When I was a kid one of my first albums was ABBA’s Greatest Hits Volume 2. It wasn’t until much later, when I lived in Russia, that I really developed a full appreciation of ABBA’s music.
This year an expat friend from our Novosibirsk days sent me a link to "Happy New Year." I remember loving this song which mixes pretty harmonies, sad reflections and a longing for a different kind of future. The world has changed a lot since 1979, but in other ways, our hopes remain the same… Enjoy!
HAPPY NEW YEAR
No more champagne
And the fireworks are through
Here we are, me and you
Feeling lost and feeling blue
It’s the end of the party
And the morning seems so grey
So unlike yesterday
Now’s the time for us to say…
CHORUS:
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbor is a friend
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I
Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he’ll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he’s astray
Keeps on going anyway…
CHORUS
Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor
It’s the end of a decade
In another ten years time
Who can say what we’ll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine…
CHORUS
