ABBA, “Happy New Year” (1980)

Frida, Anna, Björn and Benny at the height of their superstardom with a catchy New Year’s song. Lovely stuff, though they might have injected more sunshine into the lyrics.

“Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he’ll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he’s astray
Keeps on going anyway…”

Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor…

This was 1980. Perhaps the relative cheerlessness of the song had something to do with ABBA’s imminent breakup?

No matter. They were quite right. We probably are going astray, and we’ll keep on going anyway.

Happy New Year everybody! May we all have our hopes.

Ryeberg