Rock critics and others have been fairly consistent in criticizing the lyrics in ABBA's
catalog.  I decided to examine some of these lyrics up close, early and late, and see
what conclusions might truly be justified.   I am using the following coding: one plus if a line
seems to really help, either for image (content) or for an innovative rhyme. two pluses
if both content and rhyme are positive (striking). Minus for distracting/cheap rhyme or
clumsy image, two minuses for both. All opinions are my own, and are admittedly
subjective.

Wise beyond her years, this Carrie. Does this guy in the bar, or on the first date,
really want to know about her? And although this little essay does not seek to
comment on the musical elements, the lyric and harmony are cool and knowing
and mysterious, and the smiles the girls give on the video is worth the entire
price of admission. This line is the hook, and it works. The song is already a
success.
 

What if I ain't worth the while

Neutral: the colloquial "ain't" I suppose intending to mark her as blue collar, or
worse.

- Not the style you'd be looking for

Here we have the nicely placed internal rhyme, but "style" is not really the idea
or the issue; style ¹ "type."

If I'm sweet tonight

Neutral. "Sweet" can mean "kindly". It has a rarer usage, in the nature of
"luscious." Which does Bjorn intend? Is Bjorn sophisticated enough in English
to be intentionally ambiguous on the central issue of this song?

- Things look different in the morning light

I not in love with the rhyme, "morning light" is a cliché. I suspect "Things look" is
meant as "Will I...." The alternative is that "Things" refers to his opinion of her,
or his unconsummated interest in her. If unconsummated, it is hard to see how
she would know about his change of mind, or why her feelings would be hurt and
she crying. It would simply be a meeting that didn't click. She is hurt and crying
if it clicks that night and he takes her home and by the next morning is rushing to
get away. So Bjorn has clarified the earlier question. He does NOT mean girl-
next-door sweet. He is using sweet as code for available and sexual. This is
going to cause confusion when, later in this song, he starts invoking the image of
the girl next door.

- I'm jealous and I'm proud, If you hurt my feelings I'll cry out loud

Here we have what I view as another Bjorn-simple rhyme. "Cry out loud" is a
pedestrian. And how much self esteem and pride can a girl have who choruses
that she's not the kind you'd marry. More in line with the song might be [forgive
my Bjorn]:

    "I'm pleased and I'm flattered, But will only the bed have mattered"

though you probably couldn't be that direct in the mid-70's, or if you were ABBA.
 

++ Are you sure you wanna hear more

Digression regarding the video: Agnetha's sly, knowing look here is terrific.

- Mild and meek like the girl next door

As written, the line states that she IS mild and meek. That is false. Impliedly,
this line is "[If I were] mild and meek like the girl next door." Seeking the internal
rhyme for "seek", we get the empty "mild" and the rhyming "meek," syllables are
wasted, and meaning is jeopardized. The girl next door is the kinda girl the guys
want to marry, and she's not going to bed with you on the first date. Is Bjorn
really arguing that a good woman has to be "mild and meek"? That is, is Bjorn
endorsing the double standard? Stay tuned.

+ I may be an angel in disguise

This is not a simple or cliched rhyme, but what does it mean? Maybe that if this
jerk she's talking to (and teasing) is able to handle an independent women such
as her, then he would be finding someone more interesting and worthwhile than
some demure wife-wannabe?

- It's lonely to be free

I am suspicious of Bjorn's use of "free". I have a similar problem with this word
in the chorus of "The Film I'd Like to See". She now describes herself as "lonely
and free." I think Bjorn meant "liberated" in the political/social/sexual sense, and
this might be a dictionary translation error. In the good girl, bad girl dichotomy,
the good girl next door isn't free, she's enmeshed in male conventions of
perfection and the obligation to fulfill them. The bad girl isn't free either; she
labeled and used and trashed. Our singer seems to be postulating herself as
neither of these: She sexually available but selective, she demands respect for
her liberation. And fitting neither cultural stereotype, she fears that she is a
difficult person to know or like. As I remember the 70's, she is probably right.

Thus, she has found herself lonely. The upcoming rhyme could have been
sustained by using "Its lonely to be me", but it would be more precise to stick the
idea of liberation into the lyric. My guess: dictionary translation error,

- But I do believe in sympathy

Set up a nice triple rhyme, but "sympathy" comes out of the blue and has no
specific antecedents in the song. She doesn't want sympathy, she wants
respect.

- - Just to see you're not really sore

After all that has gone before, now she is being apologetic? She wants to make
sure he's not sore because she won't sleep with him? Or because she's a
liberated woman? Therefore I construe this as a throwaway line invented solely
for the grade school rhyme. Low point of the song.

- - Like an eagle flying with a dove

A disturbing, or perhaps false, simile in context of this song. Lifted perhaps from
Stephen Stills ("Love the One You're With", 1970) or perhaps other sources? I
would love to believe that this song is an answer to Stills' song, an inversion and
refutation of it from the married Mr. Ulvaeus, but I don't have any evidence. I
can't buy that our singer is a dove. The girl next door is more like a dove. Our
singer has a right to think that she and the right guy are going to be a rare
couple, and maybe that is all Bjorn intended.

+ I'll find it in the end, If I keep on searching, but until then

Fairly daring of Bjorn to use this almost rhyme as a rhyme: "end" and "then."
Thematically, good for you, Carrie.

Notwithstanding the overall negative score my code suggests in this song, I have more
respect for it the more I listen to it and think about it. True, we have clunky, adolescent
rhymes and a probable dictionary translation error. Importantly, some of the bad
rhymes and cliché phrases obscure, rather than advance, the meaning. But the
politics of the lyric are complex, our protagonist intriguing and provocative, and Bjorn's
perspective sensitive and sympathetic. This is not a simple little song.
 
 

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