"........the day before you came."

Songwriters: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
Performed by ABBA
LP: Released as a single '82 with B-side "Cassandra", later included in deluxe editions of The Visitors ('81)
When I heard it: 1986 or '87

Would it be too much to say this song reminds me of Brief Encounter? Would that be high praise? But it does - can't get past that. Brief Encounter is unquestionably one of the greatest films ever made, and ABBA's "The Day Before You Came", in my view, one of the greatest songs I've heard that borrows a plot from that near-perfect film.

I've always loved anything to do with a normal day's routine and will not (normally) break it for anything. This is rather strange, because at the same time, I am also quite the impulsive, hopeless romantic who is terminally bored with my bland, insipid daily routine.

I actually love making friends with people on daily routines, just like Agnetha does on her daily train in the video for "The Day Before You Came". There is something so delicious about getting to know people I only meet during daily routines. I like clockwork, and I also hate it. I'd say I love it for the people and I hate it for the work.

So, I must now confess. That I would love to meet someone on a daily routine and have my life completely changed. I may not have realised this when I was in my teens even though the feeling was actually stronger then. Fairy tale? Yes. Wishful thinking? Yes. Have I grown out of it? Very nearly. Can I, so, dump this song? You guessed it. OF COURSE NOT!

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Lancio and Photo Romances

In the 80s, when I was growing up.... (oh, come now, don't knock nostalgia just because you haven't yet got any. You millennials can be so annoying and soulless.)

In the 80s, we kids used to read what were called "photo romances". These were just like comic books, but had photo panels and speech-bubbles. Yes such things are laughable, when you look back, but there was a huge industry for them at that time and Lancio (prob'ly an Italian thing) was one of the leaders. If you had to produce a Lancio-kind hard-copy photo romance today, it would cost a pretty packet (not to mention how pointless it would be - there's no market for such things nowadays).

In these stories, the actors were always and in all circumstances perfectly photogenic, impeccably dressed, and the photos taken in real settings in full, soothing colour with very few rough edges. The actors' expressions conveyed their emotion s, and the speech-bubbles conveyed the conversations. Though the stories were intentionally derivative, thin and flimsy, people always managed to find the love of their life, however improbable it seemed from the start, and lived happily ever after (or so it was assumed). That is to say, photo romances were the visual equivalent of Mills and Boon, to anyone who remembers that kind of thing.

Lancio was Italian, and so distinctly European. No, not British, not American, but EUROPEAN. Just like ABBA's "The Day Before You Came". A pretty European blonde meets a handsome man on a train on her daily routine and her life is completely transformed. If this were not a song, it might well have been a superb Lancio photo romance.

Far as I know, this was Europe in the 80s. Behind any reasonably pretty face there always lurked unstoked passions usually smouldering under almost oppressive daily work routines. The music, movies, literature and art of the day usually picked up on these themes. The stories sound archaic, outdated and ancient to us today, but the single most important thing they show us clearly about their days is that life was SLOW. It progressed slowly. It overcame struggles slowly. Things took time. Sometimes they worked out, but sometimes they didn't. And that was okay. This has become incomprehensible to modern audiences, as we all know. It's no surprise - moderns usually disregard the journey and worship the arrival.

Many of ABBA's songs pick up on similar themes - no surprise because ABBA's music was essentially European. For example, "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" (about a demure worker by day, flamboyant dancer by night), "The Name Of The Game", "Honey, Honey", "Take A Chance On Me", "Angeleyes" and "Does Your Mother Know" (about flirting and teasing - a theme they did very well with), "Super Trouper" (the loneliness of a pop star whose love is often away), "When I Kissed The Teacher" (do I need to explain this?) "Dancing Queen" (essentially about breaking loose after a hard day's work), "Dum Dum Diddle" (a concert violinist's fan yearning for him - so European), "Waterloo", and "Mamma Mia" (about addictive love that cannot be overcome, try as one might), "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)" (take a wild guess what this is about), "If It Wasn't For The Nights" (about the tyranny of the nine-to-five), "Our Last Summer" (couple holidaying in Paris), and finally, one of their last-ever tracks, "The Day Before You Came".

ABBA, to my mind, is inextricably associated with Lancio's Photo Romances; and I think many 80s kids would share my feelings. Context, stories, wardrobe, locations, whatever.

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ABBA's most mysterious, analysed song

"The Day Before You Came" is arguably ABBA's last recording, though it was their penultimate single. It was recorded after the release of the final studio LP The Visitors ('81), as part of material for a new ABBA LP that did not materialise because the group disbanded by then. However, re-master editions of The Visitors do have the song. Re-masters of The Visitors contained all of ABBA's final singles "Under Attack", "Cassandra", "Should I Laugh Or Cry", and "The Day Before You Came".

In many ways, "The Day Before You Came" is one of ABBA's most-analysed songs. There are many "interpretations", almost none of which seem corroborated the songwriters. All it says to me is that it is an intriguingly open-ended tale of a pretty blonde meeting a handsome man on her daily commute, which somehow changes her life irrevocably. I can't confirm or deny any other interpretation.

The intrigue which surrounds the song is, I would say, due solely to the fact that the song's protagonist chooses to dwell on what her life used to be before it was changed irreversibly, describing it in acute detail almost to the hour, while saying nothing about her life after the transformation, leaving that part open to the listener's interpretation. If you're interested, Wikipedia dwells long and hard on this, none of it to any point, I'd have to say. Today's audiences crave closure and endless analysis - I don't. Open-ended-ness is not a problem for me at all.....life would be very boring indeed if not for open-ended-ness.

Another factor contributing to the intrigue is the music of the song. It's very far, very far indeed from the effervescent 3-4 minute ABBA singles of their hit halcyon years. Very far. The music, with its minor key progression and diminished chords in the interludes, carries a haunted tone of ominous doom that fits snugly into their sound on their last LP The Visitors rather than any of the first five LPs. The rhythm is eerily static throughout, emphasising the hauntedness.

I know it might sound eerie, but "The Day Before You Came" casts a portent of doom across the future years of ABBA's members, after they disbanded. It's not pretty. ABBA might have been a dream come true, but dreams have people in them, whereas none of the four members could count on any of the others to be with them after the breakup; and in some way, though I've tried to shake off the feeling that the breakup was for the best, time has shown that this isn't true. But you can judge for yourself.

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Must have left my house at eight, because I always do
My train, I'm certain, left the station just when it was due
I must have read the morning paper going into town
And having gotten through the editorial, no doubt I must have frowned
I must have made my desk around a quarter after nine
With letters to be read, and heaps of papers waiting to be signed
I must have gone to lunch at half past twelve or so
The usual place, the usual bunch
And still on top of this I'm pretty sure it must have rained

The day before you came

I must have lit my seventh cigarette at half past two
And at the time I never even noticed I was blue
I must have kept on dragging through the business of the day
Without really knowing anything, I hid a part of me away
At five I must have left, there's no exception to the rule
A matter of routine, I've done it ever since I finished school
The train back home again - undoubtedly I must have read the evening paper then
Oh yes, I'm sure my life was well within it's usual frame
The day before you came

I must have opened my front door at eight o'clock or so

And stopped along the way to buy some Chinese food to go
I'm sure I had my dinner watching something on TV
There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see
I must have gone to bed around a quarter after ten
I need a lot of sleep, and so I like to be in bed by then
I must have read a while
The latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style
It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim
The day before you came

And turning out the light
I must have yawned and cuddled up for yet another night
And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain
The day before you came