2005-09-23 - 5:23 p.m.

It always makes me laugh hearing old ABBA songs from the final few years of their career, when the marriages within the band had both broken up. The blokes, Benny & Bjorn, wrote all the songs, so naturally their lyrics ended up being sung by Agnetha & Frida. Which often resulted in some decidely awkward lyrics for the girls to have to sing.

Last night their 1982 hit ''One Of Us'' came up on my iPod. The iPod is especially good for analysing lyrics as, by its very nature, listening to it is such an individual experience, free from any distractions. Anyway, it had never quite struck me before just how harsh those songwords are and how difficult it m ust have been for whichever girl ended up supplying lead vocals on it (I'm never sure with ABBA).

Here are some sample lyrics from the song to illustrate the point -

They passed me by
all of those great romances
you were, I felt
robbing me of my rightful chances

From the very first line a very big hint is dropped as to what's in store in this song. But just who was robbing whom of their rightful chances? It's not yet clear. Time to fast forward (slightly) to the chorus -

One of us is crying
one of us is lying
in her lonely bed
staring at the ceiling
wishing she was
somewhere else instead
one of us is lonely
one of us is only
waiting for a call
sorry for herself
feeling stupid feeling small
wishing she had never left at all

Ahh! So let's see - one of you is a crying, self-pitying liar now consigned to spend all her days alone, pining for the good old days with the obviously-wronged Benny/Bjorn! Ah well, just so long as she's learnt the error of her ways!

I saw myself
as a concealed attraction
I felt you kept me away
from the heat and the action
just like a child
stubborn and misconceiving

Moving swiftly on, Benny/Bjorn sticks the knife in even further with this couplet - making it clear that Agnetha/Anni-Frid was no better than a stubborn child. How on earth they managed to persuade them to sing these lines is beyond me!

And so it goes on. I think ''The Winner Takes It All'' is similarly cutting in its lyrical frankness, but we'll save that one for another day.

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