Abba The day before you came Reaction(first time hearing)
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- Опубліковано 1 лют 2021
- Abba the day before you came music video reaction.The Swedish group never disappoints and this time,they take us through the life of a lady whose boring routine life was never the same again once a lover stepped in.Its a bit unusual from what they are known for,but still a fantastic song.
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Agneta Fältskog a swedish Grace and Beauty with an incredible Voice.
No chorus, no bridge, no middle eight---just a collection of verses. Not the usual structure for a pop song but strangely hypnotic and compelling.
Lots have done it often like Dylan but you're right..not very poppy.
Especially the last songs from ABBA were called serious and professional by the media in contrast to their songs at the beginning. The media, especially the Swedish media, did not mean well with ABBA. Except in Germany. There was the youth magazine BRAVO, which ABBA handled correctly. ABBA always had number 1 hits in Germany.
My favourite ABBA song, hands down. Period. Full stop. ✌️
This song is mesmerizing. Brilliant song from a brilliant band.
Frida's haunting operatics on this often get overlooked but definitely enhance this song
This song is one of the best songs I've heard in my life.
Their greatest song ever. love 🇸🇪 and love ABBA
My favourite Abba song! An absolute masterpiece, in every respect! :)
I think the part you missed was that she's speaking to someone who's no longer there...
IMO one of their best songs, it makes you wonder what they could've done if they had stayed together. But you can see in the video how estranged they had become.
The fact that they are sitting far away from each other in the theatre scene is deliberate design, not because they wouldn't stand being close to each other. In the Under Attack video, they are walking as good as arm in arm out of the warehouse.
They made many songs after this one.
For me, they are in the top of all groups I know and it will be impossible to find another with one in that type of inspired music.
One of my favourites. Hauntingly beautifull, original and fantastic arrangement. See sang it in the dark. And she was asked to sing it not to beautifull because she tells the story from the perspective of an ordinairy woman. Their last song and very very sad but briliant!. It was not a big hit because as you said it is to different but it aged very well and now, for many, its one of their best
Hey Marco - well said mate ! You are spot on
Frida is doing the backing ahhhhs and she’s brilliant
When this song first came out, I adored it and would play it over and over. Still my absolute favourite ABBA song 💗
I've loved this song for 30+ years and is one of my favourite ABBA songs alongside The Winner Takes it All. This song was not a major hit in the UK peaking at #32 but it did make the top 10 in other European markets while never released as a single in the US. However it is ranked high among ABBA fans now as time has done nothing to diminish it. I always felt the song had a tragic element to it because of the haunting chords, background vocals & Agnetha's sorrowful vocals. Benny instructed Agnetha not to use her vocal abilities in this song so she would sound "ordinary" and overall this song remains haunting.
This is the last song ABBA recorded before the 'break' that all four band members said they needed. The two divorces had taken their toll, and the four of them also wanted to explore their own individual creativity outwith the group setting. In fact, Frida had just released a solo album, produced by Phil Collins, which contained the international hit 'I Know There's Something Going On'. The song was certainly a shock to the ABBA fanbase, as you so accurately speculated, Hari, because it was such a departure from their normal sound, but many of those young fans, once they grew up, came to appreciate the song and to even love it. Others loved it from day one. Over time, this song has gained ABBA much respect from music lovers and critics (including George Michael) who would normally dismiss their music as bubblegum, lightweight pop, and a few years ago it was actually voted the third most popular ABBA song in a UK TV show 'The Nation's Favourite ABBA song'. A Guardian article eulogized it and asked 'Could an ABBA reunion ever top 'The Day Before You Came'? and the recording is now regarded as a synth-pop classic. Many people, myself included, interpreted it in the way you did, Hari, and thought that the protagonist's dull life came gloriously alive when 'you' came. But, now it's generally accepted that her story does not have a happy ending. All the clues are there in the haunting, melancholic music and also in some of the lyrics. The book she was reading was 'the latest one by Marilyn French', and in 1982 the latest novel by that writer was about two people who meet on a train, have an instant attraction to eachother, and embark upon a passionate, but ill-fated relationship. Now, the narrator who had previously just been plodding through her boring existence, is painfully aware of how meaningless her life is. It's a classic combination of existentialist angst and Nordic melancholy. Bjorn, Benny, and Agnetha have all admitted in recent interviews that the protagonist's story does not have a happy ending. The video was filmed at a train station called 'Tumba' (tomb) and the video goes into freeze-frame at the end which is not an auspicious sign. Agnetha recorded her vocals alone in a dark studio, and when she had finished she hung up her headphones and left the building. The studio engineer has remarked that he knew at that moment that ABBA was over.
This is a very detailed take on events.I still believe it was a happy ending though,cos there was no lyrics at all suggesting otherwise.
But thats the beauty of music,we can all interpret it differently
@@HarriBestReactions No, there's no happy ending. Frida's haunting obligato expresses this perfectly. It's a sad ending, perhaps even tragic. Everything about the song indicates this.
A Hauntingly beautiful Masterpiece. ♥
The best Abba song, by far.
A stream of concionious.
In my opinion, one of the best songs ever written, sung by one of the most beautiful women with the best voice. Please
Try Abba's:
*Lay all your love on me*
*The name of the game*
*The visitors*
*Tropical loveland* ( an older one )
Thank You!
lay your love on me is always an energy bringer
I have always liked the look Agnetha gives to the man in the train. Oh my God! I really like this song.
you got it. it's a sad song. this is the best of ABBA.
Love it and I agree that abba is really clever music with great lyrics and eternal as well
Their masterpiece !
Thanks Harri, you have really chosen a fantastic song..! (Good that I am a patient person.)
Hahahahha Patience is a virtue Mike
Thanks for the reaction. My favorite by Agnetha and the last ABBA song recorded. I don't think they were working together in the studio by this point. In an interview one of the studio guy's said it had gotten so sad. He said Agnetha came in and sat in the dark to record this one. He said when she finished she took off the headphones opened the door letting the outside light in and walked out. He said he knew ABBA was over. Benny Andersson has an album "Piano" it has a lot of these songs done as he wrote them. No one else has reacted to any of it. This song off it would be a great one to do. Really beautiful timeless music. And by the way you'll never see me telling you to stop doing ABBA, Your just getting started,
I recently rediscovered this beautiful haunting song on an Abba compilation Love Songs CD and fell in love with it all over again. Hari, thanks for a lovely reaction and knowledgeable reaction.
The haunting melody makes me think this is the day before she met someone who she would think would be the love of her life, but instead it turned into an abusive relationship.
It's about a fantasy. Her emptiness never ends, No happy ending to this one.
Stunning
It really is!
Subtle and understated this is one of my favourites despite not doing as well as some others but still a reasonable sized hit for late ABBA You are right it is edging into the 80s
Super Trooper was the big hit and this straggled after.it a bit But it is one of my all time favourites from this great band. Great incisive reaction as always from you Harry
This is my all time favourite Abba song - it’s haunting and beautiful- they asked Agnetha to sing the song in a simple way - it was the last song Abba recorded (until the new yet to be released music) - Agnetha sang the song in the studio with the lights dim - I really think this is a masterpiece- thx for reviewing it 🙂
You are welcome
Thanks for playing a song that not that many people review.
Cheers Victor
Brilliant ! Greets from germany. Lovely reaction.
Benny Andersson, composer, told 3 years ago, that there is no happy ending in this song. The sadness continues, it never stops.
I could always tell 😔
Harri, I am loving all of your ABBA reactions - they were such an excellent group (and far more than just disco!) Smart songwriting, catchy hooks, infectious rhythms and wonderful voices!
One song that rarely gets any attention is The Piper - it's a darker piece, off of their Super Trouper album, but it's one that must be checked out!! Cheers.
If you study the lyrics in isolation, the day before you came could have been any major change to her life. There is no mention of love interest, although it could have been, but the event may have been getting a cancer diagnosis, a religious conversion, or something very dark. It is a great song, my favourite by them in fact. The very first time that I heard this song it was like a bolt from the blue, a wow moment.
Dear Herri, I do covered your channel a few hour ago and am li tening for hour now. I love your reactions so much !!!
Wow, thank you!
I always had it that she was singing about an imaginary lover that fate could at any moment appear and save her dull life.
The way it is sung,she lost him again.It is a sad reminiscence.
I see it completely different. The song, and the video proves it, has not a happy end because the guy she met is gone again at the end and she is back in the same boring life again. A genious last song of a eternal band!
Spot on reaction - it's not a sad song...no great changes in rhythm or beats to mirror the monotony of her daily routine and life. Little does she know that her life is about to change (for the better it seems) the following day.
A song open to endless interpretation. If you haven't already try "Eagle" by ABBA which has distinct proggy elements. That and "the day before you came" are the two finest songs in their discography in my opinion and that's saying something. They show the direction they could have gone in.
it's a masterpiece really. Abba said that it's a women listing the minutia of her day before this person comes along. The question is, if he is now here, why does it sound sound depressing. It's a really strange construction and obviously influenced by Benny and Bjorn moving towards musical theatre at the time.
There have been 2 public TV polls in the UK over the past few years and both came up wit the same top 3
1) The Winner Takes It All
2) Dancing Queen
3) The Day Before You Came.
As an ABBA fan in the 70s and 80’s when this first came out I was “what the hell is this” but over the years it has grown and grown on me and now it is one of my favourites.
You should react to the B side to this song “Cassandra” a very good song
It may be ABBA's most difficult track to cover by other singers. For Agnetha's Eyes Only.
AMAZING. Sounds like a sad song - but it's happy in lyrics. All other songs - sounds happy, but are very sad!
I’m a massive ABBA fan & always will be, this song was the last single they released in 1982 (correct me if I’m wrong) & only got as far as #32 in the UK charts, but it’s my favourite ABBA song after The Winner Takes It All. To be honest, it wasn’t that well received at the time, but it’s now regarded as one of their best. So much so, a few years ago there was a poll in the UK asking the public to vote for their favourite ABBA song & this came at #3, a surprise to many, but not to me.
This song was released in late 1982, so it's in the same time frame as ABC, Spandau Ballet, Tears For Fears, early REM and U2. It wasn't a hit when it was released, but I bought the single and loved it instantly....the "b" side, "Cassandra" is equally beautiful, with a Frida lead vocal, though I like the musical arrangement (new wave opera?) of TDBYC better.
And Frida's vocals towards the end of the song so good,one of their best songs. at the time of release in the UK,it didn't reach the top 30.
I don't know why people find it hard to interpret this song.
It is about a brief affair, a love gained and lost.
That is why the haunting background vocals and the empty platform when she turns because she has gone back to her empty life.
There"s a lot of theories about the real sense of the lyrics. In general, they are not happy ones. Perhaps, nowadays, the top cult Abba track
And this came in tandem with another single also released around this time. "One of Us" was darker lyrically but a bouncy catchy tune as per normal
I have checked Under
Attack was the last single reverting to an SOS type lyric allied to a bouncy tune so.memorable I can still sing it.
But is the outward optimisictune not quite masking the desperate lyrics in these last few singles? One of us espescially with it repeating the :feeling small " complaint of Winner stakes it All
Questions nd more questions. Now over to ypu Harry
"One of us" was released as the first single of the "The Visitors"-Album in 1981. The next single was "Head over heels", also from "The Visitors". "The day before you came" was released in 1982. It was a chart success in a few european countries, but not as big as the singles all the years before. The last single was "Under attack", not a big chart topper at all. Both, "The day before you came" and "Under attack" were on the album "The first ten years", a greatest hit album, also released in 1982.
I was a big fan of them since 1976 and saw them live in 1979 in Germany. Concerning "The day before you came" I loved it since I heard it the first time and I still do. It's one of my favourite of Abba. I think, when it was released, some fans were dissapointed, because it's not such a happy song as many singles of them were before. And its arrangement was too "small" for a lot of people. Hearing it now, this song underlines, what kind of genius they were, that's my oponion. In 1982 the song sounded like a song from the future.
I always thought the backing of Elton John's Nikita owed a lot to the sound of One of Us.
Both couples had divorced at this point and this was the last song they recorded as a group and Agnetha apparently hung up her headphones and walked out of the studio immediately after the song was recorded.
Loving your appreciation of ABBAs music. If you get a chance, can you react to Angel Eyes. One of my favs!
Fantastic track and great reaction. Next you should listen to their track The Visitors. Very different again and about Russian dissidents apparently. It was never released as a single but should have been.
Thanx Calan
ABBA and Led Zep jointly held the record for 36 years in The UK for the most consecutive No1 Albums, 8,(even more than The Beatles)until recently surpassed by Eminem.
They were incredibly loved in The UK and still are.
Lucky guy
Hi Harri, this song is an enigma. What does this song really mean?? I don't think it is a love song. I think this song has a secret message. A plot.
Why is it so very sad sounding? So melancolic. It couldn't have been a happy meeting anyway...or? Even the chorus is so haunting and sad. Like an opera. A drama. There is a hidden story here, which they don't reveal. The video also shows the separation of the ABBA members. Sitting/standing apart. Agnetha alone. Not a single smile. I heard that the recording was made in the dimmed studio. All four members knew this was their last recording. It was their last recording until 2017 (which we are waiting for). Beautiful and timeless.
Like you said..its an enigma 😀
Harri was totally right on the time, the period this song came out, was released, 1981/2 I guess, so....
Both couples are divorced by this time, (and things were PRETTY strained) so they had to bring in another man to play the love interest. One of their best songs in my opinion.
When i first saw tis video all those years ago, I took the video and lyrics to mean exactly as you have suggested. But, when looking at it some years later i realse there is a darker side to this. It shows their initial meeting on the train, then the passion they share together, but then shows him leaving and her having to say goodbye to him somewhere, hence the suitcase and he's not returning so she is driving back alone. At that point it changes to the set of her singing. By recalling the safe normal routine she is thinking since he entered my life and turned it upside down how can I go back to that. The last shot he misses the train making you wonder if that had happened would her routine have carried on and her heart would never have been broken. The B side Cassandra was equaly as good although very different.
There is a theory about who the 'you' is. The video contradicts it, but I think it's possible anyway as nothing in the song contradicts it. The you in 'the day before you came' is Death.
It has a sort of internal consistency.
Did I miss your Queen Live Aid reaction? LUV ABBA too
No you didnt.It was blocked..So im appealing it
Harri, you MUST watch the ABBA- Mr Kalashnikov- The Day before you came. Same song but with a different video background. Amazing!
I like your well considered comments, a rarity on whassup YT... This song was from their last album, The Visitors. A great album, yes a bit different to their earlier work. I like all their styles, except maybe the Gimme Gimme and Voulez Vous stage.. The early happy/folky style to their later and darker tone, but all excellent musical creations!
React to the live performance
I've heard this was not a big hit, maybe made it onto a few charts, and like their last song. But it's good, it has got substance. And I think that they had a lot of happy-sad songs so it doesn't stand out as much as you'd think, it's just got a slower tempo and heavy emphasis on the meaninglessness of daily life. It's a good song with smart lyrics up to interpretation.
Wasn't that song the last one they did? It is one of the saddest songs of ABBA to me personally. Why? I remember the day my girl-friend came to see me the next morning (for the very first time) at my home. Now we are not together anymore, but this song reminds me of her like no other song does, everytime I hear this song "The day before you came". That's really true.
Please react to ABBA , Slipping thru my Fingers live tv version,.....
👍👍, It resembles French song, by the precision of the texts that projects such precise images and seems to all those who listen to the texts, with a certain resignation of the things of life more or less profound even in their daily banality.
'Blancmange' did a brilliant version in 1984.
Harry, how are You?
so glad to see you very well
"The day before you came"
It is the last song ABBA recorded, although it was not the last single
It was one of the last three that barely entered the Top 30 in the UK, a low expectation for what ABBA was used to.
It is said to have been recorded in a dark and damp room, to make it more gloomy and to help Agnetha interpret
I will be honest
of all his singles (I think there are 26) this is the one I like the least
Agnetha's vocal performance is the best, but she is very lonely without a chorus and with little musical body
The video is also strange, but it is well achieved, in relation to the story that the lyrics tell
Again Agnetha looks alone, now as an actress, the rest of the members of ABBA appear only at the end and disaggregated
I understand that many like it, it is even well ranked in the votes for the best ABBA song
I also know that it is part of the research and musical experimentation of the last years of ABBA
But this song is not the style of music that I like and Agnetha remains as a soloist
That is why I prefer his other songs, where the four most involved are, in addition to other musical genres
Thanks for your reaction
I see you in the next
GOD bless you and stay safe
best regards from
Buenos Aires Argentina
Thanx Ed
@@HarriBestReactions
You react the last ABBA song recording
do You like to react the first ABBA song recording?
"People need love" (1972)
I think she is reciting the last day of her life and the days before and before etc. "You" is death. She is a ghost amongst the other band members, that's why nobody looks at her. In combination with the haunting sound of this song, this is by no means a happy song. That's just my opinion. Enjoy your reaction nonetheless!
WOW! I got your notification right away :) This is a good one and thought provoking, there are "conspiracy theories" there is a darker story behind the lyrics.
Interesting..would you like to share these theories?
@@HarriBestReactions I have heard everything from she was killed by her lover or she killed her lover, or that her life was horrible after this person came into it. There is a lot of melancholy in this song and Frida's opera part in the background (the Ahhhh's) adds to the strange foreboding nature of the song. But truly a great track! If you want another song with a dark side, check out The Visitors by ABBA.
@@HarriBestReactions The original title was "the caged bird". You can still hear the bird motif in those flutey bits.
Bjorn won't say what he thinks it is finally about, but he and Agnetha confirms it's not a happy ending.
You should listen to Benny Andersson's recent piano recording of this (and other music he composed). It's very haunting.
From what I've heard, the strange linguistic tense of the lyrics, the ominous diminished chords which mercilessly resolve into minor. This is a song about the arrival of death, and how it was not preceded by anything grand and heroic, but just the mundane and lonely
Simply fabulous song as are so many others, Stylistics from the seventies were great the Album you are Beautiful by them was fantastic but was apparently a disappointment but not to me. Funky Weekend, The day the clown came to town. some brilliant soul music in this decade, and the Carpenters delivered a version of soul through their own songs. enjoying your channel Harri
We don't need to rate an incredible wonder like ABBA. But to enlighten oneself more one could listen to Benny Anderssons piano version, just to get an idea how skilled they were.
I believe this was there last song together as a group.........maybe someone else can comment.
Whilst they’ve never said what the song is about, Benny, Björn and Agnetha have all hinted at it being not a happy ending at all. It was the last song (until 2017) ABBA recorded in August 1982. It pretty much flopped in the UK at number 32. However it’s a firm fan favourite and many people who don’t like ABBA actually quite like this one because it’s so different. They only had one more single after this, Under Attack released in December 1982.
Yea..i noticed its so different to what they do
I really like this one. Melancholic yet... positive?
This was covered almost immediately by a band called Blancmange, as I remember, who actually did better with it than ABBA! Frida had a lot to do in this video. Sat looking pensive. Same goes for Benny and Bjorn. Still, the video/song was still unforgettable.
Later, Harri !
The song receives a different treatment in the version by the actress Meryl Streep - recorded about 36 years AFTER ABBA's original - here's the link - ua-cam.com/video/l_21AkVOYCA/v-deo.html
Can you react to I Feel Fine by the Beatles official music video, thank you.
The song is a lot more complex than simply being a story about a woman who was feeling bored before a new man walked into her life.
If things are better now, why does the music sound so desperately sad? Does she feel melancholic when she thinks about her past life,
or is there something more sinister afoot? Wikipedia claims that there are MANY interpretations of the lyric.
A popular one even suggests that she's singing about her murderer. In which case his arrival is not a happy occasion, and the song is, in fact,
the memories of a ghost.
ABBA themselves have never revealed the true meaning behind the song. When asked about it, they refuse to say.
I just love all these theories.My own take is this..It couldnt have been a sad ending because, here all she was singing about from the past was dull,boring and predictable.So if there was not a total change or contrast from that later,why would she be saying "till you came?" It means that it all changed when he came.
As per the music,that was the mood in her past life.She is remeniscing about it,she was back in that moment.So the music has to reflect it..But this is my own take😀
We all can have different interpretations
@@HarriBestReactions Well, as mundane as her life seems to have been, the fact that the music is so sad could be interpreted as meaning that things got worse when the man arrived, despite how boring they were before he did.
A boring life is better than death, I suppose.
I don't know what it means. I just find the song both beautiful and frightening.
@@SpaceCattttt I never understand why the viewers of the video ask why the ending is "sad". HE LEAVES. There is a long part of the video where she is walking with him through a parking garage, and they are saying goodby. He came into her life and "found" the "part of me I hid away". Then he had to LEAVE. Did not seem mysterious to me at all. Except maybe what made him leave. (although it seemed they were on good terms). Now, on the flip side. Without the video the song would be more ambiguous.
@@donny1960 Perhaps. But then again, they couldn't make an ABBA video about murder, could they?
@@HarriBestReactions Because he left.
react to ABBA Me & I
So this song is basicly about wasted opportunities? Correct?
She's alone again at the end?
She was so beautiful.
this is from their final album called the visitors a brilliant piece of work this is about an eastern european dissident hiding from secret police and them coming to look for him
This didn't feature on visitors album on original release in 1981 but added 1982 special edition
Sorry, that's no Cinderella story.
People often miss the scenes, where the guy left again and she fell back into an even worse situation, because she has to live now in a complete understanding of her dull and boring situation.
If the timeline would have ended with, meeting him and living happier now, the music would have picked up a different, more joyful, mood.
Yeah, I guess, many ABBA fans embraced this song years later. For some ABBA's last album was too dark and this song was a big departure from previous work. But I think next generations that grew up on 80s synth-pop embraced this song from the get-go. I am kinda on the fence with this song - I get the experimentation but it is too monotonous and, essentially, simplest tune by ABBA. Only vocals retain emotionality and soul in this song. But monotony of music structure is relentless. It is the case when texture (sound) takes primacy over the melody which was definite change for ABBA. For majority of ABBA's work melody was the king. In my view, 80s were pretty poor decade in terms of good melodies (it's hard to make synth-pop soulful). That is, probably, why ABBA felt that 80s weren't for them anymore.
It seems incomplete.
This is the last song they recorded, in 1982, so yes it was released at the time of the New Romantics. A lot of ABBA songs have melancholy lyrics paired with a happy melody - this is possibly the opposite. Theories about who 'you' is in the song title range from a lover to death itself, which would match the sadness and sense of foreboding in the tune. Retrospectively, this song has been hailed by many as ABBA's masterpiece, yet on release it flopped and didn't even make the UK top 30! I must admit, I prefer happy, multi-layered harmony ABBA.
F*ck UK, in Germany, a huge record-market, it reached #5.
@@danielk.2298 ABBA and Led Zep jointly held the record for 36 years in The UK for the most consecutive No1 Albums, 8,(even more than The Beatles)until recently surpassed by Eminem.
They were incredibly loved in The UK and still are.
Shit quality audio!
C-
I love punk the velvet underground etc but i have to admit there is not an ABBA song i don't lovee