Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2023 14:52:49 GMT
This track clearly needs its own thread. I totally 'get' why some/many would dismiss it, but it really is slap-bang in my personal wheelhouse, as they say. A song I've never, ever even faintly tired of at any point during the last 45 years, from the moment I first played it back in '78 when I'd just bought the 'ABBA' album and was waiting with bated breath to see what the first song I didn't know sounded like. As soon as it stomped and grinded into (aural) view, I knew ABBA had come to play round at my place. Full disclosure: there are even some occasions, when I'm listening to it, that I manage to convince myself HHH is my favourite ABBA song. Then the adrenalin dips just a tad and I realise I can't put it any higher than number 4 in my top ten. Still, not bad for a 'throwaway album filler', which I've seen it dismissed as.
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Post by foreverfan on Nov 9, 2023 17:27:00 GMT
Your post and track has drawn me back after a little hiatus....
Like yourself, I've loved HHH from first hearing, as much as I love the poppier tracks for want of a better word, the soft rock , again for want of a better word has always drawn me...HIYS is another classic example , so it's Inclusion in Voyage was simp,y fantastic...
Personally HHH one of the strongest tracks from " ABBA" , and would feature high in any personal chart...
Very under rated...
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Post by HOMETIME on Nov 10, 2023 19:18:06 GMT
I'm a fully signed-up, card-carrying lover of HHH, too. It grabbed me the instant I heard it and, like you @thisboycries, I have moments where nothing else will do. I love the guitar crunch, the slightly gospel feel to the chorus vocals and the call-and-repeat BVs. The funky breakdown in the middle is delicious. The Third Voice vocal performance is so precise and tight, that I believed it was a Frida lead for quite some time. I first heard it in 1978 too and mistaking the Third Voice for Frida, I even thought that she was the Helen character: there had been some pearl-clutching in the tabloids about her having "left her husband and kids for fame." [Unsubtle subtext: Jezebel]
I gather some people see the lyrics as sexist but my interpretation is that Helen is being supported, not judged. Maybe it's deliberately ambiguous.
Anyway, I am DELIGHTED to be among some proper Hey Hey Helen fans.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2023 16:51:17 GMT
I gather some people see the lyrics as sexist but my interpretation is that Helen is being supported, not judged. Maybe it's deliberately ambiguous. Anyway, I am DELIGHTED to be among some proper Hey Hey Helen fans. A lot of 70s lyrics are perhaps best not delved into too deeply, of course... Actually I think they get away with it here. Helen's made a brave decision but that doesn't mean things will be easy or that she won't sometimes wonder if she's done the right thing. But the key line is perhaps 'and you're beginning to forget the past (lucky woman)' - clearly she's fled a bad situation. And 'you're right, you had to take a second chance - so you fight to find your freedom' seems pretty clear-cut in terms of endorsing her decision. Dare we even go as far as to say that, in terms of confronting this kind of relationship scenario with a reasonable amount of nuance, H3 was (drum roll...) ahead of its time? H3 Club Rools, btw. |
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Post by HOMETIME on Nov 11, 2023 18:58:09 GMT
[...] Helen's made a brave decision but that doesn't mean things will be easy or that she won't sometimes wonder if she's done the right thing. But the key line is perhaps 'and you're beginning to forget the past (lucky woman)' - clearly she's fled a bad situation. And 'you're right, you had to take a second chance - so you fight to find your freedom' seems pretty clear-cut in terms of endorsing her decision. Dare we even go as far as to say that, in terms of confronting this kind of relationship scenario with a reasonable amount of nuance, H3 was (drum roll...) ahead of its time? H3 Club Rools, btw. Ahead of its time, indeed. A Scandinavian, pragmatic and sympathetic approach to divorce, maybe. I'd love to fire up the What-If machine and see how this might have fared as a single - in place of, say, I Do or So Long. |
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Post by Henry on Nov 11, 2023 22:31:41 GMT
Inspiration came from the tv series "Helen a woman of today" about a brave woman who decided to leave her man and children behind.
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