The Day Before You Came Lyrics
My train, I'm certain, left the station just when it was two
I must have read the morning paper going into town
And having gotten through the editorial, no doubt I must have frowned
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
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
A matter of routine but done it ever since I finished school
A train back home again; undoubtedly I must have read the evening paper then
Oh yes, I'm sure my life was well within its usual frame
And stopped along the way to buy some Chinese food to go
I'm sure I had my dinner watching something on T.V.
There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see
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
And rattling on the roof, I must have heard the sound of rain
The day before you came
This song is so sad! Here is my interpretation:
The singer thinks back at how boring and meaningless her life was in the days "before you came". You in this setting is her lover. After her lover entered her life, it all changed and had meaning for the first time. All happy then? No, it is not the narrative but the music that gives it away. Her lover has left her. She lies in bed, depressed and listning to the rain as she has done so many times before. She thinks through her day and realizes she is back exactly where she was before she met her lover. And it is first now that she understands that she is depressed, now she realizes her life is without aim and meaning.
This song is SO sad, it always struck me that I don't think the "day he came" ever actually arrived. If you had met the love of your life, why would you sing such a heartbreaking song about a dreary past? To me it feels as if she hopes (almost beyond hope) that maybe the next day will be the day "he comes" - as in a constant daydream. Tomorrow never comes... Am I being too negative?
Ever since I heard this song and saw the video for the first time in 1982, I have had a theory that it is about an abusive relationship. It's sung in such a sad way, I cannot believe this describes a happy relationship. Something has gone terribly wrong, but the protagonist is trying to convince herself that things are not that bad. Because nobody can help her. And after all, her life was no good 'before' either.
In the video - at 3.03 when Agnetha steps out on the scene all alone and nobody else is even looking at her, the protagonist (which is not Agnetha herself, I don't think this has anything to do with her personal life or with ABBA for the matter) feels all alone. She is walking around among people who don't care, or don't know. Being alone - but in a relationship. In the video she also looks sad when she is with 'him' (apart from the beginning when they start flirting on the train, but that was before she knew him).
Some years ago, Benny actually had a similar interpretation of the song in an interview: http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/musik/med-vemodet-som-standig-foljeslagare/
"Men det är nÃ¥got som inte stämmer. I stället för att vara en glädjeÂsÃ¥ng om avslutad ensamhet sÃ¥ drivs lÃ¥ten framÃ¥t av ett överväldigande vemod. Den enda slutsats som gÃ¥r att dra blir därför: När hon träffat mannen blev allt ännu värre. Rädsla, instängdhet, misshandel — vi vet inte vad det rör sig om, men livsläget blir om möjligt än mer outhärdligt."
Translation: "But something is not right. Instead of being a song of happiness and the end of loneliness, the song is chased by overwhelming sadness. The only possibly conclusion: when she met the man everything turned worse. Fear, unfreedom, abuse - we don't know what it is all about, but her life turns even more unbearable"
That is about how I have always looked upon the song myself. But it seems like Benny does not KNOW. Mabye just Agnetha knows what's in the protagonists thoughts.
Sorry for crappy English!
I think this is my favourite ABBA song, the cover version by Blancmange done in the 80s is also very good, and there's a brilliant live version by Abba on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCBPkUxFZ5M
I never thought about the possibility that the woman's life was made even worse after she met the mystery new, but it's an interesting idea and you may be right. It's certainly a very dark song.
I think this is my favourite ABBA song, the cover version by Blancmange done in the 80s is also very good, and there's a brilliant live version by Abba on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCBPkUxFZ5M
I never thought about the possibility that the woman's life was made even worse after she met the mystery new, but it's an interesting idea and you may be right. It's certainly a very dark song.
No need to apologise for your English, it's extremely good. I assumed you were a native speaker until you said that.
No need to apologise for your English, it's extremely good. I assumed you were a native speaker until you said that.
Has anybody read the book called 'The Bleeding Heart' By Marilyn French? The reason why I'm asking is that, in this song Agnetha says ' I must have read a while, the latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style.'
It occurred to me that the book i mentioned above has relevence to this song. In the video for this song she smiles at a stranger on a train behind a newspaper, and in the book (without spoiling too much incase your interested in reading) The woman, Delores, meets a stranger on a train and the story escalades from there.
Just wondering if anyone has any similar thoughts? Sorry if this is brief.
A truly great song - in my opinion Abba's best.
The banal words and dodgy rhymes perfectly evoke life, going back and forth to work and watching tele, before her lover came and changed it all.
And "I must have read a while/The latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style" is a nice dig at the "all men are rapists" author.
But the best bit is that she never says she is in love, or that love is wonderful and world changing. Nor that it is also sad, and disappointing, and rarely lasts. She never tells us that it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. She never even tells us that this is a love song. It's all unsaid. Philip Larkin would have approved.
Hi, I think she is telling the listener, that even though her life was boring and a matter of routine, she thinks this was the life her personality really fits in. She was not made for the stressful life which began, when she became a part of ABBA. The tours, the interviews, sleepness nights on stage with no time to eat or take a nap.. this is also described in the lyrics of Super Trouper for example. She sings "my life was well within it's usual frame", this is what tells me this is the life she would actually prefer to live. I think "You" in the line "The day before you came" means the other group members..
The beauty of the song is precisely that we don't know what happened next, and no clue is given. Someone came: maybe a lover, maybe a killer, who knows? So dark, and so sad. Kudos for Bjorn Ulvaeus who wrote such a dense text for an europop song.
The lyrics leave the ending open, but the music gives it away I think. There's a morbid suspense in the music. Like something 'bad' has happened to the narrator. The voice is quite breakable, as if she's a mood of contemplation and accepted her grim destiny. The 'you' in the story is maybe her killer. Because eventhough it's an open ending, what the lyrics don't tell is said by the music. The answer is in the music this time, not in the lyrics...
Well said
Well said
Rubbish has no one seen the video. Its obviously a love story.
Rubbish has no one seen the video. Its obviously a love story.
@carenp26 The working title for the song, before it was properly titled, was Swedish for 'The Suffering Bird' not an actual bird, but a lady, and she's a suffering woman. So the song is really just a metaphor. The whole thing is a metaphor. The lyrics are basically just grounding the plot into some kind of connectivity to life as most people know it. But the song itself is supposed to invoke feelings and ideas, and things deep down inside the listener.
@carenp26 The working title for the song, before it was properly titled, was Swedish for 'The Suffering Bird' not an actual bird, but a lady, and she's a suffering woman. So the song is really just a metaphor. The whole thing is a metaphor. The lyrics are basically just grounding the plot into some kind of connectivity to life as most people know it. But the song itself is supposed to invoke feelings and ideas, and things deep down inside the listener.
A sad song.
I think it is about a woman who has fallen in love with someone but for reasons unknown they are no longer together.
She has experienced the feelings of love and is now reflecting that before she met him she hadnt even realised she was just going through the motions with no real aim to her life but having experienced love she now knows how her life changed for the better. Also her reference to the rain as if it is a depressing medium which she never experienced whilst he was around, he lifted her spirits, she must have felt miserable when it rained before she met him but not when he was around, nothing mattered.
Now he is no longer around she reflects on her life and she feels sad that having experienced love she now can see the mundane reality she had been living.
She died next day, or even at the night. "You" is death, just think about it.