song Contest, but seeing as ABBA had just won in 1975, it made sense to them to not enter again.  So they submitted the song Bang-A-Boomerang, but instead of ABBA performing it, their friends Svenne & Lotta performed the song.  The song had already been written in English, so Stig wrote up new Swedish lyrics for Svenne & Lotta to sing, and the song became Bang-En-Boomerang.  

Svenne & Lotta didn't win the contest, but Bang-En-Boomerang came in with third place and became successful around parts of Europe and Scandinavia.  With Svenne & Lotta's newfound success, they went on record to record the song in the original English lyrics as well.

Following the success of Bang-A-Boomerang, ABBA resumed their recording of Bang-A-Boomerang, and the song was released in April that year on their next album, their self-titled ABBA.

Now, there's been quite a dispute among fans about whether Bang-A-Boomerang is a cover or not.  I've already discussed this on my blog a couple of years ago, and my personal conclusion is that no, the song is not a cover.  With Bjorn and Benny being the songwriters, it is impossible for them to cover their own song.  

There have been a lot of cases of songwriters recording demo tracks to give to other artists.  Notable examples that I can think of at this moment are Kirsty MacColl and Andy Leek.  Kristy MacColl wrote the song One Little Lie for Frida's album, and Andy Leek also wrote the song Twist In The Dark for Frida's album.  Both of these songwriters recorded demos of these tracks, but the first official release for these songs is by Frida.  Since then, the songwriter's demos for these songs have been released to the public.  Kristy MacColl's version of One Little Lie was released on a compilation of her work in 2023, and Andy Leek's Twist In The Dark was included on a special edition of his Midnight Music album in 2009.   While Kristy MacColl's One Little Lie and Andy Leek's Twist In The Dark were released after Frida's in 1984, the songwriters are not covering Frida, nor is it correct to say that Frida is covering them as the songs were given to her for her album.  In fact, these tracks by Kristy MacColl and Andy Leek are the original demos that Frida was presented with when songs were submitted by songwriters for her album.

Similarly, Bjorn and Benny as songwriters make up half of ABBA, and they are ABBA.  So ABBA, as songwriters, cannot cover themselves, and Svenne & Lotta are not covering ABBA either as the song was given to them.  So yeah, there you have it.

ANYWAYS, the Swedish lyrics to Bang-En-Boomerang are very similar to the English lyrics.  First verse: "What you learn about love is that it takes talent.  It must be caught in flight because it is like a boomerang.  It takes a certain technique for that and you have to have feeling with it.  Give, and you shall be given. It is as true as written", Chorus: "Like a bang, a boomer, boomerang. Dum de dumm dumm de dumm de dumm dumm. A bang, a boomer, boomerang. The message of love finds its way. You give of yourself and from a friend you get love again. A bang, a boomer, boomerang it is, a boomerang is love."  Second verse: "What you learn about love is that you must always give. From the beginning of time, it was the idea of love. But also part of its nature. What you give you get in return.  Give, and you shall be given. It is as true as written."

The song is a really sweet song about, in order to be loved, you must give love.  And if you haven't quite figured it out yet, don't worry, you will.  "By givin’ away, I think you’ll learn, you’ll get love in return . So bang-a-boome-boomerang is love, a boome-boomerang is love."  It's a very simplistic way of looking at love, but it is true.  Relationships aren't meant to be a one-sided relationship.  You deserve love just as much as you're giving it.  If you're being all loving and nice and they're not putting in any effort, that's not fair.  

All three versions of this song that are not covers of each other are all really good.  Svenne & Lotta perform the song so well, really making it their own, and ABBA's version is also really good and sweet, with that magical ABBA sound making it extra special. 

Svenne & Lotta of course performed the song plenty, and you can find a lot of their performances all over YouTube.  Their performances of the song are always fun, and there are so many from the entire span of their career.  

Sadly ABBA only performed the song once, and that being for a music video.  (Though there's also clips from ABBA's TV special in Austrlia, 1976, of them throwing boomerangs set to bang-a-boomerang but that's not a performance.)  I think this song would have been awesome live in concert even.  It's just such a good, sweet song. 

Skyler Bird's Big Adventure

 Hi, so not an ABBA related post but I thought I'd share nonetheless.  I just published a new book, my first non-ABBA related book to be released.  It's a short, children's story about my beloved Skyler Bird, with lots of fun illustrations and simple, easy-to-read text.  It's roughly 35 pages long, and is inspired by Skyler's actual adoption story.  

If you're interested, it's available to purchase on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.  

Thanks!!

Song Analysis - I've Been Waiting For You

 I've Been Waiting For You is honestly such a beautiful and well arranged song.  From Agnetha's soft and sweet but strong vocals and Frida's amazing harmonies singing alongside Agnetha in the chorus, and the instrumentation...  The song is just perfect.

Recorded late 1974, this song is about love and being in love.  Our main character in the song has been in love before, been in relationships, but none that have ever felt as real and amazing as this one.  She feels so in love, she's almost scared that she'll lose this relationship and that she has to do whatever it takes to ensure that she will never ever lose it, with lines such as "you make me think that you possibly could release me", and "I, I’m gonna make you mine.  You’re gonna feel so fine, you’ll never want to leave me. I feel you belong to me. Someday you will agree please believe me."

The song kind of reminds me of Kisses of Fire, a song from nearly 4 years later, just on how in love the main character feels with being with their new love and their constant fear of losing it. "...still it’s making me scared that my love is so strong.  Losing you it’s a nightmare, babe, and to me it's new."  And both of these songs, Kisses of Fire and I've Been Waiting For You are among my top favorite ABBA songs btw.

Anyways, ABBA would perform this song during their 1975 tour and their 1977 tour.  The version that is heard in ABBA the Movie is absolutely beautiful, and of course the bootleg recordings from these tours are just as stunning.  Especially during the 1975 version with no additional backing vocalists, just Frida and Agnetha harmonizing BEAUTIFULLY during the choruses.  

ABBA performed this song on only a couple of TV shows, and I wish they had performed it even more because this song is amazing and deserves to be played everywhere.  I just love it.

50 years ago today...

This year is a big year for ABBA, so there's going to be a lot of posts like this haha.

It was 50 years ago today that ABBA performed Waterloo as their entry to the Melodifestivalen, Sweden's selections for the Eurovision Song Contest.  It was that day that history was made, and our favorite band won first place.  

ABBA won for a multitude of different reasons - their unique song choice, their exquisite presentation, and their amazing songwriting.  Out of all the entries, ABBA stood out.  They didn't let their loss from the year before let them down, and instead they came back stronger.  ABBA faced their Waterloo, but they didn't let themselves get defeated.  Instead they won.

Of course, as we all know, for ABBA, their story was just getting started. But today, let's celebrate ABBA's historic win, just two months before their next big win - Eurovision, 1974!

Song Analysis - Rikky Rock 'N' Roller

Rikky Rock 'N' Roller is a demo track that ABBA recorded in September, 1974, but wasn't released-ish until the ABBA Undeleted medley from 1994.  The track is only like a minute long, but it's quite a gem in my opinion.  It's got that classic ABBA song with Agnetha and Frida's joint lead vocals along with some exciting piano playing, a loud, rumbling guitar, and fun backing vocals with the "dum-dum-dum-dum-dummy-doo-ha"s.  Bjorn and Benny are hear in the backing vocals as well, and there are some really fun ad-libs?? heard in the last chorus.

The song is about a rock star named Rikky, and he is really tasting the world of success.  He's a headlining act, fans scream when they see him.  He travels around a lot, taking jet planes and staying in different hotels often.  He makes a lot of a money, and whoever the character is who is singing the song is envious of him.  "What a dream to be what you are, a rock and roll star, to make such a lot of money."  "Oh I wish I could be like you, Rikky Rock'N'Roller."  

One thing I find interesting is the use of the words of the word Funny to rhyme with Money. "To make such a lot of money would be funny," as that rhyme would show up a good two years later in Money Money Money. Which also leads me to the question if Bjorn and Benny are using the correct definition for funny?  Funny has to do with amusement, laughter, humor, and I wonder if that's what they mean, that having a lot of money is amusing.  Or going by the other meaning of funny - that it's strange or odd, and having money is so unusual.  Or they mean to use the word fun instead, as having money is enjoyable and exciting.  Regardless, Money and Funny do rhyme well, so I'll give them that.

Anyways, while ABBA never ended up releasing this as a full song, the song was given to artist Jerry Williams, and he released the song as a single in 1975 and then subsequently included in  1976 on his album, Kick Down.  This officially released version is fun, and I think Jerry Williams performs the song really well.  And of course me being a biased ABBA fan, of course I prefer ABBA's demo version, but that doesn't mean that his version is bad in any way because it is great.

As ABBA's demo version is only a mere snippet, we never got to hear them sing the first verse, which is:"A face in the spotlight. The sound of a wild guitar.  A standing ovation. The sound of a brand new song."  I can't find the lyrics to Jerry Williams' version written down anywhere, so there, I wrote it down for you.  The rest of the lyrics are the same in ABBA's demo version, so I don't have to transliterate that. 

ABBA's demo of Rikky Rock'N'Roller shows up the 6:46 mark in ABBA Undeleted, and you can take a listen to Jerry Williams' version here.

Again, both versions are really good and are great in their own ways.