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Post by jj on Oct 11, 2020 7:42:32 GMT
"To crack up" simply means "to lose one's mind", "to go insane". I don't know why Hazel Dean wants to include additional meanings and add such a redundant detail as insane asylums to what is a very straightforward situation described in Bjorn's lyrics here. The song simply illustrates the anguish and paranoia that many dissidents in Eastern Europe and Russia were feeling at the time, given what was happening, and had happened, to other dissidents before them: namely a knock on the door in the middle of the night by their totalitarian countries' secret police, being arrested, bundled into a car, and then incarcerated without trial, sometimes even tortured by these authorities after their arrest, so these dissidents would spill names of other dissidents.
If one night in, say, Poland, circa 1981, you, a Polish dissident, held a secret meeting with other dissidents in your house to discuss ways to bring about more freedom and democracy to your country, and then suddenly, during this meeting, around 2am, all huddled together in your drawing room whispering about achieving freedom, you heard a loud knock on your door and voices outside, your heart would definitely start racing, and you'd expect the worst. You always knew this might happen - it isn't completely unexpected, you knew this had happened before to many other dissidents in the past, people who were now in prison or probably even dead, either executed or who'd mysteriously "disappeared", never to be seen or heard from again. This was the situation in Russia and many other communist countries at the time.
And this is the situation described in "The Visitors". It's pretty straightforward! Adding anything else to it like Hazel Dean does about asylums is completely unnecessary. The song simply describes the fear experienced by political opponents in a totalitarian country, the potentially dangerous situation in which these people found themselves when they met secretly to discuss ways to overthrow their oppressive governments, and their fear and paranoia about being caught by these governments' authorities, as many had already been before them.
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Post by jj on Oct 11, 2020 8:06:33 GMT
P.S. In this song, the dissidents have definitely been found out. Time's up for them. Their worst fear has come true. Their hearts are pounding after the doorbell rings and someone outside is already impatiently trying to turn and rough handle the doorknob. They know it couldn't be friend (i.e., a fellow dissident) - a friend would never do that (would never be so "stupidly impatient"), so it has be the secret police outside, coming to arrest them. The voices outside the door are now getting louder, sounding more and more irritated ("irritation building"). The dissidents inside the house are panicked ("cracking up", and "close to fainting"), yet some, including the narrator, are also somewhat resigned to their fate. He/they always knew it might come to this. In many ways, in the back of their minds, they'd always been waiting for this terrible moment. Nothing can help them now. They're done for.
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Post by onlyabba4meagain on Dec 20, 2020 2:32:52 GMT
It turns out that 'The Visitors' was ABBA's fastest Selling UK Album. It sold more in its
first 3 Weeks than any other ABBA Album.
It took 'Super Trouper' 5 Weeks to become the UK's 4th Best Selling Album of 1980. It was
1st, when the final 2 Weeks of 1980 were added in - its 6th & 7th Weeks at No.1. (Out of 9).
'The Visitors' had 3 Weeks at No.1 in the UK. They were the final 3 Sales Weeks of that Year. It
was 80th for 1981, after Week 1. 17th after Week 2. Now, it has been calculated that it sold a
massive 200,000 UK copies in Week 3 at No.1. Enough to rise from 17th to 4th for the Year, in
just 3 Weeks! It sold 570,000 UK copies, in 3 Weeks. Its Sales fell - fast - in 1982, and it was
only about 55th for that Year. It has sold about 850,000 UK copies - to 2020. Only it and the
'Voulez Vous' Album failed to reach a UK Million, as regards ABBA's No.1 Studio Albums. Both
of them failed to give ABBA any UK No.1 Singles. It seems that No.1 Hits, really boosted the
Sales, of those ABBA Albums that had them...
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Post by jj on Dec 20, 2020 17:08:34 GMT
Very interesting, Colin. I love this kind of breakdown of sales information.
One thing though: I read in a few places that Super Trouper was 1980's biggest selling album on advance orders alone, which came to a million copies. According to The Guiness Book of World Records (1982), it was the biggest advance order for any album in the UK ever, up until 1982 at least. Which just goes to show how ABBA's tour the year before managed to massively increase the public's interest in their next releases (two number 1 singles and one hugely popular album).
So thanks to that million in advance orders alone, wouldn't that have made Super Trouper the biggest-selling album of 1980 in the UK instantly, upon release?
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Post by onlyabba4meagain on Aug 27, 2021 9:47:49 GMT
jj -- Advance Orders are not necessarily all from Members of the Public. They are what Stores Order
- if they feel that they can sell that many copies. 'Super Trouper' had sold about 850,000 UK copies,
by the end of 1980. It sold the rest of its Million Advance Orders in 1981 - plus more than that. So,
'Super Trouper' was the 1st UK Album, that Stores felt they could - easily - sell 1 Million copies of.
Due to ABBA etc. concentrating on The ABBAtars and New Music, it looks like we are not to get
a 40th Edition of 'The Visitors' this Year. (Half Speed etc.).
An ABBA Fan has Posted this on Face Book:
UPDATE: After I posted this, I decided to message Miles Showell from Abbey Road Studios, who did the previous
ABBA half-speeds. He replied. "Sadly I have no news on “The Visitors.” The team that work for ABBA in Stockholm
are in charge of everything and I have had no contact this year. I suspect all their attention will have been focused
on what was teased yesterday. I am hopeful that it will eventually come as “The Visitors” is an album I personally
like a lot, but it is not for me to decide. Fingers crossed that the half speed remastered LP campaign continues next year."
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Post by ABBAinter.net on Aug 28, 2021 10:01:24 GMT
Uh, so, that's a joke, isn't it?
The Visitors is a digital recording.
So doing half-speed on digital is irrelevant.
Unless you take magnetic tapes (so a second generation of the digital original, transferred to tapes)
and then master them in half-speed, which would be totally stupid...
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Post by Michal on Aug 28, 2021 10:16:58 GMT
Uh, so, that's a joke, isn't it? The Visitors is a digital recording. So doing half-speed on digital is irrelevant. Unless you take magnetic tapes (so a second generation of the digital original, transferred to tapes) and then master them in half-speed, which would be totally stupid... If I remember it correctly, Polar bought the digital recorder halfway through the sessions for The Visitors and thus half of the tracks were recorded on analogue recorder and the other half on the digital one. And as the tracks would have a different sound, Michael B.Tretow transferred the digitally recorded songs to analogue tapes and then back again to give the album a consistent sound. |
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Post by HOMETIME on Aug 28, 2021 10:56:26 GMT
I suppose it could be argued that delaying the release package until 2022 is some way of pulling together the album anniversary and that of the 1982 music it'll be packaged with? They clearly don't want anything to distract us from the new stuff. I wonder if the anniversary package will sell better/faster coming on the coattails of the new music?
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jon
Bronze Member
Posts: 28
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Post by jon on Jul 23, 2022 12:00:30 GMT
Bought 'The Visitors' Album back around 2008 along with 'ST', it was a 30th anniversary edition CD and has 4 bonus tracks 'Should I laugh or cry', 'The Day before you came',' Cassandra' and 'Under Attack'. Personal favourites are 'Head over Heels', 'One of Us' and 'When all is said and done'.
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Post by welshboy on Oct 27, 2024 18:04:33 GMT
Just played The Visitors this afternoon, but I don't see any love for the song Two for the price of one, Its a cracking little song.
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Post by clumsylikeaclown on Oct 27, 2024 22:42:34 GMT
In isolation, Two For The Price Of One is an amusing little ditty with some nice backing vocals and clever lyrics. But it's woefully misplaced on The Visitors album. It completely clashes with the mood of everything else on it. Coupled with the fact it's on the same album as sublime songs like The Visitors, When All Is Said And Done, One Of Us etc., it sticks out like a sore thumb.
To this day, I believe that Should I Laugh Or Cry should've been on this album, and that Two For The Price Of One should've been a B-side.
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