Just Like That: incompatible untruth?

Hi everyone

I thought I’d share with you some new thoughts on the song that became Benny and Bjorn’s 1982 thorn amongst the roses. In its final sax mix form, I’d regard Just Like That as my all-time favourite ABBA track … but it’s impossible to fully appreciate its merits without hearing the final mix, complete, and to Benny and Bjorn’s painstaking stereo standard.

Like many, I was deeply disappointed when it finally appeared on the TYFTM box set minus the verses. Ripping out the verses also ripped out the heart. That verse melody is one of the most exquisite the boys ever wrote, making the loss of Agnetha’s lead vocal all the more lamentable. It always puzzled me why there was one rule for JLT and another for the rest. The argument that ABBA’s JLT could never be released in its entirety, because fragments (in this case, the verse melody) were subsequently re-used elsewhere, certainly didn’t apply to songs like Dreamworld. I acknowledge this hijacking crossed genre boundaries – recycled for CHESS rather than ABBA – but I’ll never understand why the JLT verse melody alone was treated like a rare creature that needed to be cryogenically frozen until its true value could be fully appreciated.   Anyway, here are my latest musings on JLT.

Most would agree that “Just Like That” was Benny and Björn’s ultimate problem child. Perhaps it didn’t seem so at the time of its creation in May 1982, as it was normal for potential ABBA hits to be reworked and remixed several times over, as this track was. But JLT was different. Written at a time when Benny and Björn’s musical exploration was slowly shifting genres from pop to musical theatre, it’s no real surprise that JLT found itself wedged (uncomfortably as far as the boys were concerned) between the two.

The obvious dilemma facing the ABBA composers – as fans of JLT’s three bootleg incarnations know only too well – was to come up with a strong melody to adorn the neat chord sequence of the refrain. At their third and final attempt to salvage the track they recruited the services of “Baker Street” sax player Raphael Ravenscroft who, despite an excellent performance overall, didn’t quite cut it (dubious improvisation prior to Agnetha’s first verse entry did him no favours). This, together with Benny and Björn’s increasing concerns that the verse melody’s inherently classical feel was perhaps at odds with the more clear-cut pop drive of the chorus, sealed the song’s fate … as far as ABBA was concerned anyway.

Regardless, the ABBA version of JLT works spectacularly well on practically all other levels: a poignant and heartfelt lead vocal from Agnetha, three-part close-knit chorus harmonies a la Swing era songsters The Andrews Sisters, and an intoxicating melancholy throughout thanks to Benny and Bjorn’s masterful use of the minor key.

With the passing of the years, the ‘this-verse-with-that-chorus’ experiments eventually resulted in wedded bliss for the two allegedly incompatible musical set pieces. The mix’n'matching trialled by Elaine Paige and Tommy Körberg during the 1983-4 CHESS recording sessions revealed the ABBA verse/chorus combination was no longer a viable option. The poignant yet exhilarating ABBA verse melody was replaced with a rather sombre minor key alternative (used for the Gemini remake in 1985), which fell short of instilling that irresistible anticipation one feels when an ABBA chorus is about to let fly. The melancholy mood of the Gemini version - while quite appropriate – remains static through both verse and chorus, with little variation in melodic colour.

Despite the cold comfort of the lyric, the ABBA chorus still retained a sense of veiled euphoria, the melodic line peaking with the dramatic “knowing that someday soon he’ll be gone”. This was replaced by a meandering and extended alternative for Gemini (“in a way I was the one to deceive/always expecting the fact he would leave”). There is an unwavering sense of self-pity in Karin Glenmark’s performance, who does her job only too well; it lacks the ever-changing light and shade of the ABBA original (which may go some way to understanding why the Gemini remake failed as a chart single).

The ABBA version – Agnetha’s lead in particular – manages to convey to the listener the ecstatic thrill of the doomed romantic encounter more convincingly than the Gemini makeover. It tugs at your heartstrings … but then the ABBA girls always did.

Fast-track to 2002.  The ballad “Glöm mig om du kan” (from CHESS PÅ SVENSKA) coupled the original ABBA verse with a pleasantly pedestrian new chorus melody, first revealed in the demo “When The Waves Roll Out To Sea” back in the 83/84 CHESS sessions.  Once again, the right balance of light and shade proved crucial, even more so in this rather more theatrical chorus melody. I applaud Swede Per Myrberg’s interpretation here. Injecting a little too much enthusiasm into this chorus could have transformed it into one of those ‘hand-on-heart, we’ll fight to the death’ songs found in comic operetta, which this ballad – and CHESS as a whole – most certainly is not.

I completely understand and respect Benny and Björn’s decision to slice up ABBA’s JLT and reinvent it elsewhere. The two songs that now incorporate the original verse and chorus are recorded for posterity and provide further evidence – not that any was needed – that as songwriters and producers, Benny and Björn are up there with the best.  Despite the bum note in the sax and the immortal lyric “predestinated course”, I champion “Just Like That”, as recorded by ABBA in May 1982, as a refreshingly different, stylistically innovative and consummately performed ABBA classic. It sounds like no other in the catalogue and would have been a worthy addition to the set of highly individual tracks released in ABBA’s final recording year.

Until next time … regards to all.

Chris Patrick

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