Monday, 7 March 2016

The day before you came

I just realised then that I have never featured an ABBA song for music Monday (other than when I spoke about the musical 'Chess')- what a calamity! I grew up with ABBA playing in the household whenever it was mum and I at home. When I was really young, whenever the song 'Ring Ring' came on, I would run to the phone and pick it up and sing into it. Winter time in the house, I was never cold because to keep warm mum and I would dance around the house to our favourite songs from the 'Best of ABBA' album (mine was 'Waterloo' during the time that I'm referring to). Long drives to my nonna and nonno's house, in the car we'd listen and sing along to the songs and even to this day if both mum and I are in the car and I want to sing, mum will always request 'Thank you for the music'. I can also say quite proudly that the first CD I ever bought with my own money was an ABBA one. And one year for my birthday, mum took my best friend and I to see the live production of 'Mamma Mia' which we all enjoyed.

Dad, on the other hand, never was a big fan of the band, however the couple of days ago (I'm not actually sure why), he showed me a cover of an ABBA song that he really likes. I already knew that he actually likes this particular song of theirs, which is 'The Day Before You Came' and considering the random nature of this choice of song made by my dad, I thought, why not share it. It's a really great song and probably one of their most bleak lyric-wise, which makes me love it even more, as it isn't the typical pop-y sound you expect when you think of a lot of ABBA hits. When I say 'bleak' it isn't an insult at all, I just mean that song narrates the daily mundane rituals of the singer, having strong realistic storytelling feeling to it which you follow and imagine vividly as the listener.

This is the original version of song, however, if you're interested to listen to the cover which my dad showed me (which is also extremely good), that is by Blancmange. When I hear both of them and hear the very different voice styles, I certainly see the different music tastes of my parents and understand why they like these respective songs.


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