Suzy-Hang-Around: light rock's rare unsympathetic narrator
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ABBA: "Suzy-Hang-Around"
This song is a neglected gem. (YES!) The melody, the Byrds-like arrangement, the lyrics, all force me to listen to it rather than Abba's hits. Do any other Abba songs have male lead vocals? Do any other light rock songs by any act have lyrics in the voice of an unsympathetic narrator? Musically perfect, at least to me. This song was on their first American LP, Waterloo, from 1974. It took me only 25 years to discover the LP. The song was the second to last cut on side 2, on most LPs usually the dumping ground for the worst cut. The second to last cut on side 1, usually the dumping ground for the next worst cut, was "My Mama Said."
Those two cuts are by far my favorite of all ABBA's cuts ever, not because they are obscure but because they just grab me and don't let go. Compared to these, many of ABBA's hits, while they have wonderful melodies, have arrangements that are too filled up and strident, which is ironic since they are "light" rock. At one point the unsympathetic narrator says, "Suzy went home to Mama's arms. Mama says, 'Look, she's never done you no harm.'" This means that Suzy is his little sister.
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Comments (6)
Good choice, Petey. It wasn't until January '07 that Moggers could upload music tracks, and it took a few months more before we realized that we could upload more than thirty seconds of a track we didn't have the rights to and not get hauled away by the RIAA.
dj ivi, you and almost everyone else on this planet has missed out. You're the first person to comment on my first MOG composition, six months after the fact. You renew my faith in humanity.
I have been a fan of ABBAs music since I started listening to music. Today, I heard this song for the _very_ first time on Spotify. Its incredible that I havent heard it before. I really like it!
DEAUTHED20110326064731FB579776028, (Jonas Eriksson), I posted this in hopes that people would have a reaction like yours. Did you find this post after hearing the song on Spotify, or did you go to Spotify after somehow not being able to hear the song on this post? How did you find this post? It's not exactly at the top of Google's list.
You appear to have disappeared from MOG, but I urge you to reappear.