This song has been the subject of some pretty serious discussions on the ABBA lists. Here is what Mike Scurr, from South Africa, wrote many months ago about his view of the "plot" of the song:

To me, one can interpret the lyrics in 2 ways...firstly - and most simply - it is the story of "her" life before she met this guy, the endless succession of trivial daily routines, played out against the rhythm of the train on which she travels to and from work. Worse still, even the weather was dreary! She is very alone throughout it all, no mention of much interaction with anyone or anything. In this (simplistic) way, the implication is that her life changes the day after.....or does it? And this is I think the second interpretation, that is that every day is like that, with her waiting for something that will never come.

The video plays up this angle a lot - one frame the guy is there with her, the next he has "missed the train" (and she has missed her chance at happiness.?) The video is very dreamy - particularly the "naked" caress shots - how much is real and how much is imagined....very Swedish! One can surmise all sorts of scenarios I think because both the song and video are open-ended enough to allow that. The ending of the song is very revealing, perhaps she is merely drifting off to sleep at the end of the day, but, as in Like an angel, there is more to it! Maybe it is in fact the rest of her life drifting away too (wow this sounds heavy doesn't it!!)

I was always reminded a little of "The ballad of Lucy Jordan" ...she'll never drive through Paris in a sportscar with the warm wind in her hair. Also the lyrics to "The film I'd like to see" (J Nilsson) are in a similar vein...

The choice of the Marilyn French novel is interesting (silly Blancmange changed it to Barbara Cartland and missed the point totally) I remember that the popular M French book at the time was titled The women's room or The bleeding heart (I forget which came first) and was quite relevant to the lyric and the video...I will try and find that info as I can't remember the precise detail offhand. I''ll let you know if I find it.

When one thinks about it, Bjorn wrote some pretty powerful lyrics at the end of Abba's career! The Kristina lyrics are stunning and very moving too, I am looking forward to seeing how they turn out in English.

That the lady has in fact cheated on her husband, as depicted in the video, and that the song lyrics are her cover-up explanation to her husband when he returns....she claims nothing has happened, that she did the same as always...while all the time she in fact had this little affair.

Based just on the lyrics of the song, though, I think Scurr explanation #1 is probably right. The lyrics catch a moment in her boring life, just before romance enters it. But when you see the video, you start to wonder, particularly if we credit the director with having had any kind of discussion of the song with Born, or approval for the video from B & B.

My interpretation of the video is something of a synthesis of the two Scurr theories: that the singer is habituated to a lonely boring life; that she wishes for romance and excitement; that she tries to capture that, as by flirting, affairs, etc.; that some self defeating traits within herself sabotage these efforts -- she does, after all, send him away without any obvious reason -- and therefore after each momentary, unsuccessful attempt at breaking out of her rut, she returns to her ordinary, boring life.

Therefore, the day after he came will be the same as the day before he came. In this view, the theme of the song is "stuck in an unhappy rut", which may also have been Born's subliminal message about ABBA. I think that Born is getting pretty sophisticated here; Born has attracted quite a bit of criticism for his lyrics, from the start, and this song shows that he has grown wonderfully as a lyricist.

Stylistically, we know, from Palm's book, that in this song B & B admit intentionally seeking a simplified, stripped down arrangement which would be complementary to the mundane (or shall we say sophisticated?) story being told. It features only synthesizers and drum. Benny has commented that toward the end of their ABBA years, he and Born were evolving away from their previously complex arrangements, that is, from the classic ABBA version of the "wall of sound" which was their trademark since at least SOS. The Day Before You Came is plainly the apotheosis of the impulse toward reduction.

Dave Wallace pointed out to me that there are parallels between the subject matter of TDBYC and the unreleased verses of "Just Like That".

I think Benny and Bjorn used the same type of material found in TDBYC for the verses in JLT and more of a traditional ABBA feel for the chorus of JLT. Perhaps this is why (as it's rumored) that Benny and Bjorn feel the chorus and verses don't work well togeter in "Just Like That" and it remains unoffically released in it's entirity. I on the other hand think it's wonderful.

I don't think it's at all far fetched to suggest that the theme for TDBYC's lyric springs directly out of JLT which, as you say, had been rejected just before work began on the former.  It shows that just as little musical ideas were tossed from song to song (eg.guitar riff from JLT became the verse melody of Under Attack) so ideas for lyrics were also adapted.

Put On Your White Sombrero was recorded in September 1980 and rejected soon afterwards. About a year later Should I Laugh Or Cry was recorded and, although the  similarity is perhaps not as striking as in the 2 songs mentioned above, Bjorn's lyric does use the same idea of a woman finally becoming tired of an inflated male ego. In both songs the despised man is portrayed as a ridiculous and foolish figure ("He's dressed in the striped pyjamas that I bought, trousers too short......standing there on his toes to grow in size"  and  "Like an old fashioned hero you stand before me. You think our life is a movie"). Frida's contempt is expressed in both songs by that 'strong woman', 'don't mess with me' voice, which she is so good at (no accident, I think, that she sang lead on both songs). In Put On Your White Sombrero the man is "proud, never bending" and in Should I Laugh there is "a fool's pride in his eyes".

In both songs, Bjorn is tackling a subject which is as relevant and topical today as it was when he wrote them. That is, the problem of male identity in a changing world where women are gradually acheiving equality.  'Machismo' is no longer admired but ridiculed, and the 'empowerment' of women is threatening to any man who has failed to come to terms with his own sexual identity or who is unable to adapt to the needs of New Woman. I think Bjorn does a great job - the descriptive quality and imagery in both songs feels almost cinematic.

Was Bjorn possibly seeing himself as Agnetha's "rolling stone" in JLT? After ten years of marriage? Myself, I doubt it. I don't see JLT as biographical, of either marriage. But it has struck me that IF it is intended at all in this way, then the boys are guilty of a self serving little apologia. I don't think Frida would buy it.

The part of the video that most touches me is when it transitions to ABBA in the theater, where they are looking past and beyond one another, entirely separate. I never saw this video until I got More Gold, and more veteran fans than myself have commented that it was obvious when the song was released (and I assume the video too) that the group was dead or dying.

There is, of course, no "correct" interpretation of this song: its success is that it speaks to different people differently.

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