1977 Abba: Knowing Me, Knowing You

'Knowing Me, Knowing You' makes my head spin. It makes it spin so much it's hard to know where to begin - to my mind, trying to describe it is like looking through the glass door and trying to identify individual items of clothing inside a washing machine on final spin. 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' is a whirl of colour and energy that forever catches me up in its kinetic blur and leaves me breathless in admiration that so much can be crammed (that word again) into one song. But I'll have a go.

First thing - it's very different to anything Abba had done to date. OK, the trademark glitter of glam is still present in the music, but the ecstasy of 'Dancing Queen' is definitely not. Lyrically, the rosy glow of the third party hurt and remembrance of 'Fernando' is now first person personal; in the whole of Abba's canon, 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' is the best example of the descriptive 'Bright Lights & Dark Shadows' that formed the title of Carl Magnus's definitive biography of the band. Abba would return to mine this seam of misery for the rest of their recording life, but elsewhere it was accompanied by suitably downbeat music.

'Knowing Me, Knowing You' opens with a chiming thrust of melody that almost sounds festive and look, that cover could be off a Christmas single. But appearances can be deceiving; that snow is no mere decoration - there's a coldness here, and the thousand yard stare in Anna-Frid's voice on "No more carefree laughter, silence ever after" is the sound of the dancing queen all grown up and no longer having the time of her life. "Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes. Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye" - there's no build up to the hurt, no prologue - whatever has gone wrong went wrong long before the song started and all that remains is a bittersweet regret and a remembrance of better times.

And regret is rampant throughout, permeating each of its musical stages from the sepia toned sadness of "In these old familiar rooms, children would play", to Agnetha's counterpoint ghostly whisper of "bad days", a wide eyed and hushed suggestion of something best not remembered. And yet all the while it's building up to an explosive, firecracker of a chorus that relieves the tension by blowing up in your face with a definitive statement of finality that defiantly rhymes "There is nothing we can do" with "this time we're through".

How clear can someone be? There's none of the towel throwing resignation of the later 'The Winner Takes It All', it's screamed almost as a bluff, daring the other to agree with her assessment of how they've ended up yet shot through with the vulnerability (and emphasised by the fire and ice vocals of the two women) of a secret hope that they'll try to make it work. All Benny and Bjorn can do in response is meekly recite the words back in a voice too tired to fight,

How far removed is that from anything Abba had done to date? And yes, I'm repeating myself here, but once again the generosity in the songwriting is incredible. A lesser band would have cannibalised all this to create three different songs, possibly even a Pete Townsend style 'mini-opera' (something Abba themselves were shortly to do on 'The Girl with the Golden Hair').

Oh yes, Abba were always cavalier with their tunes, but then they could afford to be, they had them to burn. But on 'Knowing Me, Knowing You', each is wrapped up tight into a kaleidoscope of themes and moods that contrast, compliment and run as sure as a rollercoaster car that never once leaves the tracks. 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' delights with every listen, a song so strong that even being adopted by Steve Coogan as a piss-taking soundtrack to the bland hasn't damaged its legacy one little bit. Not necessarily their 'best' single, but it's my favourite.